Portsmouth memories
Here are memories of Portsmouth and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Portsmouth or a Portsmouth photo.
Just Married 1970
I spent many a happy time walking my Boxer dog round Old Portsmouth and he loved it down on the beach by the Hotwalls where I would throw stones in the sea for him to go and get. I had only just got married and my husband was in the forces so he was away a lot so Blue (Boxer dog) and I spent a lot of happy times together, he was good company and through him I met so many other dog walkers.
VISITING MY FATHER'S BIRTHPLACE
In 1972, when a mere slip of a boy of 40 summers, my late wife, two children and I flew from Australia on our first trip to Europe. Whilst in London, we travelled by train to visit my cousins Peter & Val Hatswell who lived at "The Stillions "on Windmill Hill, Alton. They took me to 13 Leonard Road, Landport, Portsmouth, the house with a bright red door where my father was born on 23rd September 1901. Of course I went on board HMS Victory to stand where Nelson fell - an experience still firmly fixed in my mind almost 40 years later. Standing there I remembered how my father the Reverend Thomas Westwood had told me "every boy born in Portsmouth is taken there as an infant to be laid on the hallowed spot where Admiral Lord Nelson fell".
Reminiscences of Portsmouth in The Late 1930s
I was born in Portsmouth in 1933. My family and I lived first in Lyndhurst Road - about which I don't recall too much - then later in Merrivale Road. I remember very clearly where Merrivale joined Copnor Road. When you turned left, there was a military barracks on the left and, opposite it, a sports ground. At age 4, I was enrolled in a little privately-run pre-school not far away, I believe, in Gatcombe Avenue just off Copnor Road, where I recall there was a very imposing pub, called, I think,'The Golden Hind', on the corner with low, chain-linked pillars surrounding the forecourt. There was a small confectioner's in the shopping parade opposite in Copnor Road where you could buy toffee 'Golli-Bars' for a farthing (!) each. The school was run by a very strict lady. We sat in long desks arranged in tiers and she had a long cane that she would flick our legs with if we were inattentive. But, looking back, she really knew her stuff... Read more
Childhood Days in Pompey
My dad worked as a ticket collector at Portsmouth Harbour Station. Often, we would catch the ferry to the Isle of Wight, or I would just go down to the station to see my dad.
He had memories of standing watching the V1 bombers pass overhead during the war.
We emigrated to Australia in 1966 - I've been back many times, I always look around the station and remember my dad (who passed away in 2008) and his working days there.
MUDLARKS
My father was one of those so called 'Mudlark's. I remember him telling the stories of how they used to stage mock fights over the pennies to make people feel sorry for them and throw more money.
The thought that they were poor orphans who had to do this to stay alive was very far from the truth. We lived very well in a house in Southsea near the Kings Theatre.
The memory was brought back on a recent trip to Egypt and a trip down the nile. Children beg for money along the banks of the nile as the cruiser goes by at the narrow points. After the ship is gone they get their BMX bikes out of the bushes and pedal home to the mud brick house with the satellite dish and the Merc parked outside.
Dancing at Neros
In 1977 I was the Wrigleys rep, I was 21. I stayed in Hayling Island Holiday Inn, being from the Watford area. I was in charge of Fine Fare, Southsea. I used to drive into Portsmouth and dance at Neros. Great Memories. My week started at Dorchester, then I moved on to Bournemouth and Southampton and went back to Watford on Friday.
THE MUDLARKS
We used to go down to Sallyport from 1954 -1958 ..there were a lot of local 'urchins' called the 'Mudlarks' who would stand in the knee deep, sloppy black mud below the pier to the ferry when the tide was out and people would throw them pennies which they had to find in the mud.They'd end up covered from head to foot. A lot of them had great characters and had developed great 'carny' skills to get people to toss them money.
My step aunt, Linda Goldsmith knew most of these kids 'cos she taught them at the nearby elementary school.
THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD
This was to me, as a young lad, one of the best places in the whole world!
There was nothing more appealing to me than being at this great vantage point for the Portsmouth Dockyard. I could have stayed there all day watching our British Navy aircraft carriers, battleships, submarines and cruisers contrasted to the masts of our most famous ship of all time, the HMS Victory, watching the ferries plying back and forth to Gosport, feeling the spray from the often rough seas pounding the seawall and blasting up into the air.
Being on the Point was like being on the prow of a ship. I want so badly to go back there and hope someday I can.
My step grandfather, Goldsmith, was a senior man in the dockyard during WW2.
He would have been thrilled to see Pompey win the 2008 FA Cup!!!
"Kiss Me, Hardy"
I've only been onboard the Victory once. It was enough to profoundly strike my imagination. I stood where Nelson fell ! It brings tears to my eyes to think of it now as I write. She is an incredible vessel. You can almost hear the cries and commands shouted out during naval battle.
