Age Concern Dorchester - Dorset's Living Memories

Those sunny Navy Days and a winter to remember

Barbara Emmerton writes...

I can remember the wonderful Navy Days of the 50's and 60's which were held at the Portland Naval Base.

On one occasion sitting on the top of a submarine wearing a very voluminous dress (the fashion at the time) with white gloves and white shoes – not the type of clothing you would expect to be wearing whilst perched on a submarine! Even though I was only in port I can still remember the claustrophobic feeling as I looked down the shaft entrance into the hull.

The winter of 1963 was a terrible one – so much snow, which lasted for ages. I was returning to Weymouth with my husband after visiting my parents and we just about managed to get over Ridgeway because we were following a tractor snow-plough. The sides of the roads were so high in snow that it was like moving between two high walls. Four people got trapped in their car on Osmington Hill and suffocated in it as a result.