Memories of Lyndhurst and Denny Sawmill

Donald Bond
Author: Gareth Owen
An oral history interview with Donald Bond. Interview Date 24/02/2013

Donald Bond was born in 1928 in Lyndhurst. He recalls being at school during the early years of the war, rationing, evacuees and air raids. He went on to work at Denny Saw Mill, now a camp site. Denny sawmill operated during the Second World War and is said to have been the only one in the Forest capable of dealing with large diameter timber. We have numbered the people in the photos and added some of their names. Click on the photo’s ‘More Details’ to see who we know already. If you can add any more detail about them please add your comments.You can see some more Denny Sawmill photos here: Denny Sawmill Photos

 

 

 

Names:
Here are the names of those people we have managed to identify in the two group photos. Can you help name any more?

Denny Sawmill A – Numbered
1 = Geno (Italian PoW)
2 = Bill Coffin (Head Sawyer)
3 = George Rockley
4 = Gus Anersty

Denny Sawmill D – Numbered
5 = Jim Harris (2nd Sawyer)
6 = Jim Whitehorn
12 = George Rockley
21 = Donald Bond
23 = Jack Ellis
24 = Italian PoW
26 = Italian PoW
27 = Italian PoW
29 = Isabella (Bella) Ley, nee Whiffin (Crane Driver)
36 = Italian PoW

Denny Sawmill E – Numbered
3 = Jim Harris (2nd Sawyer)
4 = Bill Coffin (Head Sawyer)
5 = Jim Whitehorn (Labour)
6 = Jack Head (Foreman)
7= Wilf Wiltshire (Sawyer)
11 = Ron Hatch (Labour)
12 = Bill Night
13 = Arthur Long
16 = Donald Bond (Sawyer’s Mate)
17 = Jack Ellis
18 = Lin Sims
21 = Joe Newman
23 = Isabella (Bella) Ley, nee Whiffin (Crane Driver)
24 = Miss Lane
27 = Miss Burrows (Head Girl)
30 = George Rockley

 

 

Interview Quick Clips

All material is © 2015 New Forest National Park Authority.

 

Full transcription of interview recordings.

Download transcription (PDF)

 

Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: Dru Owen
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot

 

Key Words:

Lyndhurst, Fenwick hospital, Emery Down school, school life, Christmas, gasmasks, evacuees, Lyndhurst school, Bartley school, bus, Hants to Dorset bus, air raids, shelters, aircraft, headmaster, Mr Monkton, rationing, butcher, shop, Lyndhurst high street, sawmill, manual workers, bombs, sawdust, explosives, Czechoslovakia, fire brigade, Beaulieu, play, forest, army, billeted, restriction, airborne, Minstead Manor, Compton estate, R.A.F., Stoney Cross, navy, billeted, Grand Hotel, Lyndhurst Park Hotel, army, forest, golf course, French Canadians, British army, Billeted, Bank, Pioneer Core, Compton estate, deliveries, groceries, war, coal, butcher shop, forest, sawyers mate,  pit props, railway sleepers, ban saw, Bill Coffin, flat bed saw, timber, New Forest, felling, Forestry Commission, oak, hardwood, chestnut, fir, Douglass fir, war effort, Germany, rebuild Germany, Denny, employees, Land Army Girls, Land Army, prisoners of war, POW, Italy, Italian prisoners of war, photographs, photograph D, photograph E, allies, Mussolini, dictator, Setley, Bob Only, Gus Anastie, Brockenhurst, Jim Harris, second sawyer, Jim Whitehorn, labouring, cousin, George Rockley, head sawyer, Bill Knight, Ron Hatch, Jack Ellis, Wilf Wiltshire, Bella, Lay, crane, Miss Burrows, Jack Head, foreman, executive, Arthur Long, Don Bond, Joe Newman, Miss Lane, uniform, coloured diamond, guards, transport, lorry, conscientious objectors, National Service, boiler suits, building, structure, aircraft hanger, domed aircraft hangar, building, metal construction, equipment, crane, saws, tractors, generator, diesel, sawdust, burning, bunker, electric, incinerator, ducting, waste, photographs, equipment, ban saw, prisoner of war, Gino, barber, Gus Anastie, cousin, driver, timber, overhead crane, stacking area, saw bench, organisation, Forestry Commission, paid, rations, extra rations, outdoors, tractor, drive, picture C, Saw Doctor’s shop, saw band, corrugated iron, work, winter, accidents, Ashurst, Burley, Forestry Commission head office, professional golfer, sawyer, golf course, regret, Sawmill, reserved occupation, the pits, coal mines, skin disease, Bob Only, Italian prisoners, belts, toys, wages, collecting acorns, Emery Down, farmer, wrist watch, planting, Jean, Forestry Commission, timber, regenerated, chestnut wood, Denny, sleepers, office, administrative work, Miss Burrows, Land Girls, billeted, local area, Lyndhurst, Bella, picture, standard practice, Miss Lane, social life, dances, cinema, Budgens, football, cricket, Goose Green, Brockenhurst road, traffic, travel, bicycle, bus, Hants to Dorset bus, shilling, Southampton, Lymington, Mr White, charabanc, outbreak of war, 1943, R.A.F., bombings, blitz, devastation, shops, Woolworths, carried on, air raids, New Forest, Allum Green, golf course, damage, craters, early 1940s, aircraft, machine gun/ning/ned, White Rabbit, bullet marks, Romsey road, sergeants, direct hit, flares, bad luck, D-Day, Ashurst, French Canadians, Canadians, British, Park Hill enclosure, restricted, lorries, delayed, airfield, film show, tents, Beaulieu, Stoney Cross, no lights, Compton, army, Air Force, National Service, gardening, Germany, Padgate, West Kirby, Waterbeach, Cambridge, station, Berlin air lift, Bolderwood, guards, fingers, cut, manicured, fingernails, parachute, bodies, Luxury Car Show Room, war work, pistons.

Date: 1940
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