IT WAS the days when the local pub was the centre of the community and when, once a year, the regulars planned a day out in a horse-drawn charabanc.

In their best clothes, bowler hats and straw boaters, they gathered outside the Bridge Tavern in Cracknore Road, Freemantle for the photograph above before setting off on their outing.

Back in the 1920s the pub was home to Keith Mainstone, who now lives in Sarum Road, Chandler's Ford, as his grandfather, George Field, was the landlord.

Mr Mainstone, now aged 73, said: "I was born upstairs above the pub, as was my mother before me.

"It wasn't so much a pub but more a community centre where everyone met up for a chat.

"It only served beer, no spirits, and I can remember as a young boy running along the top of the bar in the pub.

"There was a real community spirit. Everyone knew each other and talked to each other.

"Many of the old stokers who were crew on the great Southampton transatlantic liners such as the Aquitania and Mauretania lived in the streets near the pub, and when they were home on leave they all used to meet up there.

"I think they used to miss the sea and each other, so they would always gather in the bar and chat about their times on board ship.

"Outside, the roads were just made of gravel, and water lorries would regularly come along and spray the surface to keep the dust down. All the kids would run out and play in the water and get wet.''

According to Southampton archives, the pub - now converted into houses - closed its doors for the last time on April 5, 1974, having had a licence since 1869.

In the early years of the last century the pub belonged to Scrase's Star Brewery. It later became the property of Strong's Romsey Brewery, and was taken over by the Whitbread Group in 1969. In its early days the pub was known as the Railway Bridge Inn, after the nearby footbridge over the London to Bournemouth railway track.