West Wighter, Jill Cowley, is collecting memories from former pupils of Yarmouth School to put together a celebration of the community.
She’s been interviewing those at school in the 1930s, 40s and 50s and would be pleased to hear from anyone else with memories of school days in Yarmouth.
1942 Scarlet Fever
This memory shared below from Michael Adams (born 1935) might be of interest to News OnTheWight readers given the recent upsurge of Scarlet Fever on the Isle of Wight.
When I was about seven years old I contracted Scarlet Fever. We lived in Yarmouth High Street at that time and as I had a sore throat and fever Mum took me to Dr Drummond’s Surgery.
Even now I can remember his soft voice saying ‘I’m afraid he will have to go away’. I soon learned that this meant a stay in the Fairlee Isolation Hospital, about a mile the other side of Newport.
A girl called Joan Scarf, also from Yarmouth, was in the same ward diagonally opposite my bed, just the two of us.
No visitors were allowed inside the hospital so I could only talk to Mum and Dad through the locked window beside my bed and we were all really upset when visiting time ended and they had to make the journey home to Yarmouth on two buses.
My sister Ruth who was in the Women’s Land Army at Chillerton Farm about five miles south of Newport, sometimes called by and on one occasion brought me a small model crane lorry.
It was made of pressed sheet metal, war-time quality, but for me in hospital was just wonderful, I couldn’t have asked for anything better and played with it at every opportunity.
When I was discharged after 2-3 weeks I was heart-broken to be told that I could not take my new lorry with me. I’d never had a toy like that at home and it seemed a cruel world indeed.
When I was in Fairlee we had rice pudding with stewed apple every day for lunch until I was heartily sick of it! Strangely, in recent years I have had rice pudding almost every day and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Get in touch
If you would like to share your Yarmouth School memories, you can contact Jill by phone on (01983) 760 327 or by email on [email protected].
Image: Michael Adams back row on right
