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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 94)

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An unexpected meeting; a new use for the old pram; the new Rector; the Adamson bookplate; the most fabulous order; hints of happiness, but no hope for the New Year; a pleasant surprise; Barry knocked off his bike; Jane kicked by a horse, and great hopes for Speyside next Summer.

I am surprised to discover that Gran even entertained the idea of using a weed-killer in the garden of The Ridge, but on October 23rd 1958, we read:

I squeezed in a little gardening this morning, raking up leaves from the front grass and then putting down a second dose of Fison’s weed-killer and grass fertilizer, which has already much improved the front lawn. Early this afternoon I cycled along to the end of Hiltingbury Road to get some beech leaves to preserve for Winter.  I found that the coloured ones were already very prone to fall, but there were still plenty of green ones, and all go golden brown when preserved in glycerine. Linnets were flying about where the old Polish Camp is being demolished.

The “front grass” at The Ridge.

She takes an “uneventful journey” by train the following day, to stay with Barry and the family at Mill Hill, bringing new books for the boys, and later, is much impressed by Julian’s reading ability at the age of not quite six.  Her reason for going to London is to attend the Exhibition of the South London Entomological Society, of which Barry is now Secretary, and she makes her way there by Underground, alighting at Piccadilly and walking to the Royal Society’s rooms at Burlington House, the venue.

There she renews acquaintance with Michael Tweedie, who this time has not exhibited any more of his moth illustrations telling her “that now he was retired he was too busy to do any “tapestries”!  And her appetite for Scotland is whetted by others that she meets:

…interesting people, including one who regaled me with the botanical delights of Aviemore, where Barry hopes to send me in June, and Philip LeMesurier, who runs the hotel there.  He told me that June is the best month and he will look forward to welcoming me…

At the end of the day:

I had just kissed Barry and turned to go at the entrance when I had one of the nicest and most unexpected surprises of my life.  There, just leaving the Art Exhibition, also in Burlington House, was our Irish friend, Finuala Murphy, who I thought was in Dublin.  She was equally surprised and delighted to see Barry and me, and we all chatted together for some minutes…

After spending a day working at Fowler’s on flowers for the Queen Elizabeth and Pretoria Castle, Gran passes comment on one of the arrangements:

The most fabulous order, which, I think, we have ever received came today for the “Queen Elizabeth” from Moyses Stevens, the Court Florist.  It was for £20, and in addition to Chrysanthemums, Roses, Carnations, Nerines, and Freesias, there were thirty-four Cymbidium Orchids in various shades.  I cannot help feeling that such a sum of money could have been put to better use, for so many flowers cannot be used to advantage in a cabin and would so quickly fade in the heat on board.

Joan Adelaide Goater - her journal about Chandler's Ford.

Jane is home again for half term and on November 1st.  She and Gran:

…took the old pram and two sacks and went down to the oak trees near the Lake for some leaves for the mulch heap.  It took but a few minutes to fill the pram and both sacks, and two journeys made a goodly heap.  Coming home the second time two of the straps broke on the pram and the body at the handle end sank almost to the ground.  In the midst of our hysterical mirth two of Jane’s old school-friends passed in a car and then drew up to enquire the cause of our laughter.  We must have looked like a pair of tramps in our oldest clothes with the broken-down pram and two stuffed sacks on top of it, and Diana and Madelaine looked extremely elegant.  Two other neighbours said they thought we were collecting pennies for the “Guy”!

The old pram – and its original use.

At Compton Church for a Remembrance Sunday Service, described in Gran’s usual heartfelt and poignant manner, she meets for the first time the new incumbent there:

The new Rector of Compton, Mr Fawkes, took the Service, and, whilst missing the familiar figure of Mr Burdett, I liked the pleasant voice and sincere manner of his successor.  A Song Thrush was singing as I left to come home.

