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Moundsmere

Moundsmere maps

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

Moundsmere area books

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

Memories of Moundsmere

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Hampshire memories

Preston Candover School House

The School c1955
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I lived, with my parents and brother and sister, in the 'School House' from 1956-1963. My mother [Mrs Maud Slater] was one of the teachers and taught in the school until her retirement in 1978. The school and house were demolished in 1963/4 when a new school was built. Although for much of my life in PC I was at boarding school /the army I have wonderful memories of my boyhood in the fields and woods around the village and the happy hours spent working, during the harvest, on Manor Farm for 2/- [10p] per hour. My last,passing,visit to PC was in 1997 when I noticed a marked change in the character of the village from agricultural [in the 50'/60s most, if not all, of the cottages were 'tied'] to a residential/commuter community. In 1961 I can only think of one commuter-Mr Paul of North Hall.

The Thatched Cottage

The School c1955
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We lived in a thatched cottage just out of the village, there was a farm nearby where my dad worked. I used to go to St Mary's Church on Sundays. I attended Perins School. I had a friend who lived on the housing estate in the village, her name was Susan Dickins or Dickinson, she had a older sister Margaret. After all these years does anyone remember her?

Margaret Dickers

The School c1955
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Yes, Susan and Margaret both lived in Stenbury Drive all their lives. Susan passed away about 3 years ago and sadly Margaret died in January. She is sorely missed by all in the village.

Preston Candover Primary School

This was the year I left PC school to go to High School. I have immensely fond memories of school life here and the wonderful teachers, Mrs Cosier, Mrs Brady and Head Teacher Mrs Bruce. Lining up outside every morning for team games before school. doubtless to wake us up! The whole school chanting our times tables in unison which I think should be mandatory today in all primaries. It works. Singing those glorious old hymns in morning assembly. Having art lessons outside in the sun. Going on nature rambles and nature study competitions (mine was the coot and the horse chestnut tree for which I won a medal). Scottish and country dancing, rounders, tennis and plays performed in the village hall opposite for our parents. School dinners, umm, well they were certainly nutritious with lovely puddings (except for sago, ugh). When parents today talk of over-crowding in classrooms, I have an instant picture of sitting squashed up together on benches in the infants room. If you sat... Read more

Gliding at Lasham With The 3rd East Kilbride Scouts

While I was the Scout Leader with the 3rd East Kilbride Scout Troop in the 1970s several of my scouts became interested in flying. After several sessions of model building we decided we needed to do some flying with real planes so I arranged a trip to Lasham Airfield in Hampshire, which was a very big adventure for young teenagers living in Scotland!

Two of my patrol leaders, Ian Croft and Andrew Parkes, joined me along with a fellow scout leader Douglas Johnston, and we were fortunate to get sponsored by British Airways with free flights between Glasgow and Gatwick. We slept in a dorm set up in an old decommissioned Comet airliner and enjoyed two days of training including an air experience flight in a Cessna. The boys loved it - except when I took the controls!

Great fun, great memories and great organisation by the Scouts who were based at Lasham and set everything up for us!

I Was Baptised in This Church . . .

St James' Church 2004
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and so was my mum, her dad, his dad, his dad, etc etc.
I was born in Upper Wield in 1949. The churchyard is full of us Giles'

Batt Family

My faher, Herbert Alexander, was born in Church Cottage, Bentworth in 1893. His mother waa Emma Alexander (nee Batt). The Batt family had lived in Bentworth for many years. In the 1950s a descendent of the Batt family, William Loren Batt, came to England from America searching for his ancestors from Bentworth. In the 1850s his great-grandfather and several other members of the Batt family emigrated to America. He traced the family back to 1784 when Thomas Batt married Frances Gardiner at Old ALresford. On his return to the USA Wiliam wrote a small book entitled "Hunting Batts in England" about his experiences in tracing the Batt family. He also arranged for a gravestone to be erected in Bentworth Churchyard to the memory of John & Martha Batt, married in Bentworth in 1804, and other descendents of the Batt family interred in the Churchyard.

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