Where can you see a dolphin near Portsmouth?
Well, I suppose “looking out to sea” is a possibility, but Fort Nelson on Portsdown Hill is more likely. The handles on a cannon barrel are also called dolphins – because of their resemblance to swimming dolphins arching out of the water.
There is much activity at the Fowlers’ shop in Southampton, packing flowers for departing ships, at this time, and a strike by French seamen causes a degree of chaos because passengers for whom flowers had been ordered are transferred from the Ile de France, whose departure is delayed, to other ships the following day, and correctly uniting flowers with their recipients is difficult. Gran delivers some of the arrangements to the United States, sailing on April 30th, 1953, and writes: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 53)
Gran writes, as usual during Eastertime, of the deep emotions engendered in her at this period in the Christian calendar, and on Good Friday, April 3rd 1953, she attends a service at Compton that is very much of its time:
I met Mrs Durst as I reached the Church gate and we went in together. As soon as I saw the visiting clergyman’s face I knew that the service would be a good one, for his faith shone on his countenance as a lamp in a dark world. He was the Reverend George Sanderson, from All Saints, Alton and the Service proved to be the most moving and beautiful I have ever attended.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 52)
The presence of her new grandson, Julian, gives Gran considerable and frequent pleasure during February 1953. He and his parents are regular visitors for meals, when Barry is home on leave from his RAF station at Rudloe Manor at Chippenham, and often Gran pushes Julian in his pram around the local roads and woodlands while Barry and Jock have a bit of time to themselves at Cranbury, along the Itchen or up at Farley Mount. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 51)
On January 17th 1953 Gran leads a group of British Empire Naturalists’ Association members on a walk between Compton and Winchester along the Itchen Valley. They see a range of common wildlife but the most important thing, from Gran’s point of view, is that it boosts her confidence, and she writes:
It had been an enjoyable afternoon and the members thanked me for conducting them, as they said, so ably along a very beautiful and interesting stretch of English countryside. I need not have felt so nervous about undertaking the venture and I now contemplate the trip to Avington Park next month with less trepidation. I am too used to being a lone wolf to relish taking a party on my excursions but today’s number was not overwhelming and they were all very nice and friendly people.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 50)
Yesterday, 1st April, was the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. Some of you may have seen More4’s screening last night of ‘Last Flight of the Vulcan Bomber’ when the daredevil mechanic Guy Martin worked at the ‘Vulcan to the Sky Trust with the team of engineers maintaining XH558 The Spirit of Great Britain, the last remaining Vulcan flying.
He learned about the rigorous servicing, he flew alongside the Vulcan in a fly-past and later experienced the incredible thrust of this brilliant aeroplane from the cockpit, accelerating up to the point of take-off (WOW!) [Read more…] about The 100th Anniversary of the Royal Air Force: Remembering the Vulcan
On December 10th 1952, Gran is brought a male Bullfinch that has been “knocked down”, she thinks, on the road. She has little hope of its recovery as it seems to be in a bad way but she gives it a drop of brandy, holds it in her warm hand, and then places it in a basket by the kitchen window, and it begins to recover. After more than an hour it flies off, and Gran says, “He was a beautiful bird and I was so pleased that he recovered”.
The use of brandy in such a situation is new to me, and I expect is not to be recommended! I remember another member of the family many years later giving apple pieces soaked in brandy to a budgerigar, and it became so relaxed that it fell off its perch!
December 13th:
I had little time for outside observations today since Barry was coming on leave early this evening and bringing with him his new friend, John Sandy Cunningham, known to all as Sandy, and his fiancée Jill, whose second name I never discovered and which Sandy told me was relatively unimportant as she would be changing it on January 7th, when they are getting married.
Sandy and Jill spend the night at The Ridge, Gran noting that they were:
…already quite at home and the easiest young people with whom to get on that I have ever known, in spite of the fact that Sandy is extremely clever and an Oxford B.A. Also, he is one of the handsomest young men I know and his manners are punctilious. His voice is well modulated and he is most gentle and courteous towards Jill.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 49)
On October 12th 1952, Gran is pleased to see her old friend and confidant, Mr Utterton, briefly returned to Compton Church:
I was delighted to reach the Church gate at the same time as Mr Utterton, who was taking today’s services, and I was able to speak to him for a few moments. Except that he appeared a little older, he was his own kind self and it was good to see him again.
Later, she writes, “This afternoon Jane and I went up to Farley Mount. I wanted her to see it before all its Autumn beauty had faded”, but she is disturbed by what they encounter there:
We returned to Hursley past the Mount itself but all pleasure was spoilt by a motor-cycle rally which was in progress opposite the Monument. I grieve for Farley Mount these days, for the peace and serenity which I used to find there, and, if such as motor rallies are to become frequent, I am afraid much of its wild life will be lost as well. A Lark was singing but much of its melody was lost in the constant roar of passing motor-cycles.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 48)
Gran is in pensive mood. She writes:
I heard religion described today by a clergyman as “what we do with our loneliness”, and I thought back over the last five years and wondered if he would think I had used mine to advantage. Quite apart from my writing, which may or may not benefit somebody someday, I think it has deepened my capacity for compassion and sympathetic understanding and I have tried to give myself wholeheartedly to those who need me, and I know that my friendship has helped several people at least. But it has also humbled me, for I have felt so desperately bewildered and ignorant of so much that I want to understand and believe implicitly…
[Read more…] about Fort Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 47)
I was interested in a previous article by Rick Goater in which he mentioned his grandmother visiting Mrs Doncaster’s garden in 1952. For some years, I lived three doors away in our (then) new house overlooking the green in Merdon Avenue.
