Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 86)

A good year for Cuckoos; the Royal Tournament – a bit noisy; Hordle beach – a bit sandy; Christine Truman’s first Wimbledon; the Masonic girls school;  poignancy at the Air Forces Memorial; Prize-giving at Shirley Avenue School; Heath Lobelia, leafy Nottingham and some cricketing greats.

Book 66

Cuckoos are abundant in the Chandler’s Ford area this Summer of 1957, and Spotted Flycatchers, though late in coming, appear to be plentiful, with a pair nesting on the house next door and hawking insects, usually from the gateposts in the front garden of The Ridge.  Gran hears a Nightingale from the house, the first, she says, for several years, but many of the heathland, scrub and birch wood birds, familiar to her in past years, no longer nest nearby as the area is gradually built up.  She records Wood Warblers in the Pinewood still though, and writes on June 3rd:

As I emerged from the Pinewood into Hiltingbury Road I saw a Wood Warbler carrying food for young in her bill and as Hazel joined me, the bird flew onto a tiny Sweet Chestnut sapling not five yards away from us and dropped to the ground. Immediately little clamouring voices proclaimed a nest with young.  The nest was easy to find but domed so that we could not see inside, but we were satisfied.

A little tragedy occurs on the 4th, Jean Hockridge from next door, giving “the sad news that a cat or dog had earlier killed both the children’s Guineapigs – what a pest these wretched animals can be!”

There is little rain at this time and Gran borrows a hose from next door early one morning to water the garden, and enjoys watching a Goldcrest, ”which came within a few feet of me and deliberately stood beneath the shower of water”.

On June 15th Gran is back in London again, with a party, this time at Earl’s Court to see the Royal Tournament.  She says:

The Tournament was really wonderful, though not really my ideal entertainment, being very noisy indeed, extremely so at times, but some parts of it I thoroughly enjoyed and there was a magnificent pageant of colour and movement.  The Salute this evening was taken by the Second Sea Lord, but I did not hear his name.  He occupied the Royal Box.

“I cannot mention all events separately’, she continues, “so I naturally choose those which impressed me most and omit the noisy battle scenes, which, though clever and well-executed, only distressed and unnerved me with their excessive noise.”  She describes the music and dress uniforms, the famous drum-horse, “Hannibal”, and, very much of its time:

Tribal Display and Drill…depicted the transformation of the East African Tribesmen into the trained King’s African Rifles.  In the first part of the display, the warriors were seen moving towards the Wajir Fort to offer themselves as recruits, and each tribe performed its own native dances.  The second scene was a drill display by men of the 6thand 26thBattalions from Tanganyika with the band of the 4thBattalion (The Uganda Rifles) a display of smart regimental marches and arms drill of which these dark soldiers of the Queen may be justly proud.

During Wimbledon fortnight, Gran watches a number of matches next door on the Hockridges’ television, and accompanies Bob Fowler and his daughter Diana, who have tickets, to the place itself on June 27th.  She queues for a ticket and has a nice time watching play on Number 1 and Number 4 Courts, but she says nothing of the matches she saw.

On July 2nd though:

I finished painting the [Corn] Bindweed, a most pleasing subject, before going next door to watch the tennis.  It was most exciting this afternoon, for the sixteen year old, British Junior Champion, Christine Truman, beat the fifth-ranking American, Mrs Pratt in a titanic struggle to reach the semi-final at her first Wimbledon.  It was a splendid performance and a very attractive match, which was tremendously enhanced by the exceedingly good sportsmanship of the American loser, who smilingly acknowledged every shot which beat her.

And two days later, she writes more of Wimbledon:

…where, as I expected, Christine Truman was completely outclassed by Althea Gibson, who won 6-1, 6-1.  I do not belittle the performance of the English girl… but Althea Gibson plays a magnificent game and today lost no time in attacking Miss Truman’s weakest point, her backhand, giving her no chance to use to effect her very strong forehand. I hope most sincerely that Althea Gibson will go on to win the final… I think almost everyone would be pleased to see this coloured girl win this great event.

