Forty Years in Chandler's Ford - a Journal (Part 117)

A homely welcome at Shulbrede Priory; more grandchildren on the way; two boys with “astonishing energy”; the Wayfarer’s Dole; Mother is eighty-seven; a third daughter for Jean Hockridge; chasing a Wryneck, and Cousin Fairlie joins her in Teesdale.

Being a Grandmother is a great joy to Joan Goater. On March 13th 1964 she receives some welcome mail from overseas, and reports:

Today’s post brought my Grandmother’s bracelet from Jill Brewster in Canada, silver discs bearing the name and date of birth of my grandchildren, Julian, Rhoderick (Ricky) and Katherine. I shall, D.V., have another one to add in September and I am proud and delighted to have it. It is a Canadian idea.

“A wonderful day though it was not in the least what I expected”, she begins her entry for the 15th. “I met Peg at the top of Hiltingbury Road at ten minutes to ten and we set out for the Punchbowl at Hindhead, in Surrey.” Snow is falling. It is already two inches deep and she is not optimistic about the outing, which is with members of the Mid-Southern Branch of the British Naturalists’ Association. Nevertheless, she describes an interesting day:

The object of the expedition was mosses, and the leader, the Honourable Laura Ponsonby, whom we have not met before… we realised that hunting for mosses in such conditions was impossible so she suggested that we should try lower ground and led the way. Three cars followed her through quiet lanes… to Lynchmere, where Miss Ponsonby turned into what was obviously the drive into a private estate. When we got out, I asked her if it was all right for all our cars to park there and she said, “Oh yes. I live here!”

“Here” was the old and beautiful Shulbrede Priory, which was built in 1190, and we were taken round the grounds on our moss hunt.

In the grounds of Shulbrede Priory – “wonderfully homelike”. Image courtesy of Jon Combe via Flickr.

The party collects about twenty species, identified by Laura Ponsonby, and Gran is given them to post to Barry, for his interest. Owing to the weather, everybody is the worse for wear by lunchtime, and Gran gratefully relates:

As we neared the cars again, very cold and wet, to eat our lunch, Lady Ponsonby came out and invited us into the Priory to have it in the dining room, an opportunity we were glad to accept. We kicked off our muddy Wellington boots in the back porch and our wet coats were taken into the kitchen to dry, and then we were invited into the crypt for a warming glass of sherry before lunch.

The crypt had been made into a charming and comfortable room, with stone pillars, black oak beams and a huge open fireplace upon which great logs were burning. All the priory floors are brick, with rugs upon them and the doorways stone, arched and with oaken doors with wooden bolts.

Her description is long and detailed, and she concludes with, “It was all wonderfully homelike, and Lord and Lady Ponsonby and their daughter the most charming and friendly people”. Lord Ponsonby shows the group round some of the interiors of the priory, including some important frescos, “fairly well preserved”, except for the faces of some of the ladies depicted on them. Gran tells us that, “A sexton of the church confessed that as a boy he, and others, had used this fresco as a target for their bows and arrows, and had thus damaged it”.

On March 28th, she hears news of another expected grandchild, this time from daughter Jane, and Stuart: “…there is to be a little companion for Katherine in July! A complete surprise but a very pleasant one. If all goes well I am to be a granny twice again this year”, she writes. And a few days later, when the Brenan family arrives for Easter, there is a little more about Katherine: “… the baby adorable as always, with sunny smiles for everyone. But she did not settle too well this evening – she seems to be very highly strung”.

Jane with baby Katherine, and probably another on the way. With Mother and Dad, Joan and Bill, at The Ridge. Image courtesy of Katie Sharp.

“Barry, his Jane, Julian and Ricky”, Gran notes, join them all for Easter on April 3rd, necessitating complex sleeping arrangements, solved with a camp bed from the Hockridges, ever helpful neighbours next door, and, she adds, “Julian fell for Katherine straight away and did not mind showing it but Ricky was more cautious”.

… and the Brenan family a few months earlier, in 1963. Image courtesy of Katie Sharp.

