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Rosebank at Commonside

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The family moved from 6 The Grange to Rosebank, Commonside on 20th January 1946. The handwriting on the rent book is that of Mr Johnson, the landlord, who charged a weekly rent of 20 shillings. Perhaps we were fortunate in obtaining our new home as it is believed that Mrs Johnson was a distant cousin of my father. Whatever, we pleased with our our semi-detached house with our own front garden. It looked across the road to Mrs Hellyer's shop on the corner of School Lane.

Entering the front on the left were the stairs, a passage to the back of the house and on the right, the front room. This was only used for special occasions like parties when we had a sing song round the piano and dancing. Along the passage was the living/dining room and on a Friday evening the bathroom. This was in front of the coal fireplace with a tall chest of drawers on one side and a radio on top. On the other side was a china cabinet cupboards underneath. Off this room were 2 cupboards. The one under the stairs served as a cloakroom and contained the gas meter with a stack of emergency pennies. The other was the larder with a marble shelf for keeping foodstuffs cool. Other shelves contained household cleaning materials. The kitchen/washroom had a butler sink and gas cooker and a door into the toilet, but no fitted bath.

Upstairs there were 3 bedrooms. The one at the front was the width of the house and were used by our parents. At the back was a double room that my brother and I used in a double bed. Our sister had her own small bedroom. With no central heating it was a cold house in the winter with hot-water bottles at bedtime. Under the beds were potties because it was too cold to use the downstairs toilet.

Outside a long back garden overlooked the apple orchard belonging to Ellesmere Nursery. It was a very productive garden. Between the kitchen wall and what is believed was once the outside toilet was a 6 foot wall. At waist height were rabbit hutches stacked 2 high that would be dispatched as required by my Uncle Len. He was a country-born lad from Old Bosham used to small-holding farming and gardening. On the opposite side was a wooden shed where I kept my pets. Three white rats, 5 white pigeons and 20+ mice, they started at 3. The garden was divided into a lawn and a vegetable patch. It was here that I learned gardening skills from my mother's mother and Uncle Len. A pleasure that remains to this day. At the bottom of the garden was a small enclosure with a sunken tin bath for the 2 geese for the Christmas plate. Speaking of baths, the long tin bath used on in front of the fire hung on a nail inside the former outside loo.

Home & School Life 1940 - 1950
During the 1940's most women stayed at home to look after their families. Their days were filled with washing by hand, drying outside and ironing on the kitchen table. They bought fresh food from local shops, there were no supermarkets or on-line shopping to make their task easier so regular shopping was a necessity as there were no refrigerators. They cooked fresh meals for their children coming home from school and their husbands returning from work. Nationally most men worked in the manufacturing industries such as steel making, shipbuilding and also coal mining. Most people in Westbourne had electricity although one of my school friends had oil lamps. Again most had inside toilets but a friend in Long Copse Lane had his at the top of his garden. Few people had cars so playing in the roads was the norm as the nearest park was in Emsworth. Similarly few people had a telephone, our nearest was in the familiar red box by the post office in North Street. A black box with A and B buttons for accepting the coins or returning them. The first TV seen was at the chip shop in The Grove. It was a black and white picture that looked as if it had been taken in a snow storm. Our entertainment came from the wireless with the news of the war and serials such as Dick Barton. Homes were heated with a coal fire and the floors were covered with and assortment of carpets. A holiday was a day out was by bus or train at the beach or visiting relatives. A holiday out of England was for the rich folk.

The 1944 Education Act gave every child free education to the age of 15. This was later raised to 16 in 1973. In school it could be very cold in winter as there was no central heating. Lavatories were built away from the classrooms. Windows would often be high to distract children from seeing what was going on outside. That did not stop me from being told off for daydreaming particularly at secondary school. Every day each child received a free, small, bottle of milk and a straw at the mid-morning break.

During the war food was supplied to Britain from overseas by ships and many were sank by enemy submarines. In 1940 ration books were issued to each member of a family to control the buying of food, clothing and furniture. If you had used up a ration for a particular item you could not buy any more until the next week. It is believed that vegetarians could use meat coupons for other foods. In a way children who had meals at school had a double ration as coupons were not required. Did that apply to the cooks as well? During this time a familiar slogan was "make do and mend". As clothes were in short supply, they were handed down to younger children, swapped between families, mended or made into different clothes. My mother was very good at darning socks.

UTILITY was introduced in 1941 by government minister Hugh Dalton to offer a restricted range of garments of simple, but sound, design, low price and guaranteed quality. As many skilled workers had signed up to fight, and raw materials were in short supply, manufacturers had to be more efficient in their production methods.

The government laid down strict guidelines to control the quantity of fabric and accessories used. For example, on clothing, pockets were restricted, a maximum length for men's shirts was introduced and there was a ban on turn-ups on men's trousers. Top designers such as Hardy Amies, Norman Hartnell, Edward Molyneux, Victor Stiebel and Bianca Mosca were commissioned to design utility ranges. They produced a practical, durable robe of a coat, dress, suit and shirt or blouse of agreeable quality The utility mark, two black circles with a segment cut out and 41 in the second circle, stood for Civilian Clothing 1941.

