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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 90)

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No need for a tirade; a couple of grebes; Woodlark hangs on locally; still cycling distances in search of flowers; promotion for Barry; the Boat Race; a Society Wedding at Otterbourne; old-fashioned toys for the Hockridge girls and a book comes to an appreciative recipient.

We have a revealing insight into Gran’s preferred brand of Christianity in early March 1958.  The Hockridges, the family next-door, active in their faith, are evangelical in their views and have on a number of occasions encouraged Gran to attend meetings at their church and elsewhere. On this occasion, Gran puts into words her thoughts thus:

I went to a film shown by the Chandler’s Ford Evangelical Mission at the local School, entitled “Dust or Destiny”. It was wonderful, showing many of the wonders of nature, all previously known and appreciated by me, who, as a naturalist and, I hope, a Christian, have never doubted the Creation nor the power of the Creator, and I truly did not feel in need of the rather loudly proclaimed tirade afterwards.  But I like quiet things and I like my teaching about God to be quietly proclaimed for I cannot imagine our Lord shouting, and I find it neither more coherent nor more convincing than the well-modulated speech of my own Rector at Compton.  It holds no particular message for me.  I hope I am not wrong about this but I find my own Church’s teaching far more satisfying and much less embarrassing.

The promised flower stamps from Mr Cashmore, arrive on the 11th:

…the beautiful flower stamps of San Marino and Jugo-Slavia, which made me wonder why our Post Office is not more enterprising.  Why should we not depict on our stamps some of our lovely native flowers – surely there are many that would make excellent subjects?

Her wish came true in 1979 – and she would have collected this First Day Cover. Image by Ross Beresford via Flickr.

A Natural History Society field meeting to Poole Harbour, mid-month, brings two new species for Gran’s bird list, both grebes: Black-necked and Red-necked.

Red-necked Grebe – new for Gran’s list but her bird was probably in winter plumage. This one is in its smart breeding dress. Image by Shawn McCready via Flickr.

On the 27th, she visits old friends, writing, “This afternoon I went to have tea with Miss Cope and Miss Bainbrigge, for whom I used to work in their market-garden. Most of the ground has now been sold for building and looks sad”.  She is despondent about the rapid loss of countryside to bricks and mortar locally but not all is lost yet, for early in March she writes:

Returning along Hiltingbury Road, near the Common which is once more almost cleared of huts, I heard the unmistakable song of a Woodlark, and, trying to locate the bird, saw two fly down to the ground, chasing, and then, as they rose again, noticed a third, and all then flew across the road… It is among the sweetest of our birdsongs and used to be heard frequently in this district before too much civilization bore down upon us.

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

March 10th:

I have been no further than the corner shops today and have little to record.  I did receive a letter from a gentleman in London, Derek Hudson, who is writing a biography of Arthur Rackham, and he has promised to let me know when it is published.  I also heard from a rather lost Diana, who was cheered to find my card on her arrival in Oxford, and I hope she will soon be happy there.

By second post this afternoon came a happy letter from Jane, who has been asked to tour Scotland this Summer with her late room-mate at Chelsea College, Gill Tween. They will go by car and visit the Edinburgh Festival during the tour, an event which Jane has long desired to attend.

Over the past month, Gran has been painting a flower picture for Major Brewster, Dennis’s father, who is in Canada.  Several species are included, and she needs to find some of the very local, wild Lungwort species, Pulmonaria longifolia which grows on the outskirts of the New Forest.  She, anyway, makes an annual pilgrimage to find this much-loved plant and on the 16th she meets young Antony Harding at the corner of Pine Road and they cycle to Beaulieu together in search of it.  It is rather early in the season for the Lungwort but she finds a single plant in flower, and several others in bud, and she takes a few pieces for her painting.  They return home, parting at Pine Road, she says, “…having cycled thirty-six miles – not bad at nearly fifty-four years of age – and my weariness, I think, was justified”.

Pulmonaria longifolia – a great favourite of Gran’s. Image by Bathyporeia via Flickr.

