Memories Of The

A Memory of Child Okeford.

Hambledon Hill played a great part in the first 15 years of my life as it did for most children of the village.
My very first memory is the huge bonfire built on top of the hill to mark the end of WW2, both my Father (Guy Moon) and George Diffy from the Post Office found some fireworks, this was the first time I had seen fireworks.
While at the village school we used to be taken on nature walks on the hill and used to go into the Yew wood at the Hanford end of the hill.
We were also taken to see the pre-historic  pits left on the hill from the huts that must have been there, we found many flint tools which we used to carry back to school.
Much of the holidays were spent on the hill also, we used to take tin trays up to slide down into the dips, or in winter proper sledges.
I also used to go rabbiting on the hill with Mr Walt Wareham who seemed to make a living from it.
It is only in recent times that any crops were grown up there, in my youth it was all grass or scrub.