It became a guarantee of value for money, and the scheme was later extended to cover bedding and furniture. The term utility stuck with the public to describe many items that looked plain and simple, but functional. The scheme was finally withdrawn in 1952. Source: Daily Mail

Cycling
My grandfather, James Turnbull, made my first bicycle when I was about 7 years. It was an ASP [all spare parts] as a new bicycle was unaffordable. Anyway, as a chauffeur he had a mechanical bent and probably enjoyed the opportunity. The frame too large for me to reach the pedals so blocks of wood had been attached. With much wobbling we did my first tour up Horndean Road, along Southleigh Road and back to Emsworth on Westbourne Road. I cannot recall ever using it again.

In later years my parents bought my first new bicycle. It was the latest sports lightweight called a 'Vox Populi' manufactured by Phillips. It cost under £20, was light blue in colour, with drop-down handlebars, 3-speed gears and of course the safety of a bell. Over the years it was stripped down many times and painted different colours from half-empty paint pots in my father's shed.

One of my school friends was Tony Gosling who lived at Bosham. His father had a small nursery mainly for fruit. Picking a fresh peach was a particular delight and I usually came home on my bicycle with the front of my shirt stuffed with cox's apples. There were also some chickens that were troubled with rats. That was my first experience of using a shot gun; not very successfully. Also at Old Bosham lived my uncle's parents and I used to ride over with Aunt Jude to visit them. They were very keen gardeners and perhaps that is why my aunt & uncle were too.

A 'gang' of lads and lasses would often go swimming at Emsworth, Hayling Island and Pilsey Island a short swim off Thorney Island. To get to the latter we had to cross the World War 2, RAF runway and always made sure that we looked left and right. It cannot be recalled that we were ever restricted. The most frequent was at Emsworth, particularly when the tide was up. About a 100 yards away was a wooden hulk that we called The Ark that was always a popular swim. Clambering up the side and resting on the deck before swimming back. On one occasion a swimmer had a lucky break. Somehow he entered a culvert from the Mill Pond and was swept through under the Mill House and escaped with a few barnacle scratches. My only injury was close to the bathing hut on the Mill Pond side where I gashed my foot on some glass.

There was one other place that was often used in the evening. Where the river Ems turns at Deep Springs into the canal leading down to Watersmeet House. An 18" square beam bridged the river and was used for diving into the river. Not too deep, as you could come up with a muddy face. Being fresh water, it could be rather cold at times. It was also a favorite spot for some of the soldiers from the Cemetery Lane camp site. The bridge was also used for my weekly visits to Deep Springs to collect dog food. It was the quickest route from Rosebank to the school, and along the canal, even on dark winter nights. On return my reward was the weekly comics.

The main use was travelling to the Dockyard each day in the later years of my apprenticeship. The twelve-mile journey could usually be completed within 40 minutes by often tucking in behind lorries and dragged along in their slipstream. The greatest challenge was coming home to be able to beat those dockies who were returning to Westbourne via train and bus. Most of the time this was successful. At weekends I would often go on tours of the countryside. One of my favourites was to across the top of Portsdown Hill with the stunning views across to the Isle of Wight. This would drop down into Fareham for a cup of tea. Then it was off through the New Forest heading for Bournemouth with another tea stop at Romsey.

The worst journey was to London and back in a day. The outward journey was no problem arriving at Putney Bridge for lunch at a Riverside café. The return trip was a nightmare as I was very tired and darkness fell before the journey was half over. I stopped at Guildford for fish and chips and my fatigue made me sick afterwards. The long haul up ? by the light of my cycle lamp was most gruelling. Somehow I arrived in Petersfield exhausted and ready to give up. However, at what must have been a very slow pace I arrived home at about midnight. My parents were naturally very worried, as I had not told them about my trip. They said it looked as if my eyes were out on organ stops.


My cycling pal was Allan Briton, a fellow shipwright apprentice at the Dockyard. We camped a couple of times at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. This prepared us for a Summer holiday by riding the 260 mile journey to Lands End and back, camping on the way. Stops on the way Dorchester, Exeter. On the outward journey we came over the ferry at Fowey, but on the return journey came back via the shorter route via Lostwithiel as we were running short of money and food. On our last night near Romsey we had run out of both, but some fellow campers looked after us. He now lives in Australia and we keep in touch via email.

The last days for my bicycle was in 1960 when travelling from my first married home in Kidbrooke, SE London to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich where I was on the staff. Soon after I bought my first car a second-hand Vauxhall Wyvern at Lewisham for £273 and a few months later moved to Scotland leaving my bicycle behind.

