Category: People
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 those 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…
Find Out More »December 21, 2018|Local People | Personal memories
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…
Find Out More »November 4, 2018|First World War | Local People | Naval connections | Wartime Wickham
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…
Find Out More »June 7, 2017|Local People | Personal memories
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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