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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 156)

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Good neighbourliness; problems with the post; the Cambridge boat sinks; quality birding and botanising; Gran holds a baby; a race track is opened; a fortnight in Kent; some interesting art; cuckoos and orioles; a rare falcon, and “well-mannered and delightful young men”.

March 18th 1978 gives us a perfect example of the neighbourly thoughtfulness and trust that characterises the lives of Gran and the Kingstons next door, and the Hockridge family, before them:

I did a little posy of spring flowers for Ruth and left it on her breakfast room table in the sun, without calling her.  I wanted to cheer her on this lovely day, as she is mentally weary at present, looking after her mother who is not well and resents being cared for.  Ruth was soon over the fence expressing her pleasure, bless her.

The mail, always so important to Gran, who sends and receives letters almost daily to and from all corners of the World, gives her cause to write this on March 21st:

Post brought me a First Day Cover from Penang, and a second bird table from the RSPB who had apparently referred to my January letter saying the one I had ordered had not arrived.  It did, after they had received my letter, in response to which I thought they had sent it, so I did not acknowledge it.  Now, two months later, they send another with the request that should the first one come, I would return it!  I sent the latest one back at once, and the postage was £1.05!  I hope they will reimburse me.

During a short local walk she records the presence at the Lake of:

… at least two dozen Muscovy Ducks down there now, and three Mallard, two drakes and a duck, have taken to wandering about the roads.  I have seen them coming up Hiltingbury Road, in the car park opposite this house, and emerging from a garden in Kingsway!

The Muscovy Duck is a native of Mexico and South America.  A domesticated subspecies is found in Europe and elsewhere, including Hiltingbury Lake in Gran’s day.   Image by Bernard DUPONT via Flickr.

With Barry and family down on the 25th for Easter, Gran is happy, and comforted by the company, and while Barry drives to Chard to collect a second-hand moth cabinet, the rest of them watch the Boat Race on television, which, she says, “… was rowed in rough weather and, sadly, the Cambridge boat sank.  Happily all the crew were picked up safely but they had a very cold ducking”.  Now that Julian is no longer at Oxford, her allegiance to the Cambridge team is less in question!

We find another rare mention of Grampa a couple of days later.  While Gran, Barry, Jane Elizabeth and Geoff spend the day in the New Forest, Geoff seeing Woodlarks for the first time, “causing him great excitement”, Gran says, his brother Rob stays behind, “with his Grandpa to burn up the Macrocarpa branches and prepare part of the dinner!”  And on her return she adds: “Dinner went down well on our arrival at home, Christmas pudding and sweet sauce much appreciated after cold beef and salad!”

“I went to Southampton this morning”, she writes on April 10th:

… to enquire about a coach to Folkestone for June when I hope to go and stay with Fairlie.  I had a nasty fall when I got onto the bus at Kingsway!  Norah Bazely beckoned me to join her and Judith near the back and, not knowing that there was a step up there and looking at Norah, I tripped headlong over it, knocking knees, hands and nose!  No harm was done apart from a shaking, but Norah, Judith and the bus driver were most concerned.  I had practically recovered by the time I alighted at Southampton to kind enquiries from the driver… The famous and precocious Horse Chestnut tree at the corner of Brighton Road is in full leaf…

Hoping to hear her first Cuckoo or Chiffchaff of the Spring, Gran, before attending the Family Service and taking Holy Communion at Compton Church:

… went for a walk up the lane past the beautiful old farm towards the downs but I was very disappointed to find that the lovely banks and hedges had been destroyed… Larks were singing in the meadows, a Pheasant called and a Green Woodpecker yaffled in woodland below the downs.

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

She joins a coach excursion to Syon Park near Brentford on April 18th, and over several pages in her journal, describes her day and the history of the property.  She is delighted to find her beloved Kew Gardens nearby so she and new friend, Mrs Holloway, cross the Thames to visit them too.  Gran says:

After a cup of tea, Mrs Holloway and I, pleased with each other’s company, walked back to Gunnersbury Park where the coach came to pick us up and we left at 4.45.  After seeing a Concorde as we passed Heathrow, we came back through Sunningdale…

Syon Park – Gran liked being there but preferred nearby Kew Gardens.  Image by Jim Linwood via Flickr.

“A lovely, satisfactory and interesting afternoon”, she writes of the 22nd, after she has been given a lift to Brambridge for a walk along the river there.  She records her first Willow Warbler and Cuckoo of the year, and adds, “I met two boys, aged about twelve, on bicycles, who dismounted to let me pass and one said, “I hope you are having a nice walk”.  All boys are not thugs and vandals!

Book  174

More comment on the Post on April 24th:

The postman, of all people at this unearthly hour, knocked me up at 6.45 this morning to tell me that someone had posted a letter without a stamp and I owed 14p!  To add insult to injury, when I staggered upstairs again after paying it, and looked at the letter, it was not even for us, though it had our number on it.  When I took it to the Post Office later, the Postmaster said he could do nothing except give it back to the postman who delivered it.  I assume that, if they locate the right address for the intended recipient, the Post Office will collect another 14p and I lose mine.  Oh for the old postal service!

