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Lymington Memories - by W K Knight
Although I live in Cornwall I am still Lymington Born
and Bred. My parents are buried in Lymington church yard
in the cremation plots up towards the Tins on the left,
also my god father and uncle Edward James Knight is buried
there, my grand parents on my fathers side are buried
in the cemetery at Highfield my grand mother was a Kemish
and my mother was a Rixon and both Kemish and Rixon’s
started Beaulieu Rails which you will know as East Boldre.
Do you know why the Tins got it’s name, well just in case, the fence
of the path on the cricket field side had corrugated tin with the top 2” cut
into spikes, hence the name the Tins, it was still like it when I was a
kid.
I also went to the C of E school which is now the St Barb museum. One of
the teachers was Hoare and we knew him as Honky Hoare and he also taught
my father. We had sloping desks and his desk was a high one, the first
thing he done when he walked into the classroom was to take his teeth out
and put them on the top of the desk.
My father was born and brought up in Rose Cottage, Middle Road which Grand
dad Knight Built, Dennis Knight who had the builder’s merchants is
my cousin his father is Eddy Knight my god father. My mothers Parents are
buried at Baddesley Church.
The Light standard outside the Royal Lymington Yacht Club was the first
Gaslight in Lymington and it stood on the north side of the street just
where the top entrance to the churchyard is.
In one of the books for sale at the museum there is a postcard showing
the flood in Lymington and the card was from Polly Knight to her husband
William Knight who was re-leading the church roof at Copythorne near Cadnam,
well that is my Gran and Grand dad. Polly was her nick name and only her
husband and her brothers and sisters were allowed to call Polly, she was
very tall and a formidable lady.
My great Uncle Alfred Kitcher’s job was to repair the seawall around
the marshes. When I was a kid the seaward side of the seawall was all marshland
and seagulls nested there, each year people with the right would go to
a certain marsh and pick seagull’s eggs, the following year it would
be a different marsh and so on. Now Hurst spit has changed the marshes
have disappeared.
At the top of the town which is now Waitrose stood the
Lyric cinema and dad said when he was a kid in the foyer
of the cinema was painted a big penny on the floor as
that was the price to get in. My sister can name every
shop that was in Lymington when we were young she can
remember better than me as she is 8 yrs older.
On the quay there was a bottling plant for Mew & Langton the brewers,
if you go on to the quay with the Ship inn on your right and then look
to your left that is where it was, the beer came from Newport I.O.W and
was brought from Yarmouth in huge barrels on a barge called the XXXX the
man who worked it alone never once hit another boat, but it was said that
if he was sober it would be a different matter.
My ancestors had a shop on the south side of town hill William & Hannah
Knight. Her maiden name was Tricket and came from Verwood her daughter
looks like she murdered her husbands as she was married 3 times and would
be married again within a month of the last one dieing. The funny thing
is the town Sergeant Hebberd lodged with William and Hannah his touch stick
was given to the town council by my cousin Stan Knight who lives at Bowling
Green and is in a display case in the council offices.
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This is a picture of me sat on the grass down the banks,
the person who took the picture had their back to bath
road and facing the river, and behind me are the piles
of soil they used to make the promenade that you have
in your picture, I would have been about 6 in that photo,
that makes the photo taken c1957 and the promenade was
not built then, all it was at that time, was a bank like
the sea wall which you can make out between the piles
of soil.
The fishing boat in the middle right of your picture
was painted grey and belonged to George Smith who at
one time owned Rope Walk Boatyard with his 2 sons Bill
and Robert Smith this was prior to Peter Webster buying
the yard. I done an apprenticeship at Peter Webster’s
as a Shipwright and worked under Rob Smith. George and
Bill were riggers there as Peter Webster employed them
when he bought the yard, the photo that you have would
have been taken c1965 and behind the photographer would
have been Peter Webster’s pontoon and prior to
the pontoon being put there he had a Spritsail Barge
called the Minadosa which ended it’s days where
Lymington Yacht Haven is now. The mast and deck winch
was used on the pontoon as a crane to step the masts
on the new yachts we launched at the quay and towed to
the pontoon. Also what dates the photo exactly is the
white building in the distance which is in fact still
there and is the other side of the railway line and is
a clear span prefabricated building which they did not
have in the 50’s the building was erected in 1965
and was an engineering workshop.
There is so much I know about ‘my’ Lymington, that is between
Edward Kings time and the present day, like the garage my Uncle Len owned
Croucher’s Garage and the old fire station on Southampton buildings
near the entrance to the cricket field and Mew & Langton’s
little yard and office on Southampton Buildings, these are things from
my time and people have forgotten. Woods the coal merchant whose lorry
we use to ride on. Dawson’s Garage down the town North side, they
sold Austin Morris cars also petrol, the pavement there was wide so the
pumps were outside the garage and when you wanted petrol they would swing
out metal pipes with the nozzle on the end and people on the pavement
would just walk under the pipes.
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