[The submarine is the P556 which was originally the US built USS S-29. Local legend had it marked down as a German U-boat]

How Paulsgrove has changed over the years – not all for the best. Some the lads I remember: Paul Downham, Alan Dixon (now in Canada), Roger Eccleshall, Nigel Marchant, Terry Lee-Barry, Paul Blacker and Alan Hyde. Unfortunately some have now passed away.

Hope you find this interesting I could go on for hours.

Mick Boyes - November 2016

NEW - 19-10-2014

I moved with my twin brother to Rothwell Close in 1948 when I was four. It has been fascinating to refresh the memory. I can still remember many of the things written, including the unmade Jubilee Avenue which we used to walk down to go to Paulsgrove Junior School, testing the water filled potholes to see if it would go over the top of our wellies.

I started infant school in a wooden hut that was at the end of Cheltenham Road alongside the newly built Hillside School, later transferring to the new Infant School whose entrance was in Lower Portsdown Road, before moving up to the Junior School which became Saxon Shore School (now houses!)

I can remember the Nissan hut shops, the Co-op having two units joined in the middle, which was the bacon counter area if I recall, Morley's was the newsagents, and at the Cosham end was Newman's Fish and Chip shop.

I've attached a couple of photographs showing our house 16 Rothwell Close looking north towards the chalkpit, the other view is from the front bedroom window, showing Birdlip Road with the "dump" later to become the "Cross Keys" pub. Water still flows around Horsea Island and I can remember the reed marshes to the South of "The Harbour Lights" pub.

The third photo is of a group of us from Paulsgrove Baptist Church singing in the "Cross Keys" from left to right Tony Gillam, Derek Petrie (used to live in Braunston Close back when it had our local phone box!) Pat Day who lived in Mablethorpe Road Wymering and myself. I'm still singing andplaying guitar at Paulsgrove Baptist Church, though with less hair!

Girls' Life Brigade (renamed the Girls' Brigade nowadays) marching down Wooferton Road for the monthly parade service.

Thanks for a fascinating site.

Ken Gillam - October 2014

NEW - 03-11-2006

I was born in Camcross Close in 1963 and lived in and around Paulsgrove until I got married in 1985 and moved to North End for 7 years. I have now moved back home and live in Paulsgrove again.

I remember playing in the close and building dens on the waste ground that now has warden controlled apartments on it. These dens would consist of holes dug out of the ground and then covered over with metal bedsteads and turf as to make them invisible.

We moved to Longdean in 1970 and I began my love affair with Portsdown hill, building more dens and hideouts to the west of the chalk pit and sledging down on home made sleds with wax on the runners for speed. I remember once a mate of mine (who must remain nameless as I think his mum still doesn't know the truth) had his brand new school shoes on and as you know the feet were the steering device for sledges, by the time we had enough and on the way home he had no toes left on his shoes and threw them away and told his mum that some big boys had taken them, she went mad and smacked him anyway, we of course laughed.

I used to walk around the green ledges on the cliff face of the chalk pit and never had the need to call the fire brigade for rescue but it was close a few times.

Then came the M27 and a whole new playground was opened up. We had the best times playing with the road building equipment and dodging the Securicor van drivers who came past every 1/2 hour or so. Riding the conveyor belt was also a favourite past time. My dad worked for John Laings during the construction and was often called upon by neighbours to turn off the compressors that some meddling kids had started and left running. (sorry Dad).

We spent many a summer evening playing cannon and making Dutch arrows both skills which I think are dead these days.

Keep up the great work on the site.

Mark Wallace - November 2006

NEW - 17-09-2006

What a splendid site. I am now 72 and live in dirty Dartford.

Yes I do remember much of what has been written. The Council most certainly did not give much assistance. When we first arrived the doors were unnumbered and like our several neighbours, we had to go up and down the Wooferton road trying to find our new home. The bus service ended just outside of Wymering and it was a fair old walk just to get where we lived. The pavements were unmade, and the shops were very basic [they were Nissan huts]. Although as you say the News and the Council did not care for us much, the place was civilised, and there was not any nonsense from us kids.

After doing five years in the RAF I came home and used to spend a fair bit of my leisure in the Cross Keys [the only Pub now left in Paulsgrove out of the original six]. By then, 1959, the area had gone down but not noticeably so. The problem in those days was the distance one had to travel to find any entertainment. I packed my bags in 1966 and here I am.

Yes I'm sorry, never mind,

Rex T Tee - September 2006

NEW - 21-08-2006

I have just spent a wonderful 2 hours reading though your Portsdown Tunnels website. Thanks for giving people the opportunity to revisit their old memories.

