History

Mary’s Christmas Story – In Her Own Words

December 17, 2022 By Christine Clark 4 Comments

MARY’S STORY

Oh, I’m so tired. I’m glad I’m able to ride some of the time on Eysl, our donkey, though I do have to walk some of the time, to give him a rest too. I hope we’re nearly there. My back aches and I’ve had some pains – I wonder if that’s the baby coming. I haven’t mentioned those to Joseph – I don’t want to worry him. He’s already worrying about where we‘ll stay when we reach Bethlehem, what with so many people on the road going for the census, like us.

I’m tired and I’m afraid. I’m afraid of what people say about me being pregnant and unmarried. Afraid that the shame will mean we can’t find anywhere to sleep tonight. Afraid of what having the baby – the Son of God – will mean for the family. Will Joseph and I be able to have a normal family life? I’m afraid of what the future holds for us all.

The Virgin in Prayer. Artist: Sassoferrato. © The National Gallery, London. Via Wikimedia.

I do love Joseph. I already did, when we got betrothed. But then when I had to tell him I was with child, I was sure he’d want to walk away. He told me he thought he might, but without making too much of a fuss. But he didn’t, he said he’d stand by me and the baby. He told me he had a dream where an angel told him to take me as his wife, that what I’d said was true – that the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that it’ll be a boy and we’re to call him Jesus. And that he’ll save people from their sins. I’m not sure how that last bit works – but we’ll see. I wonder if it’s what the prophets foretold all those years ago. Could he be the Messiah? My little baby? [Read more…] about Mary’s Christmas Story – In Her Own Words

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, Christianity, Christmas, church, community, history, religion, storytelling, tradition

Hiltingbury Polish Dependants’ Hostel in Chandler’s Ford

November 23, 2022 By SO53 News 8 Comments

By Pawel Basisty

My name is Pawel Basisty and I’m member of Friends of Polish Veterans Association in Southampton. Our organisation is trying to make sure that our army veterans and important history dates are not forgotten but celebrated. Often we take part in the same events as British Legion.

This time we will celebrate the unveiling of the commemorative plaque for 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Hiltingbury Polish Dependants’ Hostel in Chandler’s Ford.

The story of the Polish Dependants' Hostel, Hiltingbury by Marian Sobieraj — The story of the Polish Dependants’ Hostel, Hiltingbury by Marian Sobieraj

Unveiling of the commemorative plaque will take place at 4.30 pm 27 of November 2022 in Polish Club Southampton 507 Portswood Road SO17 2TH.

PHOTOS: Remembrance Sunday Tribute in Chandler’s Ford 2022

November 14, 2022 By SO53 News Leave a Comment

Local people in Chandler’s Ford have come together to honour those who served and to remember their sacrifice. Debbie Pearce from Debbie Pearce Photography has kindly shared some photographs of the Remembrance Service at the Chandler’s Ford War Memorial with the community. She has captured pictures of the parade on Hursley Road and the service at St. Boniface Church. Thank you Debbie.

Remembrance Sunday 2022, Chandler’s Ford. Image credit: Debbie Pearce Photography

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, culture, Eastleigh Borough Council, education, history, Hursley Road, local interest, memory, Remembrance Sunday, St. Boniface Church, war memorial

Remembrance Day Service at the Parish Church of Chandler’s Ford 2022

November 13, 2022 By SO53 News Leave a Comment

On Remembrance Sunday, many people gathered to remember those who have given their lives to protect our freedom.

Representatives from Scout groups across Chandler’s Ford, together with other local community groups, laid wreaths and attended a service of remembrance today at the parish church of Chandler’s Ford.

Image credit: Remembrance Sunday image 2022 4th Chandler's Ford Hiltingbury Scout Group — Image credit: Remembrance Sunday image 2022 4th Chandler’s Ford Hiltingbury Scout Group

The service was held in conjunction with the Royal British Legion and the Borough of Eastleigh. It was led by the Rev Hayley Richens and the Rev Penny Thatcher.

Remembrance Sunday - screenshot from the live stream. — Remembrance Sunday – screenshot from the live stream from the parish church.

Tags: Chandler’s Ford community, community, culture, Eastleigh Borough Council, education, history, Hursley Road, local interest, memory, Remembrance Sunday, St. Boniface Church, war memorial

Remembering

November 11, 2022 By Allison Symes 4 Comments

Image Credits:-

Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Others are taken from the Chandler’s Ford Today archives.

Today is Armistice Day. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – a poignant moment in history.

This year’s events will be familiar and as moving as ever. I think this year they will seem more so I suspect to many of us given one familiar figure will no longer be laying a wreath at The Cenotaph.

