Downton, Hampshire

First love

Having lived at Downton from 1958, I grew up opposite Downton Holiday Camp.
My father owned the builders next to the pub and I bought my first car at the garage 2 doors to the right. Somewhen in the mid 1960s  I met the new landlady's daughter, Diane! Well, despite the age gap (I was about 7 and she was 15-ish)... [more]

Hampshire Living Memories

This pub can still be found on Christchurch Road in Downton, near Lymington. The tree looks too near the pub for comfort, but it is still there today. Some subtle changes have occurred: the top windows now have wooden shutters, there are porches over both front doors, the planters have disappeared, and, of course, Strong & Co no longer manage this... [more]

Petersfield - A History & Celebration

The cenotaph in the High Street commemorates those who died in battle but whose remains lie elsewhere. It is of unusual and classic appearance; it was designed by the architect Harry Inigo Triggs, who had travelled and studied in Italy. The detailing is borrowed from the eight blank panels in the Medici chapel in Florence; on these panels are carved the names of the town's dead of the First World... [more]

Petersfield - A History & Celebration

And now to the greatest mystery: who were the people who raised the tumuli or burial mounds on Petersfield Heath during the Bronze Age some 1,000 years after the Stone Age? Today, Petersfield is home to one of the most numerous collections of Bronze Age burial mounds in England. Unfortunately, the planting of conifers on the mounds in Victorian times and the mixed tree growth of the last 50 years has successfully camouflaged the outline... [more]