photo © Malcolm McDonald
Malcolm McDonald… Me and two mates in The Anchor pub after a Saturday job in The Neptune Cafe.I walked up to the bar and said 3 halves of larger and when I said,and 3 packets of Ox crisps,my voice went all” high” out of nervousness but got served aged…..14.
Carol Acott… 15
Pete Prescott… 16
Ian Johnson… 11
Sue Young… Wow, you must have looked mature for your age!
Alan Esdaile… Probably 14 but could have been 13. Otherwise it was cheap scrumpy cider from the off licence.
Billy Hammill… 14
Iris Feighan… Life was good then
Sue Young… 14. – ‘vodka and lime with lots of lime, please’ (hated the taste!) At weekly village hall disco – downstairs bar. Landlord knew a lot of us were underage but on the odd occasion police turned up, the upstairs bouncer would bellow out a warning and we would all scarper up the back stairs.
Graham White… 5
Stephen Milner… 16
Judy Atkinson… Probably 14, remember going to Bonitas (nightclub under Queens Hotel) aged 15. Babycham perhaps
Ann Hogg… 14 – cider!
Martin Waghorne… 16
Margaret Trowell… 15, my first boyfriend bought me a gin and orange…only because my mum drank it at Christmas and I didn’t know what else to ask for…it was horrible
. And, as a by the by, it was in The Princes pub (now Pisarros), Hastings where 7 years later I met my husband and last week we celebrated 43 years together!
Steve Thorpe… A pint of Watneys Red Barrel in the Silverhill Tavern when I was the ripe old age of 14.
Dennis Torrance… 16 old town pub a secret lol
Paul Crimin… 16
Janet Rennie… 15. Vodka and lime . Saw Kilburn and the Highroads at the Gransary. South Harrow
Donna Torrance… That picture is how I remember pubs in the 70’s, no fancy food menus. Instead the fish man would come in selling prawns, mussels etc, after a few drinks you would eat them lol, health and safety? Noooo
Liane Carroll… 13
Colin Bell… 14, before going to see an ‘X’ film rated for over 16’s then, no prizes for guessing the film was at The Orion!
Ian Cramp… 15 in The Dripping Spring on Tower Road, a pint of Stella when it was 5.2% I think
Amanda Brooks… 48
Ceri-Ann Morgan… Ditto!
Jeff Belton… I was 18 , and I had friends included my dad all meet up in a pub we used a lot. I asked my guest what they wanted to drink , told the Landlord, after serving me all the drinks he asked me was I older enough to pay for them. Too which my dad said ” excuse me he is, I should know I’m his dad”. Too which the Landlord replied sorry , and said we can have the drinks on the house.
Steve Faulkner… Fourteen
Albert Pitman… 17 Larger, persevered for a year or more before moving onto London Pride
Bill Third… 16. You had to wear a suit and tie to get into the dance halls. On a Saturday evening we would go suited and booted to the Harriett Street Bar, frequented by the many bakers working in the adjacent vast bakeries, including a lad from our street, who ordered the rounds. We would have 2 glasses of McEwans ‘heavy’ each at 2/2p a pint, before walking down to the Beach Ballroom. There were bars at the Ballroom, but they were strict about under-age drinking, being run by the corporation. Once inside the vast ballroom, we would join the circle of young men shoaling round the many young women already dancing with their girlfriends. The boys and girls were on the lookout for ‘talent’ – attractive partners. If a girl flashed you an approving look, or smile you would pluck up the courage to ask her for a dance. If it was ‘yes’ this might be for 1 dance only, several or last the whole evening. Before it got that far, the boys might ask their dance partner where they lived in the city, if they lived too far apart, the boys might thank the girl for dancing with him and see if they could find someone closer to home. There were buses waiting outside at closing time, to take people home to different parts of the city, but once they had accompanied their new girlfriend home and kissed goodnight, the boyfriend might have a 3 mile walk to his own home. So there was a certain geographical divide. Depending on the degree of attraction of course. The Proclaimers after all were ready to tramp 500 miles, Robert Burns took it further to 10,000 miles in ‘My Love is Like a Red Red Rose’, but he had a ship in mind.
Tim Moose Bruce… 956
Judith Monk… 15 Horse and Groom, Babysham.
