Childhood memories

I was brought up by my paternal grandmother in Sandown between 1923 and 1940 whilst my father was serving in Burma. My maternal grandparents lived in Lake. I had an old 35mm silent movie projector which I modified to show sound films, and I received lots of encouragement from Mr. Smith who ran the Rivoli cinema for the owner, Mr. Porter. I used to visit Mr. Smith in the projection booth on Monday mornings when they were running through the films that were showing that week. From my bedroom window I could see the corrugated iron shed housing the Roman Villa in Brading. It had "Roman Villa" painted in large white letters on the roof, so that as a young child I thought that the Romans lived in corrugated iron sheds. In the whole of the 17 years I lived on the Island I never actually visited it.

Hugh Barker