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Mapledurwell

Mapledurwell maps

Historic maps of Mapledurwell and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Mapledurwell maps

Mapledurwell area books

Displaying 1 of 22 books about Mapledurwell and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Mapledurwell

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Hampshire memories

School 1950's

Those of us who grew up in the very rural villages around Old Basing in 1950's, had to travel to school in Old Basing, by school buses.The school on Milkingpen Lane was the only school for miles. In the late 1950's the school still did not have flush toilets.This did present some serious health issues and some of us became very ill with scarlet fever. The school was very badly provided for, with few facilities. The school did not have any school kitchens, so each day the whole school would walk through the village, via the village churchyard, to the village hall for school dinners and then back to school for afternoon classes.The system worked just fine, until the day the wooden village hall burned down. This was as a result of sparks from a train on the nearby steam railway, alighting straw on the thatched roof of a cottage next door to the village hall. Soon a school kitchen was built and school dinners used to take place in... Read more

Greywell

The Church of St Mary The Virgin 1904
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I have many fond memories of Greywell. My grandad William Edwin Poulter was born there in 1908. He built his bungalow 'Coomberry' and he used to bell-ring at the church. He lived there till he was about 90 before moving into a home and he sadly died in 2003.

The Fox And Goose

The Fox And Goose 1908
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My great, great grandfather Richard Ragget, a sawyer, lived in Greywell and used to drink regularly at this pub. Stories tell of the Duke of Wellington also drinking here. Does anyone else know of this? Does anyone know who the people are in this picture?

Vine Cottages

I recall going to a Queen's Coronation party in the village hall, where we were all given a coin and a mug. My mother used to work at the Fox and Goose pub, the owner's son, myself and another girl played in a field at back of pub we slid into a dell he ended up in a bees nest and got badly stung. We lived at 4 Vine Cottages for a few years, my father worked for Lord Dorchester on the farm there. One year there was a May fair and a maypole was erected, I danced round the maypole with other children. I recall walking to the post office across the field along a footpath that came out by a stream. We left village for Rowlands Castle but returned this time living in the house on Greywell Hill Farm.

Greywell Hill House

We returned to Greywell after a time away, my father worked again for Lord Dorchester however this time we lived in the house near the farm instead of the village. We were sure that it was haunted as we could hear noises in the bedroom. We had a lot of things happpen while living there. The snowdrops were wonderful and grew in great clumps in our garden. Over the fence was a mesh wired building used to hang the pheasant, deer and rabbit.

My father had an old tobacco tin which held mole tails, he was paid for every mole he caught in the big house lawn. I was allowed to fill the thick lipped milk bottles in the dairy and had a favourite cow called Fairy, I would sit in the manger and talk to her while she was being milked.

I recall my mother cleaning at the big house and I went with her, I wandered the house and one incident of me opening a... Read more

Ken's Memories

My husband and I took his father, Ken Benwell, back to North Warnborough today, for his 90th birthday. He was born on 25th April 1919 and lived there until he was three years old. He then moved to Suffolk with his parents. He has never been back since.
He recognised Perrys Cottages straight away, as the place where his grandparents once lived. He also remembered the football field, which backed onto the cottage where he used to live with his parents. Sadly the cottage was no longer there.
He was delighted to visit the ruined castle, where his mother used to take him and where he would 'fish' for tiddlers in the stream.
All in all, it was a super day and he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday treat.
Sue Benwell.

Laurel Cottages

A few years ago, along with two of my daughters, I came to look for Laurel Cottages as my mother had lived there up to her death in September 1942. My mother, Mona Braithwaite, was a cook and lived at 9 Laurel Cottages. Whilst visiting Plymouth she was buried under a building for two days but survived and was taken first to Basingstoke hospital and then transferred to the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading where she died. She was aged 27 years. As I had been adopted at 6 weeks and had only just found out details of my mother I was interested in finding out about the area whre she had lived and worked. Sadly I have not been able to trace her place of employment and we found that Laurel Cottages and been replaced by another building.

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