Hayling at War

Part of the Discover Hayling collection.
discoverhayling.org

[@MikesMovies]

This is lovely, wonderful presentation and great stories. Don't know why its been 7 years and I never come across this before.

[@nigelparker5886]

A bit late to the party, but I saw the title and as a localish lad in the early sixties, I thought…must watch this and just a short way in I see Noel Pyecroft on the screen! I knew him very well, having worked in the brickyard shown, having Seine net fished with him and a few others at night in Hayling bay and done engineering work for him at Burrows Bros in Havant! Lovely man, I tried to see him whilst passing a while back, but he’d recently died and I was devastated! Hey -ho and there you go! Nicely done video and interviews very well carried out too! Cheers

[@ukoldgit]

I used to live opposite Noel Pycroft and was friendly with his sons, my father bought the bricks used to build our house from Noel and I used to pick mushrooms in his field, they were a proper nice family. There was a pill box and a big gun emplacement next to our house (and opposite the brick field) and when I was a lad we used to play around the gun emplacements which had giant circular turntables for the gun platforms, probably gone now but they would have taken some removing as they were heavily built. At the time my dad initially had a scrap yard but then went on to starting Hayling Boat Trailers.

[@lewieboy5957]

What a sweet lady dear Dot

[@janeschwarz9572]

Thank you for this film It brings a better understanding of the Island's wartime involvement.

[@spumemonk11]

Very interesting film. Thanks.

[@frankschmidt5932]

When i was a little boy i can remember concrete blocks between those wooden beach houses .

[@alexhayden2303]

After the war, you could have them removed for free or keep them and receive £4 each. Pill boxes were £70 jobs!

[@richardcurtis2469]

At the ship inn pub at Langston harbour mid sixtys I remember a small landing craft abandoned. I wonder if it was the one that the hero came back to find his girlfriend

[@ukoldgit]

I'm afraid not, it was my fathers who bought it from somewhere in Portsmouth but it sank before he could get it out of the water.