Stuart Moir… 20 didn’t like the taste
Chris Wood… 15…pint of bitter
Tony Tutt… 16 – A pint of Merrydown. Never again
Dave Nattress… Drink – underage. Most probably it was after football training at the old Bexhill Grammar School games fields in the early summer evenings in about 1967/68 so I would be 14/15. We used to go to the “Turkey” PH off-licence across the road, see cheerful old Charlie Bradford – who wasn’t that cheerful, and was licensee at the time, get a half-pint bottle of Watneys or whatever Brown Ale and drink it. He could see we were lads but no problem. Don’t think any of us really liked it but drank it anyway, then a touch older it would be the offy in Town Hall Square, Bexhill, Bulmers table cider, or always cider, drink it on the seafront by the amusements, sometimes get ill!! Also at music gigs all over and finally the pier gigs where the bar floor would be awash with Whitbread tankard – I think it was – marginally alcoholic I think it was!! Then of course the clubs in the old town, getting towards the legal age by then!
Tracy Birrell… 14. Hawkwind concert on the pier.
Anne Murray… Tracy, I saw them on the pier, I was 19.
Peter Fairless… Pier Ballroom bar, 14
Ralph Town… 15
Keith Hodgin… 15 xmas eve 1964
Christine Pachner… 14 . Nobody asked for ID in the 60s
Rose Biela… 14 vodka and lime was the in drink so that’s what I had
Martin Curcher… 13. Another time, I remember I was with my older brother (who is nearly 3 years older) at White Rock Pavilion, he was 18 and did not get served, so I went and bought the drinks at 15.
Linda Lewis… 14
Vanessa Burton Raw… 12
Marilyn Spence… Well I was still at school Probably 15 or 16 Can’t quite recall but it was a pub in the old town I had a shandy because it was the only drink I’d heard of as mum used to drink it but I didn’t like the taste Would have been the beer Have never drank one since but years later acquired a taste for the good stuff champagne and spirits
Anne Murray… 16.
David Edwards… Christchurch Youth Club aged fifteen then across to the Old England for a pint
Alan Esdaile… David, I remember drinking in there, under age, when seeing groups play in Christ Church.
Larry Crouch… The first and only time I got so drunk I needed help remaining vertical was when I was 17.
Sheila Maile… Gold Label barley wine Anchor pub George Street age 17
Barry Stanton… I was 15 or 16 years old but before that we settled for them big cans of WATNEYS PARTY 7’s from the off licence, and to open it you had to punch two holes in the top with a sharp implement, one hole let the beer out, the other let the air in. They contained just under 7 pints and cost: 1968 – Recommended price at launch – 15 shillings (75p)1972 – MacFisheries – 77p, 1973 – Peter Dominic – 79p, 1974 – Co-op – £1, 1975 – Hillards – £1.33, 1977 – Asda – £1.49, 1979 – Peter Dominic – £1.99 Great memories as teenagers them Party Sevens were.
Graham Sherrington… 18 the RAFA Club Wellington Square my first leave, bought me dad a scotch.
Liz Dianto… 15
Drink – underage. Most probably it was after football training at the old Bexhill Grammar School games fields in the early summer evenings in about 1967/68 so I would be 14/15. We used to go to the “Turkey” PH off-licence across the road, see cheerful old Charlie Bradford – who wasn’t that cheerful, and was licensee at the time, get a half-pint bottle of Watneys or whatever Brown Ale and drink it. He could see we were lads but no problem. Don’t think any of us really liked it but drank it anyway, then a touch older it would be the offy in Town Hall Square, Bexhill, Bulmers table cider, or always cider, drink it on the seafront by the amusements, sometimes get ill!! Also at music gigs all over and finally the pier gigs where the bar floor would be awash with Whitbread tankard – I think it was – marginally alcoholic I think it was!! Then of course the clubs in the old town, getting towards the legal age by then!
14.Hawkwind concert on the pier.
Well I was still at school Probably 15 or 16 Can’t quite recall but it was a pub in the old town I had a shandy because it was the only drink I’d heard of as mum used to drink it but I didn’t like the taste Would have been the beer Have never drank one since but years later acquired a taste for the good stuff champagne and spirits