Have you ever walked past the war memorial outside St. Boniface Church and stopped and wondered about the lives that lie beneath the names? Where did they live? Were they born here in Chandler’s Ford?
What sort of work did they do before joining up or were they career soldiers? And who was Margaret Caswell? She’s the only woman who is remembered here.
Well, now’s your chance to find out. [Read more…] about Love’s Greatest Gift – Remembrance, by Margaret Doores
How is your eyesight? How is your imaginative “vision”? Both well, I trust. This post looks at views, both literal and metaphorical, and how a writer can develop their “eye” to generate ideas, regardless of whether they write fiction, non-fiction or both. [Read more…] about Favourite Views
Gran, we learn on July 18th 1954, is Godmother to John, one of Tommy and Bob Fowler’s children. On that day, she, with Jill and Diana (the other two Fowler offspring), and Tommy, drive to Cheltenham, where John is at what Gran describes as “the famous school”. The journey is, typically, described in some detail, Gran enjoying the Cotswold villages with, to her, unusual names: Warborough, Stratton St Margaret, Blunsdon and Cricklade. She is impressed by the verges near the last named, “massed with Meadow Cranesbill”, some of which she collects for planting in her garden at The Ridge. And she recounts an amusing incident:
… a boy emerging from a side road was so startled by the sight of an approaching car that he promptly fell off his bicycle and disappeared into a ditch, though we were nowhere near him!
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 63)
Eastleigh is marking the 100th anniversary year of the end of the first world war today. The event pays tribute to Eastleigh’s role in the First World War.
In Eastleigh this afternoon, I visited a re-enactment of a field hospital, some vintage military vehicles, and have seen great displays by charities and businesses, such as Hampshire Scouts, One Community, Defense Medical Welfare Service, British Legion, Eastleigh and District Local History Society, Eastleigh Gurkha Nepalese Association, Royal Air Forces Association, the Rotary Club, Air Cadets, Peter Green, and local author Paul Nolan. [Read more…] about Eastleigh Remembers – Truly Memorable
Book 44
On June 19th 1954, Gran is delighted for Barry, who:
…came in very late, straight from Uxbridge, where he had been running in RAF Fighter Command Championships, and was delighted to have won the half-mile race in his best ever time – 1min. 56.7 sec. This gives him next week at Uxbridge, undergoing training and running in matches – a very enjoyable way of spending one of his few remaining weeks in the Royal Air Force!
And the next day is recorded by Gran as “a very beautiful and enjoyable one!” She arises early because she is going to Eastbourne with the Fowler family, picking up Jane and spending much of the day with her. Many pages of detailed botanical observations follow, including from the downs above Eastbourne, where, Gran writes: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 62)
Gran records with pleasure an experience enjoyed by Jane, with Robin Eastwood, early in May 1954 when on a wet and windy day, which made travel in the open-topped Talbot uncomfortable, the couple end the day with dinner at the Grand Hotel. A good orchestra was playing, she tells us, and after Robin had asked the name of a piece just played, the leader asked if there was anything Jane would like to hear. She chose a selection from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and this scenario reminded Gran of her very similar and wonderful experience as a seventeen-year old, when, she writes, “the leader of the Orchestra in the Carlo Felici Restoranti in Genoa used to ask me, with a low bow, “and what would the signorina like us to play now?”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 61)
The acorns have started dropping off the oaks around Chandler’s Ford, almost certainly earlier than normal due to the heatwave, but for me, that is the start of autumn. I don’t mind that. As I’ve mentioned before, I like autumn. (Though I try to avoid being hit on the head by said acorns, they can come down with some force, and a number of times as I hear them hit the car roof, I’m glad the car took the impact rather than me!). [Read more…] about As Autumn Approaches
On March 10th 1954, Gran records her first good views of Siskins, the little finch that in later years became a familiar visitor to garden bird feeders:
This afternoon I took Julian for a walk, going first into Cranbury to get some moss for a bowl which I wanted to arrange for Mary’s birthday today. I was sorry to see that much clearing was taking place in Cranbury Park and many birch trees have been felled.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 60)
On February 17th 1954 Gran is suffering from a bad cold but manages to attend a concert in Eastleigh with her friend Mary Harding: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 59)
Late October 1953 and Gran’s thoughts are turning to Christmas. On the 23rd she gathers material for making presents:
I collected some twigs, acorns, seeds, bark, lichen and such, with which to make Christmas novelties and my invalid [probably her disabled friend in Southampton] assiduously stuck the acorns back into their cups for me… a little Seccotine ensuring that they would not fall out again. The next step will be to paint them.
And two days later, feeling ill, and the weather stormy, she writes: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 58)
Gran has already mentioned that the blackberry crop is particularly poor this year, 1953, and the same appears to be true of the apple crop. She writes on September 16th, that she spends time in the Pinewood Gardens apple shed:
…clearing up and laying out the Green Blenheims, a poor crop, covering only half of one shelf with one layer, instead of being heaped right up. It is a bad apple year here, for there are no Bramley Seedlings or American Mothers, and only a few Russets and Newton Wonders. One tree of Lemon Pippins is fairly well covered but I have not seen the Christmas Pearmains or the Worcester Pearmains. There were no Beauty of Bath and no Gladstones. Three baskets comprised the bulk of the Grenadiers and there are only a few of the Early Victorias at the top of one tree. I have not searched but I can see no Lanes from the end of the greenhouse, and there is only one Maltster. I have never known a worse year since I have been working at Pinewood Gardens. There simply was not the blossom in spring – the frost in May had nothing to do with it. Plums were the same.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 57)
Do you know any former Eastleigh Works workers in the area? There is a reunion for them and they are all welcome to attend.
