Woolhampton memories
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Memories of Berkshire
The Stair Connection
One of my family lived in the post office, a Mr John Henry Stair, he lived there with his family and a Mrs Stair was the postmistress around that time.
John Henry died in April 1881.
Our First Visit 1961
As far as I was concerned, at the tender age of eleven, I belonged to a Norfolk family having only known Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, my birthplace. The untitled photograph of Hyde End House that hung in my grandfather's hall was an enigma and so intrigued my mother that she had to find out its relevence and where it was. After giving my grandfather a grilling, it transpired that this was our family's old ancestral home until 1917!! The quest was on to find out more and a visit was planned in the summer of 1961. Sadly by then we found it in a dilapidated state covered in ivy and overrun with chickens but we could see how grand it must have been in its prime. We learnt later that my great great great uncle Charles built the Georgian house in 1799 after a disastrous fire destroyed much of the old Elizabethan part although some of this remains as the converted outbuildings. Thankfully the house was renovated, the old rendering being... Read more
Hyde End House
I was at school (Lindfield) in this fine old Georgian building from 1947-1951 and spent many happy hours playing in the extensive grounds and old outbuildings and stables. One year our dormitory was above the stable block where the principal was raising day old chicks to supplement our austere post-war rations. The awful smell of the chickens remains a vivid memory!
If I recall there was a name carved on the mantlepiece in one of the upper rooms in the older Jacobean/Elizabethan part of the building. Us kids thought the place was haunted by the ghost of Anne Hyde (first wife of James II) who was meant to have an annual visitation on November 25th! Her father was the Earl of Clarendon - Edward Hyde.
I have visited the place twice since and like your correspondent found it in a very dilapidated state on my first visit. When I returned more recently it had been restored and some sort of conservatory built on left side of the house.... Read more
Mullins
This memory relates to the time I was at boarding school in Hyde End House just down the road.
We used to spend our pocket money in this village shop with its characteristic smell of bacon and tea.
Of course first we had to get permission to leave the school grounds to 'go up to Mullins'. Amongst our favourites were lemonade powder, licked from a wet finger and Oxo cubes which I remember were one old penny and had eaten very slowly!
The Old Carved Mantlepiece
The name carved on the old oak mantlepiece is that of my great great great uncle Charles. It reads "C. Hyde Esq. 1799". He must have carved it when a teenager. The beam was offered to my father in 1961 as a momento by the then owner, Mr Pettit but because of its weight and size, we couldn't transport it home! The beam now resides on the top of the fireplace at Hyde End Farm, the residence of Mr. John Pettit, the aforementioned Mr Pettit's son.
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