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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 88)

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A painful bump; 11,000 stamps; 210 paintings; the sweep leaves a mess; American snobs; a letter from Australia; roosting wagtails; The King and I – again! Tears on Remembrance Sunday; a Coal Tit on the draining board and Dad forgets his toothbrush.

Book 68

Gran remembers with sadness Jane’s late friend Robin de Crespigny Eastwood on September 12th 1957, writing Requescat in pace in her journal.  He died three years ago this day.  “I awoke with the beginnings of a migraine”, she says, “but I had promised to help Bob at the shop and then have tea with Tommy, who is feeling rather down since Jill’s departure”.  Gran is busy at the shop and then goes down to the Docks to help deliver flowers on the Southern Cross.  She continues:

Unfortunately, as I got out of the van on returning to the shop, I hit my head hard on the top of it and, never since I was a child, have I so much felt like weeping with the physical pain!  Diana, however, got me some Veganin and these eased it somewhat, though a large “egg” came up on my scalp.

Next day:

I went to Winchester this morning to see an Exhibition of Bird Photography by Eric Hosking in the Public Library.  The Exhibition was wonderful and well-worth the journey, for, apart from excellent photography the pictures were both interesting and beautiful.

Eric Hosking was easily the best-known bird photographer of those days, pioneering many techniques but often having to take pictures of birds at or near the nest in order to get the camera close enough to them.  He would be amazed, I imagine, by the lenses, the colour, and the action shots possible with digital photography today.

She records on the 16th; “I have a little blue budgerigar for a week, looking after it for Jock’s Mother, who is going away.  He is a dear little bird and I know I shall not want to part with him”. And on the next day she is happy that “the Budgerigar has settled down happily and has been quite chatty today”. This little bird, I remember, was called Joey, was quite talkative, and was allowed to fly free within the house at 99 Kingsway.  He once, at breakfast time, left a dropping on Nana’s plate of scrambled eggs – one of my earliest memories, and one of very few that I have involving the Grandmother from that side of the family.

On September 22nd Diana Fowler brings some “excellent photos of Jill’s wedding” Gran writes “… and we spent another pleasant hour with my stamps”, and a few days later, we hear a little more about Gran’s stamp collection, which has received scant attention in her journal to date, although it was important to her:

Diana came out and we completed sorting, and mounting as far as possible, the stamps that I had accumulated over recent years without attention.  Over eleven thousand three hundred now total my collection.

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

On Sept 30th, it appears that Gran’s dream of having her paintings printed and published is dashed:

…went to Winchester about drawing blocks and albums for my flower paintings, and as a matter of interest enquired about the cost of printing them.  The whole process was explained to me and I learned that the colour block for each one would cost about forty pounds!! Having already painted two hundred and ten, I fear the world will never see them in print!

Water Violet, painted by Gran in May 1957 but she fears the world will never see it in print.

At a meeting of the Southampton Natural History Society on the first day of October, she is re-elected as Vice President, and she notes:

I was proud to hear Barry’s name read out as our prospective speaker for January, and to hear him referred to as Barry Goater BSc. F.R.E.S.!!  And to be asked by other members if he was any relation and to be able to say, “He is my son!”  May I be forgiven a Mother’s pride!

The sweep visits The Ridge next day to clean the chimneys while Gran is in Southampton packing flowers for the Saxonia, the Queen Elizabeth and the Niew Amsterdam, and it appears that the sealed vacuum units used by sweeps today, are still equipment of the future because Gran spends the evening:

…clearing up after him.  Not the best of occupations after a tiring day at the shop, but, at least, I enjoyed one part of it – cleaning the bookcase and re-arranging my beloved illustrated books of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac!

On October 5th, the schoolmaster and member of the Southampton Natural History Society, Mr Hoskins, invites Gran and Antony Harding to join a party of boys from Shirley School on an outing near Ashurst.  Fungi are not really Gran’s “thing” but these are the main subjects of the walk and she is nevertheless able to identify for the group many of the species found.  She writes of the boys, as they prepare to catch the bus home:

Having got over their initial shyness they chattered incessantly and included me as well, bringing all sorts of things to be identified and giving me three cheers before we caught the bus.  I was rather touched by this demonstration.  Identical twins, Peter and Paul, had caused confusion and amusement and I could only identify Paul by the fact that he carried a basket for his fungi!

