Chandler's Ford Community

Christmas is hectic; Gran blesses the neighbours; the “opposite wood – now occupied; new furnishings for The Ridge; the Festival Ballet in Southampton; an awful lot of marmalade; “science never produced such wonders”; Mistle Thrush observations; a visit to London, and something to look forward to.

Christmas 1957 is approaching and Gran expects a full house, with Jane coming home from Nottingham, and the family also due to arrive from Mill Hill.  Arrangements are made with the Hockridges for Barry, Jock, Julian and Ricky to spend the nights next door.  Jane arrives on December 19th:

I expected Jane home late this evening but when I reached home at half-past six, there she was, cooking herself a meal!  She had been able to catch the through train after all.  It was raining slightly when she went back to Winchester for the rest of her luggage, and it was late when we eventually retired.

On the following day:

…as we were having tea, Barry and the family arrived.  It was grand to see them all again, and how the little boys have grown! Julian tells us he starts school on January 7th, and we all received Christmas cards today that he had coloured and in which he had written his name and Ricky’s.  It seems quite incredible.

Clear though it is that Gran loves the family’s presence, she writes the next day that it was somewhat nosy and hectic.  “If only I were not so deadly tired”, she says. “But everyone is being very helpful and Mother [recently unwell] is able to come downstairs for a little while each day now.  Julian and Ricky are delightful”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 89)

A painful bump; 11,000 stamps; 210 paintings; the sweep leaves a mess; American snobs; a letter from Australia; roosting wagtails; The King and I – again! Tears on Remembrance Sunday; a Coal Tit on the draining board and Dad forgets his toothbrush.

Book 68

Gran remembers with sadness Jane’s late friend Robin de Crespigny Eastwood on September 12th 1957, writing Requescat in pace in her journal.  He died three years ago this day.  “I awoke with the beginnings of a migraine”, she says, “but I had promised to help Bob at the shop and then have tea with Tommy, who is feeling rather down since Jill’s departure”.  Gran is busy at the shop and then goes down to the Docks to help deliver flowers on the Southern Cross.  She continues:

Unfortunately, as I got out of the van on returning to the shop, I hit my head hard on the top of it and, never since I was a child, have I so much felt like weeping with the physical pain!  Diana, however, got me some Veganin and these eased it somewhat, though a large “egg” came up on my scalp.

Next day:

I went to Winchester this morning to see an Exhibition of Bird Photography by Eric Hosking in the Public Library.  The Exhibition was wonderful and well-worth the journey, for, apart from excellent photography the pictures were both interesting and beautiful.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 88)

Hedgehog action; mothing on Romney Marsh; a tour of the Queen Elizabeth; a plague of crickets; 50lb of blackberries; one of the “greats” of British botany, and a moving wedding.

August 5th 1957:

Early this afternoon Jean Hockridge called me in to see a baby hedgehog, which she had found in her drain, soaked by very hot water and soapsuds from her washing machine. The little creature seemed little the worse and was drying off in the warm sunshine.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 87)

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: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 86)

Mozart – a tonic for the soul; Gran writes a “bomb”; visits to Regent’s Park, the Houses of Parliament and Chelsea; The Lake and Pinewoods to remain “natural”, a new bird and ten new plants; the Arend-Roland Comet and some black grapes.

As a “tonic to the soul”, burdened by the removal of her much-loved Yew, and other trees opposite The Ridge, Gran, on April 8th 1957, attends the Covent Garden Opera at the Gaumont Theatre in Southampton, where she witnesses the talents of John Lanigan, Geraint Evans, Joan Sutherland and other wonderful performers in Mozart’s Magic Flute.  “The theatre was packed”, she writes, “and terrific applause again and again testified to the enthusiasm and appreciation of the crowd.  It was late and bitterly cold when we came home…” [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 85)

Kindness to a bee; to the cinema – again!; high praise for her flower paintings; birds should build their own nests!; the wonders of the Universe – already understood by naturalists; dancing The Gay Gordons!; the healing gift of flowers and a “sad and bitter day”.

It’s February 17th 1957, and Gran attends a B.E.N.A field meeting at Pagham in Sussex.  Apart from describing the whole day’s findings, she is, as she says,:

…both surprised and pleased to find that we had in our party, Bruce Campbell, the well-known author-ornithologist and broadcaster, and his final decisions upon matters of identification were invaluable.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 84)

A small boy at a Carol Service and a small world; nostalgia for Chandler’s Ford past; “Goater Bros” garage; petrol shortages; Gran buys trousers; waste oil – a menace to our birds; Mrs White has died; something called “Rock ‘n’ Roll”; a local link with top class ballet and farewell to Tom Jenkins.

