Waytown In The 1950s

A Memory of Waytown.

Every year during the '50s when I was a child we came to Waytown for our holiday, staying for a couple of weeks at the Hare and Hounds. Mr and Mrs Fleet were the landlords. My brother and I played with the children who lived across the road - Bob Hodder and younger brother (Peter?). Also I remember Teddy Wilmot who lived just a little way down the road. I remember also a girl of about my age, who came to stay with her granny who lived next door to the Hodders. She came from near Askerswell, on a farm on the main Bridport-Dorchester road. Her name was Jennifer but I can't remember her surname.

As we had a car, we all used to pile in (no seatbelts in those days) and went for the day to Lyme Regis or Charmouth and occasionally Seatown. I remember there was a lodger at the pub who worked for the Milk Marketing Board. He had a dog called Skipper (or Skippy?) who loved to come out with us kids when we went over the fields to play. I also remember the mill down the lane behind the pub (now a small estate of modern houses). We all thought the man there was very grumpy because if he saw us kids he used to shout at us to go away if we went down there.

The Hare and Hounds had a lovely garden, where the car park is now, and Mr Fleet grew a lot of vegetables which Mrs Fleet would use for our evening meal. I remember the food was always fresh and home cooked. The floor of the bedrooms sloped quite alarmingly, and my parents bed had to have a thick book placed under the legs of the bed one side to make the bed level.

---

---