writing

Winston Churchill’s Funeral; Gran cleans her bicycle; woods are cleared and orchids bulldozed; a visit to Chew Valley; “tall beauties in a Kentish Wood”; Pendennis Castle runs aground; a rare visit to Kingston; some fine tennis; The Sound of Music; botanizing with Barry, and the joys of grandchildren.

My [silver] discs for Andrew and Geoffrey arrived from Canada this morning, so, after a hurried lunch, I took my Grandmother’s bracelet to Parkhouses to have them put on, and to have a safety chain added.

On the same day, January 28th 1965, Gran delivers a very expensive arrangement of flowers to Lady Sopwith, aboard the Windsor Castle.  It is made up entirely of pale pink Cymbidiums, Lilies-of-the Valley and Freesias, and Gran is pleased with the Lady’s positive response to their arrival, different, she says, from the often blasé acceptance from many passengers.  Lady Sopwith was very keen on field sports and a skilled user of the shotgun.  Gran would not have approved!

“I did only the most necessary chores this morning”, she writes on January 30th:

…and then watched on Television, the State Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill which was most beautifully and reverently presented.  The Queen herself honoured the great man by heading the Royal Family representatives in the Abbey and it was a very notable gathering of Kings, Queens, Princes, Presidents and Prime Ministers ever seen at the funeral of a Commoner.  It was all very moving.  This afternoon I did some knitting and then fell asleep!

Gran gives thanks; a change to the Castle Line schedule; The Bartered Bride; a tough time for the Eagle family; two christenings; disapproval of plant collecting; fifty pounds saved; “nippers” on HMS Victory; a new bird on Brownsea Island, and farewell to Winston Churchill.

October 4th 1964: “A quiet afternoon writing more letters”, Gran tells us, and she continues:

…this evening I went to Church, primarily to give thanks for Geoffrey’s safe arrival and Jane Elizabeth’s well-being, but it proved to be a most uplifting and inspiring service, conducted by a visiting clergyman, a Welshman, whose name I unfortunately do not know.  His sermon was based on our interdependence one upon the other and our Brotherhood in God the Father, and he spoke with the utmost sincerity and forthrightness.  I shall long remember this evening.

A homely welcome at Shulbrede Priory; more grandchildren on the way; two boys with “astonishing energy”; the Wayfarer’s Dole; Mother is eighty-seven; a third daughter for Jean Hockridge; chasing a Wryneck, and Cousin Fairlie joins her in Teesdale.

Being a Grandmother is a great joy to Joan Goater.  On March 13th 1964 she receives some welcome mail from overseas, and reports:

Today’s post brought my Grandmother’s bracelet from Jill Brewster in Canada, silver discs bearing the name and date of birth of my grandchildren, Julian, Rhoderick (Ricky) and Katherine.  I shall, D.V., have another one to add in September and I am proud and delighted to have it.  It is a Canadian idea.

“A wonderful day though it was not in the least what I expected”, she begins her entry for the 15th.  “I met Peg at the top of Hiltingbury Road at ten minutes to ten and we set out for the Punchbowl at Hindhead, in Surrey.”  Snow is falling.  It is already two inches deep and she is not optimistic about the outing, which is with members of the Mid-Southern Branch of the British Naturalists’ Association.  Nevertheless, she describes an interesting day:

The object of the expedition was mosses, and the leader, the Honourable Laura Ponsonby, whom we have not met before… we realised that hunting for mosses in such conditions was impossible so she suggested that we should try lower ground and led the way.  Three cars followed her through quiet lanes… to Lynchmere, where Miss Ponsonby turned into what was obviously the drive into a private estate.  When we got out, I asked her if it was all right for all our cars to park there and she said, “Oh yes.  I live here!”

“Here” was the old and beautiful Shulbrede Priory, which was built in 1190, and we were taken round the grounds on our moss hunt.

The car goes “clunk”; hello Katie; a plant search with little hope; Santana and Osuna – equally matched;  Soberton Mill for sale; Julian and Ricky – embarrassed; planning for Teesdale; another grand-child expected; Spring-fever brings depression, but the Royal Ballet is uplifting.

Gran has a good day’s botanising on June 8th 1963, with other members of Southampton Natural History Society, on Browndown Ranges, near Lee-on-Solent.  The group is led, she says, by Mr Westrup, who is compiling the new Flora of Hampshire.  Nottingham Catchfly is a particular goal, a new plant for Gran, and they find plenty of this as well as several attractive grass species, also new for her list, including Purple Small-reed and Bush Grass [now called Wood Small-reed].  She paints the Catchfly next day – the five-hundred and first in her collection.