From the homeward bound bus, she notes that, “Passing the New Southampton Docks we saw the Aircraft Carrier Ark Royal and the visiting American one, Forrestal – grey battleships [sic] in the gathering mist”.

The USS Forrestal. Image by Roger W via Flickr.

Delivering flowers on the United States on the 10th, “this entailing a great deal of stair-climbing to cover cabins on five decks”, she writes:

Mutual surprise was caused when I emerged from a cabin into the companionway and met little Vivien Bugby, who used to live next door where the Hockridge family now resides!  She was seeing her Auntie off to America…

On the United States again a fortnight later, Gran is not impressed with the passengers’ attitudes, saying:

I have come to the conclusion that the most courteous people on board this liner are the cosmopolitan “bellboys”, who may be of Chinese, Negro, Italian and Heaven knows what other extraction, and most of the American passengers appear self-important and snobbish, regarding all “lesser mortals” as their servants, and expecting everyone to come running if they so much as raise an eyebrow!

She is in better mood though, that evening, arriving home after a long day in Southampton:

I was in time to hear the Palm Court Orchestra, with whom a tenor singer with a truly magnificent voice, Charles Craig, sang three of my favourites – “None shall sleep” from Turandot; “Shine through my dreams” from Glamorous Night, and “Song of songs”.  I am glad I did not miss it.

It is a long time since Gran has mentioned her friend and soul-mate Gilbert Whitley, now distant from her, but in early November she receives:

…a letter from Australia, from my friend, the Ichthyologist at the Museum in Sydney, and he spoke of meeting Peter Scott during his visit to Australia, and enjoying his lectures, especially when he made sketches on the blackboard.  He, Gilbert Whitley, had been on an interesting entomological excursion with Antony Musgrave, the Museum’s Entomologist, following the original route of Captain Cook and camping in the same places, seeing and recording the same ants, termites, butterflies and other insects that Captain Cook recorded in his journal over a hundred years ago!  A most exciting experience.

As usual on November 5th, she records, “…the usual shattering of the peaceful countryside on this most trying of all nights for such as dumb animals and me!  She is joined by Jane (home from Nottingham for half term and spending most of her days horse-riding) for an evening meeting of the Natural History Society.  Gran reports:

On arrival I was disconcerted at being asked, as Vice President, to take the Chair in the absence of Brigadier Venning, our President, who has succumbed to ‘flu, but I got through the proceedings somehow.  We enjoyed a most interesting and enlightening talk by Keith Edwards M.B.O.U., a member of the New Forest Bird Group, on Pied Wagtails in Winter. Fortunately for me (in my capacity as Chairman tonight) I know Keith Edwards, who is a friend of Barry’s and was at his wedding, so I had no difficulty in introducing him.

Gran tells us that Keith, over four years of study, had discovered five separate wagtail roosts in the Southampton area, “one at Woodmill, one at Eastleigh, another at St Denys, and at Redbridge, and the largest of all, “housing” some two hundred birds, at Hythe”. She adds:

…one amazing fact stands out – birds who feed on and about the sewage works at Woodmill do not all roost thereabouts, but follow the course of the Itchen towards dusk, back to the roost at Hythe, whilst, though the sewage works abound in food for them, those using the Woodmill roost fly distances away from it to feed!

Pied Wagtail – a roost of 200 would be a great sight.  Image by Tim Ellis via Flickr.

“Yesterday”, she writes on November 7th:

…Jane and I had noted that the lovely film “The King and I” was revisiting Winchester from today and we very much wanted Mother to see it.  So today I took her!  We are not picture-goers as a family and Mother had, at eighty, never seen a colour film, and had been but twice in the last ten years.  I have now been five times in the same period, three times to “The King and I”!