Jane, Stuart and Katherine return to Nottingham on April; 6th, and Barry and “his” Jane go to the Isle of Wight, leaving Julian and Ricky at The Ridge. Then follow several days, during which Gran entertains them – boys, she says, “with quite astonishing energy” and exposes them to all sorts of experiences. Winchester Cathedral, the West Gate Museum; the Castle, “where the Round Table of King Arthur hangs upon the wall of the Law Courts”; train-spotting at Winchester (seeing the Bournemouth Belle) and Eastleigh; the Hythe Ferry; listing ships in Southampton Water; Beaulieu Abbey, the Motor Museum and the Palace House; walking along the Itchen (“Ricky was particularly interested in the fish and we saw many Loach, Trout and Minnows”); watching a Kingfisher, and much more. “The hugs that I received from Julian and Ricky were more than enough reward for the energy spent on these outings with them”, says our Gran at the end of it all, but she must have been exhausted!

Whether or not it really is King Arthur’s Round Table, I wondered how all those knights could fit around it. Image by Roman Hobler vis Flickr.

Book 105

April 11th:

We did not go anywhere special today as we were expecting Barry and Jane home from Ventnor, but the Boys played in the Pinewood this morning. Chiffchaffs were singing when I went to call them for dinner.

On the following day:

This afternoon Barry left for Scotland to attend an R.A.F. course at R.A.F. Kinloss near Forres, and, as I write this at nearly ten o’clock, he is speeding on the night train to Aviemore. How I envy him! He will have two hours to wait for his connection tomorrow morning and is going to climb Craigellachie behind Alt-na-Craig in the interval. He has taken sandwiches so that he need not bother with breakfast!

“Let’s climb Craigellachie while we wait for our train!” Image by Huxley_slides vis Flickr.

And then there are yet more days of entertainment for the Boys, this time with their new step-mother as well as with Gran. “This afternoon”, writes the latter on the 13th:

Jane and I took the Boys to the ancient Hospital of St Cross… We were lucky to have a guide to show us round the hospital, one of the brethren, and he was most entertaining…. Ricky took copious notes, which I helped him to write. At the end of our tour we asked for the Wayfarers’ Dole, which is still given on demand, and received a wooden beaker of ale and a slice of bread.

The Hospital of St Cross, always pronounced “St Craws” by Gran. Image by Andrew Bowden via Flickr.

The next day sees them all at Southampton Common, with Peg Eagle and her boys, and junior members of the Natural History Society, and the day after that Beaulieu and Bucklers Hard are their destinations, by the Hythe Ferry and bus. The Maritime Museum interests the Boys, and Gran says:

One document amused us! It was written in 1722 and said that Beaulieu was a better port than either London or Bristol because the winds were more advantageous and Beaulieu could accommodate larger vessels than the other two!

On one day Julian and Ricky also help Gran deliver flowers on the Stirling Castle, she writing:

With a box under each arm there was no difficulty in getting them aboard and we delivered the whole lot ourselves and still had time to look round the ship… The Boys also saw the Boat Train come in and watched the cranes at work loading baggage and freight aboard.

Barry is back at The Ridge next day, and then, on April 18th:

Soon after nine o’clock Barry and his family departed for Cornwall, leaving the house empty indeed, but there was some compensation in the fact that they all said they had enjoyed themselves tremendously, the boys thanked me for “some lovely days”, and Ricky said he was going to miss me. I spent a quiet afternoon knitting and I must confess that I am extremely tired after the hectic but most enjoyable past three weeks.

April 20th:

Rain set in this afternoon and I had a great disappointment. Peg Eagle came to see me to say that she cannot go to Teesdale with me in June. This is understandable and not wholly unexpected for her youngest son, John, is ill in hospital and will be there another month at least and then not able to go to school. I may be able to get someone else to go with me but I wanted to go with Peg, and may not be able to get anyone at this late date.

We now move on to May 11th, the intervening days filled with many of Gran’s usual pursuits, indoors and out. This day, Gran shops in Southampton:

…to buy a birthday present for Jane who asked for Dr Spock’s book on the care and upbringing of children, and for Katherine, whose birthday is on the 29th. I bought her a really pretty doll, a “Rosebud” which is light and virtually unbreakable.

This afternoon I mowed the grass in the back garden, finished the embroidered tablecloth for Tim Harding’s wedding present and did some more knitting for daughter Jane’s coming baby.

