"I sailed for S Africa on Sept 16 or 17 1966 on board the Capetown Castle. She was late getting back from a Med cruise and couldn't make the normal Union Castle Line berths at the top of the water. Instead we were on the wall at the end of the Curnard terminal. Our sailing was delayed while they pulled a Queen out and got her away. Although she was well clear of us at our level, I remember looking up several hundreds of feet, it seemed, and seeing her bows right up above us.

All we could see of the hull was blank steel and rows of rivet heads the size of teaplates. A whole fleet of tugs were pushing and pulling and when she eventually started off down the water, her fly bridge passed right over our ship. And the Castle was no titch at over 27,000 tons.

 I remember, too, the vibration on our ship caused by the Queen's propellors as she passed
and the terrific hooting and honking of every ship's horn. All sounding like asthmatic penny whistles when the big old girl let rip with her's.

There was then an announcement that we were to witness a unique event. After the Queen,, we had to wait while the SS United States and the Isle de France followed the Queen out to sea. Only then were we start our own journey. 

It was a very exciting experience on top of the thrill of setting off on a sea journey.

I don't remember seeing them again. When we cleared the Water, they had gone.

Whereas I left So'ton only once by ship, I returned to the UK twice on Castle boats. Always a great event. One would wake early in the morning because the normal thrum of the engines and throb of the propellers had slowed. Someone told me that a ship was like the womb and the motion and sounds gave one a feeling of comfort and well-being. Anyway, we made landfall along the Devon or Dorset coast and cruised up past Weymouth, Bournemouth and got a good view of the Needles. The first we knew of So'ton was the flares at the refinery. I assumed that to be Fawley. 

On both occasions, the weather was perfect. Cloudless blue skies and a lovely, welcoming, English sun.

Getting off of an aeroplane at Heathrow is just like going to Woolworths when compared to the emotions of sailing up Southampton Water - with the tugs fussing about and the folks ashore waving and shouting. There's no mistake. You have come home and in the grand manner!"

Ernie Bull
W London

Growing Up In Farnborough
Frank Buckmaster PEARCE (20 May 1888 - 1 Feb. 1978)

"I was born with the sound of bugles blowing in my ears, in a house on  Southampton Street, hard by Aldershot Camp. Somehow my father, on his  miniscule salary, managed to build two houses on Reading Road and we moved  there. I must have been very young when we moved to Reading Road, for my  first memory was of being solemnly escorted to the back fence and being  allowed to tip my potty over the fence!

Farnborough, or as it was called later, North Farnborough, was the original  village, and a very pretty place too. North Farnborough was a modern  subdivision built next to North Camp on Lynchford Road. It was a perfect,  well designed subdivision made in the angle of a square formed by North Camp  and Portsmouth Road. All the roads were straight, but some were on a thirty  degree angle and in one case there was a circle with four roads running into  it. For it's age, at least one hundred years old, it is extremely modern.  It became the shopping centre.
South Farnborough had now become an urban district, and had a council to  maintain the roads and see that the sewers were used and that the street  lighting was sufficient. These were gas lamps for Farnborough had piped  gas, and it was pleasant at eventide to seethe gas man light the lamps.

A hundred years is a very long time but in those early days Farnborough had  many city amenities. It had good straight well kept roads with broad  sidewalks, sewers and piped gas - but not water. That came later. I  remember it was my chore to pump water into the outside cistern. The well  was right under the kitchen and I was glad when it was closed off and piped 
water installed. I never ceased to envy our back neighbour with his  splendid wind-driven water pump. It looked magnificent as it towered above  us all.

There were three schools in my young life. The first one was North  Farnborough Elementary School. It was quite old, a National School taken  over when the National Society was superseded by the government. I enjoyed the infant school and when I went to the big school I liked it.  There were from one to eight standards. I have no idea of the number of  children but there were three teachers, two classes in one room and one in a  smaller room. The classes were large as many as sixty, and with the classes  divided by curtains, there was little chance for individual instruction. At  morning's end the headmaster took his cane and looked at each child's work  and woe betide any who had not done good work. It was rough but effective 
and most pupils reached a high standard.School started at nine and dismissed  at four with two hours recess for dinner. No one was kept in. There were  no reports. Who needed them?The students were doing their best or else.

My next school was St. Mark's. It was a new school built by the church  -inadequate in every way - rooms too small, teachers not outstanding. All I  remember of that school is being plunked in the middle of a five person desk  with girls on either side of me. I was surprised to find that girls had  their good points. They were clean and smelled of soap and water and their 
clothes were so stiff with starch that they rustled when they moved. I was  particularly glad to be sitting next to them when they shared with me. They  had ginger and brown sugar which we licked, and cinnamon sticks to chew.  The only thing that seemed to excite us was scripture.