Book 71

Gran reads in the local paper on March 26th, “that:

…a Badger had been found dead in the middle of Otterbourne Hill this morning.  A nocturnal animal, it must have been struck by a car during last night.  I have yet to see my first badger, but I do not want it to be a dead one!

I believe that Badgers were highly persecuted in those days, and they were rare so that dead ones on the road were an unusual sight – in stark contrast to the high numbers of casualties we see today.  Nevertheless, it seems incredible that Gran, a country-woman, has reached her fifty-fourth year without encountering one, dead or alive!

The evening of the 29th sees her in Southampton at:

…a performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera “Ruddigore” by the boys of Taunton School.  This was most excellent and a credit to all concerned – it was difficult to realize that all the female parts were taken by boys.

She makes special mention of “Mad Margaret”, and “Rosebud” who were outstanding; and “Dick, the sailor, whose nimble feet were a joy to watch in the hornpipe”.  Grampa was an “Old Tauntonian”, and perhaps Gran accompanied him on this occasion.

The following day she attends another cultural event, this time at St Boniface Church, to hear Stainer’s Crucifixion sung by the choir:

It was excellently rendered by this choir of youngsters, of whom three were my young friends, Tim, Jill and Antony Harding, and their clear young voices rang with a purity which I found very moving.

For most of the month, on her wanderings in the local countryside, Gran has been desperately listening for that Spring sound that so lifts her heart – the song of the Chiffchaff – but it is not until the last day of the month that she is rewarded. “This afternoon’, she writes, “I went out again in search of my elusive little migrant… I went along towards Beechwood Hollow, on the way to Ampfield.  Suddenly – yes! the Chiffchaff!  I jammed on my brake so abruptly that I nearly went over the handlebars…”

A Chiffchaff in Spring – whose voice was enough to brighten Gran’s day. Image by hedera.baltica via Flickr.

On April 3rd:

The Post brought a letter from Barry, which contained really wonderful news.  Mr Savory is retiring in July and the Headmaster offered Barry the post of Head of the Biology Department in his place.  He will take up these new duties in September – a fine achievement, I think, at the age of twenty-eight after three years of teaching.  Naturally we were all delighted.

And she has kept the letter giving this news between the pages of her journal.

There is still no television at The Ridge, and Gran is frequently next-door at the Hockridges, invited in to see her favourite programmes – often Look and Faraway Look introduced by Peter Scott; sometimes tennis, sometimes ballet, and sometimes a gentle movie, such as the Swedish film, The Great Adventure.  On a snowy April 5th, there is coverage of The Boat Race, of which Gran records this:

Cambridge won again, convincingly, by three and a half lengths in the third fastest time, eighteen minutes, fifteen seconds, in appalling weather, which the Cambridge President afterwards said was only bad for the spectators since the pouring rain but lack of wind made the river calm and ideal for rowing. Well, I would sooner they did it than I. The rain eased a little later and the snow here thinned for a time and after a return of large flakes and thick falling, it turned to steady rain here too.

Gran has placed a newspaper cutting, dated April 15th 1958, and with the headline: “Guards Major Weds Heiress at Otterbourne” in her journal.  On the reverse is a list of houses for sale locally, with prices ranging from £1050 in Baddesley, to a three-bedroom detached property, with a brick garage and greenhouse in Kingsway, priced at £2750.  Gran describes the subject of the headline:

Early this afternoon Jane and I cycled to Otterbourne Church to see the wedding of Penelope Chamberlayne of Cranbury Park, whom we have known about the neighbourhood for many years.  We arrived early and secured a good vantage point just inside the Church gate and were able to see all the guests arrive.  There was a tremendous crowd from all around to see the Lady of Cranbury, a girl of twenty-one, married to Major Nigel Bosville Macdonald of the Isles – villagers from Hursley, Chandler’s Ford and Compton as well as, I should think, the entire population of Otterbourne.

We saw the arrival of three tiny pages, wearing miniature replicas of 1830 Scots Guards uniforms (this being the bridegroom’s regiment) made by the regiment’s master tailor, and seven bridesmaids, one a child, in dresses of white satin with blue sashes and wearing white “shepherdess” hats with blue ribbons, copied from a painting by Romney of Lady Hamilton, which is at Cranbury Park.

