Andy Vining

About Andy Vining

Retired and live in the South of England, married 50 years, two kids, 3 grand children and a Labrador called Fliss.

The Vinings Invade Hiltonbury Farmhouse!

June 11, 2017 By Andy Vining 1 Comment

On Monday morning 5th June 2017, I, along with my wife Val, my sister, Heather Witham (Nee Vining), my brother Simon Vining and his son Bob Vining met with Rob Preston to see what progress had been made in the refurbishments of Hiltonbury Farmhouse since I was last there a couple of weeks ago.

It is certainly a “Proper” Building site now as it was a requirement for all of us to sign the visitors book and that we all wore high viz jackets and proper boots or to use the technical term we all had to wear “PPE” Personal Protective Equipment. [Read more…] about The Vinings Invade Hiltonbury Farmhouse!

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, culture, education, family, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, history, local businesses, local interest, memory, storytelling, writing

A Special Visit to “Hiltonbury Farmhouse”

May 26, 2017 By Andy Vining 13 Comments

On 22nd May I went to my old home Hiltonbury Farmhouse to meet Rob Preston the new tenant who is planning to open this wonderful old Farmhouse as a restaurant in early July this year.

Rob is a great entrepreneur who has been in and around the wine and drinks industry all his working life but always wanted to work on “The other side of the bar” as he put it and open a family restaurant setting a high standard for good food and excellent service. [Read more…] about A Special Visit to “Hiltonbury Farmhouse”

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, culture, education, family, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, history, local businesses, local interest, memory, storytelling, writing

Going Full Circle: the Journey of Hiltonbury Jerseys

September 7, 2016 By Andy Vining 10 Comments

In the 1960s my Father, John Vining, and I decided to create a milk round in Chandler’s Ford direct from Hiltonbury Farm and deliver to a growing population wonderful Raw Jersey Milk direct from the farm.

From the Hiltonbury Herds beginnings in 1947 by my Father, we were at that time milking around 40-50 Jersey cows in a long shed that housed 36 at a time, so had to do a changeover during milking to accommodate all the cows. It was very time consuming and labour intensive. [Read more…] about Going Full Circle: the Journey of Hiltonbury Jerseys

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, family, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, history, interview, local businesses, local interest, storytelling, writing

Farming in the Winter and Christmas at Hiltonbury Farm

December 19, 2015 By Andy Vining 6 Comments

I am now going back to the 1962/3 before I was married, it was often very cold at this time of year. I used to get up at around 5.00 am to get the cows in for milking as we had yet to build the Cubicle House to keep the cows inside.

Sometimes when it was particularly cold and wet we kept the cows overnight in the cowshed but there was only room for thirty six of them in the cowshed so some had to stay under the lean-too to keep out of the weather, usually about 10 to twelve were the unlucky ones, usually the ones giving the least milk! [Read more…] about Farming in the Winter and Christmas at Hiltonbury Farm

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, Christmas, Christmas 2015 in Chandler's Ford, community, culture, education, family, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, history, local businesses, local interest, memory, storytelling, writing

History of Hiltonbury Farmhouse

January 21, 2015 By Andy Vining 19 Comments

A few days ago my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Janet Williams and her husband at the Hiltonbury Pub, my old home, and we discussed the way Chandler’s Ford had grown over the years.

In the entrance hall of the pub there is a photograph of Hiltonbury taken from the air in about 1974 and Janet suggested that I took a photograph of it and put it on the blog with some descriptions of some of the buildings in the photographs so here goes. [Read more…] about History of Hiltonbury Farmhouse

Tags: architecture, Chandler’s Ford community, Christmas, community, culture, education, family, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, history, interview, local businesses, local interest, memory, storytelling, writing

The Vining Family and Hiltonbury Farmhouse

January 6, 2015 By Andy Vining 16 Comments

My family farmed the North and South Millers Dale and surrounding areas for over 100 years living in Hiltonbury Farmhouse until 1976.

On the 6th of May in 2012, my family gave a picnic table and benches at the corner of North Millers Dale (off Hursley Road) to the NMDCA (North Millers Dale Community Association), unfortunately the little plaque attached to the table was removed some time ago.

Vining’s Copse is named after my family. [Read more…] about The Vining Family and Hiltonbury Farmhouse

Tags: architecture, Chandler’s Ford community, community, culture, education, family, Hiltonbury Farmhouse, history, interview, local businesses, local interest, storytelling, writing

Andy Vining

About Andy Vining

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