Carol Cotton at Love Shore
Love Shore was where we went to swim, Pier Shore was where we went for the rock pools.
I used to go there with my father, Bun Cotton, to collect winkles. He’d bring them home and boil them up and eat them, but not me. I liked collecting them but not eating them.
Your parents would let you go to Love Shore and say, you’re not to swim unless there’s an adult around, and we didn’t, we just played on the beach and in the water.
Carol Corbett b 1946
My father was employed as a gardener and worked in several different places. He worked for The Pier Hotel (now the George Hotel), in the garden opposite the school. In Ommanney Road, there was a garden owned by the Bugle where he also worked. That was next to a vegetable garden for The Towers. He grew the vegetables for his own family in an allotment at the top of Victoria Road.
The bridge was a toll bridge and regular users got a weekly ticket. Dad worked for the Tophams over in Norton as a gardener, and so had a weekly ticket. We children used to sneak behind a charabanc to get over the bridge without paying.
I can remember getting winkles from Pier Shore and the Common up to Bouldnor as far as Stone Pier, and prawning off the Common – I remember seeing seahorses there.
Joan Cokes nee Cooper b1918