Category: Personal memories
May 29, 2020|People | Personal memories | Second World War
John Pearce – Memories of an Evacuee
At the outbreak of World War II, Portsmouth children were evacuated to the Isle of Wight. My mother refused to let me go, as she reasoned that if the Germans invaded our country, they would use the Isle of Wight as a bridgehead. However, when the bombing of Portsmouth became very bad early in 1940,…
Find Out More »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…
Find Out More »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 | 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 | 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 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 »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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