‘ Vea but not ' forgotten i By John FramptonYESTERDAY BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, Dec 1981 MOVING TO FAREHAM... 18 HILL PARK 1932. ai GRANDAD. 25 ‘THE WAR, 33 F.FROST, 38 ‘THE DAY THE TELEGRAM CAME... ‘THE HOME GUARD. JOINING UP. avy. HOSPITAL DAYS IN ITALY. LIFE IN HOSPITAL IN ENGLAND. CIVILIAN LIFE... Brother Bill and | at Haslar CreekDec 1981 “This 20th Century has been a wonderful period, From the bith ofthe aeroplane to @ man on the moon ‘great advances in science and medicine. All these things we know about and just accept as everday events. ‘As the century hes nt reached its ond there will be other events to come, ‘This book is not about the big well known hanperings, i is about the things | remember and di ‘Although small in comparison, | feel they shouldnt be forgotten In this computerised world of today. So | wail ‘attempt to put them on paper. As | am not @ writer | hope my readers (f any) wil excuse wrting and speting. Starting atthe beginning would be a good idea so here goes, | am John Helier Frampton, Born 27.11.24, My mother has told me that | was born on a very stormy right and was wrepped up in a fur coat. What puzzles me is where mum got a fur coat from, My earliest recollections are in the year 1928-29. My parents lved with 2 friend called Mr and Mrs White at Chester Piace ‘a8 Gosport. The house was next fo a bakery and at night rats could be heard running over the celing, Mrs White's father, Mr Harvey, ved in the house as well He was a road sweeper, Mr Harvey. Mr and Mrs White, Jack, Fred and Rene In those far off days, a road sweeper’ job was malny Keeping the road clear of horse droppings. The reason for teling this is because the droppings and rubbish ware hoaped up in the garden and then taken away by horse and cart. Amid al thie rubbish was empty cigarette packels which may or may nat Reve fog cards inside them. | took great delight in sorting through the heap looking for the packets. The names of some cf these clgeeties are unheard of today. There was Black Cat, B.D. Sports, Star and Kensitas with = smal packet sluck on the side with four extra cigaretze in it with the quotation Your for your friends. These packetshad in them @ sik flag the set was named Flag of ail nations. Assisting me in this quest was Mrs ‘White's son Fred. Mr Harvey, known as grandad kest chickens. One of his dally tasks was to bol up, in an old fashioned copper, small poatces and potatoes rinds, tobe mixed wih bran a6 food forthe chickens. But these chickens never cot allthe spuds because us lads use to eat them and they tasied a teat ‘Another playground for us was Haslar Creek, which was a he bottom ofthe garden, Lovely black mud Mary ie the time | arrived home plastered in mud, only to be stood in a bowl of water and washed down (we hac ro bath) pus @ waloping and the same old words “don't go to the creek again’. | must have been hard of hearing or pig headed because I sill went. ‘St George's barracks across the road to Chester Place was the home ofthe Royal Horse Artilry, Now. most of the land is taken up wth Safeway's Superstore. What a sight they were, he riders in their best norms: spure and swords gleaming. The horee harness and brasses shining bright and all the local lacs running along sie them. Everyday the horses were taken down to ‘Stokes Bay’ the local beach and walked through the salt water, which | was told was good for their hooves. Ithelps to stop ther soliting, tm those days t was one soldier riding, leading two other horses. So you can see Granddad Harvey anc his three wheeled push ‘cart ware kept very busy cars and Lorros wore few and far between so there was a great veriety of horse crawn vehicles. The coal man (26 a c) had a big fat bedded cart puled by one or sometimes two big shire horses, The mik man drove an open two wheeler float. Mik botles were not usually used on the fost t would be milk churns wh 1 pint and ¥ pint measures. Anybody wanting mik brought there own jug tobe fled. The mik man also pushed! = three wheeled cart Two wheels atthe rear and one atthe front with @ mix churn on i The baker also crove @ horse and cart. Sometimes two wheels, sometimes four but It was always sheped Ie 2 Gypsy caravan with & rounded roof. Even house furnture was moved by @ horse drawn vehicle called @ rantachnicon. It was ike & igh box on wheels puled by a pair of heavy horses. The crive's seat was high ontop, reached by a edder “Aways hanging onthe cart woul be the herse's nose beg, (food bas) Us youngeters hd favourte game wth these horse and cats. We would wat il a cart went past then hang on the beck of shouting “whip behind mister. The ony way the driver could get us off was 10 top the cart and come round the back. Long before that, we were gene While em on the subject of horses, a mention of ‘Meyda. This wes elvays the 1st of May. On this day every horse on the road was dressed up in thel best harness. A lot of extra brasses, inclucing tiny brass bels were ‘atteched tothe heads and cn their collars, Sometimes ther tals nd mains were patted with colour ribbon or straw. They realy locked and sounded @ treat. Also May tst was a special day forthe service men; on thisdy great coats wore put away and not wom again until October. The Navy stare to wear white hat covers which nad tebe kept scrubbed white “Another everyday sight (not seen today) in my early days, was the street traders with their wheetbarrows ‘and pushearts. In addition to the ones Ihave mentioned was the muffin man. Muffin sre similar to crumpets ‘and tcasted on hot fire they were lovely. We knew whan he was coming because he made his presence known by inging a hand bel, They were a half penry each. This was a treat for Sunday. ‘Then we had the winkle and cockle men depending which wes in season. These hod to be collected ‘rom the seashore and then taken heme. Then the cockes or winkles hac tobe cleaned and cooked. Next day thay would be loaded on the cart end pushed around the streets to be sold et three pence & pnt, he worked herd fer his money. There was also a fish cart on the streets and in the right season the watercress men would bbe around Winter time the hot chestnut carts would be stationed outside the cinemas (ficks as us kids called them) and tain tetminals. This was @ special push cart because there was fire uring init. The top ofthe cart was made of metal, when this got het the chestnuts were placed on it to cock Boy the chestnuts smelt anc tasted 2 teat. Not aivays having the money to buy some we woule weit for a nut to fall on the road, The boy ‘quickest ofthe mark got the nut and a thump from the chestnut man, ihe was quick encugh. “The rag and bone man, now he was the man to look out fort did't matter what you took to him the “answer was ahvays the same “hardly wort the trouble me taking it away Guy, I give you @ penny’. One always knew when he was around because his cry "Ragone" could be heard streets away. “These days a man wearing 8 turban doesn't cause a second look but in my day it was an event. A knock on the doer and there he was, “mum its the Indian man’. He camied a battered suitcase full of Indian ‘goods, sik, ribbons, combs, shawis and elephent omaments. After a lot of alk, sbwpence would change hends ‘and mum had e treasure but none of us kids would get too close fram the man from India ‘Then we had the sweep all black with soct, pushing his bike or cart through the streets, shouting atthe 1op of his sooty lunge “Swoop. Sweep’. It was usual forthe kids in the street to stand outside the house whose chimney was being cleaned and when the brush appeared out the chimney pot, the ery “brush up" was heard ‘As usval, In those days nothing was wasted, dad had the soot forthe garden, just ight forthe colar, “Another seasonel visitor was the French onion man; he cai his onions on an oid bicycle, He mat the conion boots at the docks and hung the strings from his handlebars. As mast of thom were Frenchmen thelr Engin was imited but tey made themselves understood with tis saying "A shilig fr my onions and @ penny ‘er mysei’ [tis along time since | saw an onion man‘Then of course there were the Gypsies, any child not behaving themselves was threatened tobe given to tho Gypsies. Cross my hand with sivar dear and wi tll your fortune, they would say. You could buy peas, lucky heather and flowers of lucky charms. My mother was too frightened not to buy something from them so some item was purchased just to keep onthe ight sie of them. “Tho organ grinder was another visor. The one I remember had his organ on a vey large old fashioned ram. the ne was gven 8 penny ust 6 get him to move on. Another traveling ran was the scisor grinder. He would sharpen anything, knives, shears, n fact anything that cut. Our grindor man also mended cane char, ‘oF mended a leaking kato. He was quite clever realy. | wonder i these people were te seempoyed of yesteryear Not for from where we ved was Walpole Park. In the Park was # huge pond we called the cockle pone. It was used for model yacht racing (more about this pond in 1980). The tes | have fallen in the pond are now forgotten but the reason | gave my mother was always the same, | was helping somebody o get ther yacht out (wen it was frozen over I was the one to try it It was whilst playing In the park that | saw my first Airship, the RIO; It was fo crash later on, To my young mind it was @ wonderful sight. Huge grey thing floating through the sky, engines rocring away, us youngsters thought as much of Hat Aiship as the youngsters today dream of being a spaceman ‘Whilst on the subject of fying | had the great fortune to see the Schneider Cup being raced for. My father and mother took me fo Les-on-Solent to see this great event The winner was a red seaplane built by ‘Supermarine which was of course English, Across the road from the fleet air fying field was a big concrete ramp. This was used to ‘ow the fying boats and seaplanes from the fies fo be launched into the sea. Then With a roar of engines and clouds of spray, these wonderful planes took to the ai ‘Across the Solent, at Calshott was the base of the huge Sunderland flying boats. These carried ‘passengers all around the world, They were later to be used in the 1939-45 war, working wth coastal commanc. By the way, to get to Lee-on-Solent, it was a case of waiking or bicycle but that was alin a days work and we thought nothing oft ‘Sweete| There were eweets to be had in my younger days that are non existent now and a half penny was @ fortune. There was no need to spend ital at once, @ lot of goodies could be had for a farthing, for Inatance an everlasting stick could be bought fora farthing. This was along stick of toffee about 18" long and as the name implies i was everlasting, You never ate it all at once; some was always saved tl the nextday. ‘Locus beans! were nother favoutte, a big bag full for @ half penny, | say a bag but that wasnt sticty true, The ‘shopkeeper could take half a page of news paper and transform i nto @ cone shaped bag in about two ‘seconde. That had to do for us kids, Anyway to get beck to Locus beans, these were dried beans in the pods. ‘They looked just Ike @ broad bean except they ware biack. Boy were tey good. They certainly tried the teeth |think my favourite was ‘Tiger nuts’ smal shrvelled up nuts. They werent in shell, | belleve they grow uncer (ground. When aaton they were very july. If you didn't want Tiger nuts how about @ couple of Liquorice sticks they were real sticks, from (I presume) a liquorice bush. Ones teeth and lips turned a nice yellow colour fier cating these sticks. There were ‘Buls eyes’ huge round swoels that lasted for hours, sometimes known as gob ‘stoppers. They changed colour as they were sucked. You took them out of your mouth now and again to see what colour they were. There were gteat slabs of toffee on display when you went infor your naif penny worth, these slabe were broken wih @ litle hammer then put ina bag. Another treat was slicks of rock, broken and sold loose, After Easter you could always buy broken Easter eggs. Sherbet powder could be bought also and lomonade powder to make your own lemonade, Ifyou were rich a botle of ginger beer could be purchased, Tho "Walls ice cream man rode around the streets ona three wheeled tricycle wit a large box affair onthe front two wheels, For a penny you could have a three comered stick of ice lol, for two pence a thick wafer oF large comet. “The streets of Gosport were covered with tram lines and when you were riding # bicycle it was fatal to ‘get caught in these lines, the whee! became stuck and off the rider came, praying there wasnt tram on the ‘same line. The trams were double Decker’, the top deck was open to the weather. Many Is the time Ihave had €@ Wet seat to my trousers siting down after rain, The tram terminus was atthe Gosport fery and the driver then ot out with loan pole to change the conductor wie round, so the tram could go backwards. ‘On the other sido of Gosport is of course Portsmouth, There were two ways of crossing the water, passengers went cn the ferry boats, these were steam paddle boats. To my young eyes they were huge boats, {yu could st on deck or go below, where i smelt cf steam and oil. The other means of transport wes the floating bride, a big flat bottomed boat with ramps at each end, enabling horse and carts and cars to ctve on. “This was guided across the water by We strong chains which made a loud clanking ise as the boat moved. | remember when I was learning 10 drive Poppy and myself, Petor and Ron took our car, en okt ‘asmstrong Sidley’ on this machine driven monster. The tide must have been low and when we reached Portsmouth the stone ramp leading to the road was thick wih seaweed and the oki car coulsn't make i up the ramp. So we had to be pushed up by alt ofthe passengers. Talk about laugh {In Portsmouth Harbour the mud larks were to be found at low tide. A high bridge went from where the ‘boat docked fo the street and the sea wee under the bridge. People on the bridge would throw pennios over te side into the mud below. The mud larks (boye ofa ages) would search in the mud for the money (end my mum thought | got airy). They were emothered from head to foct with thick black mud, ‘Nico in the harbour big rafts of tree trunks al chained together flosting on the water were to be seer, “This timber was used in the naval cock yard and this treatment was called seasoning! Portsmouth Harbour wasthe home of the Royal Nav. It was ahrays fled with massive bateshis, acral carers, cruers and destroyers. Just across the water was, and sili the submarine depot “There is one street in Portsmouth | must mention, Charlot Street, Every Saturday was market day anc Cchartotstoet was filed with "Barrow Boys’ who sold every thing, ful food, secand hand clothes and furniture, toys you name i. On Chistmas Eve, mum and dad and Bil and! went thee, Dad played it ery clever, nothing ‘was bought ear inthe afternoon because he knew that he later nthe day it got. the cheaper the bis and fru ‘eceme. There weren't mary freezers in those days so the goods couldn be kept When the prices were at their lowest he would buy and home we would go, with ow Christmes goodies. Whit ving st Chester Place | had litle accent The family were having tea, sting round the table, decided to push my chair back on its