Walks
In our younger days, on a Sunday evening the family would walk to Rowlands Castle. A packet of crisps and a lemonade refreshed us for the return journey. Another favourite walk was to catch the bus to Emsworth to start our walk from our mother's parents home just across the road from the Mill Pond. We walked across the fields and shore line past Warblington Cemetery, where my parents and my mother's parents now lay at rest. Our destination was the Royal Oak public house close to the old wooden bridge to Hayling Island. After the usual lemonade and snack it was back to Emsworth via Havant. I was also a bit of a loner going off for most of the day birdwatching. A favorite route was up Monks Hill across the 3-cornered field to the junction with the road to Rowlands Castle. There were usually some finds in the scrub woods adjacent to the old brickfields. Each year a chaffinch family always came back to the same tree. It was then onto the 2 Brickkiln Ponds to watch the moorhens, coots and ducks. In the woods were pheasants and when they were nesting you could stand a couple of feet away without them attempting to move. Where the pond met the Stansted road here was always a carnage of frogs as they made towards the Aldsworth Pond. This was also a good site to see more coots, moorhens, dabchicks and the mute swans nesting in the Springtime. In the woods could be found common birds such as thrush and blackbirds. Occasionally the nests of long-tailed tits could be found; a superb work of art. The pond emptied over a waterfall to pass under the road and the stream continued its journey through the fields to Westbourne Mill. This stream was a good source for watercress that Mrs Ambrose sometimes asked me to collect when collecting the cows or Sandy the horse. Other birdwatching routes were through the Standsted grounds across to the north of Aldsworth farm and back to the ponds. A variation was onto the Racton Monument and sometimes up to the downs. Some of these walks could take most of the day and it was never considered that I could come to any harm and neither did my mother. I still have The Observer's Book of British Birds.

Holidays
Like many families of that era there were only day holidays. The best remembered were the days on the Isle of Wight. The Southdown bus was boarded at the Cricketers Inn and the journey to South Parade Pier took about an hour. The paddle steamer was boarded and us boys headed for the viewing window to see the large pistons hard at work driving us first to Sandown to drop off some passengers and then to Shanklin pier. It would stay moored there until mid afternoon and then we would retrace our journey. The sun, sea and sand and amusements were always great fun. One of these coal-powered boats was called Ryde and during the war was commissioned as HMS Ryde. It was used as a minesweeper patrolling the North sea and Dover Straits. It had a special significance for my father when he was then working for the Admiralty on the Mulberry Harbour Project. On D-Day this ship was one of the invasion fleet and was stationed off Omaha beach protecting the man-made harbour from aircraft attacks.

When we were much younger, other visits to Portsmouth were for a walk along the front to Clarence Pier to the fun fair. Or a ride on the miniature train near the castle and a day by the adjacent paddling pool. One day I did not want go home and after being dressed I ran and sat down in the pool. Mum was not best pleased.

When Dad retired from the Dockyard he became self-employed using his skills as a plumber and electrician. Mum and him also had a part-time job with Captain and Mrs Waterlo Fox Royal Navy who lived in a large house and grounds on Horndean Road. Mum used to cook and serve the meals for them while Dad did odd jobs including the garden, that I helped with. He stwas not necessary to pass a driving test. At one stage he had a motorcycle and later an Austin car that he used for work.

Sports
Like most boys, football was the number one sport. Our best friends were those who owned a football and whose parents allowed them to come out to play. In those days the balls were made of leather with an inner inflatable rubber lining that could get punctured. It was contained by a leather lace similar to those used in shoes. When the ball was wet it was like heading a lump of lead and if the lace had worked loose it could catch in your eye. Our favourite place was the common with our jumpers were the goal posts. A high shot at goal was often disputed as over the 'bar'. During the war with double summer time we could be playing until near midnight. Later I used to play for Westbourne and my brother Len too. He also played for Emsworth with Stan Peake, who lived in Manchester Terrace. In those days boots had nailed-on studs and were made of leather with hard toe caps. They had to be cleaned and dubbined after each match to keep them supple and water proof; that was the theory.

Westbourne Football Club
Back row: Keith Hart on right
Home ground was opposite Westbourne Cemetery

Emsworth "A" Team.Back row: R Roper S Peake A Hulse
R Maple D Nutley M J J Llewellyn (Chairman)
Front row: D Wooden R Cole L Hart M Hoar F Upfield

The other regular sport was playing cricket for the village team. Bowling was more succesful that batting and in the field I was nicknamed 'buckets' for my record of catches. During the break tea would be taken at the Cricketers Pub. Matches were well supported with family and friends. The best venue for an away game was always Stansted Park on its wide sweeping lawns.

As an undergraduate at Newcastle in 1955 I was attracted to a completely different sport; rowing. Together with John Williams, my room mate, we had 3 years of successful rowing in coxless pairs, fours and eights, winning a few pots on the way. The major event of the year was the London Head of River Race. The course is in the reverse direction of the annual Oxford & Cambridge race. Over 200 crews took part from all over the country setting off at timed intervals. During the vacations John and I kept fit by rowing from a club in Old Portsmouth and going out to sea off Southsea. The boats were wider and stronger to withstand the more demanding sea conditions. As a post graduate at Imperial College, London my rowing in eights continued and for another 16 years in my working life. My favourite position in a boat was at stroke.