And what a genius Nelson was. To break conventional naval tactics and completely fool the Spanish Armada by a frontal attack compared to a sail-by was unbelievable.
As a youngster I read all the naval stories I could and, having a great imagination was transported back to the days of sail. Being on the deck of the Victory I feel is a priviledge not to be undersestimated for anyone of British descent.
Wasn't 'Master and Commander' and awesome movie to recreate the days of sail ?? I can't watch it enough and still read books about the early days of exploration under sail.
"Somewhere Beyond The Sea...my Lover Waits For Me.."
As a young lad I had great eyesight for long distances. As we sat on the pebbled beach at Southsea it was always me that first spotted a slight bump in the horizon as the then huge incoming ocean liners, The Queen Mary, The Queen Elizabeth, The Mauretaina and many more coming home from New York down the Solent towards Southampton. I enjoyed being scoffed at for a good half an hour or more before others managed to notice them approaching with the telltale whisp of smoke from her funnels.
Later on I worked one summer holidays as a waiter at the Seaview Hotel on the Isle of Wight where we got a grandstand view of these great ships sailing by from this exact vantage point.
I had my first kiss on the seawall at Seaview when a lovely Dutch girl called Riet Berendsen took a fancy to me. How great was that as the sun set and the ships sailed by ? I wonder where she is... Read more
Art Exhibition, Old Portsmouth.
My grandparents Bert & Dorrie Hedger started this amature exhibition in about 1965, and carried on until my grandfather died in 1982. I recognise several of the paintings as being by my mum Rita Grant, as I was taken down there every weekend from the age of three.
Swimming at Sallyport
The outfall from the power station made the water warm here so that we swam all year round - not for those who didn't know the currents. The visitors were amazed at our apparent hardiness, or perhaps foolhardiness.
Ferry Slipway
This slipway was built in 1960. Prior to that time ferries left from Portsmouth Point.
Memories of Hampshire
Only The British
This is about the place on the pebbled Southsea Beach where our family always established their bit of 'turf'. There was a whole ritual to it ...setting up the blanket so it wouldn't get blown out to sea..the baskets of delicious ham sandwiches and the bottles of home made ginger ale ! My step parents always had The Times or a Penguin book at hand whilst my step grandfather, Pop, smoked his pipe and Mum, knitted.
On this beach I once dug up a fully loaded revolver. Showing it to my step grandfather he grabbed it out of my hand and tossed it angrily out to sea for some other kid to find and shoot himself with no doubt ! Who knows...it might have been a murder weapon ? More likely WW2.
Our family was maniacal about swimming here in freezing, blustery April weather when no one else with a grain of sense was on the beach..but there we sat blown all to hell ... and into the... Read more
199 Havant Road, Drayton
I was born on 6th feb 1944 at 199 Havant Road, Drayton and had a happy childhood there with my 5 sisters and parents. My father was a painter and decorator and we lived in the house until the late '50s. I believe the house is now a home for the elderly, how things have changed. I went to Portsdown school and the to the high school between Drayton and Cosham.I now live in Northern Ireland but have great memories of the area and going to the George to get my uncle his quart of mild and bitter.
JR Robinson And Maison Drayton
The farthest shop on the left was owned by my grandparents and I lived there until I was 3 with my parents, Ivan and Betty Robinson. They sold prams and baby goods. My mother Evelyn Betty McTurk did her hairdressing apprenticeship in the hairdressers next door, Maison Drayton, and continued working there for some years. I remember the parade of shops as being a very busy lively place.
Cafe Monica
The year that this photo was taken was 1951, when we opened the cafe. It was run by my father, Wally, and my mother Monica. My sister Marilyn served in the cafe later.
Previously it was a china and glass shop and before that, during the war, an antique shop run by my mother.
The New Inn Crowd
My parents, Ron and Mary Grant took over the New Inn at Drayton in 1957. Prior to that they had the Royal Pier Hotel at Sandown, on IOW. My sister Suzanne came over with them. I joined them the following year, as I had enrolled at the Catering College in Portsmouth and needed somewhere to live! So began a very happy period of my life....
The New Inn was a great centre for the young element of Drayton. I was 17 years old when I first moved there. It was to the New Inn that one would go to hear about up-coming weekend parties and to meet new and old friends. Here are just a few of the names I can remember - there were more but the memory grows dim over the years! - Ladies first! Anne Alsop, Gillian Brewer, Jackie Hutchins, Pat Deluce........and more! The boys: Mike Reynolds, Tony Holford, Ritchie Freeman, Mike Johnson, Peter Hann, Alan..... If any boys or girls remember me please contact... Read more
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