Lee-On-The-Solent
Lee-On-The-Solent photos (16 available)
Lee-On-The-Solent maps (2 available)
Map of Hampshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Lee-On-The-Solent books (21 available)
- 2 photos on Lee-On-The-Solent appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Lee-On-The-Solent
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Lee-On-The-Solent and Hampshire
Lee-On-The-Solent memories
Read and share memories of Lee-On-The-Solent and Hampshire inspired by Frith photos
Swimming Pool 1965
I have very fond memories of the childrens pool in Lee-on-the-Solent where I used to live between 1960 to 1966. Many summer days were spent at the pool which was located adjacent to the beach. I remember I learned to swim here, I remember the snack bar and all the fun my friends & I had here. My fondest memories are of my time here, in late october 1966 we emigrated to Canada (30 miles west of Toronto where I still live). I was 11 years old then, I am now 53 and I still dream of this place. To return to Lee-on-the Solent for a summer holiday is one of my wishes that I would like to make come true. ...read more here
Contributed by rosemary White
The Tower & The Blue Bird Cafe
I remember the Tower Cinema in the late 1940s, the Saturday afternoon kids' show. Later in the early 1950s I went three times a week, as there were three programes each week, Monday to Wednesday then Thursday to Saturday and old films on a Sunday. We did not have a TV until the mid 1950s. Once I had left school I went to the Tower Ballroom on a Saturday night and to Bert Sharp, also once a month on a Thursday there would be a special dance with Art & The Band Wagoners, this band did all the American air bases and played all the latest music and featured the song that was top of the hit parade. The one I ...read more here
Contributed by Bob Davis
Lee Tower
The Tower also had a bowling alley and the restaurant was a Chinese. As a teenager I worked up enough courage to ask a girl for my first dance at the Tower's ballroom. We used to park our motorbikes outside the "Bluebird Cafe" opposite and had the odd pint of scrumpy cider for Dutch courage. I was very sad to see the Tower demolished as it had everything a teenager needed for a good night out.
Contributed by gordon brown
Lee Tower Ballroom
Interesting seeing the comment about Lee Tower Ballroom, I also have many memories as my Dad played in the Tower Band. The band was Bert Sharps Band and my Dad was Harry Weston, Tenor Sax and Clarinet. If my memory serves me well, the drummer was an ex-Marine bandsman called "Nobby" who I sometimes sat with as a lad, pianist was Jack Grist and trumpet was Danny Deveraux whose son by a great coincidence, I served in the army with in 1963.
Contributed by Tony Weston
Music at The Lee Tower
My Dad also played with Bert Sharp at the Tower Ballroom. He was Ron Eames and played the drums, this would have been in the 50's as my parents were living at Fareham at the time and they would cycle to Lee as my Dad kept his drums at the tower. Bert Sharp played the double bass and then carried on playing with my dad for many years to come ( approx 25 years) and the band was called The Phil Douglas Band.
Contributed by Helen Morey
the dancing years
stationed at hms. ariel (radio school attached to hms daedalus)in 1953 went dancing in the Tower ballroom every wednesday night...wonderful place! met my wife there ! at that time she lived at sarisbury green and had to leave the dance early to catch the local bus connection.to sarisbury green via titchfield I used to wonder where she vanished to!! took weeks before I could eventually see her home....
Contributed by Robert Andrew
Lee Tower ballroom
My Dad was also in the Phil Douglas Band that played at the Tower Ballroom. His name was Les Campbell and he played the accordion. He and Ron played together for a great number of years. I remember being at one of the band do`s and running into one of the big pillars and knocking myself out. Didn't get any sympathy from Mum, she said "Thats what you get for fooling about".
Contributed by leslie campbell
Tower Cinema
I was born in Lee-on-the-Solent and so was quite young when I first went to the cinema. I loved going down the sloping floor to the auditorium. It was almost underground, although we went up steps at the end of the slope. Every Saturday afternoon saw us queuing to get in. The only film I can remember seeing though was a war film after the V E Day street party. My eldest brother was so disgusted (he was all of 9) that he made us come out before it was finished! We had been let in free too! All I can recall of that film was Japanese soldiers and motorcycles!
Even when we moved ...read more here
Contributed by Gaynor Boyd
Up the Tower
I went up the Tower sometime in the '50s I think. I paid all of sixpence at the little kiosk just inside the entrance. A lift whisked us up to the top. I am so glad now that I did as I have a wonderful memory of the view from the top. It was a beautiful day so you could see for miles. What an attraction it would be today.
Contributed by Gaynor Boyd
Lee Pool
Although I used to take my two children to the pool from Stubbington when we lived there in the 1960s my memory is of the 1940s when it was an adult pool with a high diving board.