back lege. Behind me was the fire wih a metal racket onthe front of he arate, on which sicod @ kettle of boling water. | remember my mother fling me 1 sit on my car Proper Cdever old me thought one more tie. Yes that was one time too much. | fll backwards into the fie end the kettle of boing water went allover my head and face. My father was wearing breeches and one legging ne was Just taking off when this happened. He grabbed me up ina binket and ran up the read tothe Doctors, | can remember looking over his shoulder sereaming my head of. Looking at dad's fegs, one legging on, one legging oft. was bald for months. Scared on the head and throat and a bit of trouble to my ear, | was kept in bed for ‘gee and supposed tobe kept very quia. Bul Fred White clmbed a tee ouside my becreem window and made me laugh by pulling faces at me. | remember the old nurse that came and dressed my head. She alvaye smacked me because | rubbed my head and blisters, With time | got better but for ages ! had to wear 2 hat, (t ‘was a gits hat, called a"Tammy) to cover my bald head. Its about time | mentioned my parents and grandparents. When dad wes born, t was in @ hotel in “Jersey, Later on in if, bis dad moved to Dorset His frst ob was helping his father breaking horses before they ‘were sold to the army. When the 1914-18 War broke out he joined the ‘Dorset Regment and so went to war Whist inthe enny he met my mother who fved in Portsmouth. When War fished, dad started work withthe local big farmer in Gosport; Charles House. But! undersiand that one day he had an argument wth the foreman ‘over horse whic lad to blows being exchanged and sed getting the sack He then had the job of learning a Mrs Sutton’ how to drive (this was in the 1625s) lucky for dad she ‘couldn't gt the hang ofthis diving lark, s0 he fished up becoming hor chauffeur. meant ded riding his bike te Fereham everyday inching Sundaye if the old gil wanted to go to Church. | stilremember the ear he drove, itwos a Wollesley Viper. NO. CG.5008. I wil leave dad for now, more ebout him later nthe book.Dad in uniform with the Wollsley Not far rom Stone Lane Schoo! wes the local slaughter house. Cows were often walked along the road to the staughter house and some ofthe cattle atthe last moment would bolt and run away. That was the signal {for al us school kids to forget about lessons and turn cowboys. This was great fun whist lasted, but not 60 funny when we at lst got back fo scheol. Not long after | started school, we moved house. Not @ house ail ourselves but rooms in 8 house owned by a Mr and Mrs Scruse (who strangely enough, forty odd years late their grandson married Poppy's sister Carol) This house was in Avenue Road no 130, right up the top next to the railway yard. This was no.1 playground for us kis. A word about Mr Scruse (Uncle Af) and Mrs Scruse (Aunty Rearie). Alf was a printer by trade; he had his own printing press in the small back bedroom. He was very clever as a painter end what | remember was how good he was at making mod! aeroplanes from lumps of wood. No kits mthase days. As a special favour he would let me rol the printing type with large Diack inky roll. It was funny how that Dhak ink found its way on things ike hits and jumpers and after a | was only helping, ‘Aunty Reanie was a great one for needle work end not a bad old stick Mr and Mrs Scruse had two children Roy and Joan. ‘When we went fo bed Bil and I slept one sie of the landing, Roy and Joan the other. It was fof to me fo call ounstairs “Aunt Dean (I couldn't sound my Rs) can Joan read?’ The answer was usual yes, then Joan would read outloud from a book so that Bil and I could hear.Mr & Mrs Scruse (Af & Reane) Gosport. Perhaps on a Friday night mum end dad would go out tothe pictures but without fil Friday night was. ‘bath night for us boys. In would come the old tn tub, put ia font ofthe fre. The brick copper would be ful of hot water, hich would be ladled into the tub. AS tere wasn't alot of hot water my brother Bil end | shared the same bath water. Of course, being the youngest end having no say in the matter | bathed second, Well on picture nights it was Auntie Reanie who handled the soap anc flannel, Bil was ae good as gold no trouble at al [Although | liked a beth when it came te having my hair washed it was diferent. No way was | going to have that done, So fnished up running round the room in my birthday sut defying any body to wash my hair. There was. ‘more water outlde the bath than inside i, ‘Another bit of excitement was mice in the bedroom. Mum, dad and ue two boys shared the same bbedkoom. Mum and Bil didn't like the mice. They came out ofthe fre place. Dad and | would squat one each ‘side ofthe grate, very quiet. As @ mouse came out wa would ty and thumg it with our fists. Dad having big fist had more luck than me, ‘Avenue Road was where Iwas taught rot to be frightened of thunder and lichtning, We were having = bed storm one night 80 ded decided it was tine we got out of bed and looked out of the window and that was where we stayed uni the storm had pest and so had my fear of thunder storms, | was gettng to the age now that I could go tothe "licks (cinema) on Saturday momings, al for 3d ‘What films they were, Tarzan was my favourite, swinging from tree to tree, fighling crocodiles week after week.“Thrown in for good tuck were the Westems ‘Tom Mix’ ‘Ken Maynard’ and not forgetting the wonder dogs ofthe thirties ‘Rin, Tin, Tin’ @ huge Alsatian that could do almost anything | was tured out of the cneme ‘a couple of times because | would Keep shooting my cap gun atthe baddies and the manager didn't ke ‘Our house was only a few yards from ‘Gosport Railway’ Staton and shunting yard. Yes, Gosport nad a rail service in those days with beautful big nolsy steam engines. We diin't go short of coal because the coal ‘dumps ware just inside the gates and nights got very car We use to keep chickens down the bottom of the garden which backed against 2 foot path we called “the ali’. Our Chvisimas dinner was kept withthe chickens inthe shape of @ big Rode Island Red cock bird Gosh he was e bigun, Wel ths cock bird was the boss and he would perch onthe aly wall and dare anybody to ‘walk past him, | remember he had huge spur claws on his legs which would have made a mess of somebody's ‘ace, In the ond dad had to keep him shut up. | must mention @ Christmas we spent at Avenue Road. Of course tells didn't exist in my young days. ‘You were lucky if your folks hed a wireless. We had one which dad made, The esbinet was made cut of an old tea chest (pwood) the pattern on the front was cut out wih the old ratsaw with the help of a few yards of wire, ‘some valves and a soldering Iran, we had a wireless that worked. Talking about soldering irons, dad made his ‘om a big capper ret from the Victory. Another of dads talents was the making and playing ofthe ‘one sting fiddle’. This was an instrument ‘that was held between the knees (you sat down). The other end rested on the shoulder. On the knee end was large metal horn cut of which came the music. Like an ordinary fiddle it was played with @ bow. On a musical right dad would be accompanied by Bion ‘Jaws Harp wth me on anything that made 8 noise ike @ drum and ‘mum blowing the comb through issue paper. Who wanted ately with all that talent. | have strayed a bi from Christmas but these musical times were part of Christmas. Let me tell you readers how eome of the money for presents and food was saved because money wasn't very plentiful. Dad ‘bought his packet of Woodbine’ cigarets in a small shop in Stoke Rosé. 4d for ten cigarettes and any loose Loppers in his pocket went on the Christmas club (and | mesn coppers). have known him to put a penny cn the club card. With half-a-crown spent on you for present you dd very wall. On this particular Christmas ded made @ Christmas scene cut of plywood, coloured paper and an electric fight bub. A picture of Father Christmas on his sledge with reindeer was cut out ofthe ply and coloured paper stuck over the cut out figures. “This wes fixed up onthe picture rail with an electric ight behind it. That screen realy loed ‘Christmas! twas 2 few days after Christmas that Iwas tsken il. | had pneumonia. My cure consisted of having @ very hot ‘bread pouitic’ ted to my back over the lung area and as soon as the poultice got coo! was reploced‘wth another hot one. | don' think my parents had much rest because this went on allay and night. All | Know ig twos put off bread pudding or some time, Everything had a time or season, Us kids dd go by 2 calendar. Most of us didn't have one anyway. It was the season for tops another time for conkers, marbles, hoops, fag cards. these pastimes had certain time to be played and everybody seemed to know that ime. You would go out doers one morning with your whip, ‘and top and low and belo! tere was somebody elready out there wit his top, (has anybody seen a top lately, | haver‘ | think the one thing that has improved since the old days i kites, plastic has seen to that. Everybody made their own kite. large plece of brown paper, some bamboo canes, sting and newspaper forthe til and there was your kite ‘Auntie Myra (Dads sister) at Alverstoke Dad's father ived at Alverstoke, alto nis ester and brother. | loved going to Granddads, Pops as we called him. it was usually weekends. Pop alveys had a large cake avaliable when we calls, it was made in = meat dish nota large cake tin by Pops. When seated at the table for meals, the table cloth was always paper. Newspaper for weekdays but Sunday’ clot waa a large shest of clean brown paper. After each Sunday & was put away til the following Sunday, Woes betide any of us boys if we rade @ mark on that paper. | have known Pop to ran a brown paper table cloth because it wasn't very oflen one could find a piece of paper to spread over table.‘Another one of Pop's funny ways was that he calla & ot of his food by ‘Hindustan names. He spent = Jot of his army days in india, The bread (rutfy) was kept in a string bag hanging on the back of the door. MAK ‘ugar and salt all hac thee Indian names but | am unable fo spel them. “The house Pep lived in (No-t Clay Hall Road) was very large It had been a public house, The other person ining there was ‘Sammy Samson’ and his daughter, Well, Sammy was the local coalman. His horse "Beauty was stabled atthe bottom of the house. Also his cart was kept there end of course the big heap of horse manure. For two or three weeks one Summer, Pop decided to get nd of the fies that would Keep coming indoors. Sone offered us boys the large amount a (1/2) one half penny for every dozen fies we cauaht.A very generous man was Pop. Buta very crafty lot was us boys. Pop would have a ite sleep in the ateoon so we ‘would go down the yard to the dung heap and stable, where the flies were more plontiu. Bu ke a good tings itcame to.an end, one cay Pop caught us in the act. He wasn't very plessed, nor were we. Nat only did we lose ‘cur money but we had a swipe round the ear as well ‘As you reader may have noticed, us youngsters were quite often given a clump around the ear or Kick up the stern. This was a normal everyday event and we didn't take any notice of and it taught us to respect our elders and mind our manners. Something sadly lacking today. | recall one winter's atemoon, we were plying in the yard (yes by the dung heap) and suddenly the od {ire engine pulled up outside the house, OFf jumped the fremen and ran inside the house, quickly followed by iy brother and myself. There was a ot of smoke about the fe was in the collar. What happened was that ‘Semmy and his daughter were siting round the fre, haf asleep ! suppose, when suddenly the fe and fre surround cisappeared though the flor down into the calla, seting fre to some old wooden cases. Of course we thought it greet fun | recal snother lite bit of information about Sammy worth mentioning. AS | said he was a coaimer, Well he hurt his back et one time and couldn't delve the bags of coal. Se my dad and his brother said they ‘would help and delver the coal for rim. This by the way would be inthe dark afer tea. | was # forced volunteer My job was to look after the horse and cerry the lantern. Now | was only aout eight years old and not very tll ‘0 this horse towered above me and had some very large hooves which | didnt want on my fect, sill he was, very good natured and he knew the round better than any of us, The diferent places that people hed thelr coal tioped wee most suprising. Otter than @ coal shed there was coal stores under the sats, Tom made a mistake ‘and tipped a bag ina smal green house. We hed nearly fished end had nad afew accidents when the Dig one ‘cccurred. Once more Tom was carrying the coal, the coal shed was in the back garden but the only way to the back garden wae through the front doar down the passage end out the back door. it was quite dark in the passage. Anyway off wont Tom, bag of coal on his back down he passage and tipped the coal nto the shed. “There was one heck of a shouting and a hollering going on, What Tom didnt Know was a load of washing hac been hung down the passege to dry, and he coleted i all upon his coal bag and dumped i al, with he coal, n 3the coal shed. The old git who owned it old Tom just what she thought of him. Dad and Tom never offered again | must tell you about the boat. Azross the roed from the house was a fies where the horse grazed. This field bordored on the shore of ‘Aver Creel’. it wes here that the Bost was kept It belonged to dad and hic ‘brother Tom. The boat was open, no cabin. | remember it had 8 mast and one sail. Other than thet ithad to be rowed. We have had some grand times In her. It was nothing unusual to row all the way to the sea wall by Heslar Hospital Somewhere mum has @ photo ofthe boat and in i are 13 people and @ pram. To get out of ‘AWver Greek the boat had fo pass under an ol iron raiway bridge, it wasn't in use, even in my young days. Well ‘rom somevinere dad found or bought @ huge fishing net and with the help of Pop and Tom and # couple more ‘vlage lads the net was lowered from the ramay bridge into the water. Ata given time the net was pulled up and snybody walking past would give a hand, Ihave seen this net really full of fat fish, of course the fish was shared cout amongst the fishermen. But after a time this hed to stop, te police sald atracted too many people and ‘somebody might fallin and drown, ‘Another thing the fishermen got up fo was night fishing. This was normaly Saturday night out in te Solent. To my knowledge nobody owned a ro. it was all hang ines. The enly form of Kghting was candles in jam jars. OF course everybody hed thelr packs of sandwiches. | remember one chap in particular Philp Alan, commonly known te his mates as ‘Plunger, don't ask me why He would arive at the boat with a suitcase of {grub inching lettuce pulled out of the garden, roots and all When the boat was out he would ap his lettuce In the sea. This would both wash it and seltit so he sald. Plunger, ata later time moved to Fareham. Him and his family moved to Fareham Park Road about 1934. Later they moved to London just before the war, | often wondered how they got 7 in the bit It the fieh were not iting there would be a card school going on in the Bost. | remember das geting & rolicking from mum when ones, he used one of mum's spoons as a spinner for Na ish, This meant cutting the handle ofthe sp00n and mum wasn’ very plaased, Next to the field wae the “Brocrck Club’ cricket pitch. Tom was a member of the team. Infact the frst ‘ricket bat | ever had was from this ub. It had been damaged but to me it was perfect. should mention that it was a cane of waking to get to and from Alverstoke. 