A Netley Poem
Did You?
Did you ever go on Saturdays to old Tom Cutler’s shop?
Buy bulls-eyes, striped or liquorice, or maybe ginger pop?
Or at Mortimer’s, the Dairy, take the churn to make icecream?
Or spend a summer afternoon in the Bunny, by the stream?
Did you ever hear the strident clang of the Fire Brigade’s bright bell?
Or forecast rainy days ahead from Fawley’s horrid smell?
Did you ever run an errand down to Lankester and Crook’s?
And hear the bacon-slicer sing, or quail at Grossie’s looks?
Did you stand and watch Miss Penny in her corner cashier’s chair
Pull a little handle, sending money through the air?
Did you scrump old Lusby’s apples – the best I’ve always felt –
Get caught by Sergeant Woodsford? Feel the leather of his belt?
Did you hang behind old Sparshott’s cart, make sparks fly off the street?
Or run across the shingle on to mud that smeared your feet?
Did you see the Annual Flower Show, with marrows great and small?
Or ride the fair-ground round-a-bout, or try the hoopla stall?
Did you go on Legion outings, by “charabang” or train?
And, come each Sunday morning, go to Sunday School again?
Did you see, on winter afternoons with daylight almost gone,
The lamplighter come cycling round to pull the gas-lamps on?
Did you ever hear the milkman’s horse go homeward at the trot?
Or pinch a bursting pod of peas from some allotment plot?
Or mock the rag-and-bone man? Or get a goldfish, free?
Or hear the great ships saying they were home again from sea?
If you remember all these things, though far and wide you roam,
Why then, my friend, you must confess that Netley’s always Home!
Reproduced with kind permission of
P E Ryan
Did You?
Did you ever go on Saturdays to old Tom Cutler’s shop?
Buy bulls-eyes, striped or liquorice, or maybe ginger pop?
Or at Mortimer’s, the Dairy, take the churn to make icecream?
Or spend a summer afternoon in the Bunny, by the stream?
Did you ever hear the strident clang of the Fire Brigade’s bright bell?
Or forecast rainy days ahead from Fawley’s horrid smell?
Did you ever run an errand down to Lankester and Crook’s?
And hear the bacon-slicer sing, or quail at Grossie’s looks?
Did you stand and watch Miss Penny in her corner cashier’s chair
Pull a little handle, sending money through the air?
Did you scrump old Lusby’s apples – the best I’ve always felt –
Get caught by Sergeant Woodsford? Feel the leather of his belt?
Did you hang behind old Sparshott’s cart, make sparks fly off the street?
Or run across the shingle on to mud that smeared your feet?
Did you see the Annual Flower Show, with marrows great and small?
Or ride the fair-ground round-a-bout, or try the hoopla stall?
Did you go on Legion outings, by “charabang” or train?
And, come each Sunday morning, go to Sunday School again?
Did you see, on winter afternoons with daylight almost gone,
The lamplighter come cycling round to pull the gas-lamps on?
Did you ever hear the milkman’s horse go homeward at the trot?
Or pinch a bursting pod of peas from some allotment plot?
Or mock the rag-and-bone man? Or get a goldfish, free?
Or hear the great ships saying they were home again from sea?
If you remember all these things, though far and wide you roam,
Why then, my friend, you must confess that Netley’s always Home!
Reproduced with kind permission of
P E Ryan