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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 105)

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Eric Ashby films; Capetown Castle damaged; a conductor laughs; John Crook visits; looking for Sikas; laddered stockings and lost beads; influencing the young; a Turnstone is shot and Mandarins delight.

One of the great names of the time in natural history writing and film-making, Eric Ashby, gives a talk to the Southampton Natural History Society on December 6th 1960.  Gran writes that the meeting was most enjoyable:

…and Mr Ashby showed four of his excellent films of mammals of the New Forest.  He had taken them himself, tortured by midges and mosquitos, without the aid of hides… They were respectively of Badgers, Foxes, Deer, Dartford Warblers and Red-backed Shrikes.

Of the foxes, she says:

…and if all hunters could see the pictures of the vixen and her devotion to her litter of adorable cubs, I should think they would squirm with the burden of guilt every time they set out to kill them.

A vixen devoted to her cubs. Image by Steve James via Flickr.

And there is an interesting sequence showing the Red-backed Shrike’s nest:

…in which were twelve eggs and two hens attempting to brood at the same time.  The eggs proved to be infertile and the mystery of two sitting hens and no cock ever seen, remained unexplained.

On December 12th, Gran listens to a production of The Tempest, on the Radio “in which Gabriel Woolf (who was in the Air Force with Barry) took the part of Ferdinand.  He has a beautiful speaking voice and I much enjoyed listening to him”.

Packing and delivering flowers for the Fowlers takes up much time in the few weeks before Christmas.  On the 15th:

During our visit to the “Fairsby”, we visited the cabin of Mrs Radford, a former secretary at Fowlers’, who was sailing to Australia with her husband and small son, Allan, and took her some flowers from the staff to wish her “bon voyage”.  She, a native of Canada, was delighted to have someone to see her off, as she has no relatives here, and to her husband, an Australian, they are going home.  We also saw, at the docks, the damaged “Capetown Castle”, in Southampton for repairs after the tragic explosion which killed seven of her crew.

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

Book 90

Gran is reminded that she is getting older, on the 18th:

Jane and I went to Compton Church for the Christmas Carol Service, which, as always, was beautiful and inspiring, and the Church was filled.  Hilary Blake again sang some of the solos, and she has a really lovely voice.  It rained all the afternoon and the fog was thickening up again when we came home.  The Inspector on the bus was a Conductor when Barry and Jane were babies and he recognised us when we got on.  As we left, he remarked to me, with an eye on Jane, “It makes us feel old, doesn’t it?”  “Ah well, press on!” Jane said to him, “I must thank you for helping Mother get my pram on to the bus so many times, mustn’t I?”  Whereupon he threw his head back and laughed so heartily that I thought his hat would fall off.  Truly time moves on apace.

These are the Hants and Dorset (known in the family as “Pants and Corset”) buses that I remember. Image from Alwyn Ladell via Flickr.

Barry and the family arrive on the 22nd for Christmas, beds, enough for everybody, being transferred from the Hockridges next door, to The Ridge, so the whole family can sleep under one roof.

Gran writes little about Christmas Day itself; she is, no doubt, exhausted, having worked many hours for the Fowlers, right up to Christmas Eve, and also prepared the house and meals, with Jane’s help, for the festivities.  She notes that everybody seemed delighted with their gifts, and that, “Jane gave Julian a watch, and the time was checked every few minutes all day!”  “We saw the Queen deliver her Christmas message at one o’clock”, she writes:

…and then settled down to the traditional dinner of turkey and “plum” pudding, followed by an interesting television programme of Walt Disney and excerpts from his various films.

It’s been a long time since we have heard anything of John Crook, Dad’s great university friend, but he visits The Ridge on the 27th:

This afternoon, Diana Fowler came to borrow my stamp catalogue, and we asked her to stay to tea as John Crook and his Greek wife were coming.  John was at University with Barry, also reading Botany and Zoology  but they had seen little of each other since, because John has been abroad doing research work.  He is Julian’s Godfather.  His wife, Eviene, was soon quite at home and tea became a hilarious meal as John and Barry reminisced about College days and their trip to Shetland together, and compared notes on their recent activities.