Two winters compared; ” just what he needs”; a cocoon in a hat; Bucklers Hard – a disappointment; a visit to Bulcote; drawings lost – and found; the Mudds move out; fifteen Robins’ eggs, and an addition to the family.

The bitter weather of the now infamous 1962/63 winter is still making itself felt at the end of January 1963, and on February 1st, Gran says:

The snow is still with us and January’s final records are in!  It was the coldest January for one hundred and twenty-five years, but, paradoxically, it was also the sunniest and the driest this century.  It is certainly one that I shall remember.

And a few days later, she records the figures in more detail, comparing them with those from the equally memorable winter of 1947.  The lengths of the cold spells were similar: fifty days in 1947 and forty-six in 1963, but most telling are the days of frost and snow-lie, with fifteen days the longest run of frost in 1947 compared with thirty-seven in 1963; and the days with snow lying in 1947, a mere twelve compared with forty-two in 1963.

There are several newspaper cuttings pressed between the journal’s pages concerned with the plight of birds and other wildlife during the winter, including that of the Dartford Warbler, almost, and potentially completely, wiped out in its British stronghold – the New Forest.

Natural History outings continue, including a return to Hayling Island, with friend, Doreen Peters and brother Norris, the latter very keen to see his first Collared Doves, which they do, as well as finding a new goose species for Gran, who writes:

I spotted a small party of geese in a field close to the lane and we stopped to investigate.  We remained in the car to avoid disturbing them and had a wonderful view.  There was no doubt about it – they were actually Pink-footed Geese, nine of them and we could see every detail.  This was a new species for me.

Christmas without the Boys; a winter Blackcap; record low temperatures; burst pipes and a wet bed; stuck in a snowdrift; her first Collared Dove; good neighbours and Gran buys some tights.

November 27th 1962:

An unusual song, issuing from the Yew tree opposite here this morning, attracted my attention and I watched for some time.  I was particularly intrigued because it is far from quiet and peaceful here now with the shops, and car park directly beneath the Yew, but a sudden noise disturbed the bird and, with a familiar cry, out flew a Fieldfare!  The song was cross between Thrush and Blackbird…

This afternoon I cycled as far as Flexford Bridge to see my friend Bee Richardson, and noted how prolific are the Holly berries this year.

December 8th:

A busy morning, during which I took out the Christmas cake from its sealed tin (with some trepidation since it was made in May with Jane’s wedding cake) and finding it in perfect condition, put the marzipan on it.

A letter from Jane on the following day cheers her mother, telling her that she feels much better and will be coming to Chandler’s Ford for Christmas.  “She wants a tree and all the trimmings so this has given me an incentive which was sadly lacking as Julian and Ricky will not be with us this year”, writes Gran.  A few days later she makes macaroons and shortbread for the festive season, traditional December tasks for her, and she ices the cake. And the rest of the month is busy with card-making, collecting materials from the countryside for decorations, and all her other usual preparations for Christmas.

“More cards arrived today”, Gran says on December 22nd, “and two small books on Australian fish by my friend Gilbert Whitley, who has discovered several new species and who has done many of the illustrations in these new books”.  She adds:

I did a Christmas arrangement for us and have also made a holly and larch cone wreath for the hall, decorated with my bunch of little bells on red ribbon sent from America during the war.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 114)

Generosity from Canada and Singapore; a wedding and a separation; joy and anxiety, but life goes on.

Gran, with daughter Jane, and soon-to-be son-in-law Stuart, is back home at The Ridge late on August 2nd 1962 having spent an exhausting time helping to move Jane’s belongings from her old flat in Gordon Rise, Mapperley, to her new Nottingham flat, to be shared with Stuart.  Gran describes the flat, as “a quarter of a very large Victorian House, about one hundred and fifty years old, and the rooms are spacious”.  She has also been driven further north, to Leeds, to meet Stuart’s family, including his sister Maureen and her daughter, “to try on the dress of the littlest Bridesmaid, Caroline, who looked enchanting and will quite likely steal the limelight on their Wedding Day”.  Once home, on the 3rd, she addresses her now long-departed Adrian, to whom the whole journal is dedicated:

Your birthday beloved, and you would have been fifty if you had been spared.  I have not been able to go to Memory Down, or indeed, to have marked this special day in any particular way this year but you have been in my thoughts continually all day.  It has been a busy one for me.

