Chandler's Ford Today

storytelling

Memorials to our War Dead: the Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

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I wonder how many people know the history of these two significant and impressive memorials to those who fell in war.

The Cenotaph.

Cenotaph London, Armistice Day 2018. Image via UK Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Cenotaph London, Armistice Day 2018. Image via UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Designed by Edwin Lutyens, the Cenotaph (meaning ‘empty tomb’) was first erected in 1919 as a temporary wood and plaster structure for a victory parade at the end of the First World War. It was to be temporary as it was thought that this parade would be a one-off. But the Cenotaph quickly captured the public imagination. Repatriation of the dead had been forbidden since the early days of the war, so the Cenotaph came to represent the absent dead and served as a substitute for a grave. Beginning almost immediately after the parade and continuing for days afterwards, members of the public began laying flowers and wreaths around the Cenotaph’s base: people needed to mourn their sons, fathers and brothers. So clear was this need for a visible monument, that in 1920 it was replaced by a permanent Portland stone structure, to the same Lutyens design, and designated the United Kingdom’s official national war memorial. [Read more…] about Memorials to our War Dead: the Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior

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Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?

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There is a story of a pompous man pushing into the front of and airport check-in queue. The check-in girl tells him to go to the back of the queue. ‘Do you know who I am?’ asks the man. The check-in girl asks the queue, ’can anyone help? This man does not know who he is.’

I sympathise with this man, not because of pushing into a queue, but because I am not known by my name any longer. The days when I heard people say, ‘Hello, Mike, nice to see you,’ have gone because, in COVID protection mode, no one sees me.

kaboompics - man working on a computer
Image via Kabookpics

Reduced to a Binary Digit

I am known to my computer but only as a string of digits. The screen wants to know my ID number, password, authentication code, admin password, username, wireless key, PIN, account number or registration key. Then there are numbers and codes sent to my phone which last only an hour or so. If I go to a bar or restaurant, my phone communicates with a QR code. I can text my order and someone brings drinks. [Read more…] about Life in a Pandemic: Who am I?

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A Romantic Romp through the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

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In this bit of nonsense, I have included each of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet codewords …

Last November, alpha male Mike and his Zulu boyfriend Charlie took a holiday at the famous golf hotel in Lima. Wanting a break from the game, they took a drive through the delta, up into the sierra, where they heard the famous echo. In the evening they were joined by their yankee soldier friend Victor (who was in uniform) and his Papa.

They all went to the theatre where they saw Romeo and Juliet (it was an Oscar-winning performance – ‘Bravo’, they cried) and then went dancing, first the foxtrot then the tango. [Read more…] about A Romantic Romp through the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

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My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 3

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Many Greek Migrants had joined the ship at Piraeus, headed for Australia and New Zealand.

After Suez, this led to an additional source of entertainment every day, in the form of Greek Dancing in the Ballroom. Most of the participants were, of course, Greeks, but lessons were also provided by Greek instructors for Non-Greeks who wanted to learn. Such dances as the Sirtaki, which featured in the 1964 film, Zorba The Greek, were most popular. That particular dance featured in Greek Restaurants in Perth we discovered.

Greek Dancing in The Ballroom. Photo: Chandris Lines
Greek Dancing in The Ballroom. Photo: Chandris Lines

Also after leaving Suez, a School was set up for Non-Greek kids, and a creche for the toddlers. The School was staffed by volunteers with teaching experience, and the creche by willing mums … this was great for the kids, and, unlike home, it wasn’t compulsory, so they loved it! [Read more…] about My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 3

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The Grand Houses of Chandler’s Ford

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It’s an afternoon in August and, after the morning’s continuous rain, my wife and I have been out for a brisk walk around the wooded roads of Brownhill, Merdon, Lake and Lakewood. It’s warm and the overpowering sweet smell of Scots pine and Douglas fir pervades the landscape. There are still large numbers of conifers among the mature oak trees where they were once a dominant species.

I first moved into Lakewood Road in 1955 when the woodlands prevailed; the area to the west of the Lake was a pine forest through which I regularly went horse-riding. It is now, tragically, an inaccessible tangle of overgrown species – but that’s another story!