She writes more kindly of the post on the following day, which brings her a First Day Cover, “… the stamps depicting famous Australian Airmen, Kingsford-Smith amongst them, and one of my earliest First Day Covers is of his flight, which, of course, Gilbert sent me.”

April 29th:  “It is a year since I saw Mr Crellin and he pronounced my hip first rate. And how wonderfully it has worked since, and how grateful to him I am!”  Barry collects her from the Ridge for her to spend a few days with the family in Bushey and she is given a wonderful time birding and botanising.  Staines Reservoirs, Hilfield Park Reservoir, Therfield Heath and the Brecks of Suffolk are visited and Gran records many migrant birds, sees Spring Speedwell for the first time and is delighted by quantities of Pasque Flowers at Therfield, where on a visit some years ago, she had seen only two or three.

Spring Speedwell – new for Gran, and perhaps not very impressive but wonderfully rare in the UK.  Image by Andreas Rockstein via Flickr.

It is her turn to show people birds on May 6th, when she leads a long-planned Community Centre “Dawn Chorus Expedition” to Cranbury Park.  The outing begins at 3.35, with about a dozen folk managing to rise that early.  Resident species are noted but Gran regrets that the party became “straggled out” resulting in them missing the only singing warbler of the morning – a Willow.  She also says:

We had with us a lady reporter from Solent Radio with a tape recorder and she hopefully switched on as the chorus proceeded but I fear she mostly had blackbirds… she said she had a little tape left and would I answer some questions.  This I was doing when we had a sudden bonus for our outing – a Roe Deer came into the field a little way from the path and I could see at least two more just inside the wood.

She finds an “Old Folk’s Party”, to which she was specially invited, at Hillside that afternoon somewhat unpleasant, “… the noise of a loud tape recorder and voices raised against one another very trying after the peace and quiet of Cranbury Park this morning”, she says, and she doesn’t like the amusements provided either: “Truth to tell”, she writes, “I have not yet reached the stage where I need such entertainment and I am grateful for this as I do not enjoy it”.

May 8th:

A very nice change this morning when Ruth took me to have lunch with Jean Hockridge in her new home at Stoke Charity, just beyond Kingsworthy… The Hockridge’s new abode is lovely, “Derwent House”, though the garden had previously been neglected and needs much done to it.  I had not seen Ken since his stroke over two years ago and it saddened me to see this once active and energetic man so physically disabled though he is otherwise his old self and is making a brave fight.

May 14th:  “… Beverly came to say “goodbye”.  She goes to America on Tuesday week to a nursing job for a year and Ricky follows in June after his finals.”

Little Rock and the Arkansas River – soon to become familiar to Gran’s grandson Rick and his wife, Beverly.  Image by Jimmy Emerson DVM via Flickr.

Gran does love a baby – and how times have changed with regard to trusting a stranger with such a precious cargo! On May 19th:

I went to see the Doctor today about a persistent sore toe… In the waiting room, which was full, the last arrival was a young mother with a delightful month-old baby boy, Matthew, who was upset at being wakened.  I let her see the Doctor before me, and held Matthew whilst she went into the surgery.  It was lovely to hold a wee baby again and he went to sleep in my arms!

And news about Julian from Sue:

On Wednesday he opened the new Naval racing track at Yeovilton in Somerset, running round the track with a torch and declaring it open.  He then flew by helicopter to Brize Norton, then went by car to Oxford, where he ran in an invitation mile, finishing fourth in 4 mins 11, which quite pleased him.

Gran boards a coach at Southampton for Folkestone on June 17th, on her way to visit cousin Fairlie for a holiday, and finds herself next to:

… a girl who was very friendly and kind and I soon heard that she used to live at Compton and went to the village school and Church before moving to Bournemouth”… My companion, who had shared her coffee and sweets with me, was Myrtle Eburne, and had lived in Hurdle Way at Compton.”

But Gran is unimpressed by the behaviour of some of her fellow travellers:

We were half an hour late at Eastbourne… having encountered road works, traffic jams, red lights and a level crossing, and here chaos reigned for a time.  Waiting passengers were annoyed, voluble, swearing and scrambling for seats, pushing to get their luggage stowed in the boot before the going passengers had taken theirs out, and then the coach was over-booked and one man was standing – against the rules.

Fairlie meets her at Folkestone, still half an hour late, and accompanies Gran on the bus to her home at Elham.  Gran describes the lovely cottage, once a farm-worker’s, and says:

The furniture is old, from family homes and most of the pictures are hand-painted, some by cousin Dorothy, who died forty-five years ago, Christian Carter, family friend, also deceased, others I do not know, and one, which I did not recognize, by me!

Fairlie shows her another one:

… an old print of a painting of Bushey, entitled “Our Village” by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, R.A. which showed the Church beyond a huge Oak tree and village pond with white ducks by it.  Village people were going about their business in the foreground.  I was delighted and thrilled to recognize the Church as St James’, where Julian was married – the porch, by which he and Sue were photographed and the tower exactly as they were painted!  It belonged to Christian and there is also a carved oak plaque, which was Christian’s, and was given to her by John Herkomer, son of the artist, who had carved it himself and written on the back, “To my dear friend, Christian, with love from John Herkomer”.