4Unele Tom in cricket gear. Ded was now the proud owner of @ motor ike, My favourite seat was in front, on the pero tank, (not lowed these days). remember all motorcyclists, unless they had and ex RAF leather fing helmet, wre their peak caps back to front and hed in pace with pair of goggles, sporting & large scart. In real cok weather dad ‘would put newspaper inside his coat to keep out the cold, There were times when dad had to work late ‘because Mrs Sution was going toa dinner party. Mrs Sutton (Dads employer)While the Lords and Ladies were at dinner the chauffeurs would be inthe kitchen. Ang any litle candwiches, chicken legs or anything edible that was retuned would be carefully ‘wrapped up and hidden in the motor. Us boys would try and Keep awake on the nights dad was late, 60 we may enjoy some of the goadles he would bring home. Ifwe didnt Keep awake we had them in the morning During these hard times another thing I noticed about my father, he smoked cigarettes, but not once did | ever see him smoke @ complete cigarette. Half would be smoked then it would be pinched out and placed in a pocket in dad's waistcoat, to be smoked later on. If things wore realy tight all the cigarette ends wore saved and these would be broken open and made into cigarettes using @ cigarette paper. Now | realise how herd things were at times: | can see why | wasn't very poplar with mum and dad when | scuffed the toes out of my shoes cor tore my trousers. can hear itnow (do you think money grows on trees?) Justa few words about clothes, when we came home from schocl, trousers and shoes were changed for older ones and school clothes weren't wom on weekends. They werent for climbing trees or playing in the muck. Off course there was the usual practice of the older ‘bodes ciothes being handed down to the younger sons. Bn and | were growing up and bedtime wasn't much fun as we both slept in the same single bed, We were too big to sleep side by side eo it was a case of top and tal Bil had my feet under his chin. | had his, Not very refreshing in the summer. So we were quite pleased to haar the following words "we are going to move". These words came right out of the blue from dad, Where to | asked? Fareham! dad said. Farenam? That was the other side of the world, | thought | did't know where it was but was soon to find cut. I comember it was @ very hot summer's day when we went to see our new house. Yes, ‘a house all to ourselves. Not rooms a whole house. Mum, Bil and | caught the bus from ‘Gosport to Fareham and then decided to walk the rest ofthe way. i ould be far, afterall the house was in Fareham. Boy, were we to find out different. The address of the house was No, 3 Highlands Road, That was about three and a half miles from the bus station, uphill of course, We didn't know then but we took the long way, Trinity Steet, Park Lane, Kiln Road, Highlands Road. Boy wasn’ it hot, | had never seen so many trees, horses and cows, It was enother wort, a very big world‘Mum & Mrs Scruse on the beach ‘After what seemed hours of walking we arrived at No.3. it was huge, was this entie house ours?? And the garden where di it end? Where did it start? Gosh | could be lost just as easly in Aftica as I could in that garden. Also inthe front garden was a car, yes a real but very rusty car (wil tell you more about that later), The hedge was sbout twelve feat high and wide. The grass in the garden was higher than me, this was my work leven at my tender age | realised | was meant to be a country boy. Not a townie and readers that sll go0s. love the county, On that hot summer day with all the birds singing and the wildflowers outin bloom even the weeds pokes tke roses, | was happy even if my feet cid ache, Dad popped home from work just to see we liked the new house, Mum said yes and that was that, al that remained wes to move the furniture, except we had to get back to Fareham. But this ime it was all down hil, down Gudgeheath Lene,Moving to Fareham ‘Going to vein Fareham was a big stepping stone in my Ife. say Fareham but that isnt quite rue. We Went otve in ill Park, just outside the Town, about three miles. The number was 3 Highlands Rosd. But frst @ few lines about the actual move. The lory belonged to friend of dads, he was a cartier. itwas a red lorry and ‘open, no top. So fingers were Kept crossed that it didn't rain. After the furiture was loaded, there was a ile ‘mater of the lve stock. A cat, a budgie and goldiah. Mum sat nex othe driver (Bill Frost) more about him later in the book. She hat the cat siting in the back of the lorry. In an armchair was Bill holding @ gosh bow and {ish, azo on the back in a chair was youre truly, nursing & bird cage and budgie. | am pleased to say wo all made i to Fareham. Dad, by the wey vate working, he was allowed to help unload the lory when I reached cut ‘new home but then only for @ couple of hours. Mrs Sutton was an old batle-axe. Anyway, we dumped the {urture in ane room then sorted it out when dad fnished work. | must mention about the mikmen and the bakers. Almost within an hour of being there @ milkman rtved and let fre cint of mike with compliments. We had three pints of mik tet that eernaen and throe ‘more the next day, Mum had then to make @ choice of milkman. Us kids hac never had so much mik in our ies. The same applied to the bakers. A free loaf was let then the one we liked best was told he could call regula, “The mikman we choose wee @ Mr Hull, his litle dary was about htt a mite away, There was ve litte ain’ in Highlands Road. They were owned by @ Mr Pink, Mr Trueman, Mr Miler, Mr Hulled and Mr Bart. DDetvery was either by horse and cart or bicycle. The baker was @ Mr Frost, from Fareham, Delivery was by Mr Frost's son Albert, on a bicycle. More about Mr Frost later because | worked for him in 1941-2, tis @ very small \world realy. The man who moved us fo Fareham was Mr Bll Frost his brother was Mr Frank Frost the baker. Lot me try to describe No.3 because after ving in rooms most of my life this house was like @ mansi. “The frst things | noticed was 2 real bath inside the house, A real white bath. | had never seen one before. But dont get me wrong I didn't say @ bathroom because there wasr't one. The huge white bath was instlied inthe scullery next tothe sink, Ithad a brass cold water tap but nota hot tap. Also in the scullery was the gas cooker ‘and et the end near the bath was a large brick copper that had to be filed with cold water (by bucket then the fire it undemeath and hey presto’ hot water. This was ladled into the bath once more by bucket or bow. There ‘was one or two other ite problems to gat aver nefore one could have a bath, The scullery wasn’t very large 80 every spare space had to be used, etuck inthe mile cf the bath stood mums bree in, This was a very large ‘earthenware container which was used to Keep bread in and it weighed a fair old bit oo. That let both ends of the bath with usesble epace. Now ded, being a clever chap (the word DIY wasn't known in them days) but believe me dad knew all about i From somewhere or someone fe got hold of some timber. Before | go 00 far lot me tell you reacers whet dads carpentry tool set consisted of. One saw, one small chopper and a pair ofpinchers and athe second hand nails he could lay his hands on. On the bath atthe tap end he construct @ ‘wooden platform to which was firod mums mangle. So when the clethes were put through the mangle the water ‘went into the bath and down the plug hole, el lever thinking. There wes enother square of iber atthe Botan fend which served asa small table. The reason fr teling al this is o show what had to be moved before one had a bath, “There was a large living room and of course the old front room, two bedrooms down sais and @ really tig bedroom upstairs. Under the stars inthe living room was (wait fot) the coal oe, Also there was roe black kitchen range, The loo was outside in ite brick biking wherein lter tes we kept s coupe ofrabite in acage. ‘The garden was realy lage, containing plum, eppie and pear trees, but oh so over grown. And right sack bang in the middle ofthe front garden that car. Al the end of the garden was a field where Mr Miler put Ris cows. This field was alive wih rabbits. Beyond this field was another containing goats and donkey, this by the vay is where my house stand today, The house on one side wes emply; the other was accupled by a German family called Coline-Thomas. [After straightening out the house and believe me itwas @ mess, came the job of the garden. With the help of ‘Herbert the old car was pushed from the front garden right up the top of the back garden. Over @ space of me that of car wes completly stinped right down tothe chassis. Then the whole lot wat lak! outst the very top ofthe garden from one sie tothe other. As the garden was gradually cleared al the old grass and rubbish wes put onthe oar remains end so we hed a nice earth bank. | wonder if is stil there. It woul! be worth bob or two today. By the way, Herbert wos the gardeners boy who worked with dad at ‘Mayiin There was also Mr Butler “Walt to his friends, whe were the gardener. He lived on the estate in @ litle cottage adjoining the garage, which wos really the coach house stals end tack room ané hay lot which had bosn jlned to the cotege to make one large house. Mr Butler had a daughter whose name was Phylis. She was e Sunday schoo! teacher at Font. She also played the church organ, Mayins itself is now turned into large hotel, There ie tne remaining piece of evidence that dad had once worked tere, Ouiside what was once the front door is & ‘ery old and very taf tree. Mr Sutton had a fear that his tree would colanse onto er house 20 she orderec ded to chain al the branches togetner and these chains can stil be seen today. The gardens in those ear ‘wore a picture. There were privet and Boxwood hedges and some of these Walt Butler clipped into Deeutf poscocks. The lawns were 0 large that they were mowed wit a horse mewer. The hares having lester ‘hoes strapped to hls hooves so they wouldnt mark the fawn. Later the horee was replaced wih @ motor mower, The gardener wouldnt have anything to do with mechanical things. So the Job cf lawn cutting fl 10 (ded. Later on vinan the garden at home was geting sreightened out there were shrubs and plants thet were rot wanted at Maying £0 dad woul bring them home just ke that bring them home, This meant pug tne 19plans or shrubs into large wooden wheel barrow and pushing it home about a mile and a half away. leather strap was paced round the shoulders and looped on he barrow handles. This took some weight off the ands, of course the barrow had tobe returned straight away so it was a flr old tp. ‘Mr Butler (Gardener) Herbert (Gardeners boy) & Dad in Maylings garden. ‘Another ite cb dac had to do was to go to Hil Head every week, with the ca to fil some bottles with ‘sea water. Mrs Sutton suffered with bad feet and she had been told io soak them in sea water. If was hore he ‘would take me with him and | would fil the bottles. Just up my sitet splashing around in the water, One other piece of information you might keto know ebout wes the cosspt Just before we moved in, the house drainage ives piped int the maine, But the cosspt was stil ful of you know wat which had tobe emptied, This was done with @ bucket on @ rope end scattered on the garden. Poo what a pong. Buti made the vegetables grow. I can ‘sb hear mum saying ‘don't come indoors with those stinking clothes on’ twas nally omptie then filed up wth ‘garden rubbish. Sighs of rekef all round. Allthe neighvouring houses had the same probiem.Hill Park 1932 ‘Before | go any further with my story | wal ty to describe what Hil Park’ was tke, Totaly cferet from today and in my option @ much better place to Ive in those far of days, Al his change is due to 3 word called progress. 1 wonder if iis progress??? Of course the ralway was in operation witn steam trains Belonging 19 ‘Southern Raiway. The railway banks were the playing fields of most of us. There were no houses bordering the tellwey nor in Highland Road upto and including the Co-op and the Gospel Hall. This was all felts belonging to Me miler for his cows. In the hedges were lovely old oak trees, which alas over the years have been felled, never to be seen again. Going down the road from the evening news shop, there were two houses and then more fies, These continued down tothe railway (at Hilson Drive) which wasn't there nor was Stowe Estate “The Highiands pub was there but that was al on that side ofthe road. Where the Amoco Garage is was Mr ‘Trueman deity farm. The Heathfield Estate and gerage was then a very large copes, “The Post Office was in he same place but very small it was one room of the house tumed info a smal nop Including the Post Office. It was owned by @ Mr Hest | remember one of his daughters served in the ‘shop, she had the misfortune to have only one eye. The letter box was a small red box fixed to @ post outside, Fareham Park Road was an unmade road just gravel, ot holes and no pavements, Across the road wore three more shops. One of them (once mave it was one room inthe house) was owned by a Mr Ferguson, twas & newsagents seling sweets and tobacco. This shop was next door to Mrs Maxwel's house, Then there remained «2 double fronted shop where the freezer shop now Is. The freezer shop is also not there now it has been replaced wih a betting shop and a vdeo shop. Such is progress, All his happened sinco | started wring, One half was a butchers the other sold groceries and vegetables. The owner was Mr Fred Irestone, (he was also one time Lendiord of the Highlands pub). These two shops were a few years later to be under the attention of Mr Filer. The onty other business around was 8 wooden hut in Hil Park Rosd, which was used as a shoe repair ‘shop, Once more Hil Park Road was a rough gravel road. Gudgeheath was without pavements and ever hal ts length was bordered by copes. It was quite spooky walking up the lane rightimes. Just one ile of information concerning the butcher's shop, i my memory serves me right. On Tuesday and Fridey evenings the shop was ‘open for the sale of faggots and pees. Mum would give us the pennies end the basin and tothe shop we went. ‘Boing hot and lovely. you burnt your hands onthe basin bringing them back: home. other than seeing Jim Milers cows waking up and down the road come miking te, he only other movement to be e00n was the bus service. They were called ‘Milards Bus Co’ one bus an hour from Ferenam to Catlfield, The fare for a child from Hil Park to Farehem was ¥% penny. It was a very ancient bus cans 10 cany about hry fe passengers but had been known to cary twice 26 many as the legal amount, Nobosy ‘eas lf at a bus stop. | have been on the bus coming up Park Lane and some of us had to got out and walk UP the Lane os the poor old bus couldnt make i. But nobody complained, we were only oo pissed io have & ide, a‘some of the way. A funny thing about thie bus, there