NOSTALGIA WITH BOB HIND:Three-wheeled lorries?

The photograph I published on November 30 of Fraser & Whites at the Camber, Old Portsmouth brought back memories for Jim Kellaway now of Bedhampton. Â

He tells me that in 1958 he remembers helping a local chap, Harry Downes, deliver coal and logs around the city.

They both visited Fraser & Whites to weigh and load coal by hand and then deliver it around the streets by horse and cart. These days that would cause traffic chaos.

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Jim's father helped run the 1st Portsmouth Sea Scouts at St Paul's Church, off Elm Grove. That magnificent church was destroyed in the blitz of January 1941 so there was nowhere for the scouts to meet and with older scouts being called up tool, the group was disbanded.

Jim's cousin Tommy Knowlton used to drive for BRS and drove a Scammell three-wheeled lorry between Point Wharf and Fratton goods yard. The lorry's were ideal for the tight corners around Point.

He would sometime hang a lobster pot over the side of the wharf and occasionally get lucky. Lovely days, now all sadly in the past.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

Sir Anthony Hopkins, actor, 80; Sir Alex Ferguson, former football manager, 76; Sarah Miles, actress, 76; Andy Summers, rock guitarist, 75; Sir Ben Kingsley, actor, 74; Alex Salmond, former Scottish First Minister, 63; Val Kilmer, actor, 58; Steve Bruce, football manager, 57.