From Portsmouth c1965, Gosport
From Portsmouth c1965, Gosport Ref: G37109
Memories of From Portsmouth c1965, Gosport
The Gosport Ferry
Other than as a name on a map, I hadn't a clue about Gosport before joining the Royal Navy in 1949 and becoming a Portsmouth rating. My Visual Signals training had taken place, firstly, at Cookham Camp near Chatham and, latterly, at the Main Signal School at East Meon, Hampshire. On the completion of my training I was drafted to HMS Opportune. Later I served in HMS Rapid and, finally, HMS Rinaldo of the 4th Minesweeping Flotilla. All these ships were 'Pompey' based so, even though we spent the vast majority of those happy days at sea, there were quite a few odd moments when my ship would berth in 'Pompey' Dockyard. I had met a WREN, at Mercury, and she lived in Gosport. Fortuitously, she had been posted to HMS Daedalus the Naval Air Station there. Consequently my memories are largely of travelling, on the famous Gosport Ferry, between the the docking facilities by the Portsmouth Harbour Station and the dock in Gosport. Both these facilities are completely changed... Read more
Gosport & local memories
Read and share memories of Gosport and Hampshire inspired by Frith photos.
Happy Days For me at This Place
I loved it here, swam all day, had lots of fun. I just wish it was still here today as it was a great place for many of us from Gosport.
Not A Good Way to Teach Swimming!
As a pupil at Gosport High School, I had to attend swimming lessons first thing in the morning each week in the open-air, unheated pool at Gosport, in the school term following Easter. It was (literally) freezing cold and a horrible experience!
On the first day, never having been in or even having seen a swimming pool before, I was pushed in to the deep end and clearly remember my panic as I struggled to the side and somehow got out - no-one came to my assistance, or even noticed.
No real attempt was made to teach us to swim and we just prayed to survive to the end of the session, when we had somehow to dry our frozen bodies and get dressed in a tiny cubicle - my hands had no feeling - they were blue with pink spots.
I hated every minute of the school's poorly-supervised, sadistic and clearly stupid approach to teaching children to swim, resulting - for me and many... Read more
Cold
This has bad memories for me. When I was a student of Bridgemary School in the first two years in the summer we had to go down by coach to the baths to learn to swim (at 57 I still cannot swim). It was always cold and we had little floats to help (not me), but it was no fun. This put me off pools for a long time.
Place of my Birth
I was born in Gosport in 1959. As the daughter of a sailor we left a couple of times but always returned. I married at St Marys Alverstoke in 1980. I have very fond, maybe a little rose-tinted, memories of Gosport when I was growing up. From the late night bus trips to Lee, riding the ferry to Portsmouth for my first job, the many rowdy afternoons at Gosport and Fareham RFC (where I met my husband). I still love coming back to Gosport even though the High Street has little more than charity shops. You just cannot beat fish and chips down at the ferry regardless of the season or weather.
