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 Place) which was a smaller version of the Wickham Fair and a visit to The Beehive Pub on the Fareham Road near the Turnpike, where she drank a mug of Porter. This pub is now a private house.

Wickham Fair used to stretch from the top of Winchester hill to the Fareham Road where the A.A. box is. The square was full up as well. One of her earliest memories of the Fair was a magnificent pincushion stall!

She remembers a free house on the common called “the Drum and Monkey” which sold only beer. It was run by a Mrs Matthews and is now a private house.

Her memories of the Second World War are Winston Churchill passing up Southwick Road, and the uncanny way the Rookesbury Farm troops disappeared overnight without a sound, leaving nothing behind except barbed wire.

From the WHS archives 1972