Bursledon memories
Here are memories of Bursledon and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Bursledon or a Bursledon photo.
My Home For 7 Years
This is just how I remember the hospital which I first went into in 1955 and stayed in for 7 years. It was a marvellous place and I have many memories from those days including a visit by Billy Smarts Circus, taking my 11 plus on my own in an upstairs room, being close to death and wheeled into the hall to be more quiet, then having my going up ceremony from cubs to scouts in the grounds of the hospital. The staff were magnificent and I remember Nurse Chum who had a finger missing and Nurse Hayward who all the young boys were in love with. Here I am 58 and still here thanks to those great people.
Bursledon Bridge
This picture is of the two Bursledon bridges over the River Hamble - the A27 road bridge in the foreground and the rail bridge behind it. Sarisbury Green is further up to the right on the A27 at the top of the hill. The photo is taken from the Bursledon side of the river loooking over towards Swanwick Shore, Lower Swanwick.
Bursledon Railway Bridge
This picture is of the railway bridge over the Hamble, looking up stream from the road bridge which carried the A27 over the river. A little way to the right of where this picture was taken was the Red Lion Inn.
I remember watching steam trains crossing the bridge on trains from Brighton/Portsmouth to Salisbury/Bristol in the early 1960's. Local trains were Diesel units - the line not being electrified until much later.
Now there is a third bridge - beyond the railway bridge - which carries the M27 over the river!
Bursledon, The Hospital
I do not think this ever was a hospital in the usual sense. I am pretty sure it was a house called Brixedene (Brixedone?) in Blundell Lane, owned and lived in by a family called Thistlethwaite. During the war it was a children's home, although I do not know anything about who it was run by and I think after the war, perhaps after the introduction of the NHS in 1948, it was taken over and used as a convalescent home with some connection to the Royal South Hants Hospital. I may not have all the facts right, but one thing I do know - there was never a hospital in Bursledon. Any hospital treatment meant a trek into Southampton to the South Hants Hospital - in St Mary's I think.
Houseboats in The Picture of Bursledon Bridge
In the photo are several houseboats and yachts moored up to the bank on the LHS of the picture; I used to live on the large white motor torpedo boat (originally called 'Hippocampus') which can be seen between the wreck and the large wooden, armour plated 'LCS' ('Landing Craft/Support'), when she was moved from the River Hamble to the River Itchen in 1974. I renamed her 'Whimsical Macgoffley'. She was built in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, at the J. Samual White Shipyard, launched in 1944, and was one of six MTBs (numbered S-5 to S-10) and manned by the Polish Navy. (Her number was S-8 during WW2 and she was eventually returned to the Royal Navy as HMTB 427 at the end of the war). She was 'up for disposal' by the Admiralty on 18th December 1945 and sold sometime after that date to a Mr. A. Aitcheson. In 1949 she was on the berth shown in the photo which was at 'Deacon's Boat Yard', downstream from Bursledon... (Awaiting moderation, read more soon)
Memories of Hampshire
A SPECIAL DAY
I have fond memories of the church as I got married in May 1973. I will never ever forget the beautiful atmosphere inside.
I keep saying I will go back and visit it but I do not know if it still open and being used, can anyone tell me?
Kind regards
PAULEEN
Visits by The Family
I can remember that my family visited the Fox and Hounds frequently earlier than this date, but this was the first date I was legally allowed to partake of the amber fluid. I can remember the old artifacts, like biscuits from the Crimean War that hang from the rafters. Various pottery, clay pipes etc., a marvellous cross section and history of the river Hamble and the area. I was so sad when later in life I had migrated to Australia and subsequently visited in the 1970s and 1980s to see that the artifacts had been removed and quite frankly the whole ambience of the place had changed. It had become commercial. Now I do not blame the owners or the management, it was just a sad reflection on my part of a Britain that was no longer there, of childhood memories and feelings for history which seemed to be had been absorbed into the modern era.
The Fox And Hounds
This is how I remember "The Fox". I walked past it twice a day from 1966 to 1971 on my way to and from school. I remember the seats outside made from large beer barrels and the licencee's name, J. Taylor?, above the door. I also remember the Lone Barn being constructed from bits of old timber that arrived on lorries. Christine (nee Thompson)
1960s 1970s
My mum cleaned at the Vine for the mid 1960s into the 1970s and we would go with her in the school holidays. I used to stock the shelves with bottles of beer. The draught beer was poured straight from the barrels kept in the celler behind the bar. Billy and Molly Ellis were the publicans.
Choir
I sang in the church choir from about 1970. Douglas Paine and then Harry Wilson were the vicars. Happy memories.
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