wasn't any tickets when you paid for a single tp, (only i you paid fora return. Whit on the subject of shops, my father got a parttime job over the paper shop. He had to be at Fareham rakway station at § o'leck in the morning, collet the papers and bring them back tothe shop to be sorted cut and delivered to the houses. All ths had tobe finished in ime to start his regular job and by the way all the papers were carried on a trader's bike with a large carrier an the front. All for the vast amount of five hillngs @ week, At ater date | became @ paper boy, | dalivered in the evenings, wet or fine, the papers had to be dowered. ‘Taking bout five shilings, provided we waked one way, the four of us (mum, dac, Bil and myset) could goto the pictues) einem and have a bag of chips to eat on the way home. Al forthe princely sum of five bob, You could get the bus ticket for that now, In the year 1932 the Co-op laundry was built in Gudghesth Lane. ‘Our new house and garden was taking shape. That huge unldy hedge atthe front was cut down to ‘bout 3 oF 4 fost, The tall grass and weeds were cut down and bumt. The garden was being du over and plants were planted. Now this work went on week ends and evenings with everybody doing thelr share. | often wondered how al this work was done because it was a very big garden. But other than his daily job sometimes taking him away from home two or three evening a week, dad seemed to be great demand from some ofthe local farmers, | have known him to cut a whole fle of hay by hand (this was done weekends and evenings) wth fa great big scythe. When these jobs were taking place it was my place to turn the hay sc it would be perfectly {ry and fresh smeling, | don’ know of @ better smell than freshly tured hay. All that remained then was to logd ‘ton the hay cert anc putt on the hay stack. | don't know how much dad got paid for these jobs but he money was hard eamed. Moving fo Fareham meant @ new school and new fiends. Bill being older than me went to Fareham ‘Senior Sehool in Harson Road, MyseY, | went to Fontley School. In bath cases It meant walking. Akvays, when ‘coming home from schoo! | would call into dad's garage to see him. There were times when he wasnt in but | wou ty up hie tools (or £0 | thought) look at old motor magazines or perhaps talk to Herbert. There was ‘another reason for calling In the garage, | always somehow managed to tear my clothes and | knew dad had a ‘naedie and cotion inthe garage soit was & case of make good and mend, before | went home. ! must confess dad saved me from geting @ hiding 8 good many tmes because he sewed something up for me before | went home, Talking about the garage and mending things, | always wore boots to school and these boots were ‘always mended by dad, with old worn out car tyes. These soles naver wore out, they lasted the rest ofthe boot. | remember a siory my dad fold me. It was about the only time he was ever in trouble with the law. One {day he was walking down Park Lane wit a frend, when who should be coming up the Lane but the locel Rag 2‘and Bone man. He was known as the ‘Pincher. He had a donkey ond cart which was loaded tothe top With everything ber the kitchen sink, The litle old donkey was nearly on his knees, now this upset dad, ‘especialy 28 Pincher was siting on the cart as weil. So dad and hls mate took the donkey out of the ear. oped ‘out the rubbieh and tied Pitcher tothe shafts. He pushed the donkey into the cart and made him pull cart and “donkey up the lane. For this dad received a stern waming from the law. If was done now i would mean having to face umpteen welfare officers and being questioned by a load of do-gooders and Pincher woukd stil i reat his donkey. “The day came wien I had my very own bike, not @ new one mind. It was made up fram olé spare parts ‘of other bikes. It was known as an A..P. (all spare parts) one or two alterations had to be made. Because the ‘frame was 100 big for me, wooden blocks were fied fo the peddlos because | couldn't reach. There wesnt a saddle, 80 rags were wrapped around the bar and this was covered with a piece of leg from ¢ Wellington. Because this bike wouldn't be passed fi to ride to achoo! | rode its far as dec's garege then walked the rest of the way and in reverse coming home. Schoo! was prety strict but | enjoyed it Corpora punishment was dished cut, but & did nobody any harm. You only got @ wallop if you asked fori I is pity punishment is done away wath toca, ‘We had discovered that Mr Milar sold eggs, butter and chess frm his lite dairy (where the Hil Par working mans lub now stands). But best of lhe sold for 2p the biggest jug you had full of skimmed mi, this mike wasn sold it was fed to his pige. Jim Millar never had a horse and cart so when he moved his hay or straw, itwae on a ig trolley which Jim had to pul himsel Everybody seemed to work hard in those days but they also seemed more content. There was one thing thet brought cur household toa full stop. It dda matter what was being done. When mum shouted "Dick Barton’ that was the signal to rush indoors and gather round the wireless set and listen to ‘Dick Barton Special ‘Agent and his side kicks Jock and Snowy. He was a 1990's James Bond, We somehow from somewhere acquired a dog. He was named fob, Short legs, large head, stumpy fat body, Colour black and tan. He would spenc most of the day laying In the dust by the gate but one day he surprised us all. wes in the garden when there was a ct of noise coming trom the front path. On looking down the path there was Bob struggling along with @ duck in his mouth, half caring it and halt dragging kt The duck belonged to Jim Milar andthe dag had somehow eaught it and dragged it heme but how to tell him our dog hed rusted @ duck was a tricky problem. In the end | took it back to him and seid it wes waddling along the rose We nod snother incident with Mr Milars farm, Another of our pets was a big white cat named Henry. He realy was a big cat wth largo font feet ike boxing gloves. Henry spent alot of ime around the Mifar farm catching rats and mice and! suspect having @ good many free crnks of mik, Well one dey Jim Milar came to our house with eardbosrd box. Inside was the body of Henry. He had been chasing rat and knocked 2 mik chum overthat unfortunately fel on Henry and broke his neck. Henry was duly buried up inthe garden complete with cross, tobe joined in later years by chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs almost a Noah's Ark. We had new neighbours move next door. This was the beginning of a long friendship with Doug - Douglas Voller. Doug's mother and father are long dead but he stil ves inthe same house by himsott, It was no. 4 ut for some unknown reason the coune! decided to re-number the Houses in Highland Road. Inthe front garden of Doug's house was a lige Chestnut tree. Well Doug and I planted the conker which grew into thet tree. Gosh It must be about 47 years old. | am very sory to say the Chestnut tree was cut down in 1991. | wil ‘explain why at a lator date, A favourite pastime of mine was tree cimbing. When you think, Hamond Road Estate, Stow Estate, Heated Court Way, Thom Avenue, these places were all covered with copes so there were plenty to pick from, When | climbed as far #8 I could, | carved my inital inthe tree thus JF. There weren't ‘many treee without that mark. One of the best buys ofthe day was 12 yards of good rope for 6 pence, which was saved over a long period. Now Doug being an only child and his dad being a bricklayer they wore well of He never had to save for his rope, he just went in and bought a shillings worth ‘There were @ couple of characters worth mentioning, Sam and Fred Holiday, farmers from down ‘Gudgheath Lane. Every evening they visited the Highlands pub and they always got drunk. Their means of ‘ransport was the old milk flat. On turing out time trey stumbled out me pub and collapsed inthe bottom of the float and the horse took them home. Sam was Fred's dad. Then we had Toby the Moon Man. He never ‘bothered anybacy but on night when the mach was ful, Toby would walk up and down the road howing atthe ‘Another thing missing these daye le frefles and gloworms. This | have been told is due to the cutting down of hedges and insecticides. Anyway they were beautiful, The glowing fretles danced in the ar and the ‘loworms glowed on the ground. | would often put some in & empty match box and take them in my bedroom at hight and watch them in the dark. The railway bank was the place for wild if. There were badger sets, foxes, ‘and deer and of course rabbits and hovering sbove were the hawks and swooping over the fields atthe top of ‘he garsen Barn ows, who hes sean one lately??? | also fanciad myself as a snake catcher. | used to caich and skin adders and make purses out of their kina, or sew thom to lesther bell. Some of the skins adomed the walt of my bedroom slong with rabbit skins uly cured with salt and alum and a collection of spears and knives | had collected ovar the years. Of course, mothers views of my becroom was diferent i mine. Another of my favourite haunts was the river at ron Mills Farm. This was where all us boys went ‘swimming. Most of usin our birthday suts as we didnt posses any bathers. The river also had e good supply of food in it Craylich by the dozen were caught, these were lke smal lobsters. Fresh water eels were also cought“This was called quacding, the method consisted of a bal of kiting wool ted to @ place of sting, An cols teeth slope backwards, so when it grabbed the ball of woo! it was caught. Inlater years | have known salmon trout caught in the river with a rabbit wire on # long pole. This hed to be done with one eye open for the water bail | end this litle verse with an old saying, no names no pack dei (Of course there was always the tine when somebody fall In. There was alvays something to be hed if one now where to look for it Bil and | used to put rat wires down at a place in Highlands Road called The Tips ‘A schoo! fiend called Edward ined there and we knew thet somebody often robbed our wires, But we did bring ome home. Also free range eggs were free. The hens would lay all over the place and | knew where. Also | knew where the best blackberries or mushrooms or nuts were tobe foune. “The butchers changed hands and the new owner was @ Mr Curlake, He was a small builder. One of nis sone was John, with whom | was vary fiend. This jogging lark i nothing new. John and | would go jogging most mornings. One morning instead of jogging we decided to go ewimming at Hil-Head, the only shorts | hag were the ones I jogged in, The swimming was ok but when | came ashore | discovered my shorts were transparent. So that was the end of those shorts for swimming. It could only happen to me. Granddad It must have been about now that dad's father came to lve with us. Pop scon setied in and took upon some chores 2s his own. The kitchen range was taken over, it was cleaned reguiy with black lead untl shone. The hearth, this was the eonerete lab on which the range stood, was rubbed! over every day wih a large place of chatk dipped in water and it dried out lovely and white. Pop wes also an old military man, very upright {or his age and he sported a big walrus moustache. | loved to sit and listen to his stories of when he was young ‘and in the army. One of Pops favourite dishes was a red herring stuck on a fork and toasted in front ofthe kitchen range. ‘Another thing worth mentioning about the range. in he winter after tea two wall bricks were putin the ‘oven. These were Bils and my hot bed warmers. Come bectime they were taken out, wrapped in @ cioth and putin bed, They kept warm right through the night, Just one thing tobe remembered, I din’ ty kicking my bed warmer out of the way. Up the garden a ways was the ash heap where the ashes fromthe fires were tipped. Also, a piece of tree stump. Thie was Pops cleaning materials and seat. The steel knives and forks and the old tin kettle was taken here and made to shine by rubbing them with the damp eshes and like that old kitchen range they really id shine, 2‘As | mentioned before, nothing was Wested. At Mayland’s the currant bushes were encaged in 9 large vwited cage. Blackbirds and thrushes got through the wire netting but couldnt got out, These were caught and ‘quick kiled by dad, who then brought them home to Pop. He would soon have those birds plucked and drawn ready for mum to cock. And believe me two or three or those on your plate were worth heving. Thinking about row makes me reaise how things really have changed and how old | am geting. tie @ bit ofa touchy subject put I feel it must be mentioned ctherwse the book would be incomplete. Pop brought with him @ young ran named Bun, Buns mother was Pops deughtor (my auntie Myra). His father was @ New Zealand soldier who returned to his country without merrying Myra. The jo of bringing him up fell to my mur end dad. Sun by the ‘way was six yeorsoldor thon me. Ihave ust heard leday 4 1.95 that Auntie Myra died lastnight. Another of the Frampton farily gone. During the war Bun served inthe Royal Navy. ‘Mum, Pop, me and Bob. other than those jobs Pop helped in the gerden, He was geting on but very active, | remember he _soked @ pipe filed with ‘digger shag’. He had a habit of saving pieces of string which were neatly rolled up and hidden under the matiress of his bed. On his bed, by the way, he would have not ordinery blankets but horse blankets, Thay were 2 brown colour very thick and ati, complete with 2 big black number painted on them. Just ‘982 point of interest, he was also a ‘Freemason’. He later moved back tolersey where he diod and was buried It must have been around about now I joined the cubs 1st Funtley cub pack. Cur eub mistress wes a Mise MeDonaid who lived at "White Lodge’ the home of Capt McDonald, he father. The hou Home. is now an Old Foks‘eing a wolf cub meant | knew all about knots and tying things up or so | thought. Wel, one day dad borrowed a rowing boat and we went fishing down Farcham Crook. Herbert was with us. In the Creek were large posts standing inthe water. These marked the deep Channel forthe larger boats. Anyway dad decides to tie up to one of the posts. "Tl do it said clever Dick. | knew ail about knots | ted the bost to the post. We carted on fishing, it wasn't tl much later thet Ded realised something wasn't quit right, the front ofthe boat was almost under water, | hadn't alowed forthe rising ride and had ted the rope £0 tight to the post it couldn’ ‘side up with the tide, Also it was impossible to ntl it, Dad wasn't vary pleased when the rope hed to be cut stil ‘we did catch some fch. | must have been a real pain to my mum and dad. ‘About the age of 10 | got 8 Saturday job with ‘Charlo Steadman’ our new milkman. He worked for Tor Parker the biggest farmer around Fareham. In those days the mik was delivered to the houses twice 2 day. | ‘would meet Charie at about 520 i the moming atthe comer of Highland Road and Kin Road. | remember the horses name was Queenie, she knew the round as well as we di. | iked nothing beter than taking the reins and trotting her down the road. On one occasion we had a new horse, a big Chestnut. We were at Down End Road, Chatte wes making up his book and | was siting on the grass verge eating one of his egg sanawicnes (he shvays hac oggs in his sandwiches) when suddenly the horse bolted. The milk float fished up side cown. ‘The road was covered with mik, e998 and cream. The horse was ok but she never pulled our float again. | would finish the day about 3 o'clock inthe aflernoon. For this days work | received the vast amount of 4 shiling and with @ bit 0 luck some eracked eggs or a small tub of cream that had somehow been damaged. ‘The stables were along the Wickham Road, at Charity Farm, so it meant drving back tothe stables after doing the round, hamessing the horse, feeding him an puting him inthe stall Then we could bike al the way home. By the way, mum delivered one of his wie's babies, | did once have a job in Kiln Road as 8 help to the gardener in one of the big houses. But as the job mainly consisted of me cigging cut woods from the grave drive | very soon gave up the job, Like al brothers Bill ‘and had our itl fights and arguments but this was soon to stop. Because at the age of 14 he joined the Roys! Marines as a Band Boy. He had leamt to play the voin at school. ‘We had 2 large table in the living room, just en ordinary table which could be serubbec down with = scrubbing brush when it became grubby and it often dd. That table was also our work bench. One of my favourte past times was making things out of plywood using a fret saw. There was « magazine called Hobbies ‘which gave you ideas about wnat to make. Well, this was done on the table, | have known my faer mend shoes on the table and when a bike had to be repaired and it was dark outside, it was brought indoors. OF ‘course it was the ironing board as wel Infact the table was used for everything and anything bu stil came up lovely and white when it was scrubbed with soep and wat.