Yesterday morning, a few of us from Chandler’s Ford Today attended the unique ribbon-less re-opening ceremony of the Dovetail Centre at the Methodist Church. It was a warm and friendly place as usual, buzzing with excitement.
It was certainly a day of celebration, and also a day of reflection on the problem of loneliness in our community, and how we could all reach out to support one another. [Read more…] about Re-opening of the Dovetail Centre: to Engage and Share, and Fight Loneliness
Every evening, Gran describes the sunset seen from The Ridge, often in great detail, and when the sky is cloudy, she invariably writes, “sunset obscured”. On May 5th 1949 though, she misses it entirely:
…because I attended a concert given by a local troop of Girl Guides, of which Jane is a member. It was an excellent show and the spirit of friendliness increased by the presence of five members of a Polish Guide movement. It was almost dark when it was over.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 25)
Gill James is a prolific writer and publisher. As well as running Bridge House Publishing, Chapeltown Books and Cafelit (along with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt), Gill has written dozens of books ranging from science fiction (The Tower Trilogy) to historical fiction (The House on Schellberg Street). She has also been a university lecturer in creative writing. [Read more…] about Writing Historical Fiction – Interview with Gill James Part 1
March 18th 1949, Gran writes:
Necessity took me to Southampton today… The bombed sites are ablaze with Coltsfoot now, creeping over the rubble and pouring down the slopes like golden streams. Knots of people standing about and the Convent schoolgirls lining The Avenue spoke of some untoward excitement and I was surprised to hear that Mr Churchill was expected to pass at any moment on his way to the docks to board “Queen Elizabeth”. I was already in the ‘bus for home and I cannot say that I saw him but we did pass his car on Hut Hill! In Park Road a Larch tree is already decked in its soft green tassels of fresh, new growth, one of the loveliest sights of Spring.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 24)
A few weeks ago, I went to the Gift Day at the Dovetail Centre of the Chandler’s Ford Methodist Church. The purpose of the day was to raise fund to refurbish Dovetail Centre, one of the most popular community centres in the heart of Chandler’s Ford.
It was a happy morning. We were sitting at the delightful Dovetail Centre, chatting to old and new friends, and were all excited about the new project. [Read more…] about Refurbishment for a Modern and Contemporary Dovetail Centre at the Methodist Church
It’s late January 1949. Gran spends most afternoons in the Park Road garden on a range of tasks; transplanting Caucasus Primroses; various jobs in the greenhouse (where, on the 27th, she is saddened to see a long-tailed field mouse caught in a trap – “I would lose all my produce rather than catch them if the place belonged to me”, she writes) also outside weeding a bed of Primula wanda; watering Arums; sowing peas to bring them on for sowing out later, and enjoying the quiet and peace as she mixes soil and sieved leaves for seed-sowing. “I like to feel the soil in my hands…”
On the 27th she records that:
Iris stylosa opened her first four beautiful flowers to the sunshine in the garden. How I love them, and how they break my heart! Just over two years ago I sent some to Adrian because he had never seen them. He never did see them though he was sufficiently conscious to know they came and were placed near him and later his mother put them into his hand for me – a gesture I shall never forget and one which in itself secured for her my undying friendship and affection.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 23)
On November 25th 1948:
Stonechats were present at Stony Cross in the New Forest this afternoon. Here also is the largest oak tree in the New Forest, known as the Knightwood Oak. Last August the tree measured 22ft 4½ ins in girth. The largest tree to be cut down in the New Forest was also an oak – in Langley Wood. When felled in 1758 it was found to contain 300 rings of annual growth, and required twelve horses to drag it to the coast. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 22)
Last weekend, I revisited the Medieval Village in the River Hamble Country Park, set up as part of the Medieval Weekend arranged by the Road to Agincourt Project.
Image Credit: All pictures taken by Allison Symes at the 2017 Medieval Weekend
The weekend was fun. I learned all sorts of things from the “villagers” I talked to such as the cook and her girls once being camp followers and having to change their back story as they were “ladies who provided a service” (and not food either!). [Read more…] about Revisiting Medieval Hampshire in 2017
Joan Goater writes on 15th September 1948:
A large green and black bodied dragonfly flew about under the yew tree opposite here, performing amazing feats of aerobatics. I agree with what Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald said recently on the wireless about this lovely creature’s misnomer. It is far too beautiful to be named “Dragon”, which one always associates with an ugly monster, but the repulsive “grub” is equally mis-named “nymph”, because one always thinks of a nymph as an exquisitely dainty creature. They should certainly bear each other’s names. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 21)
It’s August 20th 1948. A change of season is in the air and Gran writes, while blackberrying again in the woods opposite:
Again the fragrance of damp bracken and water mint mingled with the perfume of ripe blackberries to give that indescribable scent of the August woodland, and the tang of Autumn was heavy in the air… the birds were silent, save for an occasional “T’seet” from a Tit…”
Great, Blue and Coal Tits, together with several other small woodland species, I found difficult to identify by their calls when I started birding, and I remember asking Dad’s advice about how to tell them apart. His answer was, in a Mexican accent, “ eetz eazzy” (this being the call of all these birds) which we both found entertaining, but was of little help to me, as I did not find it easy!
