Harbour memories

10:18am Tuesday 24th June 2008

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VISITORS from Canada Ian and Helen Hayward trod in the footsteps of Ian's late father on their recent holiday to Weymouth. Ian explained: "My father, Stanley, was born here; him and his two brothers, Ralph and Roy."

The three Hayward brothers lived in Esplanade House (also known as Number 1, Pulteney Buildings) at the harbour end of the Esplanade, which their mother Rosina ran as a nursing home.

“The building is now a bed and breakfast called Anchorage House. My grandmother owned the nursing home. Her husband was killed in the First World War by mustard gas and she remarried a man called Bill Sprague. They ran the nursing home together."

Ian Hayward

Ian said: "The building is now a bed and breakfast called Anchorage House. My grandmother owned the nursing home. Her husband was killed in the First World War by mustard gas and she remarried a man called Bill Sprague. They ran the nursing home together; the boys called him Old Man Bill."

The photographs taken in the 1930s show Rosina outside her nursing home and the boys messing around on their motorbike outside the building. "His father always wrote the names of bikes and cars on photographs rather than people," said Helen, referring to a picture labelled 1935 ES2 Norton' taken in 1937. Sadly, Stanley's brother Roy was later killed in Scotland on a motorcycle.

Ian continued: "My dad worked in Bristol as a projectionist, he did chauffeur work and he worked at Handley Page's and DeHavillands." But in 1962, the family emigrated to Canada for a better way of life, where Stanley would not have to work three jobs. Ian's father died in 1984.

"This is our first time in Weymouth. Helen loves it," smiled Ian. "She loves the shopping."

The couple hails from Amherstburg, Ontario, where, they tell me, the local paper is called the Echo too.