The Ridge acquires a television; 1000 button-holes; local floods; choosy shopping; a new bird at Beaulieu Road; New Forest management issues, and new employment for Jane.
It is apparent that a television has been installed at The Ridge around this time, September 1960, for Gran has watched much tennis, several plays and live orchestral music on it in recent days. She spends a whole wet afternoon in front of it on October 1st, describing the programmes in some detail: Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in Bringing up Baby, then The Vow – a story of the village of Oberammergau, its people and the preparations for the Passion Play; Tales of the Riverbank, which, she says, “was the last of the series and, though primarily for children, I enjoyed it too”. Then comes a Look programme with Peter Scott, dealing with Badgers and Foxes, and finally a Harvest Thanksgiving Service from Sherborne Abbey in Dorset.
At Southampton Docks, delivering flowers on the United States three days later, Gran, with permission from a nearby Policeman:
…went to look at the “Shangri-La”, the American Aircraft Carrier which was lying in the next berth. The ship was guarded by an American Marine in a pillbox at the foot of the gangway. The “Shangri-La”, of 33,000 tons, carries a crew of 4000 and is commanded by Rear Admiral T.H. Moorer…

The vessel is mentioned again on the 6th, when Gran, at Fowler’s, is packing flowers for a number of ships in port, including “an order for a thousand ladies’ buttonholes for the Shangri-La receptions and dances tomorrow and Saturday”.
A letter from the the son of Gran’s friend Mary Robinson, who emigrated to Malaya several years past, with her husband Hugh and their children, arrives on October 7th:
A letter from young Gaden Robinson, who I thought was still in Kuala Lumpur with his parents, surprised me by being from a school in Westmorland. The “Europa” stamps which I had sent to Malaya for him, had been sent back to Westmorland and he had written to thank me for them. He has only been at the school three weeks and is dreadfully homesick. I wrote to him this afternoon and sent him some stamps, promising to write again.
Chandler’s Ford experiences what Gran terms, “a night of deluge” on the 9th. Her natural historian friend, John Gunningham visits from his home in Aldershot and they walk to the lake together:
…and here met an extraordinary sight! The drain had been unable to cope with the floodwater, and a fountain was spurting out from under a manhole cover and water was pouring down the hill into the lake, which, in turn, had burst its bank at the far end and a rapid stream was flowing over the path making it impassable. We walked along Coronation Way to the corner of Merdon Avenue and here another shock awaited us. Merdon Avenue was closed to traffic, and the fire brigade was pumping water out of two bungalows and the houses on the other side. We learned later that the ford had also overflowed at the Station and Kings Road, these roads being closed also, and people were being evacuated from Mead Road. In the thirty-two years that I have lived in Chandler’s Ford, I have never known conditions so bad, though I have known the ford to overflow at the Station, and last Winter the Merdon Avenue bungalows were twice flooded. Anyway, these ought never to have been built on this land and I cannot imagine how it was even passed as fit for building. It has always been a quagmire.
Cycling home from Farley Mount later that day, Gran and John find Hursley Road closed to traffic owing to floods three to five feet deep, residents being evacuated by boat, and that the centre of Romsey is also under water. “How lucky we are up here!”, she writes.
Book 89
Returning from a long-overdue visit to Adrian’s mother in Kingston-upon-Thames, Gran finds:
…an exciting post awaiting me. There was a First-day Cover, with four beautiful stamps, from Pakistan, a letter from Pat Littlecott saying how much she liked the flowers Jane and I sent to the “Saxonia” to wish her “Bon Voyage”, another letter from Gaden Robinson, and a parcel from John Gunningham containing a viewer for my ever-increasing collection of flower slides, which he, from time to time, has given me.
She is shopping again on October 14th, choosy as ever:
I went to Winchester this morning to buy a hat to wear with my new winter coat, and found the blue tweed more difficult to match than I expected. Of course, the hat was more expensive than I meant it to be, but it is a lovely colour. The cheaper ones looked crude and ghastly in comparison.
Later in the month she is back in Winchester to add a matching suit to her “Glenhaze” coat, half of the price being contributed by Jane.
There is confirmation that the seemingly out-of-character step of buying a television for The Ridge has been taken – no doubt a decision made by Grampa. Gran writes, in the seclusion of her bedroom:
I have retired early with migraine, mainly to get away from the din of a television programme which I felt unable to endure. I find noise my main bugbear at these times and this room brings me peace…”.
Brother drops in on the 16th, and Gran is humorously incensed by one of his comments. A few weeks ago, she and Peg Eagle had seen, on a trip to the Sussex coast, their first Great Skua. They had good views, but:
Brother came in to see me this morning and, when I told him about the Great Skua that Peg Eagle and I saw at West Wittering, he had the nerve to ask me if I was sure it was not an immature Black-backed Gull!!

