From Our Files: Lack of loos...the barred bar...‘fetish’ night complaint
50 YEARS AGO
AN array of more than 90 awards were on display as Sway Men’s Club with a membership of over 1,000 staged their presentation evening.
The skittles league has been extended to accommodate 24 teams, and another innovation was a winter golf league.
The winning ladies skittles team, the Hasbeans, were, from left: Margaret Lacy, Margaret Drodge, Sue Gulliver, Maureen Blackwell, Pam Crouch and Dorothy Linney.
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THE lack of public conveniences in Burley creates a special problem in summer, where there are many visitors to the village.
Private houses are called upon by tourists pleading to go to the loo, while other desperate strangers prefer to use the telephone box and other makeshift spots to relieve themselves – a practice causing concern to Burley doctors.
At the recent meeting of Burley Parish Council a letter was read from Dr C. Wod stating he would like to see something done before 1975.
He wondered if there had been any attempt to hire mobile toilets. It has been 22 years since Ringwood and Fordingbridge R.D.C. first tried to install toilets in the village. A group in the village who want to keep visitors away had always thwarted the R.D.C.’s plans for toilets. Councillor Lesley Errington said they thought in an “ostrich like manner that Burley is still the sleepy little village it was 25 years ago”.
But she added that visitors had to be catered for, saying: “The disgusting state of the alleys, hedges and walls has to be seen to be believed.”
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A RESOLUTION calling for more residential council caravan sites as a temporary solution to the shortage of accommodation was approved at a meeting of the New Forest District Council’s housing committee.
Vice chairman Mr C. Burt said: “We have a lot of young people on our waiting list with no families who have been told that it will be six, or seven years before they will even be considered for accommodation and I feel that caravan sites are their only hope in the short term.”
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THE decision of New Forest District Council’s Amenities Committee not to permit the opening of a bar at the new council recreation centre based in Dibden Purlieu school during school hours was described as “narrow minded” by one of the members.
Major D. Hollworthy declared this as a “typical backward British attitude”.
“Civilised people want to drink and it’s about time we stamped out this narrow minded idea.”
Other members spoke of the dangers of children being in close proximity to the bar. But Major Holloworthy said that he “couldn’t help it if school masters and mistresses are unable to control their children.”
25 YEARS AGO
Claims that women danced topless and various sex acts were performed at a ‘fetish night’ party at the Route 42 nightclub in Ringwood were used by police as evidence to support their case that it should be closed down.
A woman who attended the night said she saw a female being strapped onto a bench in a dim room referred to as the ‘Dungeon.’ She said she also noticed people dressed ‘differently’ including men wearing dresses, and both men and women in leather straps and rubber clothes.
She said she also saw two women dancing and kissing and a man licking cream off a woman’s body. She said: “I thought ‘this is wrong’” at a meeting of the council’s licensing committee.
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Some people might say that £103,859 is an awful lot to pay out for a few drams of whisky. But then Lyndhurst artist John Emms didn’t realise that two of the paintings he used to settle a bar bill in the 1800s would fetch that much at Sotheby’s this week.
One the pre-eminent animal portrait painter in Victorian England Emms found his popularity fading and his love of whisky on the increase. He was eventually forced to part with his collection of over 100 paintings including ‘The Kennel Club’ and ‘Old Faithful’ as payment to the owner of the Stag Hotel in Lyndhurst Ernest Harris.
This was fortunate for Harris’ grand-daughter Kathleen, 70, who sold the two paintings for over £50,000 more than expected.
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Two girls who got out of their depth swimming near a sewage pipe at Highcliffe beach had to be pulled from the water by members of the public. The girls, aged 19 and 15, began calling for help around 10am when they got into trouble near the mouth of the pipe.
At around 12.30pm Portland coastguard received another call reporting two boys drifting out to sea from Highcliffe on a Lilo. The boys made the shore unaided and were given advice by the coastguards.
