Winton

Summer of 64

In June 1964 a group of us Belfast grammar school boys crossed the sea to Liverpool and took the long coach journey south to spend the school summer vacation working in the Bournemouth beach cafes.
Three of us shared a bedroom at Pat and Alvin's, a short bus ride from the town centre. Our "digs" cost just £1.10s a week each, out of a wage of £5 at the beach cafes. The cafe provided lunch and in the evening we dined at the Golden Griddle in the Square. We all smoked in those days and were able to buy clothes out of our pay packets:the fashions that summer were bell-bottom jeans, pink shirts and grey crewnecks. We grew our school regulation short-back-and sides down to our shoulders.
In the two months we stayed in Bournemouth it rained one afternoon, that was all. Of course we were incarcerated in the dark steamy wash-ups of the cafe during the blazing daytime hours. But the... Read more

Wartme Bournemouth.

Bournemouth is remembered by many as a wonderful holiday venue. A place of golden sands, the Pleasure Gardens, shops, cinemas and theatres. I was born here in 1936, when it was in the county of Hampshire. Pre war memories are obviously vague. As I grew up I saw the effects the war was having upon my home town. The beach was still accessible, however the area of sea had been reduced with the introduction of scaffold bars laced with barbed wire. Designed to prevent landing craft. To the west of the Pier Entrance stood several 'Dragon's Teeth'. Concrete blocks about 4 feet square with a pyramid top. [Anti Tank defences.] In later years a large mine was added, this was in close proximity to the 'Dragons Teeth' and was painted a bright red. On the top an engraved slotted brass disc had been inserted, this was for donations, I think were for the families of the seamen both R.N. and Merchant Navy who had perished. Alongside the railway lines were scattered pill... Read more

Family Connections to 'The Baths'

East Cliff From West 1897
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The Baths was the family home during the First World War. My great grandfather was Albert Henry Milledge, formerly a schoolmaster at a school in St Michael's loft of Christchurch Priory, who gave up teaching to help Alfred Roberts manage 'Roberts' Baths' which were then just private baths, after William Roberts, his father, died. The Roberts were formerly coal merchants. My great grandfather was responsible for building the original swimming bath opened in 1887. My other maternal great grandfather was Henry Newlyn, of Newlyn's Hotel which subsequently became the Exeter, and former mayor of Bournemouth.

My Family

The Pier 1908
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The photo is similar to one in my personal collection. The two gentlemen in the forefront of the picture are my Grandfather & my Great Uncle, two of the ladies behind them are my Great Aunts, the other became my Grandmother.

Speculation

The Pier 1908
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My brother and I think this maybe a photo of our Grandfather and our Great Uncle followed by our Grandmother and our Great Aunts (the two gentlemen with dark jackets and light trousers, one carrying a stick or brolly).

This is a view of Bournemouth Square taken from the end of Avenue Road.