At that time, in the rectangle of land formed by Hiltingbury, Hocombe, Lakewood and Hursley Roads, there was little development, the oldest house being our neighbours’ house,The White House, the land for which had been acquired in 1908. The area was woodland and heathland. I galloped across this land frequently and, like many other boys, rode my bike aerobatically over ‘the bumps’ behind the present Ashdown Road.

As a young boy, I had that wonderful sense of freedom, space and adventure. The land was ripe to be plundered and developed and, from the 1890s, the land from Ford to Brownhill, and Hiltingbury to Hocombe was destined to fall under the woodman’s axe to make way, initially, for exclusive houses.

Kings Court - Imagine a sweeping gravel driveway and gardens where there is now a car park!
Kings Court – Imagine a sweeping gravel driveway and gardens where there is now a car park!

[Read more…] about The Grand Houses of Chandler’s Ford

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My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 2

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I was prompted to write this article by the inclusion of a photograph of the ship ‘Australis’ in Part 121 of Adelaide Goater’s Journal ‘Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford’, published on this site by her Grandson, Rick Goater, on 12th. April 2020 … Thank you Rick!

A couple are from my own meagre collection.

See My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 1

***********************************

Day 3 – we are about to enter Piraeus, the very old port for Athens, and Greece as a whole.

The Old Port Of Piraeus from a postcard
The Old Port Of Piraeus from a postcard

[Read more…] about My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 2

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My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 1

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I was prompted to write this article by the inclusion of a photograph of the ship ‘Australis’ in part 121 of Adelaide Goater’s Journal- Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford, published on this site by her Grandson, Rick Goater, on 12th. April 2020 … Thank you Rick!

s.s. ‘Australis’ berthed at Southampton in 1973 in her new grey / white livery.
s.s. ‘Australis’ berthed at Southampton in 1973 in her new grey / white livery.

s.s. ‘Australis’ berthed at Southampton in 1973 in her new grey/white livery

Above photo by Les Fisher, via Flickr, from his album ‘Old family photos – A collection of memories’

Most other photos used are from Chandris Lines ‘Official’ brochures, unless otherwise stated. A couple are my own.

My love affair with this beautiful lady lasted just 3 weeks, from Wednesday 9th. March 1966 until Friday 1st. April 1966, only to be
re-kindled in October 2000 when I started writing my life’s memories, but that, my friends, is another story … [Read more…] about My Love Affair with a Beautiful Lady – Part 1

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Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 3

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In 1963 I met Mandy Fry, a girl who lived with her parents and sisters in their family farm in Bramdean. Mandy was lodging during the week with my Aunt while she was attending Eastleigh College and that’s how we met when visiting one day.

Peter Hammerton: in 1963, I met Mandy Fry.
Peter Hammerton: in 1963, I met Mandy Fry.

Malcolm Road

In October 1966 Mandy and I bought a plot of land in Malcolm Road. We had plans for a house drawn up. Although passed by the local authority, we still had to take the drawings to Scammel & Smith, the local estate agents, to have the drawings approved by them for the Hiltingbury Estates before we could start building. [Read more…] about Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 3

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Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 2

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In October 1960 in Chandler’s Ford, the Monks Brook river that ran behind our house burst its banks and many of the houses in Mead Road were flooded, some up to 18” of water inside, but I remember our house staying dry inside because the ground floor was built higher than those around it and stayed just below the floorboards.

October 1960, the Monks Brook river burst its banks
October 1960, the Monks Brook river burst its banks.
October 1960, the Monks Brook river that ran behind our house burst its banks, in Chandler's Ford.
October 1960, the Monks Brook river that ran behind our house burst its banks, in Chandler’s Ford.
Peter Aged 18 holding firemans boat waiting to rescue people from flooded bungalows in Chandler's Ford.
Peter Aged 18 holding firemans boat waiting to rescue people from flooded bungalows in Chandler’s Ford.

In the 1950’s during my teens I had a paper round working for the newsagents on the corner of Mead Road and Park Road. On Saturdays I used to take a tea chest full of old newspapers to the waste land opposite the newsagents and burn them on a bonfire. [Read more…] about Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 2

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Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 1

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My family came to live in Chandler’s Ford in the 1880’s when my great grandfather Levi Hammerton and his family moved here from the Bournemouth area. Levi worked as a builder building houses in and around Chandler’s Ford.

