Sopley, Dorset

R.A.F. Sopley

RAF Sopley was very special. My station from July 1957 Till June of 1959. The post office in Bransgore was aspecial place for all airmen. The cat and fiddle, as well as the crown were special meeting places. My vist in September to the Station inasmuch with permission from Sue, I walked the site many of the old buildings in place. A wreck from its former days. I hope and pray it will not be developed for commercial or residential. Should be turned back to Farmland as it was prior to RAF Sopley. With a large memorial for all to see from the main entrance in memory of all who served in the defence of freedom. Tony Taylor and Ted Newton served the same years i was at Sopley. Please contact me . To the folks at Bransgore you were the best in support of us. God Bless everyone.

New Forest Photographic Memories

Sopley probably gets its name from soc leag: land granted the right to hold a court of socmen. The sign above the inn says that Louisa Brinson is ‘licensed to sell beer, wines, spirits and tobacco’.

New Forest Photographic Memories

Standing on a little hilltop, Sopley Church overlooks the course of the Avon. The building was established in 1270; just inside the doorway are stone carvings of the local squire and his wife, who endowed this lovely place of worship.

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.