General Chat

I was just thinking,and I don't know why,how much I miss hearing them.When did they stop?
It was part of my childhood to listen to a ship passing through the Solent and working out which way it was going.
I remember listening to one as I walked to work in the early eighties but now there are none.

ooh I used to listen to them in the solent too Sharron when I was younger, especially when I crossed on the ferry to work.

Foghorns always sound so mournful don't they?

Last winter my daughter said the foghorn was sounding (it was very foggy!).

She lives in Fareham, Portsmouth. Surely she wasn't hearing things? :-))

Birdi

I remember foghorns from childhood. But something else I remember, that i have not heard for years. The factory hooter. You could set your watch/clock by it. In fact, you didn't need to have either, as peoples lives were run, during the day, by the factory hooter.
Julia in Derbyshire

birdi, I was born and grew up in Fareham and my sister still lives there. She could probably hear a foghorn, sound carries in fog.

Julia yes I remember the Dockyard hooter, as a minute later the streets would be filled with men on bikes about 6 or 8 abreast hurtling down the road towards their lunch. Murder when youw ere taking your driving test. (she says from experience!)

The foghorns still go off in Portsmouth, l hear them when the weather is foggy.

Foghorns still sound frequently on the River Tyne. Have heard them a lot in the last few days.

Thanks Ann in glos and Mummo.

I was sure that's what she said!

Fareham is a very nice place. I love to go to Gunwharf too for a bit of retail therapy. It's a change from going to Milton Keynes (hardly any shops in our town!)

I remember hearing foghorns when on holiday; it was the time of the anniversary of the D Day landings. We not only had the haunting sound of the foghorn but also the sounds of gunfire as they practiced for the actual anniversary ceremonies.

Birdi

I used to work in Portsmouth Dockyard - there was nothing better than the hooter on a Friday at 4:30.
I'd get my bike and join the throng leaving Unicorn Gate!

Was just about to add 'The Fog on the Tyne' has been around here a few days,very mournful sound the fog horn.

..........see Robert has already mentioned it
Mau x

wouldn't want to come out of Unicorn Gate on a pushbike these days.

I remember the foghorn and all those bikes.

If we caught the bus into Portsmouth, we made sure we didn't try to return home when the Dockyard 'emptied'. Nearly every worker seemed to travel by bike. My brother had an apprenticeship in the Dockyard and used to cycle from Portchester every day. Sometimes in the winter there would be long icicles hanging off his hair.

Where did the Portsmouth men keep their bikes...... In their hallway ?
Many lived in terraced houses with no back entrance.

Gwyn

I have been in a fair few houses in Pompey but I can't think of any where there was no back entrance at all.They may well have had to wheel it through the house to the back door.

It made me think that,in 1948,my aunt and uncle moved into a newly built farm cottage and the innovation there was that it had a large hall in which to store the pram.

A lot of Portsmouth houses were in long terraces. I had an 'Aunt and Uncle' (friends of my parents) who lived in one such house, the bike was wheeled through the house. No back entrance, gardens on all three sides.

Maggie I worked in the Dockyard payroom, a day and a half a week.

Birdi Son lives in M Keynes, shops are quite good there.