In 1902 Levi was presented with a beautiful oak carved swivelled chair with a plaque that reads: Presented to Mr Levi Hammerton by the Inhabitants of Chandler’s Ford as a mark of their appreciation of the many services rendered to the Parish 1902.

In 1902 Levi was presented with a beautiful oak carved swivelled chair.
In 1902 Levi was presented with a beautiful oak carved swivelled chair.
Presented to Mr Levi Hammerton by the Inhabitants of Chandler’s Ford
Presented to Mr Levi Hammerton by the Inhabitants of Chandler’s Ford

[Read more…] about Peter Hammerton: My Family, My Life Living in Chandler’s Ford – Part 1

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Cat in the Bag

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This is a true story. The illustrations are by my nephew Hari Gopinathan, a talented furniture designer and freelance illustrator Hari Gopinathan (Instagram handle).

Paul,

I owe an apology to your cat. On my evening walk yesterday, I saw him halfway to Tesco, looking lost and forlorn. An elderly couple was engaged in conversation with him. He was instantly recognisable: a mix of tabby and white with tortoise shell grey, playful kitten approaching full cathood, no collar, and slight to moderate belly. It was Sonny and he was lost.

Sonny
Sonny

Sliding my headphones off, I said to the couple,

“It’s my neighbour’s cat”. [Read more…] about Cat in the Bag

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Pandemics and Epidemics – I have been locked-down for 100 days

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By the time you read this, I will have been locked-down for 100 days, from March 9th in fact.

This is not the first epidemic or pandemic I have experienced. The first, in 1961, amounted to nothing very much but, without prompt action, it could have been even more serious than the present one.

I returned home to my student flat late one night to find the door locked and bolted. I rang and banged and shouted and eventually my flat-mate, Taffy, appeared on the balcony.

‘You can’t come in, mate.’

‘Stop messing around, Taffy and let me in.’

‘Can’t, it’s smallpox.’

‘There’s no smallpox here. Let me in.’

Lockdown for 100 days
Lockdown for 100 days

‘But there is in South Wales and in Bradford. We are possible contacts because we spent the weekend in South Wales. We are in quarantine for 10 days and must have no contact with anyone. Public Health sends someone around with food which they leave at the door.’ [Read more…] about Pandemics and Epidemics – I have been locked-down for 100 days

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Music in Chandler’s Ford during Lockdown: “Love thy neighbours is so true”

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Steve Allen has shared these videos, in which he captured some happy moments in the neighbourhood of Chandler’s Ford during the lockdown. These included music on Thursday evenings, and a piper playing for a neighbour’s birthday.

With Steve’s permission, we are sharing these on Chandler’s Ford Today.

1 – Malcolm the Piper was playing for a Scottish lady on her birthday.

Malcolm and lovely neighbours in Chandler's Ford - supporting key workers and sharing community spirit.
Malcolm and lovely neighbours in Chandler’s Ford – supporting key workers and sharing community spirit.

[Read more…] about Music in Chandler’s Ford during Lockdown: “Love thy neighbours is so true”

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VE Day 75 in Chandler’s Ford – Memories of the Original VE Day

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Lakewood Road decided to have a socially separated street party yesterday for VE75. I replied to the invitation and said I was at an original VE day party. Several people expressed an interest in the comments so I thought Chandler’s Ford Today might like to see them. As it turns out, I am not the only one who attended an original party.

Lest We Forget - image by Jill Mayes
Lest We Forget – image by Jill Mayes
VE celebrations in progress on Lakewood Road, Hiltingbury
VE celebrations in progress on Lakewood Road, Hiltingbury

An original VE day party

Am I the only one in Lakewood Road who attended an original VE day party? I was seven years old or, as I would surely have reminded people, seven and three quarters. When Mother picked up the newspaper that day, I was having breakfast. She opened it, yelled for joy, and ran out into the street declaring ‘The war is over.’