“There was a church at Catsfild. I was bult from corrugated iron and painted red but us local lads and lasses never went fo it. We went io the green Tabernacle. This was a large wooden hut painted green in Hil Park Road, called Gospel Hall AS a reat in the summer a large tent was erected and we held serie in there ‘To tel the truth the reason | attended was to qualfy forthe summer treat to Haying Island and the party anc prize ot Chisimas. Another atracion was the showing of magic lantam skies in the winter evening. A Mr CChamberlane was in charge of this. Quite often the slides were placed in the lantern upside down. This was ‘alwaye good for 0 laugh. And of course best clothes were always wom to Sunday school but immediately ‘changed when we got heme. November was chestnut time and every year this meant @ cay out to 100 acres where the nuts were to be ound. I was a grand dey out, a couple of sandwiches @ botte of pop and aff we would go, all us ninpers (boys and gis) It wast everybody that had bike 60 i usually meant two to one some of us running. Then @ change ‘over every £0 often. This was alight going but coming home, loaded with chestnuts, we all walked. The nuts wore realy thick on the ground and it was quite easy to fil a small sack. These were tied on the bikes and pushed home. My dad iked his boiled. | iked mine roasted on the old range. My! How they used to pop and ‘crackle. Being winter tme it was always dark when we finaly arved home, Our parents weren't concermos because in those days (mi knowledge) us youngsters were perfectly safe about the dark Monday was markt day in Fareham, but not bit ke today’s market, there were loads of cate. As well 2s catte, there were food stalls, Before the seling started, samples were thrown ito the crowd so they could be tasted | used to wander ound the chicken pens, any of them had lad an egg twas soon in my pocket, Uniike row one could park his car those sides ofthe West Stret and through the midale of the stot, there were more parking places than cars. [At +11 years old | was old enough to go tothe seniors school al Fareham. Anyway twas about this ene that something strange was going on in Jim Milan's fold across from number three. it men appeared with prongs and shovels and started cigging. It tuned out to be @ shop. was where the Co-op now stands. When i \was fished the name over the door was gtocery store, Broken biscuits were 3 d @ pound. Bacon smells and ‘she's smiles were all mixed up with ll the other smells (butter). Ham was cut off the bone, com beet was cut by hand and when you bought enter Dr boxer but afer it was cut fem a lump puttd into shape wih butter caps, while you waited, . suppose stop all those years ago was the beginning of progress for Hil Park | stated @ itl business about row making bicycles from spare parts and seling them, There was @ rman living up Farehem Park Road by the name of Mr Guy. He was the door man atthe cinema in Fareham. Well he collected every scene, scrap Iron, wastepaper and ol! bikes, A bike frame, @ pair of wheels and o ‘saddle chucked in cost me five salings. Anew tye, half @ crown. An inner tube 2 shiling, A drop of paint and 1 had a bike worth theee pounds | remember buying @ new bike when | started work it had three sceed gears, & ‘Dynamo harbour lighting. It eeet 9 pounds and | stil have the receipt to prove iReceipt for my bike. “Toking about means of transport, dad bacame the proud owner of @ motor bike and side car. It wes @ Rudge Wnewith, This meant tins to Lee-on-Soent in comfort in stead of backing, Also tip to Gosport usualy ‘Saturday evening to see his bother Tom. The molor bike sometimes took tips out a night usualy @ ty wet right when (a8 dad said) there would not be many people about It was not much fun riding ina side car on top cf a load of wet spuds of cabbages. Dancer said they came from ane of his allotmerts!! Dad said thoy came from one of his allotments! “The time nad come to leave Fontiey School and go to Fareham Seniors. This meant wearing long trousers, | was growing Up. It dt tke me long to find out that this schoo! was diffrent. There were the tough boys, the Aghters end the sneaks. 1 would ght anybody. f you were caught ightng it was stight 10 the Headmasters office, Mr Simm. Two ofthe best were dealt out but this was expected | decided 10 fotow Bils feotatoos and earn opley the won, aught by Mr Smith, Alas! wasn' talented, no way cou | get the hang of that thing. Mr Smit told dad I was more cutout t ply the drums,| must have been a pain in the neck to my parent at times. The different deds that ceme to our house ‘complaining that | hae hit their sons or had thrown their hats up inthe tees, was no odds to anyone, Some of ‘the names that come fo mind are Jim and John Bartet; their ded owned the'farm by the Underground Railway tunnel. Jim now owns the farm at the Abbey. Another name was Roy Dove, His house in Highland Road was pulled down to make ream for ‘Hilson Drive. So it meant @ clump fom Pa. SB dnt ind, | got the ide that itwae a case of ke father Ike son, ‘The temor of senior school was # Mr Midgley. He took 3A. Luckily | was in 3B. This teacher was Mr ‘Smith the music teacher. He lvad along Kiln Read and to get to school he rode a bicycle. Last lesson on Ficay ‘attemaon, one had to be on your best behaviour because two boys were picked out fo clean Mr 'Smugger ‘Smiths bixe. Ths also included a 3p tip. There was a tuck shop at school wnare our pennies end half pennies. could be spent. | remember Horlicks was a penny fora big mug ful. Hot dinners could also be bought ‘The Christmas dinner was always @ good one. Turkey, Christmas pud and custard and mince pies al {for about 2 shikings. Another of my failures at schoo! was nat passing my army exam. | wanted to g® ito the RAO.C. | passed my medical but fled the intoligence test. | was upset about thet, one of my fiends at schoo! was Denis Woodford. Sadly he was kl lator on, during the war Dad had to find a new jod as Mre Sutton Died. His new employer was a Capt Pridon ‘Brune whose house was in Osborne Road. The car dad drove now was a big America Packard $3. it was very big and because the boss was bit ofan invalid he had had a foct break fited on the passenger side, Ths was so his wife could help him stoo the car. No wonder he wanted a driver. He also had a big motor boat, down the Creek. In the course of growing up | developed a ot of bois so that meant a trip to the Doctors. He was Doctor Felose, Being big boy I dint want mum with me, so off wert. Ate teling the Doc what the trouble was, he said to me ‘are your bowels working?’ | was stumped. | didnt know what he was taking about But in no uncertain manner in told me. Sot was then a case of lancing the boils. He would only send a patient o hospital for some thing realy serious. | thnk he would seta broken leg in his surgery. We had long ago fost Bob, He joined of the other animals up the garden with his own litle cross. We now had 3 new dog called Stroller. He was a fine dog. Everywhore | want so did Stoller. | remember ded and | were walking him along Highlands Read one Sunday moming, when we were stopped by a couple of police, wanting fo Know why the dog wasn't on a lead. They realy tok! dad off because unknown to us, there had been ‘an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the distict, Another man to come worse than us was @ cerain ‘Buster. He hacn't won a suf for years but that particular Sunday he did, perhaps he was going courting ‘Anyway, he decided fo walk across the park which was always full of cattle. The pobce caught him and to his dismay he had to have his Sunday suit and boots sprayed with disinfectant Buster wesr't very pleased. 30Fareham started @ Boxing cub, Dad became a steward and | decided to become @ boxer. The cub and aym wes a room over‘The Royal Oak’ Public House in West Sree. Big bagay shorts and vests were the cress ofthe day. | bet we looked @ sight, |had quite a few fights in public, won some, lost some, These matches were held in the army dril hall in town, Like £0 many other places in town the cril hall is t this very mement being demolisied 20 3.62. Mr Morcts son Bl was also inthe club, he was quite good. Just up the road ftom us was @ small farm owned by a Mr Jeffeys. It was from here that most ‘Saturdays | would go and get the com for our chickens. When the broad beans season was fished and they were 100 old fo sel, Mr Jffreye gave dad permission to pick whal was left. These were not picked when green they were let til all brown and shriveled up. We would pick as much as half « hundred weight, What would we do win these old beans, you might ask? well! tell you. Whenever mum made a stew, 2 hend ful of beans \were thrown in end it was lovey. Haven't had died bean soup for years. | remember going wth dad to Mr Jefirey's farm one day and low and behold he had @ shot gun. He had borrowed it from my scout mistress! dad, ‘Copt McDonald. We walked slowly up through the cabbages and up flew a coupe of phessants. Yes, we had ‘game for inner that weekend [As the Notional Heatth didnt exist when I was young, dad had a siceline making cougn medicine. This required brown sugar and raw carrots. The sugar was spread over the bottom of stray ebout half an inch thick “The carrots were weshed and sliced across, laid on the sugar and left overnight, In the morning the tray would be filled with lovely brown ayrup. Two or three spoonfuls a day eased any sore throat and it would be the frst time | had had goose fat smeared on my chest, this was fora chesty cold. Fareham Creek was a place of interest. Inthe Summer Regattas would be held. There would be motor boat reces and yacht races, The mill pond was & favourite swimming place. On fete days ancther bit of fun wes ‘wo men siting on a greasy pole over the water, hiting one another with secks of straw. The winner stayed on the pole. Near the Creek, under the railway arches were Fred Dykes blacksmiths, where the big Shire horses wore shad. Cos! was brought up the Creek by boa, also bricks and cement from Belgium. [My aunt Ede lived in Wisbich and one summer we ware informed we were going on holiday to aunties. ‘Dad was going to take Us in Mrs Suttons car. Dad told her we were only going as far as Windsor, otnerwise she \wouldit have lent him the car: This meant that dod had to crive us up there, have a cuick cup of tea, then got himself and the ear stright back to Fareham, This journey was repeated the next waekend to get us back home. God old dad. My uncle Archie worked inthe brickworks in Peterborough which wats 30 miles away from Wisbech, He would get up very erly Monday, cyle to work inte to start at 7 clock, ive at Peterborough al week and cycle home again Saturday afternoon, So we didnt see much of him, except when he rung the CChurch bels on Sunday. We went with him.Uncle Archie & Aunt Ede. | didn't know at the time but my young schoo! days were fast disappearing, The carefree days of Hil Park had gone forever. One thing remains in my mind that really made me sit up and take notice, Dad who ‘wasn't one for going out on his own had lately on evenings and weekends. One day | caw the reason for him {019g out. Dad was in uniform, an RAF uniform. He hac joined parttime the ‘Barrage Balloon’ Their depot was «at Titchfield, where Plessey's now stands. Why? What isi for? Then Dad told me that there could be touble With Germany end as he wouls be eligible o be caled up he decided to join what he wanted and it was close to home. Anyway it may not come to anything |A.new road was being bui in Highland Road. It was Hilson Drive, To do this @ couple of hous had to bbe demolished and the road put paid to the grazing felis of Mr Hully the mikman. He was with us no more Things were changing, Just up the roed from where we lived were a famiy of gypsies. By the name of Aires. They ved in an old fashioned horse crawn caravan. The one | usually went wth was the son named Maurice, It was here that | rst tasted my fist hedgehog (as the gypsies called them hogaie ig). The hedgehog was kiled ‘hen roled in clay end put in an open fir, At the right time itwas taken out and the beked clay was taken off the ‘skin and spikes came with it, The meat tasted lke @ mixture of chicken and pork. But it was lovely. The Aires _and many more gypsies would always be found at Wickham on Mey 21 (Wickham far day). This was the horse sales. Boys would run the horses up and down the square to show them off and when a horse was sold the ceal ‘would be settled inthe pub. As the day drew on here where a lot of drunken horse traders about Also fr those ‘ot Interested in horses there wae a flr, where one could win or lose thet pennies May 21st by the wey was ‘the day local gardeners put their runner beans in to grow,Mr Trueman, the mikman, left the datit about now, so we lost another piece of Hil Parc history. We had new people in the butchers and grocers shop. He was called Mr Bengly. he was to siay with us right through the War and after. The paper shop also changed hands, to @ Mr Brown. But the shop stayed the same, il the front room ofthe house, Dad sil collected the papers from the ralay station for him but now we were ‘bit more modernised. Mr Brown had a car, it was a ‘Jowett. The car nad sn air cooled twin motor bike engine temake it go. What progress! Evenings we would gather under the streetlight atthe top of Gudgehesth Lane and pleyed our gemes ‘or just taked, Let's ty and remember some of thelr names. Joyoe Feast and her brother Jack (now dead) Denis Woodford (new dead), Dug Vor (now dead), Cissy Godard. Rosie Maxwell (now dead) and a few more | can't remember. We didn't knaw it tthe time But this was all going to sto. ‘The war ‘One Sunday morning in the year 1939 1 was in the shed when dad came out and told me thet wer with ‘Germany had been declared. This day was to change all our ives, ‘bad was called up In the RAF straight away, Bil was in the Marines at Deal, soi left mum and me on ‘our own. | started to grow up fast. The frst thing fo come in force was the blackout. Ne more playing under the streetlights because the street became unit Biaek cloth or vary thick curtains had to be put up at the windows nigh te. All windows had 10 be criss-crossed with sticky tape in the event of @ bomb landing nearby. This prevented the glass spiniering too much. Dogs weren't allowed outright time on their own. Then came the man delivering gas masks and gave us instructions how to use them, The next thing o arrive was the Anderson shelter As | said before there wae onty me to doit The hole had tobe cug and the shelter bolted together in the hole. The dit (in my case clay) that was dug out was then piled back on the sides and top ofthe shee. After all ‘this work the shelter had to have @ name, 80 | painted it on the front, the 'Pck and shovel. A good mary hours were tobe spent in this new home of ous. | left school in December 1838, | was 14 years of age. The very next ay | stated work at the ‘Cedar Garage’ in Fareham. tnow belongs to Wadham Stringers, That winter was very ‘cold and we had mace then our share of snow. My only means of getting 9 work was by bike, sometimes | was, riding other times it was sling down Gudghesth Lane beside me. But! normally got to work alin one piece. ‘The job was mainly fling cars with petrol twos here that I first saw and held my ft white fiver, No itwasn' mine. | has to go up the bank to get some change but | thought | was @ illonaire. As | mentioned it was 8 very bad winter wit ots f snow. One dey the garage got e cal o goto the kon milo pull outa car stuck in he snow. The iron mils in those days was usta track through the copes leading tothe farm. Anyway | was sent wih the driver ofthe Breakdown 3wagon to see wnat could be done. tured out thet te car belonged to @ Dr Stevens. As he was not on call he ddecied to see haw petty the copse would look in the snow. His car was a very big and heavy ‘Essex’ Too ‘uch for our wegon so it had to stop where it was il the snow dispersed, We had another cal for our breakdown wagon on another day. Some army tanks were traveling along the road ay the cteck near ‘Brdgefoot’ path. When one of ther managed to lose its way and finish up in the ‘mud of the crack. The tkie would soon be up so there were panis stations. No way could we move that tank, “The officer in charge stopped a couple of Lonties but they had no more luck than we did. Any way along the road came one of Fred Dyke's steam Trojans loaded up with shingle. The diver stopped and offered his services. The officer wasnt in @ very good mood by now and he told the driver to shove off with his steam kettie. Then he had another look at his tank geting deeper in the mud and said the driver could have go. To cut long story short this steam ketle hooked onto the tank, gave @ coupie of putfs ané out tcame. Having been at the garage sometime I decided to ask the boss fora shiling rise in my wages. The ‘morning | asked he said he would think about tend then |had.a sight accident! | just fled a car with petrol and jiven the woman crver her change, 60 off she went taking the petrol pipe with her. It had got caught on the car ‘bumper. The pipe broke and by the time the foreman switched off the pump. There was a few gallons of petrl all over the forecourt, No I id not get my rise in wages. There was one nerson I must mention. He was a Mr \Wikins. He came in par-time to wash and polish cars but in his younger days he had worked as a fnkay in ‘Osbome House, isle of Wight for Quaen Victoria and he lived in the house of shell Fisherman Rest Hil. The house is sil there Petrol now became rationed to be sold only on the receipt of patrol coupons and became all of one type. It was called ‘poof this meant that the sale cf petol was drasticaly cut so my services ware ne longer required, | had 1o find another job. | started down Koy Strect in place caled ‘Sear Raditors’ making parte of ‘eroplane wings. Not much to say about the jab because the alter about ® month the fm went bust, Once mote cut of job! During the early war days I Joined the ARP as a messenger boy. So did Doug. By the way, Doug and | always stayed outside after tea ui we heard the first antiaircraft g9 off. Then indoors we would go, On @ clear night one could see the enemy planes coming over, some picked out by the searchlight, also the shells ‘explcing all around them. At this tne inthe war twas a bit of fun Later to drastically change, (ur role 28 messengers was to report on our cuty nights to the ARP headquarters (i was a hut in Fareham Park Road where the Fish and Chip shop now stands) and wait until the wardens received the yellow Waring’. This was the warring before the red ale The alr raid slrens were then sounded. On receiving the yellow waming we had to ride around waking the wardens that were on standby, Our chief was Capiain Stone, His house was where Mary Rose Close is now. All sorts of ways were invented go only the warden was wokenup and not all the household. Where Highlands Road Schoo! now stands used to be the fever hospi. The ctivor off the ambulance lived there. He was a warden and the way we woke him up was puling @ sing that was hanging out of his bedroom window, This was attached toa ty bell ted to his bed. Capt. Stone had to be roused by tapping his window with a Jong stick which wes alweys left standing in the same place because al this taok ploce in the dark, Stones were often thrown at windows fo wake the sleepers, it the telephone was put out of order we had fo cary messages to ARP headquarters at Fareham. The te | got to bed it was time to gat up and go to work. | remember there wasn't any water laid on inthe hut so when Wwe reported for duty each warden took her own bot of water plus toa and sugar. We did have some excitement one night Some incendiary bombs were dropped in Gudgeheath Lane in the road so armed with sand bags and dustbin these were soon put out, During an air rad there were a ot ‘of motile ack ack guns runring around. One ofthese was often parked by the shops and when i stated fring al the windows would ratle, Boy what a noise. There was a permanent gun site up he top of Hilson Drive. & funny thing happened at this gun site, After @ few months helf ofthese big guns (3.7") disappeared and their places were taken over by wooden auns. Also stationed up there was a ft of smoke screen Lorries. These Lortios were kept with @ huge tank (ike an ol tanker) end when there were day Ight rai, these Lorries wouc drive through the towne, puting up dity great smoke screens, Dad was posted to a baicon site down ‘Brewers Land Gosport so often went visting. There were alt of rabbits in te fields so with the help of my air gun we had our share of rabbit pe which helped out the meat coupons, “The next job | had a go at was es a builder's labourer working with dad's brothers Tom. They were tuicing street alr raid shelters at Gosport and | had 1 report thereat 7.30 in the morning. | remember waking up to a miserable wet day. Out came the ot bike and of | went. Gosport seemed miles away and was wet nd cold. | could not find the street where they were working and all my sancwiches fell out of my bag on the wet road. | had had enough and tuned for home. 0 much for being a builders labourer, out of work again 1 took a temporary job as gerdener handy man at the place where my Dad used to work in Osborn Road. The butters name wes Mr Rice. He gave me my orders. The job consisted of mowing the lawns weeding, chopping fire wood and turing the fut in the store room. Any rotien fruit had to be thrown away. “There were enples and pears by the ton, this part ofthe ob Idi ike. Carrots were stored in sand! and head to be regulatly looked at AS you may guess, my bag never went home empty Bill came home on leave and he brought his trumpet wit him. We were offen woken up in the momings by tre sounds of Revell Anyway as we no longer hed dog (Bod cied) Bil decced to buy another one. Se down the market he went and came home wi a puppy. @ cross between an Alsatisn and Colle. He was duly named Stoler and tured into a smashing deg. When Bil went beck fo barracks, Sater was my responsi. Where | went he came with me (as may have menticned), 3sDown Highlands Road, ved a family (no names) of Gypsies who were my sworn enemies, There were ‘three boys inthe family and regularly we would fight. The only mate | ad was Doug but he wes no flahiter. So! learnt to look after myset. | remember one right they came looking for me. One of them knocked on the door ‘and asked me outside. | dan't know the other two were cut there. Boy dis we have a fight but then mum came cut, shouting at thom. I wasrit very pleased about that By the way nightngales do sing inthe middle ofan air ‘id because | have heard them. What to do about 2 job, that was the problem, This tie | would help the war effort. | became a spot elder in @ boatyard in Gosport John Moxrs! was the name ofthe fim. Pontoon barges were made here. They were like flat ended boats. When used they were placed side by side and then @ metal road wes leid on top, which made a sort of lating pond. Lite dé! know then that ater | was fo use them for real. may have walked lover some that| have made. It realy is a funny word how things tum ovt It was very hot and nolsy in the factory and I did't lke it. Once more the usval tricks were played. Grease on the vice handles, fuses taken out of the electric tools and somebody there had the nasty habt of Wiring tools up fo an electic wire, $0 when you pickec them up you also received a hefly shock, About this time the Government were bringing out an order to prevent anysody leaving their job. As | wasn't prepared to spend the rest of my cays (before | was called up) in this place | locked for another job. Just as @ matter of interest this firm was in Paraham Road, Tom and Gwen also lived inthis Road, 60 | used to pop in their house and eat ry sandwiches. (One jod | cid have (unpaid) was fetching the midwife, when requlred. Nurse Tes was her name, Any hour of the right | would be got out of bed with my instructions. Mrs so and so and the address required the nurse. To give the old nurse her due, wind, rain, air raids, it made no difference to her, she came, Her house was in Southampton Road. There were a couple of rules. I had fo carry her bag and had tori in font to show her they way as she wasnt very clover at riding in the black out. Sut we always mace it inte. F. Frost | didn't have to look for another job, 8s the job came to me. Our baker Mr Frenk Frost came to our house and asked me to work for him. His baie hause was in Gordon Road, Fareham. Bil Sith, the man who ‘worked there had just been called up and the rounds made. Cyril White went within the month, That let Frank, his son Albert his daughter Phylis and myst Mre Frost ran the shop with the help ofa niece, Margaret Also, 36Frank's brother ‘Bl (the man that moved us from Gosport) came in fora few hours a day to clean the bread tins and trays. ‘A normal days work started at six e'lock in the morning, Frank would ight the oven fires at 4 otock ‘and by the time | got to work he had a batch of bread already in the oven. My frst task was to help him knock Up another batch. The fist baich was then ready to be taken out ofthe ovens. This was very hot work. The bread tins were taken out with along implement called a peel, it had a long wooden handle about 6 long. As the tins were taken out the loaves were tipped out and put on meta rays to cool off. The ine were then greased, ready {forthe next batch, Then out to the stock hole to throw some more coke onthe fre, All this stocking by the way had to be done without any flames being seen inthe blackout. ‘After that it was doughnut te (| had to remember to wash my hands frs!). Cooking doughnuts was quite an enjoyable job. First, the dough had to be role into als on traye. After they had proved (swelled up) ‘thoy were then put in a dish of boling fat. The bow! would hold about 30 doughnuts at @ time, The doughnut ‘loated on the top ofthe fet so when one side was brown they had to be turned over. Now this could be tricky, If the doughnuts had air in them they wouldn't stay tured over. So cute often one side was 3 fot darker than the ‘other. After the cocking, there was the cooling of period, flowed by cuting each doughnut and filing them with Jam or cream, itwas called cream but was made from sred mikk powder. ‘About now, Frank would go upto the house and have his breakfast. Albert and Phyfis would have been making cakes but now Phyllis would walk down the road and collect the delivery van It was kest in a gerege at Boniface and Cousins. Als in the garage was my vehicle, a two wheeled bakers pushcart painted red. This \was used for all detveries within wo miles ofthe shop. 1 was then lettin the bake house with Aber. Now Albert being the governor's son instructed me to call him Mr Abert. There was only one boss inthe bake house as fa ‘as | was concerned, $0 Albert never was called Mr. He was way past calling up age but upto now he had been protected by his job ‘work of national imporiance' it wes called, Itwas a few weeks later that he went nto the Ale Force. ‘Anyway ater doing the doughnuts, It was time to take out the second batch of bread, The shop was, ‘open now. it was just up the garden path from the bake house, €0 I had to take up trays of bread and cakes for Mrs Frost who looked after the shop. Then, a few shovels of coke on the oven fre and it was time for my reaktast. A cup of tea and a brand new hot emall crust laf, on would go the cake margarine and lois of jam. Frank would be back by now so it was off with my apron and down to collect my cart. Back up tothe bake: house, load it up wih breed and off on my round. It wes hard work pushing the cart, especialy in the snow and ice, one step forward two back, but ike it. Thore was the usual cups of tea or glass of lemonade, talc about the bombing the night before, some ofthe customers would tell you about their sons or husbands, who were ‘away, Could | please post later fr them. Could I mend a fuse. | remember I was once asked to kil a coche bird and rabbit 2 the husband was coming home on eave.