[Read more…] about Remembering

Tags: Armistice Day, history, memorial services, memories, remembering, war, war memorial, World War One, World War Two

Author Voice

October 14, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

It took me a long time to work out what my author voice was and why it was important to have one at all. I needed to work out just what it was I wrote, why I wrote it, and develop a writing style. You should be able to read an author’s work and “hear” their voice coming through their characters. It is not just about author style though that feeds into this.

[Read more…] about Author Voice

Tags: Agatha Christie, am reading, am writing, author voice, developing an author voice, inspiration, regular writing, writing style

Favourites

September 30, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credits:-

Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. One photo taken by Allison Symes, the other a family heirloom photo.

My post last week was a reflective one, given the recent (and most moving) funeral of HM the Queen. Usually national reflection is sombre because it is usually connected to Armistice Day/Remembrance Sunday etc.

But reflection can take other forms and I thought it would be nice to have a look at favourites – favourite films, books, music, TV shows etc. The old saying “the past is a different country, they do things differently there” is true but sometimes it is nice to pop back for a visit! And doing that can remind you of things which are well worth bringing back to your recall again.

[Read more…] about Favourites

Tags: favourite radio shows, favourite sweets, favourite TV shows, favourites, nostalgia, personal memories, recollections

A Special Trip to London Before the Queen’s Funeral

September 24, 2022 By Janet Williams 3 Comments

A group of us took the train to London last Sunday Morning, the day before the Queen’s funeral. We were very lucky that day as the train ran very smoothly. We bought the Super Off-Peak Return tickets, and it cost £25 for each of us. The direct train (The South Western Railway) ran from Eastleigh to London Waterloo. The train was fairly empty and we even had a whole carriage to ourselves. We all felt rather excited about this adventure as it was our first trip to London since the pandemic. Well I guess you might be asking, ‘How was the Queue?’ We didn’t go to London for ‘that’ queue, however we did see the queue of the queue of the queue and it was quite remarkable.

A street artist's tribute to the Queen — A street artist’s tribute to the Queen

Some areas were not crowded at all and we enjoyed lovely walks.

Tags: days out, family, London, looking back, memories, Queen Elizabeth II, reflections, remembrance, the royal funeral

Looking Back

September 23, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos

I suspect many of us will have been reflecting a lot over the last few weeks since Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, died. Rightly so too I think. Momentous moments should make us take time out to reflect. You need time to process something. We are not automatons.

[Read more…] about Looking Back

Tags: looking back, Queen Elizabeth II, reflections, remembrance, the royal funeral

Making Monarchs

September 18, 2022 By Mike Sedgwick 3 Comments

The Accession Council

The most urgent matter after the death of a Monarch is a meeting of the Accession Council. When King George VI died, the council met the same day to decide that Elizabeth was the rightful heir to the throne. They adjourned and met again a couple of days later when Elizabeth had returned from Africa. At the second meeting, she was asked to take the Oath. Next came the Proclamation.

Beautiful flower tributes for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. at Winchester Cathedral. — Beautiful flower tributes for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
at Winchester Cathedral.

For me, the Proclamation of Elizabeth as Queen was on a cold February day in 1952. It was an event presaging a brighter future. We assembled at school in Cheltenham while the mayor proclaimed the Queen in his broad rural Gloucester accent. He reminded us to sing ‘God save the QUEEN’, not King, and we became Elizabethans. Now we change back. I sang God save the King in Winchester on September 11th. We are now Caroleans.

St James Palace where the first Proclamation is read. (by Helloworld314 CC BY-SA 4.0)

1952

In those days, city centres were being cleared of rubble from the blitz and slowly rebuilt. Some foods, sugar especially, were rationed, and hardly anyone had a TV or a car. Some public buildings, like our school, had central heating but it didn’t work. Wartime identification cards were abolished that year.

In the arts, The Archers was already established, and The Mousetrap opened; both are still running. The church of Rome banned the works of André Gide (who died 1951), while the Soviet Union executed thirteen Jewish poets. The diary of Anne Frank was published. In the sciences, Alan Turing published an important paper on Morphogenesis and was arrested for indecency. Experiments showed DNA to be the material of genes, not protein, as previously thought. Understanding DNA is one of the great scientific advances of the Elizabethan age. Two animals were sighted for the last time before becoming extinct. Britain declared that it had the atomic bomb. That winter, we suffered the Great London Smog, which killed thousands.

Civic and Army dignitaries arriving for the Proclamation in Winchester

Who shall be King?

