That Reminds Me: Life in Milford Haven in the 1950s

There was always music in our house, the wireless being the provider, and in 1952, in the newly created UK "Pop Charts," the first official Number 1 was Al Martino's "Here in my heart."

Although my father was no sailor, my mother's brothers were part of the fishing fraternity, so let's start this fifties flashback with the fishing industry, and in our Trawler Corner this week is the Mersey Class steel sided trawler "Cotswold GY 77” (see pic).

Cotswold GY77 (Image: Jeff Dunn)

Built in 1917. 312 tons. 138 feet long. She was used for minesweeping duties during both world wars, and her landings at Milford were: Jan 1925 to August 1934; June 1946 to December 1949, and February 1950 to December 1953.

Skippers included W. Rossant (1946/7); James Hewitt (1947/8), "Nobby" Clark (1950's) and here's a news cutting from the W W Guardian of 13/8/1954...

"On Wednesday evening the trawler Cotswold left on her last voyage in charge of Skipper E. Smith and a skeleton crew. She is bound for Belgium, where she is to be scrapped... She was one of the dwindling number of Super Castle trawlers locally. It seems ironical that while scrap metal cargoes have been landed at Milford Haven from Belgium in recent weeks, a local trawler is bound for a graveyard of ships in that country."

There was a bumper surge in the fishing industry immediately after the war ended, understandably so really, as the trawler fleets requisitioned by the Admiralty for war duties were returned to their owners, and restored, once again, to be used in the way that they had originally been built. And from 1939 to 1945, as the popular fishing grounds had obviously been underfished, there were now rich pickings.

In 1946 the Milford fishing fleet was able to boast 90 trawlers. 

But, for a variety of different reasons, which I may get round to some other time, the boom didn't last, and the 1950's saw a continuous decline in the fishing industry, and by 1956 the number of Milford trawlers had crashed down to 40, with catches reduced accordingly to levels on par with 1900.

But away from the fishing industry the town was showing signs of prosperity, unemployment levels stopped rising, and in the local building boom there were jobs available in house building, new schools and extensions in the nearby Brawdy airbase.

Many trawlermen left the fishing industry to swap their sea-legs for land-lubbing jobs… so much so that, despite their diminishing fleet numbers, the fishing industry found themselves struggling to find enough men to crew the ships.

John Bros. was one of the local builders and in 1955 built the shops and flats in Hakin's Waterloo Square. (See pic)

The names I've got are as follows: BACK ROW L-R: A. Williams, Colin Picton, A. James, G. Hicks, J. Macdonald, T. Cooper, D. Mathias, R. Barrett, J. Miles, A. Barrett, J. Jones, Gordon Mainwaring, B. Clark, T. John, J. East.

STEPS SITTING: R. Heeks, M. Davies, P. Barrett, Tony Hilliet, D. Williams, D. Sinnet, T. Owens,

H. Sanderson, G. Barrett, W. Barrett, G. Davies, B. Davies, M. Barrett, J. Walters, T. Hackett,

Harry Sanderson, D. John, K. Witts, R. Evans, B. Rhead, J. Rimmer, C. Randall, G, Union, D. Clark, J. Fryat.

LEFT OF STEPS BOTTOM: A. John (Builder), W. Barrett, P. Brown, C. Barrett.

RIGHT OF STEPS BOTTOM: L. John, E. Collins, A. Horn, H. John (Builder).

It was also in 1955 that I passed the 11+ and entered the alien world of Milford Haven Grammar

School. Top of the Pop Charts at the time was Slim Whitman's "Rose Marie"and in the solitude of my bedroom, which overlooked the Pill waters, I almost strangled my tonsils trying to copy Slim's yodelling.

But one of my abiding memories of that first week in Yorke Street's Colosseum of learning is not education related at all... it's of my dad's arrival home on Saturday lunch time.

In all my life I had never seen my dad "wide eyed and legless." He enjoyed a few pints of the dark stuff in the pub on a Saturday night, and, in later life, a few tots of "medicinal scotch," but that was about it. 

So when he arrived home by taxi that Saturday afternoon, and had to be helped through the door by Mr Adams... it came as a bit of a shock to both mum and I.

His lunch had long since disappeared into the bin, and my mother, about to ignite her "Edwards"

temper, was abruptly stopped in her tracks when she heard the story of what happened.

She knew that Dad had arranged to go to the dentist to have all his teeth out at 12 noon.

John Bros (Image: Jeff Dunn)

But she was unaware that his morning's toil had revolved around a gas leak on the corner of Charles Street/North Road. A job classified as a "priority" since some of the residents had been complaining about the "smell of gas" in the air.

My dad and his workmate (I think his name was Ashmore?) located the leak, dug out the hole (pick and shovel in those days) and set about fixing the problem. They succeeded in doing so, but not before my dad had inhaled an unhealthy amount of the wayward and dangerous fumes.

It would've been fine except that, ignoring the advice of his workmate, he still went to the dentist

for the full works… and somehow neglected to tell the toothman of his earlier "gassing."  

The dentist duly did his job but was flummoxed when my dad failed to "come round" from the ether world of oblivion for some considerable time. Then, when he did, and my dad finally explained to

him about the Charles Street gas leak... apparently, the toothman wasn't impressed at all!

At the close of the 1950's, in December 1959, joint Number 1's in the UK pop charts were Adam Faith's "What do you want?" and Emile Ford & the Checkmates' "What do you want to make those eyes at me for?"

That's about all for this week, and in memory of my dear old dad, who still had a twinkle in his eye at the age of 95, I think I'll finish with a gassy quote from a 78-year-old Kenneth Bruce: "A British Gas salesman, replacing a defective boiler, told me: “The makers will tell you this boiler will give you 25 years service." He looked up at me, hesitated, and continued. "But of course... to you that would not be a selling point!"

Stay safe and please take care.