You are here:
Fair Oak
Fair Oak maps
Historic maps of Fair Oak and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Fair Oak maps
Fair Oak area books
Displaying 1 of 22 books about Fair Oak and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Fair Oak
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Fair Oak.
Add your memory of Fair Oak
or of a photo of Fair Oak.
All Things Bright And Beautiful
I remember lots of the names on the memory of Horton Heath. My grandparents were the Craggs and lived at Horton Heath as well. I went to school in Fair Oak. It was a long walk from Horton Heath. I remember Mrs. Treasure, Mr. Clarck and Mrs. Douce, in fact she took me to hospital to have my knee stitched after I fell down on the grating at the entrance of school. I still have the scar .I remember, Mr. Scott the vicar and of having a breakfast of porridge with him and his family. Pamela Morris, Bernice Target, Susan Clarck, Carol White, John Hicks, the twins Eric and Denis and many more. The thing that made the most impression were the toilet facilities. They were at the end of the grounds, freezing cold and my little legs could hardly reach to climb onto the wooden sitting. Many a time I suffered wet knickers in the cold because of this nightmare. Those dark green knickers with a pocket in them... Read more
Snow in Moonlight
It was that cold, cold winter of 43/44 during the war that I remember so well. Please forgive me for I was not a Fair Oak boy but my memory is from there. I lived in Bishopstoke as a lad before, during and after the war so I knew Fair Oak very well. I had the privilege to lay on my back as a "casualty" one Sunday morning for a ARP exercise in the square and I found it cold and hard but I forgive you.
My memory started one winter day in I believe 1943. It had been snowing off and on for several days when a man that I worked with decided to make a super sledge in pieces at work and it was my job as a boy to reassemble it at home that evening. Now he lived in Fair Oak and knew of a... Read more
Fair Oak Infants 1953
55 years on I still remember the infant school in the village. The toilets were outside at the end of the playground with very cold seats in the winter - pre the flushing variety!! (or does my memory serve me wrong) and there was a round heater in the classroom that we all used to gather round in the cold weather. We used to walk up to the building that is now the Acorn club for some of our lessons.
I lived in Horton Heath where my dad's side of the family came from (Mum came from West End). We used to walk to school it was about a mile.
Dad was on the parish council for years and used to organize the Fair Oak fruit and flower show - We always use to dress up and parade round the village. One year my brother Bob went as 'the oak tree' and was dressed with branches sticking out all over him, another... Read more
Fair Oak as it Was ...
My first day of school was September 1965 at Fair Oak Infants. It wasn't too bad the first day as my Mum was allowed to stay at the back of the classroom, but after that I was left on my own. I became very frightened and one day I thought I'd make a "run for it". My plan was to ask to go to the toilet, and while I was gone (as in those day's the toilet block was at the other end of the playground) I'd make my escape. Alas it never happened, I can't remember if I had taken longer then expected, or the teacher Mrs Cockrin sussed what I was up to, but she came outside and told me to "Get back in class", so that was that. I suppose after a while I got used to being away from Mum and settled in.
It's all flooding back to me now. Some of the children that were in my school: Susan Vincent, Julie Butler, Robert Easterby, Beverley... Read more
Yes, I Remember
We moved to Fair Oak in 1950 and yes, Gloria, I remember Mrs Treasure and Mrs Dowse and was taught by both of them between 1950 and 1953. I also remember Hatch's corner shop, wonderful smells of sweets. I'm surprised the photos are dated 1965, I would have put them earlier than that. I think the Morris 8 in one pic belonged to the District Nurse who lived just there by the Cricketer's Arms. Between 1953 and 1957 I went to the "big school" and Mr Lewer was still the headmaster, his wife was my class teacher in 1957. They lived in Mortimer's Lane and had a large horse chestnut tree in the garden. Many's the time we sneaked into their garden through the hedge to pinch "conkers" . The vicarage also had nice conker trees but they kept geese which used to chase us so it wasn't so easy getting conkers there. There is a website which has copies of photos taken... Read more
School Days
I am surprised that no one has added any memories to this page.
When I was a child the village was small and everyone knew everyone else, now it has changed out of all recognition, apart perhaps from the very centre by the tree.
Fair Oak Primary School:
The headmistress was Miss Elizabeth Ayers (she married late in life and became Mrs Treasure), and who remembers Mrs. Dowse who taught in infants when they started school. I understand she had absolutely no teacher training, which was not unknown in those days, nevertheless she was a jolly good teacher. We lived next door to her when we lived with my grandparents whilst my father was away in the navy during the war. It is a little known fact that during WWI she was a farrier and shod, amongst others, the army horses when they passed throught the village. Hatch's shop on the corner opposite the school where we would buy sweets and sherbet which... Read more
Hampshire memories
When The Pond Froze Over
I was living at Bishopstoke and working as a lad at Cunliff Owen Aircraft during that cold war time winter when a friend that lived in Fair Oak told me that Fishers pond was frozen over and people were skating on it. I managed to borrow a pair of boots with skates on and with my sister and a few mates from work we made our way to the pond one Saturday afternoon.
The sight was spectacular when we got there. No snow, just a giant sheet of ice covering the pond completely from the inn into the misty distance. I can remember about thirty brave soles were out there on skates taking advantage of the freak weather and having such fun in those drab winter war time days. My friends and I soon joined them laughing and screaming as we slipped, slid and fell onto the ice. It was my first time but some of my friends could already skate for they did so at the rink in Southampton... Read more
