Rare Southsea tram ticket sells for £2,800

A tram ticket which would have cost perhaps a few shillings when bought in the 1860s has sold for £2,500 at a London auction. In fact, with the buyer’s premium the price rocketed to £2,800.
The tram ticket recently sold for £2,500 in a London auction. Picture: Barry Cox collection.The tram ticket recently sold for £2,500 in a London auction. Picture: Barry Cox collection.
The tram ticket recently sold for £2,500 in a London auction. Picture: Barry Cox collection.

The ticket dates from August 5, 1865 or 1866. The traveller would have boarded a train at Shanklin and ridden to Ryde St John’s Road, where the train terminated at that time.

Then there was a horse tram to Ryde Pierhead where the ferry took he or she across the Solent to Clarence Pier, Southsea.

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There, the passenger would have boarded a Southsea Tramway car to Portsmouth Town Station as it was called then. I understand the journey from Shanklin to London would have taken the best part of six hours.

A view across the roof of Portsmouth Grammar School in the mid-1960s. Picture: Mick Cooper collection.A view across the roof of Portsmouth Grammar School in the mid-1960s. Picture: Mick Cooper collection.
A view across the roof of Portsmouth Grammar School in the mid-1960s. Picture: Mick Cooper collection.

• In the scene from high above Victoria Barracks looking north over Portsmouth Grammar School, some things are the same but there have also been huge changes.

The barracks were demolished in the mid-1960s with the only part remaining out of shot on the right, now Portsmouth Museum. Top right, on the corner of St George’s Road, are the original grammar school buildings. Behind them are what are now the playing fields of HMS Temeraire.

On the far left is part of the power station and on the right of the chimney HMS Vernon, now Gunwharf Quays. There’s a bomb site above the grammar school roof. This is now the home of the university’s St George’s Building.

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• I am putting together another book of then and now photographs which will include the 50-year-old Leigh Park estate.

Can anyone tell me where in Leigh Park this 1963 winter photograph might have been taken or who the girl is? Photo: Barry Cox collection.Can anyone tell me where in Leigh Park this 1963 winter photograph might have been taken or who the girl is? Photo: Barry Cox collection.
Can anyone tell me where in Leigh Park this 1963 winter photograph might have been taken or who the girl is? Photo: Barry Cox collection.

I have a few photos of the estate when it was new and the majority of houses were occupied by former Portsmouth residents starting a new life after the ravages of the blitz.

In this photograph a girl is clearing snow from the path in the harsh winter of 1963. Anyone recognise the location or the girl?

• I have, like many readers, heard of Aggie Weston’s Royal Sailors Rest, but I have never heard of the British Sailors’ Society. Can anyone enlighten me? The society had premises on Clarence Parade, Southsea.

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Looking through a 1947 Portsmouth Kelly’s Directory at 41 Clarence Parade was the Naval Home Industry run by a Mrs DMC Thompson, the superintendent. Whether it was the same place as the Sailors’ Society I have yet to find out.

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