Pretty much every parent had this book in the 1960s. Image by Eden, Janine and Jim via Flickr.

A little later in the month, knitting an article of clothing for “Barry’s Jane’s” expected baby, she explains that:

I have decided to call Barry’s Jane, “Jane Elizabeth”, to distinguish her from my Jane – two of the same name are so confusing in the family, and Elizabeth is one of her names. Jane has only one.

Gran, as we have often read, dislikes the shops opposite The Ridge but she must be friendly with at least some of the people working in them, for on May 18th she says;

I picked twelve dozen Lily-of-the-Valley for the florist’s shop opposite without making any impression on the prolific bed in the garden. There are many more to come, and I hope to take some to Jane when I go to Bulcote on Friday.

I’m quite sure that the flowers for the shop would have been taken there as a helpful gift rather than in exchange for money.

She spends four days with the Brenans at Bulcote, where amongst other things she, “…helped Jane to do the washing… being initiated into the use of her new washing machine for when I go to help in July”. Goodness knows what ancient contraption she was familiar with at The Ridge, and Jane’s new one would probably have been a simple twin-tub in those days.

Back home on the 26th she exclaims that it is “Mother’s eighty-seventh birthday and she has spent much of it gardening! Greaty still has another ten years to go.

A rare photo of Nellie Adamson (Greaty), with her daughter Joan (Gran), grand-daughter Jane, and great grand-daughter Katherine. In the front garden of The Ridge in 1963. Image courtesy of Andy Brenan.

Gran tells us little of the lady she calls “Bee Richardson”, who lives near Flexford Bridge, except that she is “my friend”. Several times she has cycled out to see her during the Spring of 1964, and on May 27th she is pleased to hear from Bee that “the Nightingales were back round her neighbourhood in numbers”. Gran has recorded Nightingales herself in small numbers – much smaller numbers than in past years – on her sojourns into the countryside, and she also notes that she has not heard any Wood Warblers in the Pinewood, “… the first time since I came here thirty-six years ago that I have not heard them there”.

She has told us that her two Janes are expecting babies within a few months but it comes as a surprise that Jean Hockridge has also been “expecting” since last Autumn! On May 30th, the day after grand-daughter Katie’s first birthday, one of Jean’s daughters brings her news, Gran writing, “Early today Ruth Hockridge came in to tell me that Jean had a baby girl just before midnight last night so the little one shares our Katherine’s birthday”.

That afternoon she is out with George Green:

…to the area of Hursley Forest and Gipsy Lane, to help him with the plants. He is doing a survey of the area. I identified fifty-nine species… Wood Ants were out in numbers. An unusual bird call mystified me, and I can only liken it to that of the Wryneck but we could not glimpse the bird so it must remain unrecorded.

“This afternoon Hazel [Bidmead] came to tea, hoping to go to the area where I thought I heard a Wryneck”, she writes on June 5th, continuing:

I could not go with her as I was expecting Barry, but he and I went along later. On the way there we found Bird’s-nest Orchis in the Pinewood. In Hursley Forest a Nightingale was singing. Here we met Hazel and George, and they had been lucky and were able to confirm that the bird I had heard a few days ago was, indeed, a Wryneck. George actually saw it, clinging Woodpecker-wise to a dead tree, and Hazel heard it call as it flew. It seems reasonable to hope that it is nesting in the dead tree and we are going to keep a watch on it. As dusk fell and we were about to come home, a Nightjar started churring. At home, Barry and I studied the Teesdale map and he gave me some tips for finding some of the special plants next week.

The beautiful Wryneck. No longer a British breeding bird. Image by Imran Shah via Flickr.

A couple of days later Hazel and Gran spend three hours searching for the Wryneck, finding no sign of it but noting a large anthill by the dead tree, assuming that this was where it had been feeding.

