Still painting flowers; too much Ovett and Coe; both, acceptable and dull entertainments at the Club; disappointment at Symond’s Yat; the Kingston girls do well; Mrs Holley needs a shove; a new great grand-daughter; depressed by local developments, and the sad death of Barbara Smith.
Book 207
Gran is shopping on July 20th 1983:
This afternoon I went to Winchester… and whilst there looked for my art shop, which had disappeared. On enquiring for materials elsewhere, I was told that there was an art shop in the Romsey Road, and here was able to get a tube of Sap Green paint and two no. 2 sable brushes. The lady in charge told me that the other shop had gone bankrupt five years ago.
We discover that her grand-daughter Katie has been looking after the children of a well-to-do London family, and while spending time with them at Sandbanks, she visits Gran on July 31st, driving, Gran writes, “… the family’s 4th car – a blue automatic Mini”. Granddaughter and Grandmother watch Grandstand on television together that evening, hoping for coverage of a race that includes Julian, but they are not impressed. Gran says:
We walked around the Lake during the motor cycle racing. We were disappointed with the Athletics. Nothing of the 5000 metres was shown, or even mentioned but one gets so tired of the eternal Ovett and Coe and now, Cram, as if nobody was interested in anyone else.
Now seventy-nine years old herself, Gran remembers, as she does every year, her long-departed Adrian on August 3rd, his birthday, and she writes: “Adrian – your seventy-first birthday, my dear, remembered as always”.
Later that day, Ruth takes her for a brief visit to “the farm in Hursley Road where she attended to her bees”, moved there from her garden since her daughter was badly affected by a sting, and later still, Gran is at the Club, where she finds little of interest, saying, “I was rather bored by a lengthy demonstration of a type of food-mixer which I could not afford anyway and the old methods have served me for fifty-five years!”
On August 7th she joins an outing, by coach, to the Black Mountains. “We stopped at Symonds Yat for lunch”, she writes:
… and never have I been so appalled at the desecration of one of the loveliest places I have seen. A tarmac car park and recreation centre with shops, roundabout, market stalls, a “music” centre and other monstrosities greeted our arrival and there was no access to the river except down steps to take river trips on steamboats. I could have wept and will never go there again.
She enjoys seeing some familiar places during the tour, once enjoyed with her brother Norris but by the time she is back in Chandler’s Ford, having changed coaches in Winchester, she is “tired and hot with so little air in the coaches”, and she adds that she was “somewhat disappointed with my day”.
August 17th sees her at the Club again, and, in contrast to the recent food-mixer demonstration, she thoroughly, though perhaps surprisingly, approves of the entertainment:
This afternoon I walked up to the Club where the entertainment was one of the best, if not the best. Two little girls, one aged nine and her sister, younger, gave a sparkling display of disco-dancing which sounds rather strange for Old People, but they were extremely clever and a lovely pair who obviously enjoyed every minute. They were introduced by their proud Grandmother, and their Mother made all their very attractive dresses. Between them, this year, they were Champions of Pye Disco Kidd, Greater Manchester Championships, Majorca Championships…
And Gran goes on to list another ten national events, including the “All England”, of which they were Champions. She is highly impressed with the skills demonstrated and makes a point of conversing with the Grandmother in order to get details of the girls’ achievements.
In August Gran notes with some excitement, the results of the Kingston daughters’ school exam results. Helen, the elder, attains four Grade A’s at A level and has been accepted to train at Guy’s Hospital, and Jenny has passed ten O levels at Grade A and two at Grade B. “Well done!” exclaims Gran on the 26th, after Ruth, their Mother has rushed in to The Ridge, still in her dressing gown, to impart the news.
That day, Gran is also expecting the arrival of her daughter Jane and grandson Andrew. They have both been away: Andy working in Norway, and Jane holidaying with friends Gill and John Burn in South Africa. She just finishes preparing and “making herself respectable”, when they appear at the door at 6.15 pm, and she writes:
It was wonderful to see them again and both looking so brown and well. Needless to say the evening was spent hearing all about South Africa and Norway and the seeing of each other’s photographs.
