Category: Local People

July 19, 2020|Buildings | Businesses | Commerce | Local People

W. Wheatley and Son – New Premises in 1977

Very shortly, the new premises at Wheatleys will be complete.  The main contractors, Prince of Southampton, began work in September 1975, and once the forecourts has been completed, including some landscape gardening, a modern lean-to cover attached to the early 19″` c. wall, a relic of the original Malthouse, the considerable operation will be over….

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May 29, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War

Eric Tucker – An exciting boyhood

Ann Tucker was about 12 years old and was living on Hoads Hill about the time of the build up to the invasion.  She remembers convoys of military vehicles going up the hill and one of the vehicles, which could have been a halftrack, caught fire and exploded showering the area with debris.  Ann was…

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May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Second World War

Ernie and Stan Woodford: Brothers separated by 5000 miles

Ernie and Stan Woodford were brothers, brought up in houses on the Winchester Road, nearly opposite Lower House, and also at the bottom of Mill Lane. Mrs. Woodford with Stan and Ernie -Toll House Winchester Road c.1933 Their father worked at Buddens Farm.  They were both called up early in the War – Ernie at…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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 those days was Mr John Baker who used to come…

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