Palmerston House Childrens Home
A Memory of Romsey.
I was also at Palmerston House and I remember it well it was an old building and was once a Victorian boys home. I can't say I enjoyed my stay but it made me what I am today and appreciate things that kids of my age took for granted. But I do have a few good memories of my short stay there (around 6 months) and moved on to 5 more different homes until I finally found happiness at 49 Thorold Road, Southampton.
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I was taken to court and was made the subject of a care order which cost me 3 years in children's homes. I was taken from Gosport to Osborne Road social services in Fareham and then to Palmerston House in Romsey by a social worker. I was handed over to the home manager Mr Peak I believe his name was and ended up spending 6 months there.
I was enrolled at Priestlands school but I remember playing truant and spending the day hiding in railway carriages on the railway station sidings which were on the walk to school. I ran away several times from the home and remember sleeping in a coal yard on the other side of the brook/stream on the path between Botley road and the A27 near what is now Romsey Rapids pool. One time I ran away I set off to walk back to Gosport along the Botley road. I spent hours getting a few miles as I was hiding in front gardens along the Botley rd towards Eastliegh as there was at least one police car looking for me that kept driving up and down the road. I think a householder must have spotted me as a police car eventually pulled up and searched until they found me.
Things I remember from the time include getting my pocket money and spending it in the little shop next door to the home. I remember a film poster outside the shop for 'The King and I' starring Yul Brynner. I remember Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising playing on the radio a lot. I recall playing football out the back of Palmerston House with Mr Peak and one day when he was mowing the grass with a petrol lawnmower out on the back lawn a piece of flint flew out from the mower and embedded in my calf requiring a trip to a hospital for stitches although I don't recall which hospital that would have been. I also recall attending a remembrance parade at a memorial in a park near to Romsey Abbey and Lord Louis Mountbatten laying a wreath at a memorial.
I eventually found out that Palmerston House was an assessment centre where they would determine if I would be moved to a children's home nearer home or to Ashbourne Lodge which was an approved school for children assessed to be less controllable. I started to conform and was rewarded with a move to St Boniface children's home on Marine Parade West in Lee on Solent where I was deprived of my freedom for another 2 1/2 years. What happened to my friend who had actually stolen the groceries? He got six months probation! Life sucks.
Anyone remember Mr& Mrs Senior and a Mr Niblet