A swimming gala was put on by the Navy and we sat on the bank facing the sea. At one point a uniformed Navy chap stood on the end of the diving board and made some sort of announcement. To my horror he suddenly pitched forward and fell into the pool! Whether it was part of the entertainment or not I never found out and wasn't really old enough to appreciate it if that was the case. I thought he was drowning. In ...read more here
Contributed by Gaynor Boyd
Change of use
I can't remember when Pier Hotel ceased to be an hotel but in 1965 it was already a Residential Care Home run by Hampshire social Services.
When we moved from Stubbington to Lee in 1977 I went to work in Pier House and stayed for 20 years retiring in 1997.
The site hasn't changed much although it had many alterations to the inside over the 20 years I worked there.
Contributed by Gaynor Boyd
Extracts From Lee-On-The-Solent & Hampshire books
Lee on the Solent grew as a late Victorian development. Its railway and pier, both now gone, prompted ambitious plans to transform the town into a major seaside resort similar in size to Brighton or Bournemouth, but the scheme failed to make the grade. The neat public gardens and floral displays would have added a dash of colour to the proceedings.
An extract from from"Hampshire Revisited Photographic Memories".
Lee Tower was built at the end of the pier in 1935; it was Art Deco in style, and 120 ft tall. From the top it was possible to see right across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. Inside there was a restaurant, a cinema and reputedly the south coast’s best ballroom. Unfortunately, it was pulled down in 1971. Lee has definitely lost some of its character.
An extract from from"Hampshire Living Memories".
The cenotaph in the High Street
commemorates those who died in battle but
whose remains lie elsewhere. It is of unusual
and classic appearance; it was designed by
the architect Harry Inigo Triggs, who had
travelled and studied in Italy. The detailing is
borrowed from the eight blank panels in the
Medici chapel in Florence; on these panels
are carved the names of the town’s dead of
the First World War. (Plaques were added
after the Second World War commemorating
the 54 young men who died on duty away
from home during that conflict). After much
deliberation over an appropriate location for
the town’s memorial, it was erected by the
mason Andrew Perryman of Dragon Street in
its present position early in 1922 - a position
in the Square was discounted.
In the wake of the war, under the auspices of
the Housing Act of 1919, the country set about
building ‘homes fit for heroes’. The first of these
were built in Noreuil Road, which was named
after a little village of some 100 inhabitants
near Arras in France. Petersfield had adopted
the village to help with its reconstruction, and
a letter thanking the town for gifts of parcels
of clothing and coloured wall maps to brighten
the schoolroom was signed by J Nicholai, the
schoolmistress at Noreuil.
The Electricity Supply Act of 1919 gave
rise to an application by Dr R J Cross,
Mr T A Crawter and Mr C W Seaward,
who wanted to form a company to supply
electric light to Petersfield. The plan was for
a generator on land located to the rear of the
Volunteer Arms (now Meon Close), with a
frontage on Frenchmans Road. (Note that
the company was only to supply electric light,
not power). With houses having only 40-watt
lamps, it is unlikely that a supply greater than
20 kilowatts would be required. Tom Crawter’s
house, Clare Cross, was the first house in
Petersfield to be lighted by electricity.
Nevertheless, there was enough power to
supply the Electric Theatre with the town’s
first film shows. The first cinema stood at the
corner between Chapel Street and Swan Street
- in fact, the demolition of the Swan public
house made way for the Electric Theatre.
That first cinema was replaced by the Savoy
Cinema in 1935, and is now a nightclub.
An extract from from"Petersfield - A History & Celebration".
And now to the greatest
mystery: who were the people
who raised the tumuli or burial
mounds on Petersfield Heath
during the Bronze Age some
1,000 years after the Stone Age?
Today, Petersfield is home to one
of the most numerous collections
of Bronze Age burial mounds
in England. Unfortunately, the
planting of conifers on the
mounds in Victorian times and
the mixed tree growth of the
last 50 years has successfully
camouflaged the outline of the
tumuli and largely hidden them
from the casual view (see page
11). To create mounds like this
would have required the labour
of many people, and they appear
to have been built over many
years, if not centuries. So where
did these people live? Why have
they left us no clues to tell us
where they came from?
Did they come from miles
around to bury the ashes of their
dead princes here? Were they
nomads carrying the remains
from a fair distance to a sacred
spot or a clearing in the forest?
Or is it possible that someone
may yet find their habitation site
here within the town itself? In all
probability we shall never ever
know the answer, and the mystery
will remain for all time.
An extract from from"Petersfield - A History & Celebration".
MOST OF this first chapter has to be
supposition, for the facts are few and far
between, but certainly two requirements
were just as important in the past as they are
now in the 21st century: firstly, the lie of the
land was and is still critical to a successful
place to camp for the night; and secondly,
man’s intelligence was and is needed to
make the right decisions on where to camp.
An extract from from"Petersfield - A History & Celebration".