Romney painted Lady Hamilton often, but here she is not wearing a hat with blue ribbons.  Image courtesy of yak23flora via Flickr.

Everyone surged forward as the Bride arrived, in a classic design gown of white satin and wearing the family wedding veil of lace, looking very lovely but having difficulty in managing her gown.  She carried a white bouquet…

A guard of honour of Scots Guards lined the Church path after the Ceremony and we were just behind them – tall fine men in scarlet tunics and bearskins – and twin brothers, Pipe-Major and Pipe-Sergeant Roe, piped the couple out of the Church.

The Bridegroom is the younger son of the late Sir Godfrey Macdonald of the Isles and is Assistant Private Secretary to the Duke of Gloucester in London.  Penelope Chamberlayne was presented at Court in 1954 and then went to America as “International Debutant of the Year”.  She was given in marriage by Sir Basil Cochrane Newton K.C.M.G. former Ambassador to Iraq.

The Pipers attracted much attention since they were wearing the kilt and played the traditional Scottish tune “Lady of the Isles”.  It was a most picturesque scene and as the couple passed us the Bridegroom looked straight at me and said “Hello”, though I have never seen him before, and I murmured “Congratulations”.  No doubt he thought I was one of the many people there associated with Cranbury Park.

Later, that evening, Jane and Gran are creosoting some trellis in the garden when Barry arrives from camp at Beaulieu.  “His old familiar whistle announced his arrival”, Gran says, and “It was good to see him again and to hear all his news”.  Jock and the two boys are in Chandler’s Ford too, probably staying at 99 Kingsway, and Gran is delighted to see them too:

Jock brought Julian and Ricky round to see us and Julian was reading to me.  Very well too.  I sent him a little book of birds for Easter, and Barry had told me that he could read it.  He [Julian] also informed Ricky that “the Goldcrest is the smallest British bird and weighs about as much as an envelope and half a sheet of notepaper!”

Spring migrant birds continue to arrive in the Hiltingbury area, Gran noting each as it does so, and she is delighted that at least one Nightingale still finds a home in Cranbury Park, where Jane, home for Easter, is horse-riding.  Cuckoos are about too, but Gran notes that there are rather few compared to other years.  She does, though, with Jane, record a new species locally:

In the beautiful valley that runs between Hiltingbury and Hocombe Roads we heard the unmistakeably “reeling” song of a Grasshopper Warbler and later heard another, the first time, to my knowledge that this bird has visited this area.

Grasshopper Warbler. It’s not easy to get a view like this of such a skulking bird. Image by Roger Sanderson via Flickr.

Jean and Ken Hockridge travel to Devon for the day on April 26th, and Gran, with brief help from Jane, looks after their girls, Ruth and Anne, between eight o’clock in the morning and half-past ten at night.  She writes:

Jane had brought down her dolls’ house, which my Father made for her when she was five years old, and her dolls and Teddy-bear, for the children’s pleasure and they certainly kept them entertained.  It was incredible, but true, that Wendy, who had been my doll, is now over forty-five years old, and the “new” clothes that I knitted for her when Jane had her, are now twenty years old!  And somehow Teddy did not seem as big as he used to be, but he is still as cuddly and beloved!

Jane, herself, went riding this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  This afternoon, quite unexpectedly, she had an invitation to go to Ascot with Diana Sykes to see the Show Jumping, and was delighted to be among so many famous horses and riders.  I saw some of it on Television next door…

May 5th:

After the washing was out this morning I hastened to Winchester to collect a book which Gilbert’s had been trying to get for me – “I Bought a Mountain” by Thomas Firbark – recommended by Jane, who had already read it, because it surrounds that part of Wales that is so well-known and beloved by my family.  I was lucky, for the copy they obtained for me bears an inscription in the front, written by the Author’s wife who figures largely in the book, “With all good wishes – Esmée Firbark, with the address of their farm and the date, 2.8.52. It is presumably a presentation copy and I wonder at the previous owner parting with it.  However, it could not have come to a more appreciative recipient!

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