New Milton

A Memory of New Milton.

My parents moved to the Bournemouth area at the end of WW2, and purchased the Clock Cafe property at 18 Whitefield Road, New Milton. There was a big clock mounted on a pole in the front yard. The Hants & Dorset buses used to treat the bus stop across the road as a terminus, and frequented the cafe for tea and sandwiches between runs. My parents ran the cafe for a while before leasing it to others, but while they ran the cafe, there were cakes to feast upon during the post-war sugar rationing. In the same building was the Humber Hire business and my mother resumed her hair styling business in the upstairs rooms. Over the years, the building was developed to the pavement building line with a two storey extension. The original building doors and windows were removed and replaced with steel girders so that the old house was hardly recognizable. I always thought that the building was only supported in the end by the four corners. As teenagers we lived in the upstairs flat until we left home - my parents eventually sold the building in the late 1960's, but our teenage family spirits must still haunt the place.