Many of the important books in the Goater family have a “bookplate” inside, denoting ownership, and Gran gives some detail about this on November 14th, having been into Southampton for Christmas shopping. “I was very pleased”, she writes:

…about my cousin’s bookplate.  She was Dorothy Adamson, an artist whose work had been hung on “the Line” at the Royal Academy and been exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and she designed her own bookplate – of Pegasus the winged horse.  She died in 1934 at the age of thirty-nine and the copper plate was given to me.  Today I made enquiries and found that it could be printed with the name omitted, so all our family can insert their own names.  It is good to know that the original design will continue to be used.

The Dorothy Adamson bookplate.

Routine jobs take up much of November, Gran’s least favourite month.  There is frequent leaf-sweeping in the garden and a long-lasting bonfire with its highly appreciated smell.  Parts of the lawn are cut with shears, to avoid damaging Foxgloves.  Apricot jam is made, and so is marrow and pineapple. Gran always has some knitting on the go, and she does this and reads books at the same time.  There are fewer flowers to paint at this time, but she does complete Celery-leaved Crowfoot, bringing her total of flower paintings, she tells us, to one hundred and seventy.  On one occasion she spends “a pleasant hour or two… with new-found stamp collectors who generously added many present-day issues to my collection, particularly Colonial, in exchange for a considerably lesser number which I could offer them.”

Gran’s painting of Celery-leaved Crowfoot, now better known as Celery-leaved Buttercup.

She records an amazing total of eighty Snipe in one flock on a trip to Titchfield with Mrs Eagle, and she attends the Confirmation of Antony Harding at St Boniface Church, in Chandler’s Ford on the 23rd.  She several times writes that she is “happy” and has “enjoyable” days.  On the 27th, the day after she notes the return of Tommy from Canada, on the Queen Elizabeth, she receives a letter from Barry with:

…the news that a careless motorist opened his door last weekend and knocked him off his bicycle.  Fortunately he has suffered no worse an injury than a badly bruised knee but it might have been disastrous amid the traffic of London.  I have had two friends seriously hurt by such carelessness and lack of consideration for other road-users.

Another letter arrives on December 2nd, this from her faraway friend Gilbert Whitley:

…of the Australian Museum [which] brought me some very nice stamps, including the special Christmas issue, and the news that his book on Sea-horses is approaching publication either this month or early in the New Year.  No doubt I shall receive a copy.

Book 76

December 16th:

Foggy and damp this morning… But all the greyness of the day was lifted for me by a most unexpected and pleasant surprise.  The post brought me a delightful card and charming note from Mrs Rowsell, the lady who had to leave the “Andes” in July just before she sailed on a world cruise, owing to illness and for whom I did my small best on the quayside.  She hoped I had not forgotten them as, indeed, I had not, and had already prepared a card to send to her hoping she was feeling better by now.  She has sent a “small gift” which has not yet arrived, but to be remembered so kindly certainly warmed my heart this day.

And the story continues three days later, following details of a difficult morning:

An extremely busy morning was made more hectic by the failure of my gas oven, but, after running one lot of baking into next door (how I ever managed before, without the Hockridges for neighbours I cannot imagine) the gas man came and I was able to do the remainder at home.  The parcel post brought me the largest box of sweetmeats I have ever received, from Mr and Mrs Rowsell, a most friendly gift, which will be much appreciated by everyone at Christmas I am sure.

Barry and Jock, with Julian and Ricky, spend Christmas with Gran, sleeping next door at the Hockridge’s. Gran says on the 25th:

We went to Church early – the only really satisfying way to start Christmas, and the Service was beautiful as always… When we returned we were greeted by Julian in Cowboy dress and Ricky in Red Indian and they remained in these outfits all day.

After the traditional Christmas dinner we went next door to see and hear the Queen on Television, delivering her speech to her people everywhere and she spoke, as always, with great dignity but with a friendly smile.

Julian in the Mill Hill garden in his well-loved cowboy outfit.
…and with two friends, and me in Native American kit, on the right.

On the last day of 1958, Gran writes her traditional long letter to Adrian, summing-up her year and thanking him for his encouragement during their brief correspondence.  She tells him:

I have enjoyed some wonderful outings in search of flowers with a new-found friend, Mrs Way, but there have been fewer expeditions in bird-watching and I have added no new species to my list.