Here is an article by Steve Allen about the reunion: the reunion will be on Friday 10th August 2018 at the Eastleigh Railway Institute. [Read more…] about Eastleigh Works Reunion: Friday 10th August 2018
It’s the last day of July 1953 – a wet one – and Gran is clearing peas in the Pinewood Gardens, and picking a few loganberries. She hears:
…familiar footsteps running up the road and knew that Barry was arriving. He is on leave for the Bank Holiday and was pleased to have done well in the R.A.F. Sports, winning the 440 and 880 yards and the third prize in the sack race! He ran the three-legged with the Squadron Leader but they were unplaced. His prizes consisted of three useful additions to the home – water jug and glasses, teaspoons and a leather wallet.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 56)
On July 7th 1953, Gran travels to Earley, near Reading where Adrian’s mother is staying with her sister at the house called “Anathoth”. On the 8th, they visit the neighbouring towns of Goring and Streatley, separated by the River Thames, travelling by bus, via Pangbourne, and Gran is amused, “at a small village whose name I could not see”, where:
…the driver of the ‘bus leant out in passing and accurately threw a parcel of newspapers right into the doorway of a shop. Obviously it was not the first time he had done this!
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 55)
On May 28th 1953, Jane and Gran go to the Winchester County High School Open Day, and after the school has been inspected, the visitors are treated to a “delightful concert by members of the school”. This includes ballet by Kay Lardy, “who has recently won a scholarship to Sadlers Wells”; a pianoforte solo, “admirably executed by Mary Sales”, and a violin solo, “played with great sensitivity and from memory, by Janet Ashford. A trio of very talented children”, Gran writes. They are driven home by the Ashfords as the sun is setting.
There is another minor hint at provisions for a family dinner on May 31st, presumably a Sunday, when Gran is in a tizzy because:
Having lost a day somewhere this week I imagined today was Saturday and had quite forgotten to get any vegetables for dinner, so I had to dash round to Mr Woods in Park Road and see if he had anything. He had – cauliflowers, which were some of the nicest I have ever had. On the way to his nursery I heard a Whitethroat singing…
And she is unkind again to Eastleigh, where, that afternoon, she “unfortunately” had to play in a tennis match:
What a deadly, dismal, dirty place is Eastleigh – even the gay flags and bunting for Coronation Week could not disguise its squalor and ugliness. It never seems to be clean and impressions on emerging from the railway station – itself one of the dirtiest I know – are depressing in the extreme.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 54)
Writing has a long history from over 3000 BC to the current day. I would summarise the major changes over the centuries as being:-
1. The methods by which people write. (The biro is one of the world’s great inventions, as was the fountain pen before it. I would not want to use a quill to write, though you have got to hand it to Shakespeare for his sheer creativity especially given the equipment he had. What would he have made of the typewriter, the word processor etc? His friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, would have had a far easier time of it compiling the First Folio though and what wouldn’t they have given to be able to access the photocopier!).
2. What people used to write on – everything from cave walls to A4 paper to post-it notes.
3. The methods of publishing writing. We owe a huge debt to Guttenberg and Caxton. What would they make of online writing, where actual printing out is not always necessary, and where texts can be sent by email or scanned and stored?
4. For centuries only the privileged could read and write and then have access to books. I am so glad, in general terms, this is no longer true, though I would love to see a world where good literacy rates and access to books was a “given” everywhere. Sadly, this is still not the case and progress needs to be made on education, especially for girls and women, in particular areas. But that can and should be worked on. Compared with how we were a century ago, has progress been made? Yes – in our part of the world at least but I would like this to spur efforts on to make it true for everywhere.
5. The kinds of writing there are in terms of what is produced – everything from flash fiction to massive fantastical sagas to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Oxford English Dictionary.
Where can you see a dolphin near Portsmouth?
Well, I suppose “looking out to sea” is a possibility, but Fort Nelson on Portsdown Hill is more likely. The handles on a cannon barrel are also called dolphins – because of their resemblance to swimming dolphins arching out of the water.
There is much activity at the Fowlers’ shop in Southampton, packing flowers for departing ships, at this time, and a strike by French seamen causes a degree of chaos because passengers for whom flowers had been ordered are transferred from the Ile de France, whose departure is delayed, to other ships the following day, and correctly uniting flowers with their recipients is difficult. Gran delivers some of the arrangements to the United States, sailing on April 30th, 1953, and writes: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 53)
Gran writes, as usual during Eastertime, of the deep emotions engendered in her at this period in the Christian calendar, and on Good Friday, April 3rd 1953, she attends a service at Compton that is very much of its time:
I met Mrs Durst as I reached the Church gate and we went in together. As soon as I saw the visiting clergyman’s face I knew that the service would be a good one, for his faith shone on his countenance as a lamp in a dark world. He was the Reverend George Sanderson, from All Saints, Alton and the Service proved to be the most moving and beautiful I have ever attended.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 52)
The presence of her new grandson, Julian, gives Gran considerable and frequent pleasure during February 1953. He and his parents are regular visitors for meals, when Barry is home on leave from his RAF station at Rudloe Manor at Chippenham, and often Gran pushes Julian in his pram around the local roads and woodlands while Barry and Jock have a bit of time to themselves at Cranbury, along the Itchen or up at Farley Mount. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 51)