Our Village, by Sir Hubert von Herkomer, probably the print decribed by Gran, with white ducks, and people “going about their business”, although there is no obvious sign of a village pond.

Fancy Julian being married in the Church painted by the Father of Christian’s friend, and cousin Dorothy living with her in Bushey…

Cousin Marjorie, sadly with an ailing body, joins Gran and Fairlie on June 26th, and Gran, “marvelled at her spirit and gallant acceptance of her disability… We, naturally, talked and laughed a lot, reminiscing about our childhood days in Corwen, where we spent most of our Summer holidays together”, she writes.

Gran and Fairlie spend the whole of the second half of June together, mostly taking local walks and enjoying each other’s company.  They visit Canterbury on the 27th, finding it rather crowded with tourists but in a cafe they:

… were greatly amused by an American lady who had joyfully been buying pullovers for herself, her daughter and her mother, all, she said, purchased with an eye to having them herself if the others did not like them!

Barry collects Gran at the end of her Kentish holiday, taking her back to Bushey late on the 30th for a few days.  The family retires shortly after ten o’clock that night but there is little rest to be had; Gran, Barry and Jane Elizabeth are up at two o’clock in the morning for a dawn trip in search of breeding Golden Orioles near Lakenheath, in Suffolk.

They arrive as dawn is breaking and at four o’clock Gran notes Song Thrush, Whitethroat and Cuckoo in song, saying that:

Soon there was such a cacophony of noise from male and female cuckoos that it was difficult to hear anything else but soon the Orioles were calling all round, but they were not very active in flight.  We saw only one female fly across a ride”.

News from other birdwatchers at Lakenheath of a Red-footed Falcon at Walberswick on the Suffolk coast tempts them in that direction and soon a beautiful male of this species, new to them all, is being watched at rest in the top of a small Pine tree and in flight.  They are home for a quiet afternoon, sleeping and reading and, Gran says, “Geoff, having elected to stay at home having seen orioles before, grumbling at missing the falcon”.

A male Red-footed Falcon.  This eastern European and Asiatic species, which winters in Africa, wanders to the UK in very small numbers each Spring.  The New Forest heathland near Beaulieu Road Station, used to host them fairly regularly.  Image by Dave Curtis via Flickr.

A field trip of the Haberdashers’ Ornithological Society had been organised for the following day, and again Gran is up early to join it.  A mini-bus-full of boys, including Geoff, is driven to the New Forest for a another day’s birding, where young Geoff provides the greatest highlight, at Bishop’s Dyke near Beaulieu Road Station.  “Incredibly”, Gran writes:

… he found a sitting Nightjar, whose camouflage makes it extremely difficult to see.  The bird got up and flew round uttering short, anxious notes and was chased by a small bird.  In the nest were two young… Several of the boys had never seen one, and none of us in daylight, or had seen young in the nest.  Good for Geoff!

At the end of the afternoon Gran is returned to Chandler’s Ford after more than two weeks away, where she provides tea for the twelve boys and Barry before they continue thier journey back to Hertfordshire.  “I had so enjoyed being with these well-mannered and delightful young men”, she concludes, having retired to bed to write at 8.30 that evening.

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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 57) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 67) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 76) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 89) Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 121)
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Comments

  1. Hi Rick,
    Coming late to your blog I am way behind (number 60) but I am not deterred and must tell you how brilliant I think it is and how much I am enjoying it. I am completely hooked. I have no connection with Chandlers Ford but I do know members of your family (Sue put me onto the blog). To be honest, this is such an informative and entertaining read I don’t think you need either connection to enjoy it. You have really honoured your grandmother’s memory with the care, detail and time you have put into this gargantuan piece of work. I wish I had this sort of insight to my parent’s and grandparent’s characters and the context of their social history; I avidly look up every link you have provided.
    Having said that I think my relatives may have paled in comparison to Joan, what a character and what dedication to her observations, research and her journal, it’s quite something and obviously a very valuable record. It has also made me realise what I am missing, although I love the outdoors, I am too busy fussing and moving about to notice the things that Joan, and by the sound of it, many others of you in the family do. Your blog has inspired me to be a better observer of everything around me. I am looking forward to the film.
    Thank you and bravo.

    Reply

    • Dear Jan, thank you for such encouraging words! When people used to say to me that our family was strange, interesting, unusual, I always used to say that I thought every family was probably equally weird if you delved deeply enough. But having got through the majority of the journals now, I do wonder if the Goaters and Adamsons were somewhat unusual – not necessarily because of skills but more due to circumstances and influences.
      I really have wondered if anyone other than a Goater or resident of Chandler’s Ford would be interested, and rather presumed not, so it is really gratifying to read your words. I’d love to know if there are others, like you, who have found it and enjoyed it without those connections.
      Amazing too, that you look up the links. I put them in because I find them interesting myself but I presumed that most people would ignore them.
      The whole process has been a great project during our restrictions during the pandemic. I reckon I have another year or so to go …

      With best wishes and very grateful thanks,
      Rick

      Reply

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