And also, referring despondently to the imminent New Year:

I feel absolutely no hope or joyful anticipation for the new one, for the World is a frightening and uncertain place in these days of atomic power and ventures into space, and life seems suspended by the merest thread.  One grieves for the young, with their lives before them.  But one thing is certain; Spring will come again and even in the cheerless days of Winter I dream of daffodils and other early flowers… increasing birdsong, the return of migrants…

“Spring will come again…” Image by R~P~M via Flickr.

1959

Jane, still at The Ridge during her school’s Christmas break, has a lucky escape on December 31st, Gran writing on New Year’s Day:

Jane has worked at the stables and been riding again today – I admire her courage, for she was severely kicked yesterday by one of the horses who resented the presence of another, who is a temporary resident there, and, feeling Jane touch him during grooming, imagined his rival was responsible and lashed out before she could move.  She received six severe bruises on her legs and back before she could escape.  But she went again today, confident that “Flash” intended no harm to her.  I was glad to see her home again, all smiles.

She records on the morning of the 2nd, that though Chandler’s Ford’s weather has been calm, “other parts suffered considerable damage from gales, and some casualties, whilst the Channel Island of Guernsey suffered the severest earthquake ever recorded so close to the British Isles”.  As Southampton experiences thunder and lightning, and hailstones “as large as hen’s eggs”, Gran is next door watching one of the tennis semi-finals in the Girls’ Covered Court Championships, between Carole Webb, the reigning Wimbledon Junior Champion, and Janet Kemp.  Webb has two match points against her but she ultimately wins, making “a splendid recovery and her final shot was a truly devastating forehand drive across court to the extreme right hand corner”. “Incidentally”, Gran adds, “Carole Webb is a member of the Nottingham Tennis Club, to which Jane belongs”.  She wins the final on the following day.

On January 6th Diana Fowler and Gran attend a Natural History Society meeting at which Sir Oliver Hook speaks on the wildlife of Kenya and Uganda, “illustrated by films of his own taking”.  Gran is impressed by the scenery and birds, insects and flowers, and some of the larger animals shown, but, she says, “they raised in me no desire to leave England”.

She herself gives a talk, illustrated with her paintings, two days later, at the Southampton Garden Club, finding herself less nervous than usual in these situations, and “the audience very interested and nice”.  One member assumes her works are done with a pen and poster paints, and seems amazed when Gran explains that she uses nothing more than a small paintbrush and watercolours.

A day’s birdwatching at Dibden Bay provides her with her first new bird for over a year – a female Black Redstart. Homeward bound that evening with Antony Harding, they find there has been a snowstorm and:

The Avenue in Southampton was a sheet of ice and a bus in front of ours skidded into the gutter at the Bassett roundabout.  After a lengthy holdup it was eventually moved on, and ours crawled carefully on to Chandler’s Ford.

There is much snow in the country, and on the 13th, Gran receives a letter from Jane, telling her:

That she had been ski-ing over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the new experience. In fact her letter could not have been less like that of an almost twenty-five year old schoolmistress but was more like that of an enthusiastic child!  She said she was so excited that she was all dithery and could scarcely write. She went into Derbyshire on Sunday. How glad I am that she has been able to enjoy such invigorating things during her youth.  Something to look back upon with pleasure all her life.

Four days later, at Southampton University Gran watches a film shown at a meeting of the Hampshire Field Club,.  It thoroughly excites her appetite for her hoped-for Summer visit to the Highlands of Scotland.  Much of the filming (by Chris Mylne, a man I was to encounter myself many years later when working for the Scottish Wildlife Trust) took place in the Spey Valley, and Gran clearly enjoys listing the, to her, almost mythical birds of that area: Golden Eagle, Crested Tit, Capercaillie, Slavonian Grebe, Dotterel, Black-throated Diver… I do hope she encounters at least some of these in 1959.

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