[Read more…] about Making Monarchs

Tags: community, education, history, memories, Queen Elizabeth II, school, science, storytelling

Tributes to Queen Elizabeth II

September 12, 2022 By SO53 News 4 Comments

There are many ways to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. In Chandler’s Ford, members of the public have laid flowers by a cross outside the St. Boniface Church on Hursley Road.

Chandler's Ford people lay flowers to pay tribute to to Queen Elizabeth II. — Chandler’s Ford people lay flowers to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II.

Tags: Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, history, Hursley Road, Romsey, St. Boniface Church, Winchester

Photography on the Isle of Wight

August 6, 2022 By Mike Sedgwick Leave a Comment

We like to think of the Isle of Wight as quaintly fifty years behind the times, but one hundred and fifty years ago, Hester Fuller, William Thackeray’s granddaughter, declared Freshwater was equivalent to the Golden Age of Athens under Pericles. The analogy does not hold up as Pericles was involved in the Peloponnesian Wars, whereas Freshwater’s Golden Age was roughly coterminous with Queen Victoria’s reign, the period known as Pax Brittanica.

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was the facilitator of the Freshwater intellectual powerhouse. Her house, Dimbola, became the site of an artistic Salon from 1860 onwards. Alfred Tennyson, the poet laureate, lived nearby at Farringford and was a regular visitor, as was G F Watts, the artist with his child bride, Ellen Terry, actress. Members of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt were also visitors. [Read more…] about Photography on the Isle of Wight

Tags: arts, history, museum, storytelling

The Rule of Three In Fiction

June 17, 2022 By Allison Symes 4 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

The Rule of Three is a classic in all fiction. It is one of the basic building blocks for successful story writing. It’s not new. Think about Jesus talking about the parable of The Good Samaritan. Two people walk by on the other side from the poor robbed man. The third one, the Samaritan, not only stops but helps the victim.

Tags: am reading, am writing, classic fairytales. The Good Samaritan, creative writing, creativity, story structure, The Rule of Three, the three act structure

Platinum Jubilee in Chandler’s Ford

June 6, 2022 By Mike Sedgwick Leave a Comment

The Reign

The King is dead. Long live the Queen. On a grey, inauspicious day in February 1952, we boys were gathered in the school hall, and the mayor, arrayed in his chain of office, proclaimed Princess Elizabeth Queen of Great Britain, her Dominions and Commonwealth. We pledged allegiance to her. All had to be done before the royal funeral. There must be no interregnum when an imposter may claim the throne.

Jubilee photo in community. Image taken by Jill Mayes.

Embed from Getty Images
[Read more…] about Platinum Jubilee in Chandler’s Ford

Tags: celebrations, Chandler's Ford, Chandler’s Ford community, current affairs, event, Hiltingbury, Queen's Platinum Jubilee

Favourite Places

April 1, 2022 By chippy minton 2 Comments

On a recent trip through the Midlands recently, I managed to slip in a long-promised visit to Burton Dassett Country Park, just of the M40 between Banbury and Warwick.

This was a popular venue for family outings when I was a child, but I’ve not been there for about 50 years. It is still as wonderful as I remember. The hills aren’t particularly high or steep – nothing is in that area – but on a clear day they give fantastic views in all directions.

[Read more…] about Favourite Places

Tags: days out, history, industrial heritage, parks

Hand Gestures

April 1, 2022 By Mike Sedgwick 2 Comments

Of the many hand gestures, from the encouraging thumbs-up to the vulgar V sign, there is one that drew me to the history of the Popes; the sign of benediction. With the hand held aloft, palm forward and the thumb, index and middle fingers extended, and the little and ring fingers curled into the palm, the priest intones the benediction and blessing. See the diagram below.

Jean-Marc Rosier from http://www.rosier.pro, CC BY-SA 3.0

The three-fingered sign of benediction and of damage to the ulnar nerve.

Strangely the same hand posture is also a sign of damage to the ulnar nerve. The ulnar is one of two main nerves supplying the skin and muscles of the hand. It is usually damaged the elbow. Most of us have banged our ‘funny bones’ and experienced unpleasant tinglings in the ring and little fingers. That is a temporary bruising of the ulnar nerve. [Read more…] about Hand Gestures

Tags: history, literature, memories, storytelling, writers

Brickmaking in Chandler’s Ford

January 9, 2022 By Christine Clark 5 Comments

It won’t come as a surprise to any local gardener that brickmaking was a big industry round here 100-150 years ago. Our heavy clay soil, as well as the local chalk downland, made this area an obvious site for several brickfields over the centuries. In fact, in the late nineteenth century in Hampshire there were 100-150 works producing clay products such as bricks, tiles and pipes.

