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Soberton
Soberton maps
Historic maps of Soberton and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Soberton maps
Soberton photos
We have no photos of Soberton, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Newtown| Droxford| Hambledon| Swanmore| North Boarhunt| Meonstoke| Waltham Chase| Wickham| Corhampton| Shedfield| Denmead| Exton| Bishops Waltham| Southwick| Waterlooville| Cowplain| Clanfield| East Meon| Horndean| West Meon| Purbrook| Portchester| Fareham| Titchfield| Drayton| Park Gate| Farlington| Langrish
Soberton area books
Displaying 1 of 22 books about Soberton and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Soberton
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Soberton.
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Memories
MY MUM USED TO BIKE OVER FROM NORTH BOARHUNT TO SOBERTON EVERY THURSDAY WHEN I WAS SMALL.
She had a small seat fixed at the back so that she could take me too,i had to sit on a blanket as it was hard.It use to take a while and i use to sit back there and sing my heart out,as i was so small people could not see me until we had gone pass,and i am sure they thought it was my mum singing.We use to go to the end of trampers lane and turn left pass Newtown school,then turn first right pass what was Miles garage,nothing to do with us.On in to inerfield lane sorry folks if i spelt that wrong its been a long time.Anyway those lanes were narrow and the fields either side were higher than the road,and when it snowed they were inpassable.
My nan lived at the "Five Trees" in a cottage it was one of five,and the river ran out by her front, when... Read more
Hampshire memories
Living in The Swan Inn - Newtown - 1936-1943
I lived at the Swan from 1936 to about 1943 - below are some extracts from my memoirs. I hope you find them of interest.
In about 1936 my father resigned, or to be more accurate was forced out of his company, a story in itself. My mother was getting concerned about the rise of the Nazis in Germany and the very real possibility of a war starting and wanted to leave the London area. The result was that my parents became the proprietors of Ye Olde Swan Inn in the village of Newtown just outside the old market town of Newbury in the County of Berkshire. A river ran through Newtown and the bridge crossing the river was the County demarcation line between Berkshire and Hampshire. So Newtown was in Hampshire, Newbury in Berkshire. The inn dated back to the 12th century when it was a bake house to nearby Sandleford Priory a large estate nearby. A newspaper article on the Swan some years later stated that there... Read more
Newtown School
I remember I hadn't had my 5th birthday, and my mum said that tomorrow I was going to start school. School, I thought, whats that!.
The next day I was dressed up and at about 8.30 a small van with seats arrived outside my house, mum took me outside and kissed me and said I was to behave myself and to enjoy the day. "Ok mum, bye."
The van stopped outside a house, or that's what it looked like to me, and a lady came to the van and opened the door. "Come on children let's be having you out." she said. Ok I thought, I will see where we are going.
We were taken into a big room and were given some paper and some pencils and asked to do some drawings of our family... and so the day went on. We were shown where the toilets were, and given tiny bottles of milk to drink at what we were told was a break time.
Looking back on all... Read more
Harriott Brothers - The Butcher's Shop
My Father was Arthur Harriott who owned Harriott Brothers Butchers Shop (which can be seen at the bottom left-hand corner of the picture) together with his Brother, Edward. We lived in "Old Sarum" which is the white house adjoining with my Mother, Molly and my Aunt Olive and Uncle Edward. One of my first memories must have been in about the late 40's when my Dad would wrap up parcels of meat and put them in a wicker basket in the iron frame fitted to a bicycle and delivered to the householders of Droxford by "the Boy".
I don't think I ever remember seeing my Father without a Craven A cigarette tucked into a corner of his lips - a sublime disregard for Health and Safety but I don't recall a single case of anyone becoming ill as a result!
The shop floor was covered with a dusting of sawdust which trod into the house and drove my Mother wild but the smell of... Read more
Visiting
I had family who lived in Droxford, that was my Uncle Peter, Aunty Dot and my cousins Susan, Christine and John Miles. Sorry John if you are reading this, it's your five mins of fame. I loved going over there and was always made welcome. I went to Droxford school with Mr Bark? and his wife. She was ok but he in my eyes was not, but I am sure I wasn't the only one who thought that. All kids think their head teachers are to beware of. We the cousins would go for walks, either to Soberton or over to the water meadows. One year my cousin was May Queen for Droxford, she really was very pretty, well I thought so. Later my mum worked at the telephone exchange, until it changed. She had her photo in the paper, thought that made her a very important person, well she was and still is.
Meonstoke And Droxford
Terrific memories by both Harriott and Skipwith families. Thank you! Mine centre first on Midlington Cottage (rented from the Horsmans, he a magnificent model-train builder, the house out of Droxford a bit on A32, where all the Army ordinance lumbered past, day after day, to the coast for the D-Day invasion, and from where our beloved cairn terrier Tim killed a couple of the farmer's wartime chickens, the farmer - quite rightly - subsequently threatening Tim with summary execution if he ever caught him at it again), then Mylor Cottage, up the hill, with a flourishing fig tree in the tiny back yard, then over, in 1946, to Meonstoke and Stoke Cottage for many years, with an interlude to Aberdeen for a few years in between. Altogether I remember them as a marvellous dappled time, beautifully captured by your reminiscences. To Meonstoke, of course, Droxford was the great metropolis: it had everything, Meonstoke boasting a single store. Therefore the bike was in constant use, splashing cartwheels of water across the Droxford... Read more
My Time at Studwell Lodge And in The Village of Droxford
My family first came to live in Studwell Lodge, which they bought from the Bruce family, when my father retired from farming in Berkshire at the age of fifty five. It was then 1959 and I, as a teenager, was overawed by the sheer size and space of the property. The village was very welcoming to us newcomers. Barbara Wade was one of the first to cross the doorstep bearing a fruitcake that she had made. She was a legend in Droxford history with her riding school and stern attitude towards car drivers who dared to pass her clutch of Thelwellian students. She was a pillar of the church who ably supported Pagey (Rev Page), the first rector that I knew. His rectory is now Willow House, just across the treacherous A32 from the Square.
The village of Droxford was, at that stage, a self sufficient community with Harriots, the butcher’s shop (I too remember Brian Harriott and other family members, Pamela). Nearby in School Lane there was... Read more