I have in my possession, a Royal Horticultural Society journal, published in 1982, which contains a fascinating article about the garden by Roy Lancaster. Mrs Doncaster, at that time, had collected and grown uncommon and ornamental plants for fifty years. [Read more…] about Mrs Doncaster
Gran is again boxing-up flowers at the Fowler’s shop in Southampton on July 30th 1952, for delivery to ocean liners shortly to leave port – this time, the SS United States again and also the RMS Queen Elizabeth. She ends a detailed description of the contents of one box thus:
…Asparagus fern completed the gift box which I think should have delighted the heart of any woman lucky enough to receive it. I did not visit either of the ships today as I had to leave by mid-day in order to cycle back here in time for lunch and to Pinewood Gardens by two o’clock.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 46)
What a difference a few years makes. Back in 1947 we had a real winter. Snow and freezing temperatures lasted for ages. Those were real austerity times, food rationing, power cuts every day to conserve coal, clothing was still rationed, nobody had central heating and most had outside lavatories, even the BBC was cut off during the afternoons to save energy. It was enormous fun. I could not wait to get out with my sledge and the chance of a snowball fight.
I think it is correct to say that most dogs love snow, especially the thick coated dogs that are protected from the cold. My Newfoundlands, with double coats, will roll about in the snow, eat it, and will sleep undisturbed if allowed whilst the snow covers them. [Read more…] about Newfoundlands in the Snow
On June 28th 1952, Gran makes the three-bus trip, via the Hythe Ferry to her beloved New Forest. On the way, seeing the bombed sites of Southampton, Redbridge and Millbrook, she notes:
Buddleia, now recognised as a naturalised native plant, had taken firm hold and its beautiful purple heads of bloom flowered above the golden masses of Senecio squalidus (Oxford Ragwort).
She has a botanically fabulous day, described in great detail, recording many plants, eight of which are new species for her Hampshire list, and she writes:
The afternoon was perfect and I joined the Southampton Natural History Society in a ramble round Hatchet Pond in the New Forest, a district full of interest and with a tremendous number of small but beautiful, and, in some cases, rare wild flowers…the rarest and most exciting being the tiny gentian Cicendia filiformis (Sender Cicendia), which, according to Bentham and Hooker, occurs only in the south-western counties of England. Two bedstraws, Galium debile [now G. constrictum] a rare plant closely allied to Galium palustre (Marsh Bedstraw) and which has only recently been identified as a separate species, and the Stellaria uliginosa (Bog Stitchwort) were the next new discoveries… [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 45)
By John Rolfe
I live in the USA, but was originally from Southampton. I have attached a photo of my mum and brother. [Read more…] about The Hutments 1950s and My Family
On May 20th 1952, Gran:
…took a friend from the Natural History Society for a walk round about this district. We went through the woodland past the lake, which is surrounded by Rhododendron bushes which today were in full bloom, reflected in the water of the still lake, the rosy-mauve in various shades making a picture of unsurpassed beauty. Unfortunately, the lake itself is overgrown with pondweed over a large extent and this detracts from its beauty because it spoils the clarity of the water.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 44)
It’s April 8th 1952. The rain of the last few days clears and Gran writes of Barry and her new daughter-in-law, honeymooning on the Isle of Wight:
I hope Barry and Jock have also enjoyed the same glorious day, but I would like to be the first to hear the Willow Warbler, though I know they will have much to report on their return home. I do not expect many young couples would largely spend their honeymoon watching bird-migration…
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 43)
Gran enthuses near dawn on February 24th 1952:
I heard Barry calling urgently to me to “come quickly and see the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming in the oak tree”. I ran to call Jock and we had splendid views from a front window, watching the bird for a long time. It was drumming on a dead branch at first, moving all round it and between drumming it was pecking at the bough.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 42)
Gran often mentions a flock of Golden Plover, regularly seen near Eastleigh Airport during the winter, for instance, on January 6th 1952, when she notes that Barry saw a small flock on a field of plough there:
…which he saw from the coach on his way to a cross-country race. Incidentally, as a result of his performance in this race, when he ran 10th, and was a member of the winning team, he has been selected as first reserve for the County, and is almost certain to run for Hampshire at York in a fortnight’s time.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 41)
On September 22nd 1951, Gran takes part in a quest for fungi in a local wood.
The afternoon passed in a pleasant and interesting manner and in a way new to me. I joined in a Fungus Foray arranged by the combined efforts of the Ramblers’ Club and the Southampton Natural History Society, and, though it is a branch of which I know very little, I managed to find the greatest number of fungi in the party, and the only ones of several varieties [by which, to be accurate, she means “species”]. We went to Squab Wood, in Romsey, meeting in the square there before proceeding to the wood.
I wandered alone most of the time and found it easy to locate fungi, my eyes having had good practice in observation from my deeper interests and I had always noticed them casually before. I found about thirty specimens, nineteen of which I managed to get named for me…now, of course, I want to know more about them but at present possess no book upon the subject.
She lists, describes and comments on most of the species found – they, like many of her familiar moths, have rather evocative English names: the Amethyst Deceiver, the Slayer, the Blusher, the Chanterelle, the Sulphur Tuft, the Stinkhorn, the Vegetable Beefsteak… [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 40)