‘nen | Icaded up the cart | used to smuggle on board a couple of extra frit cakes or Swiss ral. “These | gave tothe troops sllined up Park Lane, they were mostly Canadians By the way a large loa cost 4p (oid money). ‘The day the telegram came “The ‘Repulse’ hed boen sun Bll was on that ship. Mum gave me the telegram and I rode to Titcrfild to give it to.dad. | explained to the guard at me gate and | had fo wait inthe guard house while dad was sent fr. Iwas = terrible feeling, ving ito him, He was allowed to come back home with me. twas a sad house for a few days ‘Then another telegram came, everything back to normal, Bill was safe, ne had made i to Singapore, ‘Anyway back to my push cart. After doing the round it was back tothe beke house to unloed the cart wash it out, wait back tothe garage and walk back tothe bake house. | would then go upto the lft with the mice and beetles end have my dinner. After dinner | would come down to the ‘mess’ all the pots end pans hed to be washed up and the bread tis greased ready for next dey, al the work tops had fo be scrubbed and the ‘sacks of flour poured down the hopper into the large broad mixer. The floor was af large red stone tile, this also had to be washed dovin, then there was the fies and stoke hole to set “The ashes and alinker was cleaned out and the fie laid ready for Frank to light in the moming Al this was cone every day In between the other litle jobs te do. Mrs Frost would come down tothe bake house and {ell me the shop was running out of ene pound bags of flour, whicn meant lowering down @ one hundred anc {ony pound of flour ané weighing and bagging up one hundred and forty one pound bags of flour then carrying it up to the shop. This order was some times doubled if plain and self raising flour was required. Another in betwen job was cleaning the baxas of dried fut, currants, sultanas etc. Quite often the boxes were damaged by fie oF wet through where the depot or docks had been bombed, caught fre and then floased wih fre hosos. Food was s0 short that nothing could be wasted, so every box had to be sorted out and washed. Couldn't have a piace of bomb spines in @ fruitcake, could we. We had 2 cat down the bake house, to catch the mice, named Fluf. After the ovens were finished for the day the doors were let open to cool down. Ff had ‘a habit of going to sleep inside the doors to warm up. In the morning before ightng the fres Frank would get Fluf ou, then shut the doors to warm up the even, yes, one morning Fluff wes not seen behind the door snd that was the end of her Frank Frost was @ bit of @ hard man to work for. | remember | wanted to fnish early one Saturday because the Home Guard were having a parade through Fareham. The only way ! eauls attend was to comeack to work afterwards stilin my uniform and then cloan out the fires ready for Monday. Frank said no couldn't do them as he was tired. The job did have ts advantages, nearly everything was rationed but we always: seemed to have enough suger, marg ete; enough sald. | wouldn't want anyoody who happens to read this book to think | was a thie’ ora rogue. Is just that things wero a bit hardin those days and es there was only mum ‘and {our ration allowance was very small So every lite helped. That's what the lady said as she peed in the ‘ea (cke). ‘As | sai, the push cart wes used for local deliveries but ifthe van broke down or we had used our ‘quota o- petrol it had to be pushed further a field | remember pushing it along the Avenue and West End with Phys walking in front with a tren, it was tough going sometimes but we always delivered the bread the same day. “There was another baker in Fareham who delivered by push cat, his name was Mr Evans and the bake house was down Poriands Street. He worked on his own so he couldn't deliver until the baking was finished 80 he got the name of ‘The midnight baker’. The fuel for his ovens wasr't coke, it was faggots. These were bundles of sticks and i was # common site to ese a large numberof these stacked on the pavement outside the bake house ready for Evans to carry inside 'A.Mes Eile Bone started work inthe bake house and another gi Cynthia Banks took over the round for Phi. This made ite easier forme, They helped wih the cleaning up. During one bad ir red the electric grid at Portsmouth was put out of action, This meant, all the surrouncing districts had no electric power. Most of the bigger bakeries had electric ovens so they couldn't rake eny bread. Our mixers were crven by electricity but of course we coul! bake. For three days and nights | cht go home. What te sleep | hat was done in the lf. To mix the dough we had a large wooden bin, Three ‘mea could le down in it It woe just ike @ very big coffin. We could mix two bags of flour at atime, Tris hand ‘mixing was very hard work and t went on non stop. As soon as one batch was out of the oven another went in People were queuing outside the shop, half way down the raad. They were coming from miles around to get bread, Was | glad when the power came back on. | was caught without my identty card once. At mes, the roads were blocked of by barricades manned by troops. To get past, one had to show his card. Well, one Sunday | hed to.go to the Bake house, Park Lane had a barricade across the road manned by the Royal Navy. I put my han in my pocket for my card ft at home! They nearly can me in for being a spy but finally let me pest. The trouble was | had the same bother {going back rome. | wasrit without my card ater that ‘Aunt Edie and Uncie Archie came to Ive with us now at No.3. They had the front room and slept inthe big room upstairs. Uncle joined the AFS Auniiary Fre Service. Mayfins' where dad had worked was now taken 3cover by the AFS. Iwas glad in a way that they came to five wit us because i was company for mum, wiven | wes away night times, ‘During one air raid we lst our neighbour, Mrs Miler. | was in the garden when he Bombs came down. ‘one bom® landed square on top of Mr Miler's house. Th two sisters had come to her house from Portsmouth, to have a rest from the air raids, e8 Portsmouth was having a bad time off The raid was about 11 oiclock at night and they were all in bed. Mrs Miler and her sisters were kiled outight. Jim Miler was thrown out ofthe house but wasn't hut. The other bomb blew a big crete in the ralway lines. There was 2 goods tain onthe line atthe time; | think this wes what the planes were afte The engine couldn't stop in me and ran straight into the bomb crater and stood on it nose, It was © ‘ertbi sight. When | van round tothe house there wasnt one, Just big heap of rubble, The road was blocked and the tree that grew by the dary gate was also blown down. The train engine was throwing up flames and steam, | never did know what heppened to the driver, as I stared looking in the rubble to see i | could find anybody the ARP people arrived and took the bodies away. For the remainder af the war Jim Miler lve in one of his cow sheds. He made it up qute snug. After the war his house wes rebuit, There were no longer sry cows. When he died Jim gave some of his ground forthe building ofthe Hil Perk working man club, We had another scare one night. | was on Home Guard duty at the time. When | got home in the morning the whole of Hil Park was barricaded of. Nobody was alowed to pass. During the night there had been an air rad, five unexploded bombs had been cropped. One had gone right underneath Mrs Beagleys butcher shop. One near the pub the rest along Highlands Road, The policeman on duty told me thet every body had been sent down to Herrison Road School. For @ couple of days we had to sleep there, Dozens of people laid out ‘onthe floor, and wes’ ther. The funniest thing was in the miomings everybody quesing Up forthe ions. Then _we were given bilets with some of the local people. Mum, Aunt and her two cikéren were bileted in somebody/s house in Hil Park Road and I had digs with friend of ours Mrs Duggan, in Fareham Park Road. As we couldnt Use Highland Road, the only way to get fo Fareham was across the Raiway line to Hil Park Road and then dow to Ki Road. Its a good job the train dct co vary fast in those days because prems had to be cortied ‘across the line 28 well AS a point of interest, this tine has only just been filed in and made into @ country walk ‘area, So now we can walk it with safety. Mum had two budgies and as she coulent take them to the school she gave them to one of the policemen on duty. It was about tie weeks before we were alowed back home, The bombs ware dug up and ‘defused safely, Owing to the ground being eay the bombs wont inal srt of directions once they entered the ‘ground, Another place badly damaged was Farrows Farm, This wes near Miler Orve, it wasn'ta bomb, twas & land min, It attened everything around. Doug and | walked around there next day anc! low and behold | found ‘a piece of parachute cord. Land mines came down on a parachute. Collecting tems from explosives was @ past time all the lads di. As well as swepping fag cards wo would swap empty cartridge cases, bomb epiners and ‘shrapnel. Burt out incendiary bornbs were a collectors piece. 0‘The Home Guard ‘When |frstjined the Home Guard ot Fareham dil hal |was given an arm band ne uniform’ rifle, = bayonet and ten rounds of ammunition. The rife | was given was an American Winchester 300. One exciting doy we were tls we were going to Brown Down ranges, 'o fre our weapons. Owing to the shortage of ‘ammunition each man was allewed to fre § rounds @ piece, Tak about dad's army. When on quard duty, twas mainly at the rear of the Co-op laundry. There was an cil storage dump there, Just afew words about the men in our company. Que Captain was a plumber, another officer @ local chemist and the Sergeant was the loca butcher, Andre Crouch. Another worked in Piles bakery, our Corporel was Mir Walter the local fishmonger. Most ‘of these men were past caling up age, the rest of us were below 18 years ld orn reserved occupations, About ‘once @ month we would be cut at the weekends stlacking or being attacked by regular units of the army. Knowing the local tertory was @ great advantage to us H.Gs but oh didn't those solders play rough at times, Thay loved to throw thunder flashes amongst us. We didn't have any ofthese so with a bt of thought we made cour ow. From ‘somewhere, ‘somebody’ found some black powder ‘explosives! Any small cardboard box was panty filed! wih cow dung, covered with paper, then a small portion of powder. Into this was pushed a fength of fuse. When it and thrown, the bomb dh't do any damage but if anybody was within range, as the old song seid they eamo up covered in? Me in Home Guard Uniform a‘As time went by we received our uniforms and various items of weapons, | remember we had ainpipe affair called a black bombers. This was an anttank weapon. We couldn't fre it because there wasn't ‘any ammunition o spare but we went through the motions, Our uard hut had the name La Base’ painted on the door at the dump. Just cutside by the main gates wes the sentry box. Running parallel withthe road tothe ‘durnp was the ralway track. Sam holidays farm wes on the other side ofthe tack. Wel, one night the bloke on ‘sentry duty heard footsteps on the railvay ne. Accordingly he challenged three times, no answer and stil ‘oncoming footsteps. So, he fred and the footsteps stopped. The rest of us in the hut came tearing out anc dived for cover after the sentry explained what had happened somebody had to look forthe body. As there were ‘no volunteers we all went, We found the body. One of Sam's cows, shot dead, There was quite a row about it stewards, When the sentry said he challenged snd got no answer, Sem replied “I keep cows for miking, not bicody talking’. One night on cuty comes to mind, when I nearly fr @ couple of shots at random. All was quiat ‘and peaceful in the senty box, when | heard @ noise. Somebody was coming down the rosd to the dump. | ‘oul ear them quiet creeping along. Then | heard them breathing, it wes rather heewy breathing, more then cone. Yours truly thought was te to make @ decision, call out the Guard, or sae to it myself | was the sentry 's0 I'd better find out who and how many. The enemy hadrit come into view yet, $0 | cept through the bushes, behind the hut through some more bushes to be behind them. Having carried out this crafty manceuwe, the road was in full view. But no enemy. Had they heard me? Were they at this very minute creeping up behind me? | can tell you my hait wes beginning to stand on end. Wish | had called the rest ofthe lds cut. But | could st heat them. God what do I do now? | ooked and listened, something wean't quite right: They had to be here ‘Then I burst out laughing, more with fear than anything else. The enemy was in sigh, four hedgehogs were huffing through the leaves and if you haven't heard a hedge hogs snorting and breathing on a dark night, try it sometime, Ws | glad I didn't call the rest ofthe lads out There was a time when we were caught napping. The man on Sentry duty was on guard fortwo hours then he would go to the guard house and wake up his relief and then get his head down. One night something went wrong. We were woken up at 7 o'clock in the morning by a naval officer, one of the lads’ dads. He hac come to see why his son wasr't home, For some reason or other the man on duty didn't wake his relief but went Straight home. Boy did we move, I was supposed tobe atthe bake house at six o'clock Promotion care my way in the form of a lance corporals stripe. | dont thik this was because I was fi ‘and healthy and able to carry the Lewes machine gun, which went with the stripe, I carried that ruddy gun for riles. Some of cur members were getting rather old. | often wonder how we would have got on if Jerry hed landed on our soil. Having swapped bullets with them (Germans) since those days, | now know how we would have got on; not vary wel. About now dad wes moved tothe outskits of London. Day after day and night after right Portsmouth and Southampton were bombed. The planes that passed over the top of our house were ‘making for London,‘We had @ bit of bad news at the bake house. Mrs Bono received a telegram. Her husbend Ben hed ‘been taken prisoner by the Japenese, Phys lft the bake house as she was expecting. She was married to = {raman, Another gi joined the fim, Lily Graham. She now owns the vegetable shop behind the bus station in Portand Street. Things were geting bit groty for me down the beke house, wih allthese women ebout | was doing al the heavy work. ‘John lower me down 2 cack of flour. Get me a sack cf sat John ft this box for me” ‘Then there was the business of unloading the flur Jory. If there was an able bodied man at the place of delivery, the flour people would send only the driver withthe lorry. This ment | alto help unload, which meant ‘humping the bags of flour on my back, wak about eighty yards tothe bake house ans then up a narrow fight of ‘wooden siars tothe lft and as | said a bag weighed one hundred and forty pounds. The normal quota was forty fo sly bags 2 load. ‘A word ebout Cynthia Banks, Inthe bake house she was given the name of 'BlcbelT because nobody liked Cymthia, She delivered the bread to our house an¢ she met Bil whilst he was on leave. This led to them getting engaged, end then setting @ date to get martied, Well for some reason, unknown to me about three days before the dey he cancelles the wedding, This caused a bit of trouble between Bluebell dad who was & Sergeant in the police and Bil But he went back off leave and that was the end of it ‘Buuebell was so upset bout @ all that she left her job and joined the W.AA.Fs. After the War she married lad from Hambledon, Frank Frost at his tne said he was going to apply to have my job made a reserved occupation. | wasn't having any ofthat, what with one thing and anoter 'd had enough of bake house work. | was eighteen years ‘old now, The calling up age. So I volunteered (what a Word, | soon learned not to doi too etter) for the army, ‘Mum and dad were upset. But as | ssid | would be called up soon, 801 might as wel] join what | wanted to goin. | eoulda't have been