Category: Local People
May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Personal memories | Second World War
Peter Merrett – working for the war effort and the A.R.P – an nearly killed by a German fighter
Peter was 20 at the outbreak of war, living in Bedford Place (now Dairymoor) with his parents. He was serving an apprenticeship in his father’s garage (Forge Garage), and in 1940 volunteered with his eldest Muriel sister for ARP duties – Peter working at night, with his sister by day, as ambulance drivers. The ARP…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Second World War | Wartime Wickham
Ron Parkins – Rookesbury Park Gardens
Ron lived through the war with his parents and sister at The Bothy, Rookesbury Park Gardens, off Hundred Acres Road. He was 12 years old in 1939, and attended secondary school in Harrison Road, Fareham, which had about 500 boys and girls from the surrounding area. He travelled to and from school by bus, run…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Rosemary Copeland – Keeping life normal in Wartime Wickham
My father, Mr Jack Urban Froud, was the boot and shoe repairer – his shop was at the corner of Mayles Lane, in what later became the Pine Furniture Shop. He was too old to be called up but like most men of his age in Wickham was in the Home Guard, and apart from…
Find Out More »January 23, 2019|Local People
Molly Grace Haydock
Molly Grace Haydock 24th July 1928 – 21st June 2016 Local girl Molly (nee Cheater) Haydock was born in Swanmore. She went to school in Curdridge and Hedge End. During the war the classrooms were shared by the evacuated town children escaping from the dock yard bombs: locals went in the morning and the evacuees…
Find Out More »January 23, 2019|First World War | Local People | Naval connections | Wartime Wickham
The Battle of Coronel – The Wickham Connection
The Battle of Coronel took place on 1st November 1914 off the coast of Central Chile. Britain knew from radio messages that Germany’s East Asiatic squadron, under Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee, was trying to elude the British and Japanese ships as it sailed eastwards from the Caroline Islands across the Pacific. A British Squadron…
Find Out More »January 23, 2019|Local People | Personal memories
Mr Shepherd of 8 Southwick Road
Mr. Shepherd was extremely helpful and interested in the Society, and said that if only he could read and write he would join. His eyes are very poor. Born in 1900, his earliest memory is the beginning of the railway. As a toddler, dressed all in white, as the fashion was, he was taken by…
Find Out More »December 31, 2018|Local People | Personal memories
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 hose days was Mr John Baker who used to come…
Find Out More »December 30, 2018|Local People | Personal memories
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…
Find Out More »December 30, 2018|Local People
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….
Find Out More »December 21, 2018|Local People | Personal memories
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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