Gran has managed to acquire a companion for her Teesdale adventure. It’s her cousin Fairlie, who accompanied her on her first Scottish holiday. She writes on June 8th:

A quiet afternoon watching the Test Match on Television. Fairlie came this evening to spend the night before leaving for Teesdale tomorrow, and together we looked at the “Look” programme introduced by Peter Scott. It dealt with the behaviour of young animals, Red Squirrels and Polecats…

June 9th sees the two ladies speeding on the eleven o’clock Glasgow train from Kings Cross to Darlington, from where they catch the 4.35 for Middleton-in-Teesdale. “This was a most exciting journey, bringing us more and more into the hills and fells and crossing the Tees several times”, and Gran adds:

From Middleton we had a taxi which flew along the winding road at sixty m.p.h. and over humps until we expected to take off into the air. We were welcomed at Banks Farm, in Forest-in-Teesdale by Mrs Bainbridge – a marvellous person who, with her husband, told us to make ourselves at home and called us “loveys”, giving us an excellent meal and pressing cream upon us with our fruit. The view from the farm is lovely, across marsh and fields to distant rocky hills…

Venturing out after eating they walk along the Tees to Cronkley Bridge, “finding the most exciting flowers”:

Melancholy Thistles were in bud by the roadside and in the field was a large colony of Early Purple Orchids of a very dark hue. Crossing the fields towards a farm we heard and saw Curlew, Redshanks, Tree Pipit and a Snipe and, by the river, a Dipper… Suddenly I nearly burst with excitement! There in the grass by the river path I saw my first ever Bird’s-eye Primrose Primula farinosa, and later we found many more.

Bird’s-eye Primroses – limestone jewels. Image by David Larson via Flickr.

It’s a good start to their holiday and Gran is in her element. The following days are spent on long walks, searching for particular flowers – Teesdale specialities. They become familiar with Widdybank Fell, the land around High Force, and Cauldron Snout. Spring Gentian, probably their most sought after plant, is found but its flowering period is over. Nevertheless, Gran is delighted to record it, as well as other local specialities such as various Lady’s Mantles, Shrubby Cinquefoil and Teesdale Violet. The weather is variable: Gran and Fairlie suffer soakings, gales and sunburn, and they are uplifted by the meadows, so rich with flowers. Gran sums up her experience on their last day, June 17th:

Cloudy with light rain falling today but the Curlews and a Cuckoo vied with each other to give us a send-off from Teesdale. The Cuckoos we have with us at home but I shall miss the Curlews, though I shall have lovely memories of Teesdale and the amazing kindness and warm welcome of Tom and Jenny Bainbridge of Banks Farm. Such are the salt of the earth and one does not find them often in the materialistic world of today. I shall always count it a privilege to have met them.

We have not wasted our time in Teesdale for we have walked on average eight to ten miles a day, fourteen or so on Sunday, seen several plants new to me and found many more that, though not new, were beautiful and interesting. We have loved the fells and the river with its flowery valley, the little white farmhouses and the glorious peace and quiet of the place and the tranquillity of Banks Farm. Jenny Bainbridge charged us only the bare five pounds each for the week in spite of the fact that we had breakfast today and a packed lunch for the train, but we gave her and extra ten shillings and a pound to buy herself something she wants. I hope it will not be the last time I see her and the fells.

Metamorphosed Melmerby Scar Limestone, known as “sugar limestone”, and home to wonderful plants, Widdybank Fell, Upper Teesdale. Image by Tim Waters via Flickr.

A taxi takes them to their train, waiting at Middleton, where:

Fairlie and I were the only passengers… and the driver passed through the train to the front, remarking that perhaps he had better go, and we said, “yes, do – we have to catch the London train at Darlington”. When we alighted he leant out and said, “Well, we made it alright”.

Fairlie and Gran part company at Waterloo, the former for her Folkstone train, and Gran for the 6.30 to Winchester. She is home, tired and with a headache, about half past eight. “A meal and early to bed”, she writes.

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

Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 117)

A homely welcome at Shulbrede Priory; more grandchildren on the way; two boys with “astonishing energy”; the Wayfarer’s Dole; Mother is eighty-seven; a third daughter for Jean Hockridge; chasing a Wryneck, and Cousin Fairlie joins her in Teesdale.

Book 105

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A homely welcome at Shulbrede Priory; more grandchildren on the way; two boys with “astonishing energy”; the Wayfarer’s Dole; Mother is eighty-seven; a third daughter for Jean Hockridge; chasing a Wryneck, and Cousin Fairlie joins her in Teesdale.

Book 105

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