Wimborne, East Street 1936

A Memory of Wimborne Minster.

In 1938 my mother walked this street with me and my brothers and sisters every week, to and from Cowgrove to visit my Grandmother, who lived in a row of cottages around the corner (coming from the Minster) which I believe was Poole Road. If my memory serves me, there were cottages running at right angles to the road, with a path between the cottages and the toilet, which consisted of a door, wooden walls, a plank, and bucket. The gardens behind the toilets were full of flowers and veg, the likes of which it's hard to find today. I wonder why? I have searched for photos and mentions of the old Iron bridge over the river at Cowgrove, as I lived in an old thatched cottage, which has long since disappeared. In the corner overgrown patch opposite was the car park of the Wooden bridge. My days were spent fishing and playing with my brothers along the river bank, and on the old bridge. I started school in 1938 in the local school, my memories are vague, but I do recall running across the road and burying myself under the pine needles, practising for the day when the Germans would come and bomb the school. In 1939 my father went to war, and we had to leave the cottage as it was part of the Corfe Castle Estate and as my father no longer worked for them we had to leave. Today at the age of 78, I live in and old farmhouse in SW France, an old farmhouse in a village similar to the old Pamphill of my memoires, which when I returned there in the late 80's had disappeared.