Were you among these office staff from Portchester factory?
My recent picture of the workforce of the Midland Cattle Products factory at Wicor Mill, Portchester, prompted Daphne Baker to get in touch with the picture above.
For those who missed it, I’ve republished the original below.
It was taken in the 1930s and was sent in by David Peters who believed it was unpublished until now.
Daphne, of White Hart Lane, Portchester, sent me the picture of her with the rest of the firm’s office staff taken in 1958 or 1959. She says she was a shorthand typist/telephonist at the time.
And Daphne (née Salisbury) adds: ‘Just visible on the right hand side is the roof of the house at the bottom of Wicor Mill Lane.’
Those in the picture are; back row l to r: Tom Kewel, Anne Softly later Mrs Lawrence, Mary Gladdis later Mrs Neilsen, Daphne Salisbury, Mr Smith. Seated are: unknown man; Joan Dodds, Miss Davis, Pat Spray.
•George Duke wrote asking for help. He’s after a picture of The Friend In Need pub in the Twyford Avenue area of the city. It was demolished in 1973. His grandmother ran it until 1943 and his elderly father would love to see a picture of the old place. Can you help?
•The picture of Lumps Fort, Southsea, which was undated, shows a mini circus there and it brought back memories for David Richardson, of Uplands Road, Denmead.
He says: ‘In 1948, or thereabouts, a circus took over the site and set up a Midget Town with all sorts of sideshows.
‘One in particular was of a man diving from a 40ft-high tower into six inches of water.
‘There were many attractions on the site and I believe some are still in the tunnels at the rose gardens to this day.’
•It was the picture which caught the eye of many of you when we published it in our Saturday nostalgia supplement Retro a couple of weeks ago.
But Amanda Mahoney couldn’t believe her eyes when saw it.
For there she was, aged two, smelling her father’s rose Fragrant Cloud at the Catisfield Horticultural Society summer show in 1973.
I always wonder what became of the children who appear in the old pictures on these pages.
Amanda? That’s her in the red top. She’s now the marketing and communications manager at Rowans Hospice, Purbrook.