Later Barry and Jock went back to Southampton with John and Eviene to a reunion of the New Forest Ornithological Club, of which Barry and John are founder members.  Diana left soon afterwards and then Jane came back from Alton whence she had been to the Christening of Jonathan, infant son of her former Games Mistress.

Barry leaves by train on the 28th for a few days’ camping with some Haberdashers at Beaulieu Road, while Jock and the boys remain in Chandler’s Ford.  Gran buys for herself, with a Christmas gift token, the promised book by Elizabeth Gouge: The Dean’s Watch, and spends a pleasant evening with it on the 30th, saying, “It promises to be as delightful as all Miss Gouge’s books, and a refuge from the troubles of this world”.

The year ends, and Gran, as usual, sums it up in a letter to Adrian, to whom her journal is dedicated.  As well as recounting her experiences of the new flowers and birds she has seen, and the various doings of the family, she adds:

…and I have met two charming and interesting overseas naturalists – Mrs Soulsby, an ornithologist from Canada, and Mrs Messmer, a botanist from Sydney, Australia, friend and colleague of another old friend of mine, Gilbert Whitley.

Gran had spent some time with both of these ladies, showing them local birds and plants.  “These are the things I shall remember of 1960”, she writes, concluding:

…and among them all, there has always run the golden thread of memories of you and your great influence upon my life, an influence that has brought nothing but what is good and beautiful and for which I thank you again.

1961

On January 7th, some thirty members of the Natural History Society, including Gran and two new acquaintances, Peter and Pat Heppleston, from Yorkshire, recently moved into a house in Queen’s Road, are taken by the well-known deer specialist, Peter Carne, to Hawkhill Inclosure:

…hoping to see Sika Deer which, since being introduced into the woods around Beaulieu, have increased their range, though so far, have not yet crossed the railway onto the Lyndhurst side.

In spite of three hours during which they “ploughed stolidly through sodden woods and along mud-filled rides”, they did not find the deer, but Gran sees “high seats” for the first time, describing them as, “a continental idea for shooting, in deer control, but here used also for observation, as Sika Deer have been granted protection for three years to give them a chance to build up”.

Sika stag – often rather dark and with a bit of a frown. Image by Chris Parker via Flickr.

Much work for the Fowlers takes place during January, including, on the 19th, a delivery on the Edinburgh Castle where Gran says she meets:

…some of the nicest passengers that it has ever been my pleasure to serve.  Among them were Lord and Lady McAndrew, who complemented me on the choice and condition of our flowers and asked me to tell Mr Fowler how greatly they were appreciated.

And later that day we learn something of recent developments in the life of her Godson, John Fowler, when she makes a tea-time visit to Tommy and Bob, at their house, in Bassett, “to see John’s wife, Mary, and baby daughter, Susan, who is a delightful scrap of humanity in whom her Burmese ancestry is an added charm.  She has the most beautiful little hands.”

A production by the B.B.C., of, as she describes them: “Eric Ashby’s wonderful nature films, which I saw in colour…in November”, annoys her that evening:

I found tonight’s showing very disappointing for, instead of making it a simple natural history film, they had made of it a facetious story, with commentary by Johnny Morris, in which two children, after a picnic in the New Forest, saw, in half an hour, what it had taken Eric Ashby several years and hours of patience, to photograph. Why they couldn’t have had a real naturalist to introduce the films I cannot imagine.

Johnny Morris – entertaining for children but perhaps “not a real naturalist”. Image from The Lowry via Flickr.

Late January brings two outings with Peg Eagle, one of which is to the Ringwood area where Gran has her best ever views of about 200 White-fronted Geese feeding close to the road where they park, and also “…well over a thousand Wigeon – an incredible sight when they rose suddenly with a whirr of wings and characteristic whistles from the drakes”.

Eurasian Wigeon. Image by Corine Bliek via Flickr.

