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West Meon memories

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Memories of Hampshire

Exton Post Office

Post Office And Shoe Inn c1955
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I lived in the village in the mid 1950s. I can remember that the owner of the Post office was a Mr Worthington. The granddaughter was called Celia.

Main Rd - Hill House

These are not really memories although I do remember my father talking a lot about Meonstoke with affection.
I have 2 old postcards and 2 old photos. The photos are of the building (I understand it was a Post Office at some date) in the picture above but when it was a private house. According to family tradition it was called Hill House and was built by William Cooper one of my ancestors. I do not know if that was true.
I do know from research that in the 1840s one William Cooper lived at Church Cottage while in the 1860s Mary Cooper (widow of one of the 3 Williams) and some of her children were living in Church Rd. She was a cordwainer (boot/shoe maker) as was her husband.
The younger William, her son was living at Gavdiff/Cardiff House at this time but I don't know where that was.
In the 1870s this younger William was living in Hill House with his wife... Read more

Meonstoke And Its Surrounding Farmland

There are many people better qualified than I to write about Meonstoke, but this photo evokes memories of the Cooke's, who ran the village shop with cheerful kindness and where we shopped for essentials - and particularly for sweets which we took back to school in a biscuit tin (I have written about it here http://lawfordherry.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-ronans.html/). Opposite were (and still are) the quintessential Meonstoke family, the Biggs's and their magnificent thatched barn, scene of Christmas carol parties for over forty years - and below the village shop were the Harders - Paul and Anna- who I think were Danish. Below them was a house lived in by the Lushingtons - Betsy, Jane and John. And below that, Miss Apps ran a small private school. The Manor House stoood opposite below the Biggs's barn, and was lived in for a time by my cousin Ruth and her husband John Howard.

Some of this is mentioned in my Archive where Stocks Farm (signed from the triangle at the top of... Read more

My Surname

I never knew there was such a place spelt exactly like my surname. I have been there twice in my life and purchased a book on Langrish.  It made very interesting reading.  I visited the village in 1987 and again in 2006.  I found some changes in the village.

Looking forward to visiting your little village again very soon.

Harriott Brothers - The Butcher's Shop

The Village c1960
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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

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