A letter from Barry, saved between the journal’s pages, tells her about a parcel of plant specimens that he has sent to her: “…you may even be able to paint some of them if you wish”.  They follow, he says, “a fabulous day’s hunting in Bedfordshire yesterday… I took my bike on the train to Luton and then cycled about forty miles”.  Unfortunately the specimens arrive “unfit for painting” but they make Gran’s mouth water, all being new to her – Purple Milk-vetch; Wild Liquorice; Sulphur Clover; Great Earth-nut, and many more. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 113)

Perthshire treasures, and the wedding draws near.

It’s July 3rd 1962 and Gran’s second, and much longed-for holiday in Scotland is about to begin.  Her companion, Pauline Muirhead is not delayed, as Gran had feared; she is there at Euston when Gran, met first by Barry at Waterloo, arrives in time for their ten o’clock departure for Perth.

Once beyond Lancaster, she really feels that she is “in the north”, delighted by unfamiliar flowers such as Wood Cranesbill and Melancholy Thistle, seen by the railway line.

However, with Beattock Summit passed, she is less impressed with Scotland’s visible industry:

We stopped at Carstairs and Motherwell, passing Shield’s Colliery and others with the attendant hideous slag heaps, which are a blot on the countryside, though slightly improved when herbage covers them.

Beyond Coatbridge and Larbert, she has kinder things to say about the area in which I now live:

…the most beautiful scenery as we looked across at the Ochil Hills with the play of sunshine and cloud shadows upon them.  We could see Wallace’s Monument, in which is his sword, commemorating the Battle of Bannockburn.

An entertaining summersault; confounded cats; to Dungeness in a Chevy; wedding cake anxiety; rare breeders at Nursling; Cheddar Gorge – a minor ambition fulfilled; Billie-Jean causes an upset, and all ready for Scotland.

Returning to The Ridge late, on April 11th 1962, after playing Badminton, Gran is surprised to find Jane there.  Excitedly, she writes, “She had brought home her Wedding Gown, the loveliest, daintiest creation of Nottingham Lace in a design of roses”.  And two days later, in Winchester with Jane, she purchases the material for her own dress.

Book 97

The family gathers for Easter.  Gran has made a Simnel Cake, and Jane and Stuart arrive at The Ridge late on April 19th.

“Just as we were finishing lunch, rather late”, Gran writes on the following day:

Barry, Julian and Ricky burst in upon us, a day earlier than expected but, happily we were able to find enough for them to eat, and afterwards all went down to Beaulieu Road, which proved a most enjoyable expedition.

There they hear their first Cuckoo of the Spring but I do not remember this so much as the entertaining but accidental reverse somersault off the top of a five-bar gate, which I performed, when Stuart, attempting to hurdle it, whacked it with his foot, knocking me off my perch!

Easter Day is April 22nd and after lunch, the New Forest is their destination again.  Julian is anxious to see Rufus’ Stone but his Dad is keener, as Gran tells us, to find a particular moss:

After parking the cars, we walked along the valley in which were the trees on which Barry’s moss was said to grow. He was lucky, for following directions read in a report, he went straight to a certain Beech tree and found the moss Zygodon forsteri, which is one of the rarest mosses in Britain and only known from five Beech trees in the Rufus’ Stone area.  It is dark green, with soft leaves and grows in the clefts down which moisture seeps.

Wedding plans – bridesmaids, reception and dress; the Transvaal Castle; Gran falls asleep; chastised by Lord Montagu; the new Hampshire Naturalists’ Trust; eighty-five pounds of marmalade; Slimbridge again; a favourite tree is felled; farewell to Mrs Durst; a rare duck, and hunting caddis-flies.

Gran’s opening entry on January 1st 1962 is:

An owl was calling when I roused this morning, and the snow and frost remained in undisputed control after the coldest night I remember, with certainly the lowest minimum temperature I have ever recorded, only fourteen degrees!

She spends a restful day indoors, listening in the early evening to a televised concert of Johan Strauss’s works, given by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, while Jane and Stuart, staying at The Ridge for a few days, explore Farley Mount.