The following afternoon sees the family group at their favourite Farley Mount, Andy driving “his family’s car” along the lanes there and Gran noting flowers, and also a ”thatched haystack, relic of older days, hay these modern times being mainly kept in Dutch barns”. She is sorry to see them depart for the north the next day, visiting Julian and Sue at Stafford on their way home to Longton.
Book 208
During a recent visit to Barry and family, Gran is shown a plant new to her – a rare event these days. It is Hog’s Fennel, and early in September she has been painting it. On the 2nd we learn that she has done very little painting of flowers for her own collection in recent times:
… I was able to finish painting the Hog’s Fennel – a rare record to have. Last year I painted only one, Spring Sandwort, from Yorkshire and the year before, two. It is difficult now to find new specimens.
Gran, with such fond memories of Gilbert Whitley, who “would have been eighty in June to my seventy-nine in July”, she says, is delighted to be visited by his brother-in-law, Ken Frewer, the husband of “Marjorie (Australia)”, as Gran calls her, on September 2nd. He arrives with his cousin Ann, and Gran writes that:
… she thoughtfully left Ken with me and went shopping at Carrefour. Ken had brought me a copy of a magazine article about Gilbert and his great knowledge of natural history, especially fish… He also brought me a little picture of an Australian scene painted on bark by an Aborigine – very clever. I saw some nice photographs of Marjorie and of Irian Jaya where Ken has been working as a missionary.
Photographs in the garden of The Ridge are taken by Ken, to show to Gilbert’s sisters, Marjorie and Vera, in Australia, and Gran’s visitors depart at six o’clock.
More, this time unexpected, visitors leave her tired two days later. “A hectic evening!” she writes:
Hazel Bidmead came – I had not seen her for years, just as we were finishing tea, and wanted Barry’s address and that of David Agassiz for a young man who is doing a survey of Southampton Common and wants entomological records. He has Barry’s book and wanted to get in touch with him and David… She stayed what seemed ages and during this time Sheila came with Victoria and Black Plums and fallen apples. She could not stay but put the fruit in the kitchen and departed. Later Tommy phoned, full of news and wanting my latest – I felt quite exhausted after all this!
“There was a Club outing to Chawton and Selborne this afternoon”, she writes on the 7th. They travel by coach. Of Jane Austen’s home, Chawton House, she says:
Though I had been to this pretty village many times, I had never been inside [the house] before. There were many relics of the days of Jane and a lot of her personal belongings and letters. The floorboards were very wide and squeaked a great deal. The door to the room where Jane worked was always kept ajar so that she could hear anyone approaching and hide whatever she was writing at the time.
Gran shares a seat on the coach with Mrs Holley, and at Selborne they walk together:
… across a field to the foot of the Hanger. It was a hilarious walk, for Mrs Holley’s shoes were not suitable and the field had many cowpats. Also there was a fence to negotiate into the Hanger and, though the poles were wide enough apart to get through or under for the likes of me, Mrs Holley declared she could not and would climb over. At the top she suddenly said she could not, but, with a helpful shove from behind and me clutching her, she safely dropped on to the path at the foot of the Hanger and we walked serenely back to the car park and the coach.
Gran is pleased to have a brief chat before leaving Selborne, with her long-time acquaintance there in the shop, Ann Mallinson.
Another reference to Gilbert Whitley appears on October 5th. Gran discovers an old letter:
… from Gilbert, which I found this morning. He wrote it on July 29th 1945, to thank me for my letter of May 10th 1945, telling him about the end of the 1939-45 War and the Celebrations here. He had heard them on Australian Radio and wished he were in England.
Book 208 is relatively short of entries worthy of setting out in this account, but many daily small events are recorded. There is much television-watching – mainly sport; considerable knitting of garments for the family; news of each frequent visit to the Club – where during a Harvest Festival celebration, Gran buys a wooden bowl with eggs, peppers, tomatoes and other goodies, but gives the peppers away – they being much too exotic for her tastes.
