Growing up on a houseboat.

At the end of Crableck Lane where it met the Hamble there was a jetty where a group of boats were moored. Our house boat Miscellany was nearby and was my family home from 1952-1962.
The boats by the jetty were the homes of people who had come before and during the war to escape the bombing raids. Nevil Shute’s 1938 novel What Happened to the Corbetts shows that even threat of war brought a ‘fear’ that city life would be obliterated and those remaining would be at risk not just of bombs but of disease and starvation. Although this didn’t happen, Southampton was badly hit and many homes destroyed. So those with boats used them; there were moorings along the river and the ‘boat-yards,’ such as Deacons,Elephant  and Faulkes became populated because there was a water supply and links to the local towns and schools. Most people moved…