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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 107)

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An elusive Hoopoe; exhausted on Chesil Beach; a Glow-worm in Grove Road; an all-British Women’s Final; meeting a hero; Barry runs a mile; a small extravagance; questions from Julian, and little figures strike the hour.

Gran makes her way into Southampton en route to a field trip in Dorset on June 4th 1961, and a roadside sight, relatively unusual in those days, upsets her: “A sad sight at Bassett was a beautiful Badger lying dead beside the road, evidently killed by a passing car during the night”.  She continues:

…. I dashed into Aunt Em’s to tell Mother I would be late back tonight and found Brother there.  He imparted the startling news that there was a Hoopoe at West Wellow and he saw it last weekend with Doreen Peters, who I am to phone tomorrow in the hope that she can show it to me one day this week!

This is another birdy event, much like Gran’s putative Melodious Warblers, that has gone down in family history, Norris, on this occasion, apparently nearly ending up in a ditch in his excitement when he first glimpsed this rare visitor while driving through West Wellow.  Why he did not alert Gran to its presence at once, we never heard.  Doreen Peters picks up Gran in her car on June 7th.  Gran says of the bird, “it was on a grassy patch close to the road by a heath on the Brockenhurst Road out of West Wellow.  We were, however, unlucky and did not see it…” It will be many years until Dad shows her her first Hoopoe, at Portland, and I look forward to reading of Gran’s excitement on that occasion!

Not on Gran’s list yet!  Image by Sergey Yeliseev via Flickr.

The two ladies bird-watch and botanise in the general area, returning again to the Hoopoe site later where they:

…passed a simple wooden cross erected on the bank on the edge of a wood, and stopped to read the inscription, which was:

“On this site a cross was erected to the Glory of God on 14 April, 1944. Services were held here until D-day, 6thJune 1944, by men of the 3rd Canadian Division R.C.S.C.A. (In the Echo later I read that this cross was dedicated yesterday, 6th June).”

That evening, there are celebrations in Merdon Avenue for the Harding twins’ twenty-first birthday, Gran writing that, “Mary had made a wonderful effort and everything was perfect.  There was a barbecue in the garden for the youngsters, which was a great success…”

June 8th:

Most of today has been spent watching the televised ceremony of the marriage of the Duke of Kent and Miss Katharine Worsley in York Minster and all the comings and goings of Royalty and other guests connected with it.  It was very well presented indeed, and Aunt Em, who came specially to see it, enjoyed it as well.

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

Book 93

Gran undertakes a number of trips in early June, including re-acquainting herself with Burnt-tip Orchids on Pepperbox Hill on the 9th.  On the 10th she meets Diana Fowler at Weymouth to search Chesil Beach for the rare Sea Pea.  Owing to bus timetable difficulties, they elect to walk from Portland to Abbotsbury, “which Diana said was a distance of about four miles”.  In drizzly weather they find a vast area of Sea Pea carpeting the shingle.  Gran collects some samples for painting and for showing to Peg Eagle, and they decide to walk on across the shingle towards Abbotsbury.

The going is tough, Gran writing, “We struggled on as far as the point opposite Fleet, when we came upon a fisherman in his hut built on the shingle at a level below it”.  Asking where they were going, and the answer being “Abbotsbury”, Gran tells that:

…he was aghast and said it was a further six miles and we should have a hard time!  He offered to row us over to the mainland, where we could walk up through the caravan camp and catch a bus back to Weymouth.  As it was raining steadily, and six miles over loose shingle in a gale seemed a bit much, we accepted his offer.  So it was that Di and I crossed the water in a little rowing boat and the water was calmer than one would expect in such a gale.

It’s a long, long trudge. Image by diamond geezer via Flickr.

“This afternoon and early evening”, she writes on the following day, “I painted the precious Sea Pea, and a very lovely picture it made”.

On the 13th, she travels into Southampton,

…to get a book token for Di’s birthday next Saturday.  I was sorely tempted to buy myself a book – “Mountain Flowers”.  The first page I opened mentioned my beloved Cairngorms.  I shall succumb sooner or later.

Barry, staying the weekend and “bug-hunting” in the Havant area, Gran says, “is looking very fit and well”.  He tells Gran that he has “been running to school several days a week to get into training for competitive running and last week did his second-best time for the half-mile”.