My parents moved to 159 Deerhurst Crescent, Paulsgrove in 1951 when my bother Stephen Clarke was about 2 (unfortunately he died in 1998) and I was 10 months. We spent our free time playing in Paulsgrove Chalkpit and on "the hill". My mother worked for the Cooper bothers who extracted the chalk [from Paulsgrove Chalk Pit]. At one time someone (it could possible have been Harry Pounds) dumped lots of ships' lockers in the chalk pit. What fun we had opening them to find what had been left in them. We tended to call the tunnels the "caves". My auntie, who has lived in Deerhurst since 1947 remembers the Italian prisoners of war who lived in barracks in the Chalkpit. [The Italian POWs built Allaway Avenue the main access road into Paulsgrove].

"The hill" was very popular come the summer holidays. There was at least one fire during the the months of July and August. It seemed to be a pastime of certain boys from the estate to have a fire and watch the commotion that followed. Portsmouth City Council never invested much money at Paulsgrove or Wymering for the children during the 1950s and 1960s ;"the hill" was about all we had. Also, there used to be the occasional rescue when children attempted to climb up to the Cooper air-raid tunnel. My dad knew a lot about the tunnels; he worked for the MOD.

Because we lived at the top of the estate and the shops were along Allaway Avenue it was mostly my job to go and order the weekly shop. If I went to Pinks they would deliver. A bit later shops were built on the corner of Beverston Road and Hillsley Crescent [demolished late 1990s and subsequently re-built]. I used to go to the Co-Op there. I fell in love with the boy who packed my box for me every week. I must have been about 12. Before the shops were built the site was occupied by the prefabs that ran all the way down the west side of Beverston Road. We had great fun when they were left empty in readiness for being removed.

My bother belonged to HMS Dryad [now Southwick Park] cadets and eventual joined the Navy. I left Paulsgrove Secondary Modern School (now King Richard's) and after working at Vospers and John Palmer Brush factory spent 8 happy years at the Canda International factory [known as C & A, now being used as light industrial units] (along the Southampton Road) as a machinist.

I am now living by The George pub on Portsdown Hill and am still fascinated by its history and loveliness. The house I live in was requisitioned during WWII: for "wayward girls". The land was originally bought by the then landlady of The George (in 1924) from the MOD and butted on to the then Boundary Oak estate: which is now Boundary Way. My neighbours here both grew up in Leominster Road which was a continuation of Deerhurst Crescent. My son and his friends have great times playing in the Candy's Pit cave.

Growing up at Paulsgrove in the 1950s and 1960s was for the main part on the deprived side......but as most of the families were in the same boat we did not seem to notice. Most mums and dads were hard working family people; the sort of people to be proud of. Portsmouth City Council did bring in a policy during the 1960's of housing "difficult families" beside more stable families in the hope that the stable families would have a "good" influence on the others. What a laugh that was. Even now the Council tend to ignore the north end of Portsmouth and focus on Southsea. But I'm proud to say were I was brought up.

Kind regards,

 
Pam Gran - 21 August 2006

NEW - 09-07-2006

I have just been looking at your site and I must say it is fantastic to an old Paulsgrove boy like me. My parents moved to 72 Leominster Road when I was only 6 months old in 1952 so I was truly a local. We as a family had a great childhood growing up around the area and I have many happy memories of the hill sledding in the summer on home built sleds with candle wax on the runners to make it go faster. We played in the Wymering chalk pit and we explored the air raid shelter and it was as you say a time machine. There are so many things we got up to on the weekends that my mum and dad would die if they knew.

I can remember the old submarine that was beached on the mud flats that we used to try and get to by makeshift rafts and sitting on top of the hill and watching the Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth and many other liners heading down the Solent on there way to USA. One, the Fairstar, I ended up on in 1966 to come to Australia.

My wife and I came back to my old home in 2004 after 38 years and I could walk around like I had never left the place. I did comment that there seemed to be a lack of children playing either on the playing fields on the hill.

Steve Frampton - July 2006

NEW - 15-01-2006

I had the honour or not, depends if I caught you, as the last Police employed Traffic Warden in Cosham; based at Cosham police station on Wayte street.

I was born and bred in Paulsgrove and Highbury so I think I have a good knowledge of the Cosham area. I got to know most of the regulars, and as I was a Paulsgrove hill lad. A lot of the locals new my Nan and Grandad, now both passed away, but who where both well known in Paulsgrove area.

I first started as a Traffic Warden at the old Southsea Police Station  [now a Pub] on the corner of Albert Road and Victoria Road South before moving to Cosham in 1991 where I worked until my job went over to the Portsmouth City Council due to de-criminalisation, the biggest mistake ever to happen to Portsmouth.

Anyhow I patrolled the High Street and the local roads in and around the Cosham area issuing the dreaded Fixed Penalty Notices to the INNOCENT motorist !!!!!!. I hope I was seen as a fair but firm Traffic Warden. I moved from the Portsmouth area in 1999 and made a new home in Chesterfield Derbyshire.

John Lockwood Ex TW 8012