On July 6th, returning with Antony Harding from a Natural History Society field trip to Micheldever, Gran, “saw with delight, in a man’s newspaper in the train, that Althea Gibson did, indeed, win the Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles, beating Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2, and I later learned”, she says, “ that she won the Doubles as well”.

Nothing further is written about Gran’s battle over the removal of “her“ Yew trees opposite The Ridge, and she appears to have accepted their sad fate.  Her last reference to the situation is made when writing of more felling of woodland in the vicinity of the colony of Epipactis leptochila near Standon:

I resolved to write to several interested people to see if anything could be done to save them but I am not very hopeful in view of the fiasco over the felling of our Yew trees.

July 7th sees Gran taking part in an unfamiliar and little appreciated family outing:

I was taken today with some relatives, down to Hordle so that some of the party could bathe, but this part of the outing held no attraction for me…  This place was truly horrid – crowded with holiday-makers and when we did find a spot in front of the wall to sit down for our lunch, the wind blew the sand onto and into everything so that to eat was impossible. We just sat there whilst the bathers had their dip, and the sand blew into my ears, down my neck and into my hair until I was more than glad to move on again.

The party goes on into the New Forest, of much more interest to Gran, and they enjoy “an early tea at the Honeysuckle Tea Rooms at Minstead, which have changed hands since I was last there…”, she writes. It is while there that Gran first sees the flower-arranging material that we know as “oasis”, describing it thus:

…round containers were filled with a sponge-like substance and were kept moist with water poured in, and the flowers inserted in holes all over the balls. The effect was one of the nicest I have seen.

“I went this morning’, she writes on the 13th, “with a party to visit the Masonic Girls’ School at Rickmansworth”:

One of the Senior girls, Diane by name, took half the party, of which I was one, and conducted us, with a sweet assurance and charming manner, over the School of which she was obviously very proud – and with every reason.  It has eight Houses, each named after a well-known benefactor, and there are just over four hundred girls.   The School is built so that the whole area, with the exception of the Sanatorium, can be traversed under cover, the outer corridor in the form of cloisters.

She is impressed by the Chapel, describing it in great detail, and continues:

The views of the surrounding countryside from the windows of the library, common rooms, dormitories and classrooms were such that, had I been a pupil here, I would have had the greatest difficulty in getting any work done…  The School is certainly situated in one of the loveliest possible parts of this dear old country.

She thinks further on “this dear old country” on the homeward journey:

We stopped at Runnymede to see the Air forces Memorial, which was recently unveiled by the Queen.  It is very beautiful but pathetic and heartbreaking, for it is sacred to the memory of twenty thousand men of the Air Forces of the Commonwealth who have no known grave, and it is set on a hill overlooking what must be one of the loveliest parts of this dear England that they died to defend.

Gran reminds us of the words used by the Queen at the unveiling, writing, “It is fitting that this memorial should be set up at Runnymede, where, seven centuries ago, in the signing of the Magna Carta, the first seed of freedom was sown”, and Gran finishes by quoting, “Pope’s immortal words, which are reproduced in the entrance”:

On Cooper’s Hill eternal wreaths shall grow,

While last the mountain or while Thames shall flow.

Humbly I walked away, wondering why men are such fools – the flowers of youth, the best in the land, thrown away because of Man’s lust for domination and power.  Ah, me.  As if life does not bring its own measure of sadness without man adding needlessly to it!

July 18th:

This afternoon I went to the Golden Jubilee Prize-giving of my old Shirley Avenue School, and it shook me to realize that I first went there forty-three years ago! My old Headmistress [Miss Hole] was there and there were eight or nine of my old schoolfellows there, too, among them “Tommy” Fowler, [nee Joan Tomlinson] with whom I went.  Shirley Avenue is a Junior School only now, but in my time there were children from the age of five up to seventeen, at which age I left, having started there when I was ten.