“Mother was quite enchanted by it, as I hoped and thought she would be”, Gran writes, but they do not stay for what used to be termed the fully supporting programme, “since we both felt that anything inferior would spoil the flavour of it, and we had both so enjoyed it”.

Book 69

November 10th, Remembrance Sunday, is always poignantly special for Gran, and the first sentence of her journal entry this day ends, “…and as usual, my emotions were somewhat ragged by the end of the day!”  She cycles to Compton for Early Service, noting the bitter wind and the ground, white with frost, and later, she:

…hurried to get the dinner well started so that I could listen to the Memorial Service from the Cenotaph at Whitehall, but Jean Hockridge ran in just as the programme started  and asked me to go and see it on Television.  This I did, and, feeling sure she would need a handkerchief, Jean went for one, and lent me one too, since I had dashed in without!  We did need them, of course, but were helped by Anne, bless her, who solemnly smeared our faces with talcum powder, putting it on with the palm of her dear baby hands.  She was very good and almost quiet during the two minutes’ silence…

A sight to make Gran weep.  Image courtesy of Defence Images via Flickr.

Later, that evening:

The beautiful tenor voice of René Soames singing with the Palm Court Orchestra, the “Flower song” from Carmen, and “Maiden, my maiden”, from Frederika, completed the anguish in my heart this day…

Ten days later, after a morning of Christmas pudding preparations and a visit to Winchester, “primarily to buy presents for Jill and Dennis, since Monday 25th is the last posting date for Christmas mail to Canada”, Gran is again watching television next door:

…a programme of the ten years of Queen Elizabeth’s marriage, whose Anniversary falls today.  It was beautiful and poignant in places, especially where her late father, King George VI, was seeing her off to Africa, from whence she returned as Queen a bare week later.  It was the last time they saw each other…

November 23rd:

After lunch I went into the kitchen to do the washing-up and found a Coletit [she still spells it thus – it’s characteristic of her and I like it!]on the draining-board, looking for scraps on the dinner plates.  He was quite unafraid and was in no hurry to depart, finding his way with a minimum of fuss through the window, which was only open a crack! Later I played tennis at Eastleigh and thoroughly enjoyed it – one of those days when everything goes right.  I shall certainly not give up yet in spite of having two grandchildren!

The Coal Tit – not a usual bird to have in the kitchen! Image by Lindsay Robinson via Flickr.

Gran is unwell with a virus and manages only the smallest of tasks during the first two weeks of December. She writes on the 1st that she wakes with “a splitting head and a cough like the bark of a dog Fox!” and headaches dog her each day. Barry arrives from London on the 6th, “…to attend tomorrow’s Old Symondian Dinner and his appearance was a tonic to me” she writes.  “We played his old, favourite game of Lexicon and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves”. And she adds:

It is an odd thing that Barry had brought his binoculars and a pillbox, but forgotten toothbrush and pyjamas!  Or is it? I seem to remember Jane bringing jodhpurs and leaving her toothbrush behind.  Are my children peculiar or only chips off an old block?

One of Dad’s pillboxes – a common article in the Goater household.

On the 7th:

Barry went to Canford School, in Dorset, to see over it.  The position of Science Master, Head of the Biology Department, will be vacant in September next, and the school is in a most beautiful situation. But a change will require much thought and he has been happy at Haberdashers’.  Still – the country compared with London!  And for such as Barry!  He must make his own decision.

Gran’s illness appears to have prevented her cleaning the house and this causes her to fret when the Doctor must be called to see to “Mother” who is “in great pain with her back and sick with every movement” on the 12th.  However:

Tommy Fowler came out to enquire for Mother and me, and it was very pleasant to have her. Jean Hockridge had lent me her Hoover, and her woman had come to work for me, so I was relieved of anxiety about the house.  I am much blessed with my friends and neighbours.

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  1. I was in the Second Chandlers Ford Scout Troop with Tim Harding in the late 40’s and 50’s. Our patrol was Peewit – why that rather than the proper name of lapwing I do not know. We met in the old hut in Valley Road until in about 1950 when a new hut was built at Ram Alley, now superceded by another new one. Jack Hall was the Scout Leader, having superceded “Skipper” Deadman.

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