25 Argyle Street

History of 25 Argyle Street

1913

Frederick Fitch, painter

1939

Frederick Fitch, b 1876, decorator

Grace A, b 1878

Marion D, b 1913, shop assistant grocery

In 2003 Marion sent her reminiscences of Romsey Town to the Museum.

I was born in one of the side roads in Romsey Town in 1913. and lived in the same house until I moved to a flat still in Romsey Town eleven years ago.

I remember as a little girl a large house which stood in its own grounds where the Broadway is now. It was called the Lodge; we had many a Sunday School Street in the grounds – what happy days.

Very vivid in my mind was a corn merchants situated at the corner of Catharine Street; to enter the shop you had several steps, but oh the joy of entering to buy a happenworth of horse-beans or tiger nuts. No sweets those days.

I remember very well Romsey School where I attended also the fields that surrounded it also Coleridge Road being built. Brookfields Hospital as was then called now Headway and ARH. As a child it was for Scarlet fever cases. How I remember what the children called the Fever Cart which picked up children with the fever. We always held our nose in case we picked up a germ when it passed down Mill Road. Going back to those now far off days was the funeral horse, when all men stood still and removed their hats.

I remember the baths, not that I ever used them. It was the tin bath for me in front of the fire.