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Then & Now (with St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery – New Milton Post Office cica 1940
The main post office pictured was built in 1933 with the first official postmaster being Mr Weston.
A telephone exchange was installed upstairs in 1934.
There were three full-time female telephone operators, plus a part-time seasonal operator, and a bedroom in the exchange for a male night operator.
There were just six telephone subscribers in 1905. That had risen to 600 by 1933.
In 1995 the Post Office counter service relocated to Martins’ newsagents on the other side of Station Road where it remains today within a Morrisons Daily store.
The original building continues to operate as a Royal Mail sorting office.
50 YEARS AGO
Two men became angry when they found they could not get into Christchurch Priory.
They asked a choirboy who the vicar was. When told it was Canon Leslie Yorke they said: “Oh Yorke.” They said: “That old fool, he’s a bit of drinking man isn’t he?”
They also said: “Yorke you bloody old fool ‘Get out of bed!’.”
This was stated in evidence when the pair were found guilty of using threatening, abusive and insulting words and behaviour.
The two men had gone to the vicarage and shouted “Yorke, get out bed! You bloody boozer.”
They told a woman who answered the door that if the vicar appeared they would hit him on the cheek, and when he turned his face, they would hit him on the other one.
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A New Milton man who was stopped in Ashley when a police officer saw the condition of his car was later charged with driving the vehicle in such condition that it was likely to cause danger to himself or other road users.
In court it was stated that his Ford Anglia was completely impregnated with rust. It was said the front half of the body work was likely to collapse.
The driver said that the car passed its MOT a few months before and he believed the lights, brakes and steering were all up to the standard so the car was roadworthy.
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Not to be outdone by their female counterparts the male members of Lymington Yacht Club enthusiastically entered a male personality contest.
Winner was John Wheeler who only the previous week had won the first round of national personality competition ‘Guys and Dolls’ which will see him go through to the county round at Top Rank later this month.
25 YEARS AGO
The case for including the village of Milford-on-Sea within the boundary of a New Forest National Park is to be pressed on the Countryside Agency by the parish council.
Members object to the agency’s proposal to split the parish, with Keyhaven inside the boundary and Milford outside.
Brian Giles said that: “Everyone is saying that just outside the boundary of the national park is where the developers are going to gather like bees round a honeypot.”
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A possible ban on political parties hiring the village green at Milford-on-Sea has been rejected by the parish council whose members considered it would be undemocratic.
Mel Kendal declared: “We live in democratic parts, I defend the right to hold a fete to raise funds for what they think is a good organisation.”
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