My grandfather used to come on a coal barge to the Gasworks and used to bring his daughter, my mother…. who met my father, Harry Holloway, who lived in Yarmouth, and so they were married. Harry was in the Navy in the Med for 2 years and I was named ‘Palma’ after the Palma in Majorca. Palma Ault nee Holloway b 1927
Bridge opening for coal boat
Yarmouth Bridge 1960s photo: Mick Burt
My brother and I had a little cart which we used to trundle over from Mill Road to the Gasworks to collect coke for our stove. Diana Broomfield nee Ryall b 1942
My Granddad was Charlie Lansdowne who was the signal man on the first Yarmouth Lifeboat. He had been a signal man in the Navy in the First World War, had been at the Battle of Jutland and wrote a long poem about his experience of the intense sea battle within 6 days of it taking place.
He would take me down to the Quay and we would often sit on the brick base of the old crane and watch what was going on. If we were lucky we would see a coal boat from Newcastle come into the harbour and make its way through the open bridge to the A day or so later we might see the bridge opening to let it go out after it had emptied its load. Peter Smith b 1946
I started off life at Gasworks Cottage, down by the Mill.
There was a small gasworks. There was one small gasometer and one big one and that little one was only a back up. They had the big one alongside of that, but that’s all gone.
Yes, the bridge used to open for the coal barges to go up to the Gasworks, and my dad and his mate had so many hours to unload them so they could go back on the next tide. I used to go over there sometimes to see him and watch what was happening. Some of those barges belonged to an Isle of Wight firm, Coles of Cowes. I think they owned 2 coal barges. The barges were always coming up the river and getting stuck, never get up there on time to the gas works. They used to come through the bridge and have to make a sharp turn to the creek to the gasworks but couldn’t get there half the time. Not very deep there if the tide wasn’t right.
My Dad got electrocuted over there at the Gasworks across the river.
They was changing the lighting from gas to electric. He went to work one morning, I will always remember, the 6 – 2 shift, and he went in to get the lights on. There was two live wires in water and he picked it up thinking it was lights. After that we moved from Gasworks Cottage because they wanted us out, and then the Council found us a council house in Victoria Road.
Brian Pomroy b1938
Gasometer behind Sandhouse and Bridge ; photo Sue Russell
If you wanted the best roof in the West Wight you needed Ted Lawry to build it for you. I was apprenticed as a carpenter to Cronins and chosen to work with Ted. It was a real honour but a bit daunting. He was a hard master because his standards were so high. He was a good teacher, didn’t mind keep explaining how to do things but expected you to listen and get it right in the end. I learnt a lot from him. Peter Smith b 1946
Robert May, carpenter, joiner and undertaker outside his workshop in Ommanney Road.
My great granddad Robert (Bob) May ran a carpenter’s and undertaker’s business from his large workshop alongside Fernside in Ommanney Road. His son-in-law, my uncle Ted, also worked there. In the school holidays my cousin David and I would be encouraged to make things in the workshop, and as there were always lots of off-cuts we invented all sorts of things. Mostly though we used some very nicely shaped triangular pieces about 18”long and 6”wide to make boats and built upper decks and funnels and gun turrets etc. It was some time before we realised where the triangular pieces had come from; they were off-cuts from the coffins that granddad and Uncle Ted made!
I’ve seen Uncle Ted on many occasions finishing off a coffin by heating a saucepan of pitch on the tortoise stove in the workshop and running the molten pitch all round the coffin corners by standing it up and moving it around to ensure all the joints were sealed. Peter Smith b 1946
Square 1950s with bus stop outside Town Hall.
My father used to work for Southern Vectis; he used to drive the school bus sometimes.
If he drove my school bus home would drop me off by Basketts Lane. I’d get off and make a cup of tea because they always stopped in Yarmouth for half an hour or more. The bus was always parked by the side of the church where that tree is in St James Street, and Dad would bring his conductress up with him for tea. I would have it ready by the time he got up there. Pat Burt nee Adams b1929
I went by bus to work at Whites in Cowes and caught the bus in the Square, outside Jireh House, and the bus went up the High Street. It cost 7/9 ( 7 shillings and 9 pence) for a weekly ticket which was a lot out of your pay when you were only on £2 or £3 a week. I was there from 1953 to 59. Nick Chandler b 1937
The bus stop was outside the Town Hall, and it cost me 2/6 to go to see my parents in Ryde. Blanche Kennard nee Dore b 1923
Charabancs generally speaking had a canvas hood.
There was a chap from Shanklin who had his own charabanc and it didn’t have a hood. On one trip he had a party of nuns and apparently it came on to rain. One of the nuns said:
‘Driver, can you put the hood up?’ and he said – yes – and he walked to the back of the coach. He said, ‘Well, where’s it gone? What have you done with it?’
They didn’t know and he said, ‘Well, it was on there when we left’.
Patrick Hall b 1945
I can remember the garage being built on the corner of Mill Road, it was about ’26. I wasn’t very old. I can remember them building that. Royal Blue from Bournemouth had it built and they used to keep their Royal Blue coaches to go round the island. There was another coach company in Yarmouth, Saunders – yellow coaches. They used to keep one down there on the corner where the Harbour Commissioners have got their yard. They used it during the war, the people on fire duty had a hut down there. I know Newt and George, before they were called up, they used to take turn at nights down there. Phil Kelsey b 1920
Royal Blue charabanc
Train in station 1950s
We used to watch the trains shunt down the station and we used to watch them load up the sugarbeet from Thorley Manor when Caulcutts had it. Brian Pomroy b 1937
Prisoners of war used to get down the station, loading up the Sugar Beet Train. Nick Chandler b1937
There was little tiny place – you couldn’t call it a siding – where they used to shunt the old truck. That used to get loaded up with sugar beet up there. When the train came back from Freshwater somebody used to get out there and push the truck on the railway line, and the train would push it through to Yarmouth, and then about four of them would push it up on the railways siding to join all the others. All that trouble for sugar beet. Alec Cokes 1945.
Train in Yarmouth Station 1950s Photo Nick Chandler
To get from the ferry to the station, people had to walk through the town, but there were porters to push their luggage from the Pier to the station. It’s not very far really. (A) It is on a wet day!(P.) Annette Haynes and Pat Burt b 1929
It used to cost 6d to catch the train to Freshwater to go to the Pictures at The Palace, then we’d walk back afterwards. Blanche Kennard nee Dore,b 1923 stationed at The Pier Hotel ( now The George) as a WRN in WWII from 1942.
The station master used to live in the house next door here. I can remember a Mr Dennett, because his daughter was very friendly with my sister Kate. They used to get about a bit together. Of course he never used to do a lot down here at the station, he was always down the pier. Phil Kelsey b 1920
A porter from the Pier met the trains and collected luggage on a hand truck which he pushed to and from the Pier. Mr. Orchard had a big old fashioned car – open at the front where the chauffeur sat – and he used to meet the trains to drive people round to the ferry. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b1921