This was Lymington 1900 - 1920 by Joan Grigsby

Click to read this fascinating document

Archivists Comments: 
I regret that the original pictures were not of a very high standard and unfortunately they are just a little fuzzy with rippling shadow lines on some of them.
Nevertheless they tell an interesting story of how it was over a hundred years ago.
The following items maybe of particular interest to Members:-

1. Page 11 The rowboat ferry across to the Walhampton shore ¾ pence.  Prior to the causeway being built and a toll imposed this row ferry was the only means across the river unless one went across at Boldre Bridge.
2. Page 12  The paddle steamers “Lymington” and “Mayflower” [circa 1900] appear to operate further up river. Using a small jetty at the side of the railway track just downriver from the rail bridge.  From the looks of the photograph the 2nd Paddler is turning around opposite the Town Quay and may well have tied up there to take on board passengers as well as from Lymington Pier station.
3. Page 13 Bottom Left – Capt. Seymour – wonder why they named the Seymour Post after him.
4. Page 13 Top. The little anecdote about the chauffeur reading his paper, the Rolls Royce in a barge and no towrope in mid Solent is amusing.
5. Page 14. Bottom Picture – “Lymington Regatta – The Crowd on the Pontoon.”  The pitched roof building on the left is the Coastguard Boathouse that in 1924 was bought at auction by the Lymington River Sailing Club. It is now the ground floor of the present Sail loft and partly our Offices. It is worth noting they called this area “the Pontoon”. Rather apt if one reads the next Item.
6. Page 14. Bottom Picture – “Lymington Regatta – The Crowd on the Pontoon.”  Flood Water liability: The area where all the crowds are standing is the paved area between the Club and the concrete dinghy slipway. Note the old random rubble stonewall that surrounds that paved area. The only difference now in the 21st century is that it has had a reinforced concrete capping wall built on top of the stonewall around the waterside edge as part of the Flood Prevention Engineering Works. [Executed in the 1990’s].   However - whenever the really high spring tides occur, the base of the stonewall is extremely porous and seawater under pressure pours through the base of the stonewall and upwards through the paving slabs. Thereby flooding the car park and defeating the Flood Defences.  The RLym YC Ground Floor is in particular danger when we have another major abnormal high tide similar to that of 1989.  All the rest of the sea wall defences on the Lymington side of the river are in good fettle.  However condition of this length of seawall from the corner of the Sail Loft steel gate [where the sheet piling finishes] around to the hump in the concrete dinghy launching ramp is a very serious threat for the RLym YC.
7. Page 17 The Gas lamps that are on the “Pontoon” area were originally in the grounds of St Thomas’s Churchyard adjacent to the main road.
8. Page 19. Dan Bran and his Boatshed.  Seems we have lost a lot of land along that part of the riverbank. See the Bath House; Lymington Town SC in background.
9. Page 21 The Esplanade & the original Bandstand, river bank now the Fortuna Dock.