Roman candles and Catherine wheels

That evening I was taken to a bomb site about a mile away from our house in Sheffield. We children were given currant buns to eat – wow, and a fizzy drink. Normally the best we could expect was some bread and margarine or dripping if we were lucky. There was a huge bonfire, taller than the adults. Someone put a figure of Hitler on it. The most vivid memory was of fireworks which I had never seen before. I learned about rockets, Roman candles, Catherine wheels, sparklers and bangers. Roman candles were my favourite.

Old School British Fireworks image by Epic Fireworks, via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Old School British Fireworks image by Epic Fireworks, via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

There was bunting strung everywhere made of any scraps of material that could be found. Houses, walls and shops had ‘V’ painted on them in whitewash. The morse code …- for V was daubed on doors. I did not know at the time about Beethoven’s 5th symphony but I had heard the call sign on the radio preceding the coded messages going out to the resistance workers. Whitewash signs reading ‘Welcome home, Jim’ or Fred or Sam were beginning to appear. A little insensitive if your neighbour no longer had a loved one to welcome home.

Bunting by children in Chandler's Ford - image by Jill Mayes
Bunting by children in Chandler’s Ford – also thanking key workers – image by Jill Mayes

The overall mood was one of relief

It was a brief and joyful interval but the overall mood was one of relief and thanks that it was all over at last. Our parents had been through 2 world wars and fortunately, we had not lost a close family member.

Father served in WWI but in WWII he was a haulage contractor and a member of Dad’s Army which was known as the Home Guard. They practised throwing grenades using clods of earth. I was excited to go with father on his lorries loaded with the ‘tallboy’ bombs from Sheffield to the ordnance factory where they were filled. I wasn’t allowed in the ordnance factory but stayed with the guards at the gate who always gave me something to eat.

Churchill - knitted by Jill Mayes
Churchill – knitted by Jill Mayes

There was no thought of the 75th anniversary but here we are and it will be an interesting party. Mother’s immediate post-war aim was to get me educated so that I would not have to go down the pit like most boys in our district. Orgreave Colliery was nearby and my contemporary, Arthur Scargill, who I never met, could tell you all about that.

Neighbourhood Watch Organisers enjoying a street picnic
Neighbourhood Watch Organisers enjoying a street picnic

Great party on Lakewood Road

We had a great party yesterday, sitting outside our gates on the pavement. There was an abundance of bunting and we all dressed in red, white and blue. I learned that I was not the only one old enough to remember. Someone told how he remembered seeing Portsmouth ablaze from a raid in 1942. Another spent a lot of his time in a Morrison Shelter. Robbie Sprague was there too but he cannot remember it as he was only 1 year old.

Julie Balint, organiser of Lakewood Road VE street party
Julie Balint, organiser of Lakewood Road VE street party

Morrison shelter

Another resident Peter wrote the following story –

Mike, No, you are not the only one in Lakewood Road that remembers VE Day. At six years old we had a street party with bonfires in the road, not gardens, with singing and parties where I threw my teddy bear onto the bonfire, having just thrown-up on it (the teddy, not the bonfire)!

A photograph of a Morrison shelter in a room setting, showing how such a shelter could be used as a table during the day and as a bed at night. © IWM (D 2053)
A photograph of a Morrison shelter in a room setting, showing how such a shelter could be used as a table during the day and as a bed at night. © IWM (D 2053)

I came out of my parents’ Morrison shelter (Father fought and was wounded in WW1 and was in Dad’s Army) awaiting the demolition of the concrete built shelters in the road so that everybody could use.
However, we stayed at home in the Morrison shelter with our neighbours.

Thank GOD! We have survived and to those young lives that fought and died for us to be what we have today.

I cannot thank them myself, but I do remember them with gratitude.

Bunting in Chandler's Ford. Image by Jill Mayes.
Bunting in Chandler’s Ford. Image by Jill Mayes.

A tribute to the human spirit

I am pleased that lock-down muted the celebrations. I feared that it may become too jingoistic and nationalistic. It is a tribute to the human spirit that, when these 75-year-old memories are activated they bring a wave of emotions with them. People do not forget.

There must be other readers of Chandler’s Ford Today who have memories of the original day. Tell us your story.

British flag - image by Jill Mayes
British flag – image by Jill Mayes

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Care in a Time of COVID

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We are beginning to think of ending the lock-down. How different will it be afterwards?

