Phoenix Green, The Phoenix c1955

Living in

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.