The Selwood Christmas tree has been lighting up Chandler’s Ford since 1953. Look at this stunning tree!
Richard Bright, 1st Chairman at Workdry International Limited (Selwood & Siltbuster) said, it’s always a pleasure to bring this tradition to the local community.
To friends of Chandler’s Ford, what does this Christmas mean to you? Please leave a comment below. We wish you all safe and well.
Richard has also given us more details about the tree this year.
Richard said, “The tree is meant to be 35ft but I think it’s slightly taller this year… I usually tell by comparing it with the flag poles 😊. we used to get it from Longleat as part of a forest management scheme but that has since come to an end so we have sourced it from a plantation off the A303 the last few years. We try to get it as local as possible to keep it “green” as I know a lot of large trees are imported from Norway, which I can’t bring myself to do due to the huge environmental impact.”
As a lifelong resident of Chandler’s Ford, Selwood’s Christmas tree has been a constant in my life since its inception when I was nine years old. As children we decorated the sitting room with paper chains and tissue paper shapes that unfolded and opened out 360 degrees to form beautiful bells and balls. The Christmas tree’s private life was disrupted annually when it was dug up and put in a pot and brought indoors, decorated with tinsel and fragile glass baubles bought from Woolworths.
Our neighbour in Shaftesbury Avenue worked on the Queen Mary and brought back American toys from New York for our parents to give us. I remember a yellow New York taxi that you wound up by friction and it would race across the floor. I had a clockwork train set with a cowcatcher on the front of the locomotive and my sister had a large doll which she treasured and for which she and my mother knitted clothes.
Those were the days of harsh winters, coal fires and smog, frost on the inside of the bedroom window pane, linoleum, huge dumps of snow, and icy roads and pavements that stayed slippery for weeks – and ‘No spitting’ signs in buses.
Christmas was a real family time, a million miles away from the highly commercialised, Amazon-driven, mobile phone and PlayStation world of today. Thank God for Selwood’s Christmas tree as a reminder of a bygone age of happy, uncomplicated days.
I remember Selwood’s Christmas tree too Robert – and I remember you too! My brothers were Tim and Tony (Antony) Harding. Tony was your age I think. Tim was very friendly with Pete Selwood and I think Tony knew Tim Selwood quite well. The tree was, and still obviously is, an annual delight. I live in Cheshire but my niece, Jo Hutchison, Tim’s younger daughter who lives in C/Ford told me about Rick Goater’s blog taken from Joan Goater’s journals. (I saw something recently that you had written about Amy Doncaster) Fascinating and nostalgic reading.
Happy Christmas, however it turns out to be for everyone.
Hi Jill,
Thank you for your comment. You can find Joan Goater’s journals here: https://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/forty-years-in-chandlers-ford-a-journal-part-148/ It is a beautiful series compiled by Rick.
You can find Robbie’s articles here: https://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/author/robbie-sprague/
Thank you for reading and sharing.
Yes, I’m already well into them!
Thanks Janet
Wonderful! These stories are addictive!
Hi Jill
It was great to see your comment – Tony and I were at school together; we were friends and played tennis. He was a lovely, good-humoured guy. I learned somewhere that he emigrated to Australia and became a police officer. I’ve travelled all over Australia many times since retirement and often wondered what became of him and where he lived. My wife and I lived in the new house overlooking the green in Merdon Avenue/Tyrrell Road just a stone’s throw away from your mother’s house. We remember her vividly and she was a most charming lady. My blog on the Grand Houses of Chandler’s Ford will invoke memories for you; what a different place Chandler’s Ford was back in the day!
The Grand Houses of Chandler’s Ford
Christmas greetings to you in Cheshire – a county I love……. Robbie
Tony was a police officer in Petersfield before emigrating to West Australia with his wife Sally in 1969.
I will investigate the blog you mention.
Jill
Hi Jill,
I don’t remember the Selwood Tree but I do have fond memories of Christmases in “Ch’Ford” and you and Tim, and the Scouts and St. Boniface Church in the 50’s and 60’s. Diana and I Iive in Oakfield, Nova Scotia ….Part of the Regional Municipality of Halifax. Our best wishes to you and all the folks we used to know there, including the “ol’ Lake Gang” . A Merry Christmas and stay safe.
Good to hear from you David. I seem to remember that your family emigrated to Canada way back? I lived in Vancouver for a while in the 60s – now in Cheshire.
Is Heather still in Canada?
I think your father and mine had a lot to do with the new scout hut at Ramalley?
Diana and I emigrated to Canada with our three year old Daughter, Jane, in 1969. Our families didn’t come and Heather married Frank Cousins and they live in Sarisbury, So’ton. Bye the way Diana was born in Wallasey just across the Mersey from Liverpool. D’you live near there? Our fathers were connected through Jack Hall’s scout committee and I think they were wardens at St.Boniface,
Good to hear from you.
Such a beautiful story, Robbie. Many thanks for sharing your memories.
I live between Chester and Warrington but not far from Wirral. I’m on my own now but we used to enjoy going there.
Have always wanted to go to Nova Scotia.
Do remember me to Heather if you’re in touch and remind her of the very rough ferry crossing we had when her luggage was lost!
My father was never a warden at St Boniface but he had a lot to do with church money!
Best wishes.
Yes, having lived in Chandler’s Ford years for the majority of my life Selwood’s Christmas tree is really appreciated.
The plain white lights of the last couple of years are very effective.
Thank you Selwoods for your tradition.
I have added more details about the Selwood Christmas tree to the post. From Richard Bright (Selwood Chairman) today:
“The tree is meant to be 35ft but I think it’s slightly taller this year… I usually tell by comparing it with the flag poles 😊. we used to get it from Longleat as part of a forest management scheme but that has since come to an end so we have sourced it from a plantation off the A303 the last few years. We try to get it as local as possible to keep it “green” as I know a lot of large trees are imported from Norway, which I can’t bring myself to do due to the huge environmental impact.”
Thank you for your article and the earlier one detailing some of its history. We have lived in Chandler’s Ford for 23 years now and that Xmas tree is part of our traditions. When the kids were (much) smaller there was always the competition to see who could spot it first. Then I heard my daughter say that it wasn’t really Xmas till the tree was up at Selwood.
We are very pleased to see it back, even if a little earlier than usual. So much has *not* happened this year that I think people are starting Xmas early so that they can have something to celebrate.
Thank you, Selwood, for making our Xmas for so many years.
Thank you so much for continuing the tradition again this year. Your tree cheers me up every Christmas.
The tree has been part of our Christmas since we moved to Chandler’s Ford many years ago. We were obliged to move out of the area last Christmas when our home was destroyed, but now we are back and look forward to taking an evening walk to appreciate the tree.
Hi All …
Having read all the glowing comments about Selwood’s Christmas Tree, I feel ‘obliged’ to stick in my six-penneth …
I lived in Chandler’s Ford from 1937 until emigrating with my family to Western Australia in 1966, and I well remember the first tree, being awestruck by its sheer girth and height, nothing like seen before by me.
Although now living in a Sydney suburb in New South Wales since August 2019, I look forward to receiving the annual photo of the tree, sent each year by a very good and long standing friend in Chandler’s Ford,
Thank you Selwoods for your lovely annual gesture, appreciated by many residents, and ex residents in various parts of the World.
Doug Clews
Sydney, Australia
Having been born in Station Lane can remember watching Selwoods put up the the tree first in front of the old school now sadly long gone