January 2nd dawns, and she remembers, “Our little Ricky is seven today – it is incredible but true!”  Jane has a two day conference in London, and then, on the afternoon of the 5th, she and Stuart, Gran says, “went to see Compton Church, where they are to be married in August…” and on the following day they try to start plans for the Wedding Reception at the Winchester Hotel at St Cross.  “It was not very satisfactory”, she writes.  However, the next day, “Jane and Stuart went to see Potter’s Heron at Ampfield… with a view to Wedding Receptions.  Stuart was charmed by it and it is fairly certain that this is where their Reception will be”.  The pair departs for Nottingham that afternoon. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 110)

A small boy travels alone; intelligent Blue Tits; the two minutes silence – forgotten; Ben Lawers – a dream location; good birding at Dibden; more saddening development; uplifting mail; Mr Utterton – remembered; Jane – “the little dark horse”, and John Stuart Brenan.

Book 95

October 26th 1961 is Julian’s last half-term day with his Gran at The Ridge.  She takes him train-spotting on Shawford Station.  On the nearby downs she makes notes of the plants and birds she sees, and she gathers some Gladdon Iris foetidissima seedpods to use as a Winter decoration.

Jane arrives at The Ridge, spending the night on a bed made up on the dining room floor, and she is able to take Julian and Gran to Winchester the next morning, for Julian to catch the train home.  Gran writes.  “I waited anxiously to hear that Julian had reached home safely – he seemed such a little boy to travel alone – but Barry was meeting him at Waterloo”.

Gran, devoted Royalist, is pleased to record this on November 3rd:

A special announcement on the Television brought us the good news that Princess Margaret, Duchess of Snowdon, gave birth this morning to a son, who will be Lord Lindley, and both are well.

Three days later, suffering with a migraine and still depressed by family difficulties, she nevertheless, at the end of the day, says, “But reflecting now… I can find some cause for uplift of mind and spirit”:

…there was evidence of the intelligence of our Tits, though not altogether appreciated by Jean Hockridge, that is well-known to me and not in the least resented by me. They had pecked holes in the metal caps of her milk bottles and had taken some of the cream, and had done their utmost to tear out the lid of a carton of cream but had, I think, been interrupted.  I do not believe they would have given up the attempt.

This behaviour, by Great and Blue Tits, appears to be a thing of the past, as milk delivered to the doorstep nowadays is usually homogenised and is thus without the tempting “cream on the top”, which was nutritionally worth the birds’ effort in securing. I think the birds must have first discovered this food source when doorstep milk, frozen in the early morning cold, expanded and forced the metal tops off the bottles.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 109)

A longing for Scotland; unobservant shoppers; Heddle Nash – sadly departed; Ivan and Jill; enchanting Cranbury; portly peers; an unbelievable letter; wild places – a necessary balm to the soul; the Crimson Speckled, and a grandson is entertained.

Book 94

Since her visit to Speyside, two years ago, Gran has written many times of an almost unbearable and romantic desire to return to Scotland.  This is reawakened on August 4th 1961, when the mail arrives:

A card from John Gunningham, who is at Inchnadamph, in Sutherland, today told me that Dark-red Helleborine, Mountain Avens and Yellow Saxifrage are growing behind the hotel in which he is staying, and the whole area is “simply devastating”.  Certainly the picture of Loch Assynt, on the card, is very beautiful and increases my longing to visit Scotland again.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 108)

An elusive Hoopoe; exhausted on Chesil Beach; a Glow-worm in Grove Road; an all-British Women’s Final; meeting a hero; Barry runs a mile; a small extravagance; questions from Julian, and little figures strike the hour.

Gran makes her way into Southampton en route to a field trip in Dorset on June 4th 1961, and a roadside sight, relatively unusual in those days, upsets her: “A sad sight at Bassett was a beautiful Badger lying dead beside the road, evidently killed by a passing car during the night”.  She continues:

…. I dashed into Aunt Em’s to tell Mother I would be late back tonight and found Brother there.  He imparted the startling news that there was a Hoopoe at West Wellow and he saw it last weekend with Doreen Peters, who I am to phone tomorrow in the hope that she can show it to me one day this week!

This is another birdy event, much like Gran’s putative Melodious Warblers, that has gone down in family history, Norris, on this occasion, apparently nearly ending up in a ditch in his excitement when he first glimpsed this rare visitor while driving through West Wellow.  Why he did not alert Gran to its presence at once, we never heard.  Doreen Peters picks up Gran in her car on June 7th.  Gran says of the bird, “it was on a grassy patch close to the road by a heath on the Brockenhurst Road out of West Wellow.  We were, however, unlucky and did not see it…” It will be many years until Dad shows her her first Hoopoe, at Portland, and I look forward to reading of Gran’s excitement on that occasion!