Out with him on the evening of the 17th, looking for Blackneck moths at Shawford, Gran hears a distant Nightjar “churring”: “…a delightful sound”, she says, “that I have not heard for several years, all the Nightjars having deserted this area since the devastation of the woods and building began”.  She adds:

As we came home, another delight awaited us.  In the grass on the verge of Grove Road we saw Glow-worms, their green lights much more brilliant than I remembered them, for it must be about twenty-five years since I last saw any.  They were in our garden when we first came to Chandler’s Ford to live.  They are utterly delightful…

A nice thing to have in the garden – not a worm but a beetle. Image by Ramones Karaoke via Flickr.

Jane bursts in to The Ridge unexpectedly, on June 24th.  Gran is delighted, and records:

We spent a lazy and enjoyable afternoon, Jane sun-bathing whilst I just sat in the garden with her and knitted.  Goldcrests and a Greenfinch were singing.  This evening we put a hole in the front lawn and practised putting, Jane having seriously taken up golf.

A few days later, Gran is engrossed with the televised Enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury [Michael Ramsey], and this is followed by tennis from Wimbledon, and, again, Jane dropping in, in order to take her to the tennis on the following day.

They have tickets for Centre Court, where Gran is pleased to see good manners exhibited by the players, who bow or curtsey to Princess Marina, President of the All-England Club, who is in the Royal Box.  They watch wonderful tennis together, including “a terrific five-set struggle” between the reigning Gentleman Champion Neil Fraser of Australia “with an almost unknown American named Reed”.  Gran relates that she “had to pay for her day with a fierce headache, but it was worth it”.

She is back at Wimbledon on July 4th, travelling there with neighbour Jean Hockridge in her car.  “Being among the first five hundred in the queue”, she writes, “we were lucky to obtain tickets for Court No 1 and had an excellent view from the seats allocated to us”.  She continues:

The highlight of the afternoon was, of course, Miss Truman’s win over Miss Smith of Australia, seeded No 2, and, though this match took place on the Centre Court and we did not see it, the score in sets, was put up for us to see.  We knew the result before it was posted, for the mighty roar from some fourteen thousand people told us, and held up the game on No 1.

July 6th brings a longed-for meeting, and Gran describes it as one of her “red-letter days”:

…in which I met Dr Andrew Young, Canon of Chichester Cathedral and Author of “The Prospect of Flowers” and other books, for the first time, and we went about the New Forest to see some of his favourite flowers.  I met him, and a friend, Mrs Muirhead, at the Central Station in Southampton…

Dr Young had hired a car for the afternoon and in this we were very lucky, for the young man who drove it was not only a very good driver who had been born in the Forest and knew his way about, but he was also extremely courteous and helpful in every way and contributed a great deal to our enjoyment.

They visit Bishop’s Dyke, near Beaulieu Road, then Hatchet Pond, where “Dr Young was most anxious to see Bog Orchids” and they find good numbers there, then on to Holmsley to see the Wild Gladiolus, which was somewhat past its best, but nevertheless found.  Lastly, to Gritnam Green, before returning to Southampton to see her new friends off, writing that evening that she has:

…met many exceedingly nice naturalists but none nicer than these two, for whom I already have the deepest respect, and the wish to meet again is mutual.  Mrs Muirhead has invited me to go and stay a few days with her at Arundel, and see something of the flowers in that area with her and Dr Young.

Near Bishop’s Dyke in the New Forest. Image by Jim Champion via Flickr.

When I reached home I was greeted with the wonderful news that there is to be an all-British final in the Wimbledon Women’s Singles Championship – Christine Truman, who defeated Renee Schuurman, of South Africa, and Angela Mortimer, who defeated the favourite, Sandra Reynolds, also of South Africa.  It is forty-seven years since there was an all-British final, and the last English winner was Dorothy Round in 1937.

Rod Laver “playing like a Champion throughout”, Gran says, “defeated the American McKinley…in just under an hour” to win the Challenge Cup on the following day. And the day after that, July 8th, the Women’s final is interrupted by rain with Angela Mortimer in the lead, and then Gran, frustrated, has to leave the television in order to attend a garden party at Compton Rectory.  On her return home, she learns that Angela Mortimer is the Wimbledon Champion.  She plays tennis herself that evening, but “not up to Wimbledon standard”, she says.

Dad’s running is going well: a letter to his Mother on July 13th telling her that:

…he ran a mile in 4 mins 12.5 secs – eleven seconds better than his previous best, and in so doing, beat Mike Palmer [another master at Habs, who was a steeplechaser] who ran in last year’s Olympic Games!  And Barry is a veteran of almost thirty-one!

