Hot chocolate in the cuddy with grounded Dutchman on Portsmouth beach

By The Newsroom
Published 6th Jan 2017, 06:00 BST
Updated 11th Jan 2017, 03:49 BST
GROUNDED Jans boat on the beach at EastneyGROUNDED Jans boat on the beach at Eastney
GROUNDED Jans boat on the beach at Eastney
These are the final four pictures sent to me by Alan Marsh '“ pictures he inherited from his parents who took them.

Alan, who now lives in Windermere, Cumbria, was born in Portsmouth in 1958 and went to the Technical High School at Hilsea.

His maternal grandfather, George Cooper, owned Wimbledon Park Skating Rink and the social club known as The Grosvenor Club, in Southsea.

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The picture on the right shows ‘Jan’s boat on the beach’ at Eastney.

PLAY Alan Marsh on a rocking duck outside the Grosvenor Club at Wimbledon Park, Southsea, in the late 1950s. Inside was a bar, dance floor and table tennis tables with tennis courts outsidePLAY Alan Marsh on a rocking duck outside the Grosvenor Club at Wimbledon Park, Southsea, in the late 1950s. Inside was a bar, dance floor and table tennis tables with tennis courts outside
PLAY Alan Marsh on a rocking duck outside the Grosvenor Club at Wimbledon Park, Southsea, in the late 1950s. Inside was a bar, dance floor and table tennis tables with tennis courts outside

Alan says: ‘It went aground on a spring tide, and could not be re-floated for some time.

‘Jan was a Dutchman, who had come to Britain during the war and never went back.

‘He lived on the boat for security until it was re-floated, and we visited him a couple of times, drinking hot chocolate in the “cuddy”, heated by a coal-fired stove.’

Related topics:DutchmanPortsmouthGeorge CooperCumbriaSouthsea