more wrong. Betore | finish with Frank Frost, there are a couple of tems | must mention, ‘one ofthe customers on my round was known asthe Cat Lady. Her house was full of cals, she wasnt had fo open the door and put the bread on the table with a these stinking moggies. God knows what it was Ike ‘wven she ate it Cne day she got knocked down by a ear in Gordon Road. | don't know how because it must have been the only car in the road. Anyway there she was lying in tne road with her foot trapped between the tyre and the mud guard. So the driver anc | pushed the car backward and out came her foot For saving her Ife, 18 the old gi said, she made me a present of en oramonted brass box, made in India, Ancther customer (not named) was a very large woman, on this partcular day that | called on her she wes wearing a large loose blouse, | had knocked on the door. Ae she aparid the door | started to Itt my bread basket up from the around put she bent down and took out a load. At the same time one of her breasts fell out ofthe blouse into the basket. Bimey, was biggor than four pound loaf. | don't think | walted forthe money, | got away mighty quick. |Whist on my round delivering bread, | would find that my penell was missing from my round book which wos on the cart. After four o Five pencils | found out where they were going. Two local gts bythe names of Pat “Birck and Poppy Lee would watch me go fo @ house and then pinch my peneils. Lite oid | know that later | was to manry that Poppy Lee. ‘Bluebel by the way had s stor name Brenda, Wel, for aime I thought | was going steady with her. But she was a funny gl, She could shoot my airgun as good es me and bolove it or rot I never kissed her once. When her birthday came around | asked her wha she would ike fer a present. Do you know what she asked for?'A sheath knife’ that romance dn last ong Joining up “The tine hac come for me to join the army. | don't think | would have made & very good sailor. | got sick Just going to the Isle of Wight. The Air Force didn appeal to me, | knew what | wanted to join. It was the ‘Armoured Corp, Tanks’. So off | went to the recrulng office at Portsmouth to sign on the dotted line. Boy did that recruiting Sergeant sve me of, He knew a country yokel when he saw one - me. | explained what | wanted to join, “thats all ight son, no bother at al." The usual dil s you join an infanty training corps for the first twelve weeks and then you wil go into the armoured corps, so he said. | went for my medical exam, That was okay. Then back tothe office, to sign the papers. A couple of ‘weeks later the call up papers arrived through the post. This told me when and where | hac to report. ut writen ‘cross the top of the form in bright red ink were these words, “desires eventually to join the 70 battalion Hampshire Reg’. | could only surmise that the Hampshire's were short of men. Wel ll that remained was to ‘say goodbye to the folks in the Bake house, No more scrubbing floors or humping bags of flour arcund for me, ‘And so forthe last ime | pushes the od bread cart down Grove Road tothe garage and tured my back on the bread business. | had to keep my Home Guerd uniform but hand in my rife and bayonet. So once more goodbyes were ssid to all my mates in the Home Guard. One in partcular was leaving the sara time as me. Bill Pari, He was joining the Air Force. He fished up an Air Gunner. On @ bright April moming | said my sad geedbyes to mum and turned my back on no.3 and walked ‘down Guagenesth Lane tothe railway station. | have since often wondered wat mum thought about allthis ‘War business. Har husband, away in the Airforce, Bl away goodness knows where and now the youngest son ‘90ing away to take his chances, It must have been hell forthe foks at home just wating to here some news, ‘900d or bad, dreading to 8ce the telegram boy coming up the garden path. | wae to report te Le Catoue Barracks, Colchester. | had slready planned my route. So ime was on my side. On artiving at the staten, I met anotner chap who was going to Colchester. Come with me, | know the best ‘way to get there, he said, €0 I did, This was the fist mistake | made in the army. | have since learnt to trust myseif and to have faith in my own decisions. You can't go through life relying on other people to cary you‘Aer ariving in Weles, | realised that Colchester wasnt around here. After @ lot of train changing | arrived at my destination eight hours late. | was escorted to my barrack room by a guard and shown to en empty bunk because | was late arriving | didn't draw a mattress or blankets so | spent that night sleeping on 2 wre bunk No mattress or blankets. | was awoken in the moming by my first bugle call ‘reveile.. Another coincidence, the chap sleeping under me turned out to be Len Misslebrook, a brother-in-law to Poppy's mum. His son Len has worked for me for years. Then came clanger number tree, breakfast ‘ime, Not only ain't | have no bedding | also dint have @ mess tin or krife and fork so this meant waiting until somebody ished there grub, 60 that | could borrow thelr gear. Blimey what a way to start my army life. But the aggro wasrit yet finished. A bioke with @ couple of stnpes on tis arm came storming nto the barrack room and in no uncertain manner told me to follow him to the regiment Sergeant Majors office, as | was on a charge, ‘sbsent without leave! Blimey, in his Majesty army just @ few hours end already in deep trouble. Hat off into the office and there he was the daddy of them all'R.S.M Dark’, Just at that moment I wished | was wearing size 16 boots anc | could disappear inside them, He toll me a lot about myself that even I dict know. His words were, You are dirty, unshaven, useless, brainlaes and if you weren't such a bloody idiot you would be inside the Guard House ith your arse niles to the waif and | volunteered? ‘Anyway | tink he was convinced | was daft and cout help being late so he let me off the hook. Le Catoue berrecks were Very old, one time it had been a home for the cavalry, the siabies were stil there and so was the straw. Having been dlemissed from the F.S.S. the now Intakes had to craw our equipment. In my case this inctuded mattress and pllow which consisted of a large empy sack (for want of a better wore), Then it was down to the stable and yes, fl it and the plow case wih straw, this dill was repeated every week ‘After sorting out all my ether gear, there was dozens of pieces of webbing, a rifle bayonet, boots, PT. kitand shoes, Eating ron, mesa ting, a ite bag for needles and cotton, boot brushes and lois more. Everything had to be clesned and everything had to be in the right place and of course there were the visits o the MLO.s ‘oom for many inoculations. ‘My ari Sergeant was 2 splendid chap, ‘whose lying now’. The first words he said to me were | hale ‘volunteers. For the next twelve weeks | leant to survive. Jump when told to0, sleep, work, dri, march, clean, polich, shoot and breath when told te. But | must confess aftor that 12 week period | was fi, ery fi | Feet to ‘9° over an assault course without getting hurt (twas lve ammo). How to run 10 mies in fl fighting order in two hours and how to spend a couple ef hours on the parade square and do everything night ut most of al legrt to keep my nose clean and out of trouble. Ancther thing | learnt was to survive in a gas chamber, both with my mask on end with i off. Boy t made ones eyes run. Stil his is what our Sergeant wanted, s0 everybody was more or loss happy. | also learnt how to wash my cating rons (kif, fork, and spoen) and keep them nico and clean, When it was mealtime we had to line up outside our barracks and have them inspected and look out i 45‘spec of dust was found on them, | also leant to give the barber Jp then he left some halr on my heed. In all learnt lot of very usetl things in the army. Colchester was © garrison town, eo there were barracks all over the place, Owing to rationing there weren't many places where one could buy a cup of tea, There was a cafe | used to goto it was called ‘The flag pole’. They cid & nice piece of toast and 2 cuppa for a few pence. If money was really short one could always ‘9t @ tee cup of tea and @ bun In the local church hall but one had to sing a few hymns first. Another way of ‘getting extra grub was to fight fori | took up boxing for my company, we werertt given money or cups if we \Won, thie wasn’ allowed. But ins'ead were given free food vouchers to be spent inthe NAF’. But the whole ‘voucher hed tobe spent in one go. Stl there were plenty of mates around to help out. | nsery forgot, one more thing you received when joining up was @ number Mine was 14411778. Al my equipment had to be marked with this number. ‘Me in the Hampshire Regiment.‘Towards the end of our training, we were given an inteligence test. My tests consisted of putting together a bicycle pump. This was easy, next problem was to assemble an eect ight socket, this was okay. It was the tur of @ door lock next which | lea completed, What all this was about | didrit know but was s00n to find out. The Army Ske Keeping the troops in suspense, There was one thing | cid like about this mans’ Army ‘and that was their bread and jam frites. This was simply a bread and jam sandwich cipped in batter and fred “The grub wasn't oo bad really; rouble was by the me we marched tothe cook house twas usually cold |Woll our 12 weeks were now over and now we had 1 weeks leave. But alot of us woren't coming back to Le Cateau, This was what hose litle tests were about A lot of my mates were going one way and | was, going nother. The resuits of those tosts meant that aftr my leave 1 was to come back to this barracks but specialist company. “There wasn't @ lt of change at home. My Mum and Dad were pleased to see me. And to prove | was row a man {ook them up ‘The Highlands Pub’ and bought the frst round of my ie. Bil was away, we never dic ‘et on leave al the same time. Mumm ned anther couple of lodgers, just for @ few weeks an Air Force friend of ‘dad’ and hs wife and baby. They lac at Portamouth and came to our house for afew weeks of auet. But they did't have it very quiet. We were out inthe front garden watching @ dogfight in the sky, when an unexploded shell landed inthe road and exploded. Most of the windows went for @ Burton but the luckiest person was the baby laying in her mothere’ arms. A piece of shrapnel stuck her mothers arm just above baby's head. Boy was that a lucky baby. | went down and saw Mr Frost. Gosh after being a solder | could never have worked there again. But surprise surprise who should be working there but Poppy Lee. | went tothe bake house everyday forthe rest of ry leave and asked her every time to goto the cinema wih me but she wouldn't. My leave was scon over and it ‘was time to go back So kit bag was packed, ile end ammunition accounted for end down to the station | went (During the war soldier wasnt alowed leave without Ni rifle). | made sure this te to catch the right ain. “The trains were always crowded. There were service people of al nationaties going or coming. The tie to London wasn't too bad but ffom London to Golenester was teible, Troops were crowding the corridors, siting on the foor, even lying inthe luggage racks. twas a case of walking from Colchester station to barracks. If thought my twelve week training was hard | was going to find out efferent in my specialist company. 1 was posted fo H3inch moar platoon. Now a mortar consisted of @ bare, weight was about fy pounds: + tripod, this wae a proper finger smasher. wes Jointed end flexible. Weight 6 pounce and a huge steel base plale which had large spikes sticking out atthe bottom, weight 70 pounds. Mortar bombs weighed 10 pounds ‘each and there were three in @ case, Now the mortar was usually carted on a Bron cari, this was like 8 emaipen top tank, But the army thought we should get use to carrying the blested ting so they thought up the es fa tong carr this et the minimum of tan mile, not along the rice Mat road but across county. A mortar crew ‘consisted of an N.C.O. He didn't cary @ lt, Then there was no.1., he caried the barre! and @ smal esther case withthe sights in kt No 2, he caried the tpod and no.3 he cari the base pte. Any spare blokes were throu invith two cases of pombe a piece. This was plus our rifes, packs and gas masks, Then just for# laugh wo would have @ few practise shoots on the way. Then ust for en even bigger laugh we would have to have & few more pracive shoots wearing our gas macke. Tho army really was @ laugh @ minute, Hf you had any breeth lett Now | have enlightened you what a mortar I let's start with my frst days in the mortar platoon. There was @ lot of class wrk fst of ell. This | dit enjoy very much. But | survived i, twas the outside work | ke. By the way, 1 made a couple of new mates one was @ Londoner Arthur Fosket and 2 chap from Southampton Martin Henry. | wonder if they are stil around. Day after day we would have practise with @ practise mortar and ‘dummy bombs unt we got it right, Then came the day when we fed it for real. Blimey cit that thing make ‘owners ears rng, We learnt how to put down a smoke screen, how to fie Itin the dark. How to follow & moving target, i fact from ry end it wes a frat class weapon but tembie one Ion the receiving end, | remember ono day after @ shoot. WE had some bombe over so our platoon Sergeant said We would have a competion. How ‘many tombs we could get in the air before the frst one hit the ground. Regardless of range @ mortar took 20 secs from leaving the barra tilt hit the ground. The loader on our mortar was # Lance -Corporal Evans. He lator joined the srbome regiment Come the word go and he got 18 bombs inthe eir before the first one landed. oy what a barrage that was, By far the thing I fed the best about the mortar platoon was the Bren earier. Thi forthe uniformed ‘Wes like 2 small open top tank on which the mortar and crew was carried. Without sounding big headed | was {00d with one of these. They would go anywhere. When we were first learning to drive we had to have lessons in a lon. This was quite good as # meant being out of barracks all day and of course there was always the cafes, After a couple of wooks it was time to dive the carriers, there was some funny goings on, The frst ime \We drove them, keeping a straight tne was a bit ofa problem. For some of the lads but turning @ corner wes @ lot worse. But we werent allowed on the road until we had got the hang of i. All ur criving was cone en an ‘assault course. This was 2 bit of el right, at times though a tie figrtening. The common mistake was mee ‘uhiet taking the carrier up 8 very steap slope (it was more like a wal). The novice drivor would stall the engine ‘and wat was the fst thing he did, pushed inthe clutch and about 15 ton of metal went tearing down the slope backwards. Then came the cholee words from the instructor, you didnt make the same mistake tice, It was whilst | was inthis company that we had @ bad air raid and a couple of bombs lanced in the barracks, king some ATS girs that were in the cook house. Besides our duties with the mortar platoon there were the usual other duties, spud brushing, fre picket, quard duty. | remember one particular quer was on, & couple ofthe lads had trouble getting @ crease in their trousers, so one old solr told them to ub soap down *