Chandler's Ford Community Halls, Hursley Road. — Chandler’s Ford Community Halls, Hursley Road.

It was in around 1870 that it was discovered that our clay soil was particularly suitable for brickmaking. There were three brickfields in Chandler’s Ford. The biggest, which was also one of the largest in the country, was Bell’s, which occupied the land now taken by Chandler’s Ford industrial estate. The position of the railway no doubt helped its success as this was the main means of transporting the finished bricks. A short single-track branch line ran through the brickfield, joining the Eastleigh-Romsey line at the station near the signal box. The whole process of clay extraction, moulding to shape and firing was done on site. This last was not always popular with local residents due to the fumes emanating from the kilns. This brickfield had the honour of providing 35,000 bricks for the construction of the Royal Courts of Justice in the 1870s.

Brickmaking in Chandler's Ford — Brickmaking in Chandler’s Ford

Tags: Chandler's Ford, community, culture, Eastleigh, education, history, local history, local interest, memory, storytelling, war memorial, writing

Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 183, the last)

December 30, 2021 By Rick Goater 26 Comments

Condolences from a small great-grandson; a happy birthday and a treasured card; green-wellied Rick; farewell the Anderson Shelter; a new pond; “queer turns” and “nasty falls”; a last new bird for the garden; several new additions to the Family, and “Good night my dear. God bless you”.

It is June 30th 1991, four days after Jane’s funeral. Gran writes:

I rang Beverly to ask how she is and she said she had recovered from her exhaustion and was very touched and proud that Jane had asked her to be with her during her illness. I thanked her for being with Jane at the last and for her support for me in the Church at Jane’s Funeral Service.

The following day Gran receives a heartfelt and uplifting letter from Julian, based with the RAF in Germany, praising Jane and her “spirit, her values and her bravery”, adding, “… I’d be really proud if I were her Mum”. And with Julian’s communication is a letter from his son, Sam, saying, Gran writes, “Dear Great Gran – we were very sad too”.

Tags: Chandler's Ford, Chandler's Ford Today, family, Hiltingbury, Hiltingbury Road, history, Joan Adamson, Joan Adelaide Goater, Julian Goater, local interest, memory, nature, writing

The Reunion

December 7, 2021 By Mike Sedgwick 5 Comments

We gathered once again for the 65^th anniversary of our first meeting in the university’s Anatomy Department. Eight of us are left, but another eight are still living in the far corners of the world. We were like a copse of trees, saplings, whips and small shoots to begin with. We needed to be nurtured and trained in our respective careers.

Now, in the late Autumn, we are a dying wood. Our abilities fall away like autumn leaves; our branches crack and tumble. What remains creaks with decay and degeneration within. The killing winter frosts will soon finish us all. [Read more…] about The Reunion

Tags: communication, Friendship, history, science, storytelling, writing

Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 182)

December 5, 2021 By Rick Goater Leave a Comment

A new gas supply; the “Great Gale”; worrying news of Jane; Peter Scott, George Green and “a little Pakistani newsboy”; taking a bath is risky; three additional residents at The Ridge; Frank Harding’s eyesight; a shop on fire; the last whist drive, and “the saddest Midsummer Day”.

On September 10th 1987 Gran’s gas supply is being upgraded, and she writes at the end of the day:

There was still no gas and the men dug up the top part of the drive and drilled a hole through the wall and from the cupboard under the stairs into the garage where the new meter is to be installed. The mess everywhere has to be seen to be believed… The gas was restored at 4.45 and the last man told me that men would return in a day or two to re-lay the drive and level the ground outside the gateway.

The Ridge’s drive. It was originally “crazy-paved” with large slabs of limestone, and could be very slippery.

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History

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Image Credits:-

Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Others are taken from the Chandler’s Ford Today archives.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

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Image Credits:-

Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. One photo taken by Allison Symes, the other a family heirloom photo.

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The Accession Council

1952

Who shall be King?

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

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The Reign

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Condolences from a small great-grandson; a happy birthday and a treasured card; green-wellied Rick; farewell the Anderson Shelter; a new pond; “queer turns” and “nasty falls”; a last new bird for the garden; several new additions to the Family, and “Good night my dear. God bless you”.

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A new gas supply; the “Great Gale”; worrying news of Jane; Peter Scott, George Green and “a little Pakistani newsboy”; taking a bath is risky; three additional residents at The Ridge; Frank Harding’s eyesight; a shop on fire; the last whist drive, and “the saddest Midsummer Day”.

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