Phoenix Green, Hampshire
Phoenix Green photos
Displaying 1 of 1 old photos of Phoenix Green. View all Phoenix Green photos
Phoenix Green maps
Historic maps of Phoenix Green and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Phoenix Green maps
Phoenix Green books
Displaying 2 of 4 books about Phoenix Green and the local area. View all Phoenix Green books
Around Eastleigh including Chandler's Ford, Bishopstoke and Botley Living Memories
Paperback
rrp £11.99
£3.60
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Phoenix Green
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Hampshire memories
When I moved to live on the Cricket Green with my parents in 1947, the previous tenants were called Bacon, and for many years afterwards, people would say "Oh you live in Bacons' old house" - my mother would seethe! My brother Richard was born in 1948 and our younger brother Patrick arrived in 1950, always doing his own thing, and was delivered by my mother on the kitchen floor - the baby born in a bucket, as he was reminded for many years. When I married in 1965 at St Thomas More RC Church in Mildmay Terrace, we borrowed a piano from the Stewart family at Longfield Cottage - ours was the second wedding held at the church. Many happy memories of childhood and beyond of Hartley Wintney - my children spent many holidays with their grandparents, playing on the green, feeding the ducks on Causeway Pond and blackberrying on Hazeley Heath with their Grandma Vaughan. I learned to score for cricket matches, something I thoroughly enjoyed until marrying my sailor Michael and moving away - but often returning to be with my family. My parents are remembered by we three siblings with a seat in the Millennium Orchard on Hunts Common; another close by is in memory of Richard who died aged 56 in 2005, leaving a loving family; we have come to love this orchard, a project dreamed up by Patrick when he was Parish Clerk to the village, a job he thoroughly enjoyed doing. Sadly Patrick died of cancer in August 2008 - his funeral at St John's was joyful and attended by so many friends, family and colleagues, followed by a wake at the Cricket Clubhouse on the Green, yards from "Bacons old house" where he lived for almost 58 years.
Today Mike and I drove to the Apple Day celebration in Victoria Hall, meeting our daughter and her two children, Ruth Vaughan (Richard's widow) their two daughters and three grandchildren - Pat's death is still raw, but we all talked about him and later went to the orchard, which is where Patrick's ashes will eventually be scattered. I am so very fortunate to have been connected with Hartley Wintney for sixty years. Still known by my maiden name - YOU know, that Heather Vaughan who married a sailor! Incidentally, our home is clearly seen in the 1960 picture of the Cricket Green - I can see the porch built by my father.
Shared on 19 October 2008
My G.Granny was EMMA JANE SUMNER, she was born at Rotherwick, Hampshire on 1st. January 1866. This lady made a great impression on me and I used to visit her at her home in Tilehurst, Berkshire as a child. Jane, as she was known, was around 6 feet tall and had a very regal appearance with her silver white hair coiled high on her head. I last visited her at 'Iona', Firs Road, Tilehurst when she was 80 years old and a few months before her death. She gave me a brooch from her dress which I had admired and this I will treasure always.
Shared on 18 October 2008
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.
Shared on 25 April 2009
Julian's hunt story is almost right. I was living at the Chalk Pit at the time, and still do. It was about 1981, on a Saturday lunchtime, when the hunt came over the top, but it wasn't on Boxing Day. The hounds were chasing Hares. The leader of the hunt knew there was a main road so directed the hunt across the field. The Hare was chased through a hole in the hedge at the top of the Pit, and the dogs followed through. From about 34 dogs they lost 18. Mr Cleverley, the local vet, had the sad task of ministering to the injured dogs. To my amazement the Kennel Maid knew every dog by name, and sat in our barn with the survivors. I've not seen a dog hunting near the Pit since, though we have had dogs fall over the top. And, on one sad day, a local man fell to his death.
Some of the buildngs in this photograph still survive, as we live in one.
Shared on 05 October 2006
Extracts From Phoenix Green & Hampshire books
Displaying a selection of extracts from Frith books about Phoenix Green, inspired by Frith photos.
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 War. (Plaques were added after the Second World War commemorating the 54 young men who died on duty away from home during that conflict). After much deliberation over an appropriate location for the town’s memorial, it was erected by the mason Andrew Perryman of Dragon Street in its present position early in 1922 - a position in the Square was discounted. In the wake of the war, under the auspices of the Housing Act of 1919, the country set about building ‘homes fit for heroes’. The first of these were built in Noreuil Road, which was named after a little village of some 100 inhabitants near Arras in France. Petersfield had adopted the village to help with its reconstruction, and a letter thanking the town for gifts of parcels of clothing and coloured wall maps to brighten the schoolroom was signed by J Nicholai, the schoolmistress at Noreuil. The Electricity Supply Act of 1919 gave rise to an application by Dr R J Cross, Mr T A Crawter and Mr C W Seaward, who wanted to form a company to supply electric light to Petersfield. The plan was for a generator on land located to the rear of the Volunteer Arms (now Meon Close), with a frontage on Frenchmans Road. (Note that the company was only to supply electric light, not power). With houses having only 40-watt lamps, it is unlikely that a supply greater than 20 kilowatts would be required. Tom Crawter’s house, Clare Cross, was the first house in Petersfield to be lighted by electricity. Nevertheless, there was enough power to supply the Electric Theatre with the town’s first film shows. The first cinema stood at the corner between Chapel Street and Swan Street - in fact, the demolition of the Swan public house made way for the Electric Theatre. That first cinema was replaced by the Savoy Cinema in 1935, and is now a nightclub.
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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 of the tumuli and largely hidden them from the casual view (see page 11). To create mounds like this would have required the labour of many people, and they appear to have been built over many years, if not centuries. So where did these people live? Why have they left us no clues to tell us where they came from? Did they come from miles around to bury the ashes of their dead princes here? Were they nomads carrying the remains from a fair distance to a sacred spot or a clearing in the forest? Or is it possible that someone may yet find their habitation site here within the town itself? In all probability we shall never ever know the answer, and the mystery will remain for all time.
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Petersfield - A History & Celebration
MOST OF this first chapter has to be supposition, for the facts are few and far between, but certainly two requirements were just as important in the past as they are now in the 21st century: firstly, the lie of the land was and is still critical to a successful place to camp for the night; and secondly, man’s intelligence was and is needed to make the right decisions on where to camp.
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