She makes a start on a flower painting promised for her “Chipstead friends, the Rowsells”, as she calls them, with Celandines, Hazel and Alder catkins, and a spray of Setterwort.  “Now it needs blue added”, she thinks, and she finds some at Baddesley on the 26th.  “This afternoon”, she records:

I went to Southampton to get some kitchen gadgets to send to Jane for setting up in a flat on her own next week.  I spent only just half an hour in town and then hurried home and cycled to Baddesley to look for a Lesser Periwinkle to paint into my picture this afternoon.

January 27th is a “deplorably wet day”, and, as Gran notes, it “started very badly but provided great enjoyment later”.  First, she awakes with a migraine and then takes bus and train to Bournemouth, but finding on alighting from the bus, “that one of my stockings was laddered up and down about two inches wide!”, and, on meeting her friend Wynefred Way at her Bournemouth flat, finds that:

…my troubles were not yet at an end… I was soaked and then discovered that I had lost my new pretty beads which I had only worn three times.  However, I afterwards spent a very pleasant four hours or so sorting out stamps for Wynefred and her mother, who have many dated from 1898, including the first ever from Uganda, and a large number which have never been stuck into albums.  It was most exciting.

A convoluted but nevertheless interesting story of mutual contacts and shared interests follows the receipt of an unexpected letter on the following day:

…from a Mrs Farrell, who wanted my advice for her young son, Clive, who is a keen entomologist.  She had recently travelled from London with Miss Moore, who used to teach Jane dancing and who knew of Barry’s early activities in the world of entomology.  The subject of the Farrell children came up and Clive’s passion for moths was mentioned, and Miss Moore asked Mrs Farrell if she knew me.  She could not remember my address, but said that Mrs Fowler knew me, and would give it to her.  Thus Mrs Farrell phoned Tommy and obtained my address.  The upshot of this was that, as requested, I phoned Mrs Farrell and made arrangements to go and see her this afternoon.

So she takes a bus to Southampton, where:

…Clive met me at Highfield Road stop.  I spent a very enjoyable afternoon and met Mr and Mrs Farrell and, in addition to Clive, Trevor, who is eighteen and wants to be a vet, and Rosemary, who is ten and at Atherley School.  There is another boy, Jamie, aged twelve who is keen on birds, but he was with friends in Warsash.  He may join our Natural History Society and hopes to come on the outing to Dibden Bay next Saturday.  Clive thinks only of making his living by selling and exchanging Lepidoptera but his parents want him to become qualified in Biology and keep his entomology as a hobby, and my job was to help him to see the advantaged of getting a degree before making up his mind!  In any case, I am not at all keen to encourage any youngster to collect moths commercially – there are more than enough agents for their destruction as it is…

Trevor is also an artist of no mean ability and he showed me one of his pictures and two or three sets of beautifully mounted bones of small animals and birds including a rat and a budgerigar!  He is a philatelist too, and we also talked stamps!

February 2nd sees Gran delivering flowers to suites on the Windsor Castle: “She really is a beauty”, she writes, and “Today I visited Dragonfly, all pale turquoise blue, lilac, soft green and Almond blossom, also pale green.  Amongst today’s passengers were the Dowager Lady Jellicoe, and Lady Willoughby de Broke…”

Jamie and Clive Farrell accompany Gran on the Dibden Bay field trip on February 5th, “A wonderful Day”, according to Gran, as they see many birds, including two Green Sandpipers, but they are saddened to see a badly oiled Red-necked Grebe and also:

…maddened later by finding a recently killed Turnstone, shot by one of two louts with guns whom we saw later.  What possible pleasure they could get from shooting this beautiful little wader is quite unimaginable, for they had not even bothered to pick it up.

“Beautiful little waders” – Turnstones in winter plumage.  Image by Nick Ford via Flickr.

A mid-month day out escaping household chores, with her friend Peg Eagle, brings her the pleasure of her first “Mandarin Ducks, five resplendent drakes and two modest-hued ducks” on the river at Leckford.  “At first we though they must be pinioned and belong to a farm or estate, but when we approached closer to them they all took wing and flew over the reedbed.  A lovely sight!

She may be “modest-hued” but he likes her. Image by Tom Lee via Flickr.

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