A way of shopping a whole world away from today

Back in the 1980s, Henry Hislop of Cowes, now in his 80s, was a presenter on St Mary’s Hospital Radio.

It’s a good thing he was. During his time there Henry recorded some fascinating interviews with various locals talking about Island life in times gone by and not only did he have the good sense to record the interviews, he then kept them safe and sound as the years went by.

Over the next few months some of Henry’s interviews will get another airing here.

The first is with someone well known to many older Cowes readers – Eric Rashley of Rashley’s Stores in Park Road, Cowes who tells of a way of shopping a whole world away from today….

The Spithead Hotel at Bembridge in 1910, and in the background, Bembridge railway station. Just out of shot on the right was Bembridge pier where Dolly would embark for a steamer trip to Portsmouth if the tide was right (Image: Alan Stroud/County Press)

“Rashley’s was a grocery and bakery business. We had three bread rounds, a horse and cart that went around Cowes delivering the bread, a van which used to go to Porchfield and outlying districts and a handcart for the local area.

“Labour was very cheap in those days and you had time to look after people; it was very different to today’s way of doing business.

“Monday morning was washday. There were no washing machines in those days – so you didn’t see very many faces on Monday so that was our ‘wrapping up day.’ Very little was pre-packed so on Monday we wrapped up a week’s supply of tea and sugar, dried fruit and candles – very big business.

“We had our own brand of tea which actually came from Brooke Bond but it had our wrapper around it. Locally, many houses only had gas lighting so we sold a tremendous amount of candles – winter time that was big business.

“Fats were all loose. You had a slab of butter and a slab of bright yellow margarine and lard, all on marble slabs and they were weighed up as the customers wanted it.

“We would go out and collect orders and come back and assemble it and then deliver it to them and if you were lucky, it would be paid for the next week!

“Everybody had at least a week’s credit, some had far more and you were lucky if you got squared up.

“My father used to sit in his office and he’d spend most of his days interviewing salesmen. You’d have your boot polish reps, flour reps and various biscuit companies.

“Biscuits were all in returnable tins, loose. Packet biscuits were just beginning to come in.

“Refrigeration wasn’t common in shops so on Saturday nights, in the hot weather particularly, you had to get rid of all your bacon and perishable stuff, so there were ‘Saturday night bargains.’ We used to open until 9pm Friday and Saturday nights.”

Henry also interviewed the delightfully named Dolly Punch, and she told him about Bembridge life at the turn of the last century.

“In Bembridge harbour there was a pier where the passenger steamers could land if the tide was right but if the tide was low the passengers would have to go farther around to what we called Under Tyne, just along from Ducie Avenue.

Under Tyne seen in the distance in this 1910 photo (Image: Alan Stroud/County Press)

“The boat would berth there and then you had to walk down a cement path, get into a boat, and be rowed out to the steamer. Then you had to climb up a rope ladder onto the steamer and then the passengers that wanted to disembark had to climb down the ladder into the boat and be rowed back to shore.

“You had to watch to know where the boat was going to come.

“There was a man who used to deliver the milk at Bembridge. He wasn’t a young man by any means and he used to carry his two cans on a yoke to walk to the farm near the airport, get the milk, walk back with it to the village and he had to climb a very steep hill to get there.

“Then he delivered the milk round to his customers and after dinner he did the same thing again – two complete trips a day!

“He would be carrying about six gallons at a time, three gallons in each bucket. He had his measures, a pint, half-pint and quarter-pint measures. I know one family who all they ever used to have was one quarter-pint of milk.”

Without Henry these slices of Island life would never have been captured. Well done that man.