Next came The Boys Collegiate, which was actually a large room in the back  of the house where the master and his wife and some other person taught  classes. But it served a purpose for there was no other place of higher  learning. Every boy sat for the College of Preceptors exam. I had no  pleasure in that school. It seemed that someone always contrived to give me 
six sums to do after school and it was a long way home and I could never get  them right.

The Common was a very large part of my life. It was only three blocks up  the Reading Road and separated from Farnborough by the London to Portsmouth  Road. When the volunteers were encamped, it was full of excitement to a  small boy. During the time I was peddling papers for my father, I could see  life under canvas. In times when there were no troops on the Common, it was  ours to roam over, to watch the multitude of rabbits playing on their hill 
or shoot arrows at the flock of rooks who fed there, but had their nests in  the tall trees of Government House.

Our arrows were made of strips cut from boxes pointed with nickel bullets.  These we got at the army rifle range at Fox Hills. When there was no firing  we could dig them out of the soft earth and take them home and melt the lead  on the top of the stove. It was rather a long way to Fox Hills so we did  not go there often

We played with hoops, marbles and tops. Tip cat was played between two  sides. The tip cat was a round stick sharpened at both ends, which when  struck would fly in the air and a player would take a mighty swipe at it to  see how far he could hit it. We would roam the woods and meadows looking  for bird nests. 

In late summer you could gather blackberries and nuts would fall. There was  a magnificent chestnut near the old church and nearby two beech trees. My  schoolbag was often filled with fallen nuts. Small as I was, I was a very  popular boy, while the nuts lasted. In summer we rooted for pig nuts, roots about the size of peanuts which we  grubbed with our hands, wiped on our coats and then ate."

Heather
Daughter of Frank Pearce

Southampton

"How about "wellie boots" that chafed your legs, boy's that is, cos we wore short pant's. Open decked tramcars running up and down the Avenue, with rotten Conductors who made little boys with puppies ride ustairs in the snow, cos "no dogs allowed downstairs". No "spitting on the floor" ugh!!. Racing bikes with tire's just wide enough to get caught in tram tracks. Back seats of the Plaza in Northam (doublers)..those wonderful pipe organs in the Palladium, Plaza, Odeon etc...anyone know the "Black Hole" swimming spot, it used to lie between the old reservoir in South Stoneham heading toward Bishopstoke, or you could go to the White Swan by Gaters Mill, sneak across the river and follow the stream to Bishopstke. 

Great days. Summer of 1940 watching the "Spitties" shooting down or so we thought, hundreds of German fighters, while we cheered them on from atop the school shelters at West End school...and the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth coming up Southampton Water in 1946, refurbished after war service, repainted and dressed overall....what a sight for a young 13 year old sitting on the Fire Boat stationed at the Royal Pier, my dad was the cox'un and was I proud of him. 

Best of all, the Hampshire Regt. given the freedom of Southampton, marching past the war memorial toward the Civic Centre, with "bands playing, colours unfurled and bayonets fixed" and the crowd throwing roses onto the drum heads as the troops passed, turning them red..

Woweee. then there was Spam"

Len Payne

Born before.....

We were born before multi TV channels, before frozen foods, contact lenses, videos, CDs. Before credit cards laser beams and ball point pens. Dishwashers electric blankets and before
man walked on the moon. 

We got married first, then lived together, (how quaint can you be?) We thought fast food was what you ate in Lent. A Big Mac was an oversizes raincoat, and crumpet was what we had for tea with jam on. We existed before computers, chat-rooms and cyber dating. A meaningful
relationship meant getting along with your cousins, and 'sheltered accommodation was where you waited for a bus.

We were before day-care centres artificial limbs and hearts, word processors yoghurt and young men wearing ear-rings 

For us time- sharing meant togetherness, a chip was a piece of wood or a fried potato. hardware was nuts and bolts and software wasn't a word. Made in Japan meant junk, making out was how you did in your exams. A stud was something you fastened your shirt collar with, and going all the way meant staying on the bus till the terminus. In our day cigarette smoking was 'fashionable. Grass was mown, coke was kept in the coal-house, a joint was a piece of meat Mum roasted on Sundays. Rock music was Grandmas lullaby, A gay person was the life and soul of the party and nothing more and 'aids' was something you gave to people in need of help
We who were born before 1950 must be a hardy bunch when you think of how the world has changed and the adjustments we have had to make. No wonder we are confused and there is a generation gap today----BUT BY THE GRACE of GOD--- we have survived!!
ALLELUIA.

Len Strong
Derbyshire UK

MORE MEMORIES OF HAMPSHIRE