Royal Navy recruits in winter rig marching through Gosport | Nostalgia
All today’s photographs come from Tony New, 86, who has lived at Bedhampton all his life. He joined the Royal Navy at HMS St Vincent in 1949.
Here we see boys from St Vincent, at Gosport, perhaps marching to a remembrance service. I say this because they are in winter rig with sea jerseys and black-topped caps so might be marching to the Gosport cenotaph for that service.
They are wearing the longer gunnery gaiters and have .303 Lee Enfield rifles at the slope. A gunnery instructor marches beside them. Does anyone recognise the street?
n In what looks like a 1930s’ postcard we see boys alongside Slipper Mill, Emsworth.
I can imagine the boys telling their mother they were off to the mill and being told: ‘Take the baby with you and look after her.’ ‘Oh mum, do we have to?,’ they probably chorused.
The baby appears to have been pushed in the home-made cart. There appears to be an older man sitting on the edge of the millpond. If anyone knows who these boys are please get in touch.
• The third picture shows workmen outside Coldman’s store, Belmont, Bedhampton, working on what looks like a burst water main.
Coldman’s was a popular store located at the bottom of Bedhampton Hill at the junction of Lower Road.
There were few shops in the area at this time so traded with most of the people who lived in Belmont Naval Camp and residents of the many fine houses in what is now Old Bedhampton. They cooked all their own hams which were delicious. I know, I tasted them.
WISH YOU WERE HERE!
Here’s a strange postcard showing the stocks and whipping post somewhere on Hayling Island.
They had been disused for years but their purpose is still obvious. The culprit’s ankles were placed through the holes and the top section dropped down. Worse still was the post on the right where a prisoner was lashed. If not whipped, he had to stand all the time. There was a case in Portsmouth in which a prisoner had his ear nailed to the post.