76 High Street
For many years this unusual Art Deco building of brick and concrete was a garage, with Vince’s ‘Invincible Motors’ the first to move in. The Dawson brothers purchased the site in the mid-1920s for their garage. They had come to Lymington in 1919 from the Royal Navy and started in business at 10 St Thomas’s Street before moving to this site. Outside the garage was a gantry of metal pipes that would swing out over the pavement to deliver fuel to the cars. The Dawsons had another brother, Montagu Dawson, a well-known marine artist who lived in Milford. It is now Mountain Warehouse.
77 High Street
William Banks, builder, estate agent and undertaker, operated from this building for over 25 years. A strict employer, he forbade his apprentices from getting married, playing cards or dice or going to pubs or playhouses. In 1859 J Rashley acquired the premises and was soon to become one of the most prestigious builders in the area, with contracts including the Victoria Hotel on Milford cliff. In 1905 Tom Rashley took over the business, building Lymington’s Lyric cinema in 1913, Chewton Glen Hotel in 1914 and also repairing the sea wall. He ran annual outings for his 110 employees using Royal Blue coaches, which could travel at a maximum speed of 12 mph. After 142 years, Rashley’s finally left No 77 in 2001 and moved to Pennington. It is now the Red Cross charity shop.