Two days later, down to run in an athletics match for the Old Symondians, he is also, with Gran, part of the time leading a flower-rich field trip to Selborne and Noar Hill.  Another hoped-for flower-rich day on the 21st, does not come up to expectation though, when Peg Eagle drops in, hoping to be shown the Marsh Helleborines in Beattie’s Field, at Flexford,  “So off we went”, records Gran:

For once we were disappointed and not a single Helleborine could we find.  I am wondering what has caused their disappearance.  Horses are in the field now and it has been trampled in places but I am inclined to think that it is the excessive growth of rank vegetation that has overwhelmed them, for we saw no sign of the Marsh Orchids either, and they used to be very prolific and varied here.  It is very sad.

The promised invitation to stay with Mrs Muirhead comes to fruition on July 24th.  Jane drives her there, and Gran finds Little Orchard, Mrs Muirhead’s “delightful house, which she designed herself… the lightest and airiest one in which I have ever been”, and she describes it in detail, particularly admiring the “white paint, relieved by beautiful porcelain door knobs, plates and cupboard handles in pale green and gold with a design of pink roses”.  Soon they are “…joined by Mrs Muirhead’s friend, Ceres Esplan, the artist, who did some of the illustrations for Collins’ Flower book”, [The Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers by David McClintock and R.S.R. Fitter] and, together with Dr Young, they all embark on a Sussex flower-hunt, Gran seeing a number of species with which she is unfamiliar.  That evening, she is presented with a copy of Dr Young’s book, A Prospect of Britain, “which”, she writes, “I hope he will sign for me.  The more I hear of him the more honoured am I to meet him”.

Gran stays in Arundel until July 27th, having a wonderful time in gracious and generous company, and visiting several parts of the Sussex countryside.  She has taken some of her flower paintings to show her hosts and is touched immeasurably, and humbled, when Dr Young’s wife remarks that their beauty made her want to cry.  Gran is also privileged, she says, “to read the manuscript of a chapter of the new book which Dr Young is writing.  It is entitled,Rockroses and is written in Andrew Young’s own inimitable style”.

Arriving home in Chandler’s Ford, Gran ends her entry for the day with:

I started to paint the Sea Heath we found at West Wittering, but was unable to finish it.  Jock, Julian and Ricky arrived without warning to spend a week here whilst Barry is moving school to Elstree and all was chaos here until bedtime!!

Gran is left on her own, to catch up with painting flowers and household chores on the 28th; Jock and the boys spending the day in Bournemouth, and Jane driving to Stratford to see Vanessa Redgrave in Shakespeare’s As you like it.  She is also left to her own devices on the afternoon of the 31st so she makes her way into Southampton to spend her recently received birthday money.  She admits:

I was madly extravagant and bought “Mountain Flowers” in the New Naturalist series, and ordered Mr Savory’s book, “Spiders, Men and Scorpions”, which Barry has illustrated, and “Andrew Young – Prospect of a Poet”, which Pauline Muirhead lent me, and a copy of which I now want for myself.

She succumbed – sooner rather than later!

August 2nd:

This afternoon Jock and I took Julian and Ricky to Winchester, where we visited the Cathedral… Questions, particularly from Julian, taxed my never strong History to the uttermost and if I do not dream about Ethelred, Alfred and Canute, and all the ancient Bishops of Winchester, it will be quite surprising!  The questions flowed incessantly all the way home, but fortunately reference books helped, though a discrepancy between the age given for the death of King Alfred in two of them needed some explanation!

The 3rd is an equally taxing day, Gran, Mum and we boys visiting Buckler’s Hard.  Julian, particularly, is thrilled to watch tugs manoeuvring the Queen Elizabeth out of her berth in the docks at Southampton, as the family travels home, and Gran finishes her notes for the day with:

We walked from the pier at Southampton to the bus station, and, at five o’clock, we were just in the right place to see the little figures on the tower of the ruined Church of the Holy Rood, strike their bells for the hour.  This church has been rendered safe and is now part of a Memorial Garden to Southampton’s sailors lost in the two World Wars.

The pre-1760 Little Men on the tower of the ruined church.  Image by Matt via Flickr.

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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 51) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 63) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 90) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 93) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – A Journal (Part 104)
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    • Unlikely to be the same one, I suppose, Mike but it’ll be interesting to see if Gran hears about it in 1966. I think you have to be exceptionally lucky to find one for yourself – those I’ve seen have generally been found by someone else

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