“I promised last year”, Gran writes on December 20th 1956, “that I would take Mother to Haberdashers’ School Carol Service at St Martin-in-the-Fields this Christmas, if possible, and today was the day!”  The two ladies, together with Gran’s daughter Jane, travel by coach, meeting Jock and Julian in the Church.  There is less room for visitors than there was last Christmas because, Gran says, “…the school numbers had increased to eight hundred boys…” She writes much of Julian in her journals, including on this occasion, during the Service, that he: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 83)

Suez weighs heavily on the mind; life settles into a routine; Jill Fowler is engaged; a visit to the Masonic Hospital; Hoopoes in Hampshire; a film about Minsmere; a new hat and coat; mouth-watering Scottish birds; some Compton history and farewell to Fin.

On August 16th 1956, Gran writes, “The London conference on Suez commenced today and I can only pray as I do every night”. She then offers up a long prayer, including these words, still appropriate today, “Send thy light into our darkness and guide the nations as one family into the ways of peace.  Take away all hatred, prejudice and fear…”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 82)

Farley Mount butterflies declined; the Blackbirds fledge; Pyrola minor – gone; Jane departs Chelsea College; failing to shop in Bournemouth; an unexpected meeting; cricket with Julian; Smarties from Ricky; Adrian’s Day, and how that Yellowhammer sings!

July 10th 1956.  “Just before two o’clock”, Gran writes:

…Alan Hill, the young naturalist from Ireland, who is again in England on holiday, came over to see me, and we took our tea to Farley Mount. Alan was on a motorbike, so he went on and waited for me there.

Among the commoner plants and other wildlife they note there, Gran describes passing a “flowery corner, teeming with butterflies, among them several lovely Silver-washed Fritillaries”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 81)

Union Castle ship interiors; a window is unveiled; a male Blackbird sits; a Jaguar at Noar Hill; a Gannet and a murder in Dorset; a bird’s identity unresolved; unsporting behaviour and a long day across the border in Sussex.

On June 20th 1956, having first checked her Blackbirds’ nest, the progress of which she is following in the garden, Gran says:

Later I went to Southampton, where it was Visitors’ Day on board the “Winchester Castle”, and I was shewn over the ship by an official of the Union Castle Line, who entertained a small party to lunch in the dining room afterwards. I have, of course, been over several Castle boats before, when delivering flowers for Fowlers’, but today I saw the lounge, swimming pool and smoke-room, and enjoyed an excellent lunch on board as well.

The woodwork throughout is of a delightful golden-yellow, and the furnishings in pastel shades, which tone together beautifully. The pictures are in good taste also, and in one suite there hung one by Russell Flint, R.A. depicting a mountain scene of great charm and colour. All the draperies, such as bedspreads, cushions and eiderdowns, are of different colour in each cabin, but all are in keeping with the golden woodwork. An orchestra was playing during lunch.

Samples of the chef’s art, in the way of dressed and decorated meats, were arranged on a table outside the dining-room, and the sight of them made the mouth water in advance! The sun was shining and the gulls constantly circled round the ship.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 80)

A reduced evening chorus; Furzey Gardens; Jane’s last half-term; the Chelsea Flower Show – again; flowers from Hazel; migraine medication; five essays; St Mary’s re-dedicated, and a Blackbird builds a nest.

Book 58

On May 19th 1956 Gran tells us: “As always at Whitsun I recorded the evening chorus for the Glanton Bird Research Station, and, for the purpose, went down to the Lake.”  She notes the times of the day’s last songs and calls of a total of nineteen species, including Cuckoo and Wood Warbler, the only two species on her list unlikely to be heard there nowadays.  No Nightingale is heard, nor a Nightjar, so it appears that these summer visitors no longer find the habitats suitable in their old Hiltingbury haunts. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 79)

Burgeoning Spring; a film star’s wedding; can Jane land a job?; Bill Goater; a life’s ambition fulfilled; more despoilation of the countryside, but Nightingales still hang on – for now.

It’s Spring 1956, and Gran is enjoying the first Cuckoos, nesting Blackbirds, and news of a Willow Warbler singing at Baddesley.  Daffodils, Violets and Primroses are up, and Tortoiseshell and Brimstone butterflies are on the wing.  Indeed, on April 9th:

Jane counted thirty-three Brimstones between Otterbourne and Winchester when she went to Winchester shopping.  Both she and I have lost our hibernating Tortoiseshells today and our bedrooms seem quite empty without them!  There was a Slow-worm in the garden, enjoying the warm sunshine in the shelter of the Heather.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 78)