The Potters Heron has been known affectionately over the years by some as the Potted Herring. I’ve known it for nearly 60 years.
It was indeed a very popular restaurant and bar. It had a thatched roof and was rather more attractive and intimate than the building that replaced it after the fire in 1966, although the hotel that rose from the ashes retained something of the character of the original building.
In 1960, or thereabouts, I was very friendly with the owner’s daughter. She was vivacious and attractive and I was very fond of her. To celebrate her birthday, her parents gave a lavish party to which I was invited. It was a most colourful and lively occasion with a band playing in the ballroom – No discos in those days!! It really was a sumptuous occasion and left a lasting impression on me.
Over the years I visited the ‘new’ Potters Heron for Headteachers’ conferences, meals out and social gatherings and felt that, although it was smart and up-market, it lacked the panache of the original building; it was more functional – the old Potters Heron had real style. I wonder if the next incarnation should be called ‘The Phoenix’ – and maybe it’s time to give it a slate roof!
Those were the Days: the Potters Heron Hotel in the 50s and 60s
I remember the Potters Heron before the 1966 fire, and another event prior to that date, probably in the late 1950’s…
The original line of the main road there was much closer to the Potters Heron than now, due to a particularly nasty accident that took place then.
A group of actors or celebrities of the day were travelling on what was then the A31, in a couple of fast (for then) cars.
The original line of the road can be seen by the present day footpath in front of the P.H., & if you look carefully at the large trees, you can see some old damage to one tree.
That is where one of these people’s cars hit the tree, through going too fast around what was then a tighter curve.
The car hit the tree & exploded into flames, all occupants sadly not surviving the resultant fire.
The second car of the party saw the fire but did not know it was their friends.
It was not very long afterwards that plans were agreed to re-align the road, to its present day alignment, & I remember cycling up there to watch the bulldozers dig out the new road from what had been woodland.
Another Potters Heron story, but a much sadder one than this latest fire.
The Potters Heron was regarded as a boundary post, a marker for the beginning of soft, pretty rural Hampshire for those driving down from ‘The North’. The first substantial thatched building and a hostelry also. Then there is the delightful St Marks Church followed by the tree-lined Straight Mile. Then, after Romsey, you are in the New Forest where the roads are lined by ponies.
Drove past the PH today. I reckon the firefighters did a good job in limiting the damage.