A few days later, Gran has one of her “red letter days”, adding three new plant species to her Hampshire List, and collecting small samples of each, to paint.  Fellow Natural History Society members, Messrs Southwell and Donahoe, take her out in the former’s car, to show her, she writes, “the great treasure, the rare Cut-leaved Germander (Teucrium botrys), which according to Bentham and Hooker, is found only in a few places in Surrey and Kent. Well! It occurs in Hampshire as well!”  Spring Cinquefoil (Potentilla verna) is also new to her, and:

…to Holmsley and South Hinton, where, a little further on, we stopped once more… and, in a positive deluge of rain we ploughed through drenching undergrowth to find Acrid Lobelia (Lobelia urens) said to only occur in Dorset and Cornwall. But I did know that it was found in the New Forest, though I had never seen it until today.  It was well worth getting soaked for this pleasure!

Book 67

On July 26th Gran takes the train from Winchester to Nottingham, where she is to spend the weekend with Jane.  As usual, she records much of what she sees out of the carriage window, including that:

The spires, domes and towers of Oxford rose above the other buildings and brought back memories of many journeys long ago when I was a child, travelling to and from Birkenhead to meet my Father when his ship came home… through King’s Sutton to Banbury from which point the journey was through countryside entirely new to me.

Arriving at her destination, she is pleasantly surprised by the greenness of Nottingham, with its abundance of trees, and Jane’s flat, “high up on the bend of a tremendous hill… right at the top of a large house… the view is extraordinary”, and the first thing she notices in the garden is a Spotted Flycatcher flying from a perch in a Lilac tree.

On the following day, Jane shows her Mother parts of the city, and Gran’s mind is put at rest concerning Jane’s existence there:

I was surprised and pleased to see how many people Jane already knows.  I had rather imagined her as a little, lonely figure in the heart of a huge, strange city, and here she was, amid the huge shopping crowd, being greeted on every side!  It did me a world of good.

After two days together in Nottingham, Gran and Jane return together to Chandler’s Ford, where their days are spent gardening, working at Fowlers’ shop, delivering flowers to ships at the docks, attending Brockenhurst Horse Show, at which the Duke of Gloucester presented the trophies, and also visiting Arundel to watch a cricket match, played in aid of The Playing Fields Association, “between teams captained by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Norfolk respectively”.  The journey there, by car, is somewhat trying, Gran writing:

It took over half an hour to crawl up a long steep hill where we passed, bonnet to bumper, in an unending line, leaving several cars with boiling radiators to cool off in draw-ins specially provided for broken down vehicles.  At length we reached the entrance to Arundel Park…

Of the game, she tells us:

…the match had been in progress half an hour when we arrived and the Duke of Norfolk’s team was batting.  There were several famous players in both teams and the Duke of Edinburgh was easy to distinguish.  Such names as Graveney, Marshall and Eager, and Ian Craig of Australia added interest and excitement to the game…

Craig was caught on the boundary by Graveney and, in a second, Graveney was surrounded by a host of small boys and girls asking for his autograph, which he kindly gave until the police arrived to clear the pitch!  The Duke of Edinburgh took four wickets, including that of the Duke of Norfolk, and scored thirty-one runs.  When he was bowled and was walking off, a very little boy of about four, jumped up just in front of us and ran out to meet him.  Much to everyone’s disappointment a policeman caught him when he was only about two yards from the Duke, and he dissolved into tears when he was restored to his mother.

We, unfortunately, had to leave before the match was over, for we had a long way to go home, but we had enjoyed a very great privilege.

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Article series

• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 1)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 2)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 3)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 4)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 5)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 6)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 7)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 8)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 9)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 10)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 11)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 12)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 13)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 14)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 15)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 16)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 17)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 18)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 19)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 20)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 21)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 22)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 23)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 24)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 25)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 26)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 27)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 28)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 29)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 30)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 31)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 32)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 33)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 34)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 35)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 36)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 37)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 38)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 39)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 40)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 41)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 42)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 43)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 44)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 45)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 46)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 47)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 48)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 49)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 50)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 51)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 52)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 53)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 54)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 55)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 56)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 57)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 58)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 59)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 60)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 61)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 62)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 63)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 64)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 65)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 66)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 67)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 68)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 69)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 70)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 71)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 72)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 73)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 74)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 75)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 76)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 77)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 78)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 79)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 80)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 81)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 82)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 83)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 84)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 85)
• Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 86)

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