That little strand of RNA wrapped up as COVID-19 has altered our behaviour. It has shut our institutions; schools, universities, travel, industries, retail and the legal system. Health, policing, food and pharmacy remain active with some local travel.

Some of us have been able to work from home and found it satisfactory. A friend is wondering why he keeps a London office; a weekly meeting in an office hired for half a day may be sufficient. Others strive to work amid the domestic activities of children and housework. The fashion for open-plan living areas in houses has not helped.

Coronavirus image by Karolina Grabowska

[Read more…] about Care in a Time of COVID

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Graffiti

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Banksy has recently created another graffiti; the press goes wild about a competent painting on an ugly blank wall. It is graffiti and not graffito, the singular form is not in use. Banksy’s graffiti is hailed as Art. Why? Why, in a country with at least ten universities giving degrees in art and design, with independent art schools and with flourishing art groups throughout the land; why is a single piece of graffiti something of an event? [Read more…] about Graffiti

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How I Feel about the Pandemic

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As I walked briskly in keeping with the exercise requirements of my diet regime, listening to the intoxicating and incessant drumming in Get Ready by Rare Earth, I had an epiphany: I could be dead in a few weeks because of the pandemic.

Karolina Grabowska photo of stars - image via kaboompics

I didn’t panic, but looked up at the sky and everything appeared so very special – the stars, the golden pancake moon darting between clouds, and even the clouds themselves for their amorphous fluffiness. [Read more…] about How I Feel about the Pandemic

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Tell Me a Story

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At the back of a class of 5-year-olds, I watched a teacher telling a story. Thirty children sat silent and still with mouths agape and eyes fixed on the storyteller. The story, like most children’s stories, held a moral. It was Big Bell and Little Bell. Here was the power of storytelling.

story image by Tumisu via Pixabay

Most of us can remember being told stories. I remember a story about a man pulling a sword from a rock. Grandfather told stories of engineering feats that went wrong. There was a railway engine whose boiler burst as it tried to climb Lickey Incline near Birmingham and how bank engines were provided afterwards to help the climb. [Read more…] about Tell Me a Story

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What’s Your Poison?

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What’s yours? A question asked in bars around the country; whisky, gin, beer. In another context, the question is not asked, because most of us are not interested, but the answer is given at length. What’s your disease?

There is no one so proud as the, now recovered, person describing how baffling and serious their disease has been. ‘None of the doctors knew what it was; I even saw the professor and he did not know.’

bear having a cold image Myriams-Fotos via Pixabay

I eavesdropped on one such conversation at a drinks party. The man described his symptoms well and insisted that the disease was a mystery. I interrupted and asked, did he suffer from diarrhoea and vomiting about two weeks before the illness started? How did I know? He had not realised that this was the start of the illness. [Read more…] about What’s Your Poison?

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Snakes and the Supernatural in Sri Lanka

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Eclipse

Fifteen years to the day after the terrible Tsunami swept across Sri Lanka, another powerful natural phenomenon struck awe and even fear for some of the rural people. The morning sky turned dark.

We had travelled upcountry to a place called Naula, close to the line taken by the total eclipse of the sun. Our friends packed a welder’s visor in their overnight bag. I thought David, an engineer, was planning to do some welding when we reached our destination, but it was his wife who had the foresight. She follows events in the heavens and told us of the eclipse.

When the time came there was cloud cover which was fortunate for me as I managed to take photographs of the eclipse through the clouds. In between the clouds, we observed the eclipse through the visor.

Observing the eclipse from Sri Lanka
Observing the eclipse from Sri Lanka

The cook and some of the staff where we stayed thought it was an intervention of the gods and wanted to go to the temple. Many people did visit temples, churches, kovils and mosques but it was the schoolteachers who could tell them what was happening. We collected the staff and let them all have a look through the visor. One of our Sri Lankan friends explained what was happening, but I am not sure we convinced them all.

Eclipse viewed through cloud. For the techies - Exposure 1:2000th second, f8, 129mm, ISO 80 Camera - Lumix DMC-TZ80
Eclipse viewed through cloud. For the techies – Exposure 1:2000th second, f8, 129mm, ISO 80 Camera – Lumix DMC-TZ80

[Read more…] about Snakes and the Supernatural in Sri Lanka

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