Every autumn in recent years, Gran has attended a Natural History Society field trip into the New Forest in search of fungi, led by Dr Manners of Southampton University. Being, she says, beyond her skills and knowledge, the specimens found are usually merely listed in her journal, and this is the case on October 22nd, when the list is unusually long, it being a good year for mushrooms and toadstools. She notes at least 70 species identified by Dr Manners, the most interesting of which appears to be “Hydnum erinaceum (a wonderful, large white spiny fungus, on Beech, which we were requested not to touch as a photograph of it was wanted for the University)”.

I appear to be learning something at my infants’ school, for on the 24th Gran records this: “A letter from Ricky this morning told me that he now has a reading book and has read five pages! Also, that tortoise has gone to sleep for the Winter”.

Early November brings an exciting bird record for Gran. Barry is down in order to reconnoitre the Beaulieu Road area as part of the Haberdasher’s School studies there and he and his Mother cycle there on the 6th. Gran records the day over ten pages of notes, saying it was “one of the loveliest days I have spent with Barry”, but the highlight is this:
We were walking along close to the railway when something impelled me to look back and was just in time to see a strange bird fly into a small, isolated Pine tree. I said, “Barry, what’s that bird?” before raising my own binoculars, and, as he lifted his, he shouted, “Great Grey Shrike, ye gods!” And so it was, this rare winter visitor to Hampshire. We had an excellent view of it and it flew to the ground before again rising to the tree.
They sit together, having lunch while observing the bird for a long time:
The beautiful black and grey plumage, and delicately rose-suffused breast could clearly be seen, as could the characteristic black bill, and it behaved exactly according to the book, flirting its long tail and once hovering when catching an insect. This was, of course, a new record for Beaulieu Road, and the first Great Grey Shrike I had ever seen… It is a much bigger bird than I had expected.

Since this time, Great Grey Shrike has been found each winter on the heath near Beaulieu Road Station, many birdwatchers making a regular annual visit there to see it.
All manner of birds, plants and insects are noted this day, including that:
…a species of water insect unknown to Barry and new for the area, was captured for identification later. This entailed the drinking of our remaining coffee so that the creature could be accommodated in the thermos flask, and the capture was effected with one of our drinking cups.
They return home in darkness – “a clear, starlit evening”, she writes:
…and I enjoyed the ride back with Barry, though at the end of about thirty-six miles of cycling and another five walking through bog, heath and woodland, I confess that I was decidedly tired. But it had been well worth it and it had been a most soul-satisfying day.
The Festival of Remembrance, televised from the Albert Hall, brings Gran to tears as usual, and on November 13th, Remembrance Sunday, (which, by nice coincidence, is also the day in 2019 on which I write this) she, with memories of two great conflicts still vivid in her mind, states:
To all who gave their all in two World Wars, may they rest in peace, and to all who still suffer, both physically and mentally, may God bless and comfort them. In gratitude and remembrance.
Following a busy morning making Chaenomeles jelly and preparing Christmas puddings, Gran accompanies Peg Eagle to the Lido Ballroom in Winchester to hear Peter Scott talk of his adventures, with his wife Philippa and cameraman Tony Soper, on the Galapagos Islands. Gran describes the event as “two hours of complete enchantment”, amazed that Peter Scott introduced himself as “a nervous little chap, who devoutly hoped that we should not find him boring and want to throw him out”.