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 20)
In the 1980s there were no fancy coffee shops in Chandler’s Ford. It wasn’t common for supermarkets to offer you ‘free’ coffee either. Many young mothers found themselves isolated at home with young children, and elderly people were struggling to meet someone for a friendly chat.
One person saw that acute problem in Chandler’s Ford and decided to do something about it, to change for the better.
Her name is Jane Archer. She has run the Coffee Room based at the Dovetail Centre at the Methodist Church on Winchester Road for 37 years. Many babies who had played at the Coffee Room have grown up to become parents themselves. [Read more…] about Jane Archer – A Simple Vision, and 37 Years Leading The Coffee Room at Dovetail Centre
Gran writes on July 11th 1948, shortly after daughter Jane’s Confirmation:
Another cloudy dawn but fine enough for us to get to Compton Church for Jane’s first Communion. A Wood-Pigeon was softly calling in the opposite wood when I awakened at 6.15 and the Lark was already singing in the nearby field, or rather over what used to be a field, but it is now part of Hillier’s nursery, at 7.15 as we left home. …a Green Woodpecker flew over the church during the service uttering its strident alarm notes. The flowers on the altar were, as usual, beautiful and tastefully arranged.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 19)
Gran writes on June 2nd 1948 (at a time, of course, before the introduced Grey Squirrel became such a confounded nuisance, and people’s attitude to it changed:
Cycling along a quiet lane I was startled when a Grey Squirrel leapt off a post almost into my lap, but my surprise was nothing compared to his. He lost his head completely, tried to regain the post but instead plunged into the wire netting beneath it, where he struggled desperately to get through. How I wish the little wild creatures knew that I would never hurt them!
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 18)
On Monday morning 5th June 2017, I, along with my wife Val, my sister, Heather Witham (Nee Vining), my brother Simon Vining and his son Bob Vining met with Rob Preston to see what progress had been made in the refurbishments of Hiltonbury Farmhouse since I was last there a couple of weeks ago.
It is certainly a “Proper” Building site now as it was a requirement for all of us to sign the visitors book and that we all wore high viz jackets and proper boots or to use the technical term we all had to wear “PPE” Personal Protective Equipment. [Read more…] about The Vinings Invade Hiltonbury Farmhouse!
May 7th 1948:
In Kingsway the beautiful and unusual Adam Laburnum is just coming into flower. M. Adam, a French nurseryman in 1826 grafted a bud of Purple Laburnum on to a yellow. The hybrid tree produces three kinds of flowers, the yellow of one parent, purple of the other and the pink hybrid flowers. This is the most celebrated record of hybridization.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 17)
On 22nd May I went to my old home Hiltonbury Farmhouse to meet Rob Preston the new tenant who is planning to open this wonderful old Farmhouse as a restaurant in early July this year.
Rob is a great entrepreneur who has been in and around the wine and drinks industry all his working life but always wanted to work on “The other side of the bar” as he put it and open a family restaurant setting a high standard for good food and excellent service. [Read more…] about A Special Visit to “Hiltonbury Farmhouse”
On April 27th 1948:
An entomological friend of Barry’s came down from Bradford today to go with him for Scarlet Tiger caterpillars. He remarked upon the wealth of blossom on the flowering trees and shrubs down here and said that Spring in the south seemed a good three weeks in advance of Yorkshire… Nightingales were singing all along the banks of the river [Itchen] and a Grasshopper Warbler was also heard.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 16)
What does the average author, with a book “out there”, want from their readers? Well, we obviously want you to enjoy what we’ve written but what we would appreciate are reviews on blogs, certain famous online retailers, Goodreads and so on. Why?
Book reviews are a lifeline for writers. Reviews help spread the word about the book. Given every writer must be prepared to do their own publicity, (even the big publishers save their efforts and budgets for the blockbusting author, everyone else has to “hit the campaign trail” for themselves), reviews give a helping hand. [Read more…] about The Art of the Book Review by Allison Symes
By April 13th 1948 many summer migrant birds (Cuckoos, Wood Warblers, Blackcaps and Willow Warblers) have been recorded in the local woods, and Gran is ecstatic about her lovely England in Spring. The weather has been warm, she notes on the 12th:
In the Park Road garden this afternoon there was a positive plague of flies, swarming everywhere, the gutters and front of the house black with them in parts, and all warm places like the edges of the frames, water-tap, shed doors and the grid over the water-cock were thickly covered. D.D.T. did not seem to deter them for long.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 15)
Dad appears to be developing a network of entomological friends as Gran sometimes mentions that moths or larvae have been sent to him by post. For instance, on the 22nd March:
An Engrailed moth emerged in one of Barry’s breeding cages early tonight but up to the time of writing the wings had not expanded. The chrysalis was sent, among others, by an entomologist friend in the north.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 14)