She enjoys whist-drives less than usual owing to the presence of rather unfriendly “know-all” members, who spoil the atmosphere. The reported deaths of Beverley Nichols and the soprano Isobell Baillie, sadden her and she remembers, particularly, the latter singing beautifully in Winchester Cathedral years ago. Granny Pickford, Mary Harding’s mother, celebrates a birthday on October 18th. She is infirm now, and Gran tells us that she can no longer manage to get downstairs but that she is grateful for a small present of notelets from Gran.
There is important family news on October 19th, Gran writing with pleasure but also with some poignancy:
… Sue phoned from the hospital! Anna Louise was born yesterday and weighed in at nine pounds! What delightful news. All is well and we now have two great grandsons and two great grand-daughters, Tom, Sam, Elinor and Anna. A wonderful family for us, if only Stuart were here to complete it.
Book 209
November 6th:
Blackbirds were feeding voraciously on the prolific Cotoneaster berries, and, quite extraordinary for these days, a Pheasant flew, with loud squawks, across the garden at the bottom of ours. Pheasants were numerous when all opposite here was woodland up to Cranbury Park, before last war, but none has been here since it was all built upon.
Gran has never been happy with the development she has witnessed in Chandler’s Ford. At the Club one afternoon, she says:
The “Entertainment” comprised a talk by a late, Lady, Mayor of Eastleigh, about her activities during her year of office. Having had such a poor opinion of Eastleigh since my childhood and hating it since it annexed and spoiled Chandler’s Ford, I was not impressed.
And later in November, when two young men are doing a project on the Village:
… the two lads came for more details for their project on Chandler’s Ford. Their last question was about what I hope for the future of Chandler’s Ford? I told them that since I would be 80 next year I do not suppose it will affect me and I cannot in any case have it as it was when I came here to “live in the Country” fifty-five years ago!
She has a better opinion of the Club’s entertainment the following week though, when:
… a local blind man, Geoffrey Williams, talked to us about the training of Guide Dogs and had his own dog with him. A wonderful help and companion to his master, and the talk was extremely interesting and informative.
Gran and Grampa spend Christmas 1984 with Barry and family in Bushey. It is similar to other Christmases spent there – visits to the local reservoir, birdwatching, and much whist in the evenings – and Gran is amused by a Christmas letter received by Barry, she says, “from his Danish entomologist friend, written in English and starting with words we thought worth recording! ‘Sometimes times goes too quickly, these times is now’”
Home at The Ridge by December 30th, Gran records sad news of her very long-term friend, Barbara Smith, living in Kingsway, who had clearly suffered with an illnessl much of her life but the diagnosis of which Gran had never explained: “When shopping”, she writes:
I was greatly saddened to hear that Barbara died on Christmas Day, having sunk into a coma at home and been rushed back to hospital. A relief from pain and struggle for Barbara but a devastating loss to her devoted and gallant parents to whom my deepest sympathy and admiration go.
And Gran has enclosed a small notification from the local newspaper between the pages of her journal, from which we learn that Barbara’s middle name was Isabel and that her parents are Agnes and Leslie.
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)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 105)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 106)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 107)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 108)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 109)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 110)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 111)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 112)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 113)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 113)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 114)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 115)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 116)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 117)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 118)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 119)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 120)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 121)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 122)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 123)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 124)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 125)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 126)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 127)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 128)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 129)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 130)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 131)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 132)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 133)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 134)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 135)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 136)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 137)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 138)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 139)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 140)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 141)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 142)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 143)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 144)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 145)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 146)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 147)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 148)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 149)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 150)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 151)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 152)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 153)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 154)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 155)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 156)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 157)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 158)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 159)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 160)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 161)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 162)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 163)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 164)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 165)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 166)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 167)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 168)
- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 169)
Steve Allen says
Rick,
Your mum was into tennis in a big way I hear.
I was told there was a tennis club or courts in Kingsway Park Road area.
I wonder if you have any info on this.
I’m a tennis coach in Chandler’s Ford. My interest is the social history side of tennis and I collect postcards on this subject.