Sherfield-On-Loddon, Hampshire

Happy Days

I lived in the village from the age of 9 years to 11 years. My parents were Norman and Dorothy Gower, and my dad was the manager of John Miller's the grocery store, across from the White Horse pub. Our next door neighbours were Mr and Mrs Bullpit who lived in a thatched cottage. Amy, their only daughter, worked for my dad.
My best friend name was Norma Shelvey. I rang the belles at the local church, I was the youngest. I attended the village school, and then went on to one in Basingstoke. I would put my pocket money in the savings bank which was in the post office across the road on a Saturday, and by the afternoon take it out to buy something. Those 2 years were very happy for me as a child. We moved back to North London where I lived until I married in 1966 and then moved to Washington DC in the USA. I now live in Florida. I would love to hear from someone who either remembers me or lived there during those years. Happy days.

Sherfield Post Office

My wife and I owned Sherfield-on-Loddon post office (pictured far left) from July 1991 until July 1999. In 1992 the shop front pictured was extended out into the garden about 15 feet and a complete refit undertaken. We did, however, retain the hand made sign over the shop front which was renovated and rehung on the new part of the building.
We had our daughter and son whilst we were living there and Sherfield will always hold a special place in our memories.

Hampshire Living Memories

The sign in the foreground points to the Army’s Central Ammunitions Depot in Bramley Road, which eventually shut in the 1970s. Straight ahead is the White Hart, an 18th-century colour-washed brick building. Still trading, it has toothed eaves and an old tiled roof. Inside, above the fireplace, there are rare pigeon holes for mail. Sherfield on Loddon is 5 miles from the M3.

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.

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.