A PLAY about the families of prison officers was performed this past weekend on Portland.

Absolute Theatre and IPACA put on Quarters Kids at the Borstal Officers Club and Governor's Community Garden.

In light of the memories brought back by the communities in the Borstal and the Verne who were featured in the play, Ione Barents got in touch with the Looking Back pages.

She said it brought back memories of her childhood living on Portland as the daughter of a prison officer.

Ione has kindly shared some photos of her formative years on the isle with us.

She recalls: "It was just before my seventh birthday, December 1950, that I arrived at my new home 17 Alma Terrace, The Grove, Portland.

"My first impression of my new home was not good - grey and forbidding buildings.

"Our flat at that time still had the original black kitchen range in the main living room, which was our only means of heating.

"The tiny room that was the kitchen had a very shallow sink and water from the single tap would spray, leaving wet and mould everywhere. "There was no running hot water much to my mum's despair.

"My mum was so incensed at the state of our quarters that she threatened to write to the Daily Mirror stating the fact that staff were housed in worse conditions than the inmates.

"Our decor was pretty miserable - chocolate brown wood panelling with dark cream emulsion above. When the frequent gales blew, our lino flooring would ripple and lift.

"I am pleased to say the prison authorities in time updated our facilities and dad over the years was allowed to use or get inmates to decorate our flat in brighter colours which cheered us up no end."

The house's garden was 'pretty grim' too, Ione said.

"There was a tiny patch of grass and a shared stony surface which ran the length of the terrace, bounded on one side by the Borstal wall. I can remember getting nightmares and being frightened of my outside space as a seven-year-old."

As a child Ione attended the Grove Primary School and remembers some of her teachers as Mrs. Welch, Mrs. Sansome, Mrs. Meredith and Mr Carter.

She said: "I went onto Tophill Secondary School where I was pretty unhappy and played truant a lot. I walked out at the age of 15, without anyone noticing, never to return."

But life on the island had its fun moments, Ione said, with the quarry opposite Alma Terrace proving a true adventure playground.

She remembers: "There were glorious walks along the cliffs to Church Ope and I remember scrambling down perpendicular paths to HMS Osprey and climbing back quickly with jam jars of tadpoles when we saw the red flags flying on the firing ranges.

"I was often being followed by my younger brother."

Ione said she thinks her dad enjoyed his life as a prison officer on Portland.

She said: "He reacted well to a certain amount of excitement, when an inmate escaped he would be off in what I can remember as being a dark green van big enough to seat people in the back rows.

"He had been known to handcuff inmates to lampposts on a mass escape, returning to collect them when he had them all.

"Other times he took his turn on Chesil Beach to catch those that had got that far and were brave enough to try and cross to the mainland."

*See Looking Back next week for the final part of Ione's memories as a prison officer's daughter. Do get in touch if you were a 'quarter kid' and have memories of the prison officers' community.

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