Archives: Articles

January 23, 2019|

Education in Wickham 1840 – 1972

In the latter part of the 19th century, the Church was responsible for the building of most of the schools in England. They received a very small grant from the Government, and had to find all the money for the equipment and furnishing of the schools. Most of these schools were built adjacent to the…

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December 31, 2018|

Arthur Alfred Shawyer of Wickham Common

In my boyhood days the market gardeners around Wickham particularly in Hundred Acres were devoted to strawberry growing in a very big way. The bulk of the fruit was sent by special fruit trains all over the country. One of the best known characters of those days was Mr John Baker who used to come…

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December 30, 2018|

Mrs Selby and Mrs Gamblin

Mrs Selby is 91 years old this year, she came to Wickham in 1913. Mrs Gamblin was born in Wickham in 1905 – went to Wickham School when she was four years old, as she already had a brother at the school. Wickham School was known as the Little School and the Big School. The…

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December 30, 2018|

James Dunn, Frith Farm

Retirement of Mr James Dunn This week saw the retirement of Mr. James Dunn after fifty years of devoted and loyal service at Frith Farm. He joined the late Mr. A.E. Roberts at the farm in early 1907. First he did general farm work, but was soon attracted to looking after farm vehicles and equipment….

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December 21, 2018|

Mrs Pratt of Rookesbury Lodge

Mrs Pratt has lived at the Lodge for 53 years and remembers when Beverley and the Rectory were the only houses nearby. The biggest change in the village is the increase in traffic and the improvement in social affairs. When she was young, the only gaieties were the Foresters Fete at Little Park (or Park…

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December 21, 2018|

Mrs Sherwood of 2 School Road, Wickham

Mrs Sherwood has lived in the same house for 53 years and remembers when there were only two other houses besides the School in the road. To her the most striking change in the village was the starting of the busses and other transport. But she added that the people nowadays were less friendly and…

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November 4, 2018|

The Battle of Jutland – The Wickham Connection

The Battle of Jutland, fought between 31 May and 1 June 1916, was the largest naval engagement of the Great War, involving 151 vessels of the Royal Navy Grand Fleet and 99 vessels of the German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. The battle started when Admiral Beatty succeeded in luring the German Grand Fleet into the range of the Royal Navy’s…

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June 7, 2017|

Memories of the Second World War & After: My conversation with Janet Bowater & Carol Hazzard

Carol and Janet have lived in Wickham all their lives and been best friends since school. People today still think they are sisters. Carol is now aged 79 and Janet 80. I visited Janet as she had some deeds which she wanted help deciphering and she kindly agreed to talk about Wickham. When I came…

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August 10, 2016|

Admiral Sir Robert Swinburne Lowry, KCB

Robert Swinburne Lowry, son of Lieutenant General Robert William Lowry, was born 4 March 1854.  He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.  As a Midshipman, he was one of three men in HMS Invincible to be awarded the Royal Humane Society Bronze award for saving life off the coast of Gibraltar. Lowry was made a lieutenant in the…

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June 27, 2016|

Captain James Robert Mosse

James Robert Mosse was born in 1745 and died in 1801. He was a military hero who was killed at the Battle of Copenhagen during the Napoleonic Wars and is remembered on a memorial stone in St Nicholas Churchyard, Wickham. James married Ann Grace Kinchin, daughter of the Reverend Stephen Kinchin, of Stoke Charity on 16 March 1780 at Deane, Hampshire. They lived…

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