Seven pages of detailed notes in her journal that night are devoted to the subjects of his talk: turtles, iguanas, flamingos, penguins, dolphins, Charles Darwin – the list is long, Gran either having a superb memory or jotting down all he said during the event.
Making a change from the regular natural history meetings that Gran attends, she recounts the subjects discussed at the Annual General Meeting of the New Forest Association, of which she is a member, held in the Crown Hotel, Lyndhurst, on November 21st. She writes:
The meeting discussed several problems concerning the Forest – the growing menace of caravanners with their attendant litter and fouling of the woods, the suggestion of caravan parks at strategic points, a radar station on Beaulieu Aerodrome (successfully squashed, we hope), a permanent caravan site overlooking one of the Forest’s famous beauty spots at Picket Post (unanimously condemned) and the proposed shooting of deer with rifles, a menace not to be tolerated. Opinions on the question of caravanners, sites and camping generally were, naturally, divided, but at least the meeting gave the committee a clear idea of people’s opinions.

Following a full day out with Peg Eagle on the Sussex coast, Gran spends a day of unceasing rain at home on the 23rd, enjoying the pleasure she gains from her stamps. And she receives a letter from Winchester:
…which contained a splendid selection of Ruanda-Urundi stamps, which had been sent to me from the sister of a medical missionary out there. I am going to sell them in aid of the Mission, and started straight away by buying myself what I wanted for Jane, Julian and me! The afternoon brought the pleasure of sticking in the Ruanda stamps.
It seems that every time John Gunningham visits Gran for a field trip, the rain pours down, and he arrives late on November 25th, for a two-day visit, true to form, soaked to the skin on her doorstep. He brings her photographs, including ”the ones he took at Romsey when we went to watch the Salmon leaping”, which “were excellent of the spectators on the bridge and the tumbling water”, she says, “but all he caught of the Salmon was one tail!”
Next day, they get wet together in the Ashurst area of the Forest, and later writes:
This evening John and I started recording the flora of Chandler’s Ford and Otterbourne [on record cards] for Mr Westrup, who is working on the new “Flora of Hampshire”, but after three hours, had only about half checked. However, it is a great help to me.
Gran is ill on the last day of November, and stays in bed. However:
A letter from Jock cheered me. It contained, among other things, the news that our little Ricky is now on his third reading book, and Julian has joined his school’s cross-country club!
December 1st:
An uneventful day until the evening when Jean came running in to say there was a personal call for me from Nottingham. It was Jane! She has got the job for which she had an interview in London yesterday and will start in April. It is to be a representative of the Central Council of Physical Recreation, and part of her duty will be to arrange courses at the various centres throughout Britain. Jane said she was “all of a dither”, but was immensely pleased.
Some details of Jane’s interview are revealed to Gran on the following day, when Barry is down for the Old Symondians Dinner. Jane had lunched with the family at Mill Hill on the day and had described her experience:
The Interviewing Board seems to have discovered qualifications which Jane had not thought necessary to fill in on the form – squash, riding, skating, ski-ing and water-ski-ing, visits to Norway, France, Switzerland and Italy, and the ability to speak French. When questioned about these, Jane told them, “Oh, well, I do those for fun”.
And a few days later, a letter from Jane to her Mother gives more information, and reveals to me that she is not yet, after all, a qualified driver:
Officially she will be Technical Representative to the C.C.P.R.,working primarily in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough. She has already started driving lessons, for a car will be a necessity!
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)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 87)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 88)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 89)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 90)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 91)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 92)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 93)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 94)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 95)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 96)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 97)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 98)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 99)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 100)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 101)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 102)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 103)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 104)
Leave a Reply