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Milford On Sea memories

Here are memories of Milford On Sea and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Milford On Sea or a Milford On Sea photo.

Summer Hols in Milford on Sea

The Parish Church c1960
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When I was a child, living in Coventry, my parents used to pack me off to Milford to get some fresh sea air and spend quality time with my cousins! My best times were when we went off to buy sweets - I loved Jamboree bags. I learnt to ride a two-wheeler on my aunty Joan's bike and remember lots of gravel in the drive and lots of sore knees in the process. My Uncle George tended the orchards which are now a housing estate - I enjoyed the times spent in the grading shed and listening to the bees in the hives nearby. The churchyard was fascinating to me as I hadn't seen so many graves at close quarters before - I used to talk to the dead, thinking someone might be listening! The beach was pebbly and the water always cold - hot tea and towels were very welcome. I also recall New Forest ponies wandering through the streets as if they owned the place. Total freedom to be me. Happy... Read more

The Church

The Parish Church c1960
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I have lots of memories of Milford, where I was born in 1962 and lived for 12 years, next to this church, in Orchard Cottage. I saw many weddings, christenings and funerals. There was always something going on. I went to the Sunday school and have fond memories of Miss Berry, the Sunday school mistress. Such a lovely lady. I was in the choir. My Mother, brother and I used to carry the bread and wine in, for Holy Communion. I used to collect the pretty ribbons and half dead flowers, from the grave decorations, when they were discarded by the gardener. I remember being taught, by my Mother, to always walk at the foot end of graves and never to walk over them. I still do that now. I also remember the lovely, old stone font, unfortunately, now replaced with a hideous wooden one. Hearing the bells every Sunday morning, and the chimes of the hour.
One thing I do remember doing with my friend Sarah, was climbing... Read more

The Bakery

High Street c1960
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Who else remembers the smell of that freshly baked bread coming from the bakery here, on the very left of the photo (where the chimneys are)? As I child in the 1960s I would volunteer to go to the bakers and rush home with that hot, freshly baked loaf and devour both crusts.

The Hut

My grandmother, Ellen Jane St. John, owned a cottage/cabin/ex-WWI Army Hut, appropriately called The Hut on Westover Road and it was my job when first arriving from Southamton in her Standard 8 car to cut the grass. Being a large area, for my young size, it took half-a-day to complete the task. There was no electricity, the place being lit with paraffin lamps when night fell. Besides walking along the beach to see what destruction the latest storm had wrecked and washed up, I loved to catch lizards as they basked in the sun on the bank that ran along Westover Road. Another enjoyment was helping the milkman deliver his milk early in the morning on the horse-and-cart. Sadly all good things come to an end; we grow up, marry and move to a new country;and neat bungalows are now where grannie's hut used to reside.

Memories of Hampshire

First Love

The Royal Oak c1960
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Having lived at Downton from 1958, I grew up opposite Downton Holiday Camp.
My father owned the builders next to the pub and I bought my first car at the garage 2 doors to the right. Somewhen in the mid 1960s  I met the new landlady's daughter, Diane! Well, despite the age gap (I was about 7 and she was 15-ish) we fell madly in love. Seeing as there were only 3 kids living in the hamlet and only one other girl, this was hardly surprising.  

The hamlet was 1 pub, 1 garage, a Post Office/store and 2 camp sites in what had been gravel extraction yards. In years to come Shorefield Camp was added between Downton and Seabreeze, and we used to be able to drive through Blackbush to Milford-on-Sea, the next biggest village.

Our house was built about 1925 in Shorefield Road, and my mother of 89 still lives there. As I gaze at these photos all the memories of a brilliant childhood, living... Read more

My Whole Life

I have lived in Everton my whole life. I love the village. I am a respectable citizen of Everton and have lived for nearly 18 years in Frys Lane.
I hope other people enjoy the atmosphere as much as I do.
Makeala x

Wreck at Hordle Cliff

As a young boy of 9 or so, living in Barton on Sea, sometime around 1952, I remember a ship washing up in a storm on the beach at Hordle Cliff. During the time before it was re-floated, the local youth had the opportunity to clamber all over the wreck. I remember examining the engine room and was quite taken with all the pipework down there. I have not found any references to date about this wreck/grounding on the net. The year could be out by a couple of years.

Lymington in The 1940s

My maternal grandmother and mother were both born in Lymington, my mother attending the grammar school in Brockenhurst (I remember as a small boy her pointing it out to me from the train) In 1944, when the V1 'doodlebugs' started falling, it was decided that my mother, my sister and I should leave our home in London to join my grandmother in Lymington. It was a turbulent time in southern England, particularly as American army personnel were quartered on the other side of the Lymington River in Boldre massing for D-Day. (One advantage of this for a local youngster was the generous nature of the GIs who were always ready to hand out a stick of gum, or a doughnut to a hungry kid!). For about six months I went to school at the little, redbrick C of E school that backed on to Pragnell's Garage in Emsworth Road. It had a huge, gravel playground as an alternative to the 'rec', a short distance away next to the churchyard that... Read more

Elmers Court School

I remember Elmers Court School which was run at that time by several of the London Borourghs, we children had a good life there and I think the discpline did us the world of good.

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