A Spring day out; a mystery bird; mint stamps from New Zealand; Julian needs stitches; Ladybird books; the maiden voyage of the SS Canberra, and Jimmy Edwards – unintentionally funny.

The absence of Book 91 in the sequence of Gran’s journals brings us to Book 92 and mid-April 1961. It is some time since I included a representative section of the more mundane of her daily writing so I have elected now to include in full, her description of a typical Spring day out – an example of much of the work that I usually heavily edit in order to avoid repetition.

Book 92

April 16th:

Today dawned fine and bright and a Goldfinch was singing in the garden when I went to read the thermometer.  Goldfinches were also singing as I went up Hiltingbury Road to catch the bus for the B.E.N.A. outing at Alresford, and, whilst waiting for it, I was thickly showered with the white petals from the Wild Cherry trees on the opposite side of the road as they fluttered down and were borne across the road by the wind.  They were a lovely sight in the sunshine.  Wayfaring Tree was flowering in the wayside hedge at St Cross and I saw more during our walk at Alresford.  Three Grey Wagtails were chasing over the stream by the Willow Tree Inn at Winchester and I saw many more of these lovely birds also around Alresford. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 106)

Eric Ashby films; Capetown Castle damaged; a conductor laughs; John Crook visits; looking for Sikas; laddered stockings and lost beads; influencing the young; a Turnstone is shot and Mandarins delight.

One of the great names of the time in natural history writing and film-making, Eric Ashby, gives a talk to the Southampton Natural History Society on December 6th 1960.  Gran writes that the meeting was most enjoyable:

…and Mr Ashby showed four of his excellent films of mammals of the New Forest.  He had taken them himself, tortured by midges and mosquitos, without the aid of hides… They were respectively of Badgers, Foxes, Deer, Dartford Warblers and Red-backed Shrikes.

Of the foxes, she says:

…and if all hunters could see the pictures of the vixen and her devotion to her litter of adorable cubs, I should think they would squirm with the burden of guilt every time they set out to kill them.

And there is an interesting sequence showing the Red-backed Shrike’s nest: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 105)

The Ridge acquires a television; 1000 button-holes; local floods; choosy shopping; a new bird at Beaulieu Road; New Forest management issues, and new employment for Jane.

It is apparent that a television has been installed at The Ridge around this time, September 1960, for Gran has watched much tennis, several plays and live orchestral music on it in recent days.  She spends a whole wet afternoon in front of it on October 1st, describing the programmes in some detail: Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in Bringing up Baby, then The Vow – a story of the village of Oberammergau, its people and the preparations for the Passion Play; Tales of the Riverbank, which, she says, “was the last of the series and, though primarily for children, I enjoyed it too”.  Then comes a Look programme with Peter Scott, dealing with Badgers and Foxes, and finally a Harvest Thanksgiving Service from Sherborne Abbey in Dorset.

At Southampton Docks, delivering flowers on the United States three days later, Gran, with permission from a nearby Policeman:

…went to look at the “Shangri-La”, the American Aircraft Carrier which was lying in the next berth.  The ship was guarded by an American Marine in a pillbox at the foot of the gangway.  The “Shangri-La”, of 33,000 tons, carries a crew of 4000 and is commanded by Rear Admiral T.H. Moorer…

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – A Journal (Part 104)

Spoiled for three days; quite a bit of television; news from Germany; Jane safe home; a new coat; the Rome Olympics; a small boy’s delights; friends of Jane’s wed and emigrate, and a letter from a famous author.

Book 88

Gran takes the train to London on her way to Chipstead, in Surrey, to visit the Rowsells on August 12th 1960.  “The train was very full’, she writes:

… and in my compartment was a family of four delightful children, one of whom, Margaret, became very friendly almost at once and I was soon involved in a game of “snap” which lasted until we reached Waterloo.

The Rowsells apparently intend to “spoil” their guest, for Gran is met at Waterloo by Mrs Rowsell and whisked off, by taxi, to Fortnum and Mason, for refreshment, before another taxi takes them to Charing Cross and their train to Chipstead.  There, Gran finds “Hollymead Cottage” awaiting her, with “spacious gardens and trim lawns”.  And, surprisingly, she pens this:

[The sun-room] was occupied by Tou-tou, quite the prettiest cat I have ever seen, soft grey her paws; underparts and face so pale as to be almost white, and the rest of her body “tabbied” with darker grey.  A gentle animal…

So much for Gran’s furiously written wish of just a few months past, to throttle every cat she sees!