Velmead Farm,Watery Lane

A Memory of Church Crookham.

My Father was cowman on this farm, we lived in the tythe cottage for about 6 years and I started school there. My teacher was Mrs War, her husband was the foreman of Velmead farm. We walked across the fields to school. It was a lovely idilic place to live as a child, we had so much freedom. I remember soldiers with thier wives walked past the house at weekends and talked to us children and give us pennies. At the time I had 2 sisters older than me and 3 brothers younger.
We had a well in the garden for our water supply; father would draw 2 buckets in the morning before he went to work and 2 more when he came in mid-day for his dinner, and then again at teatime. Life was very hard but we knew no better. There was a cafe on the corner of the first road we came to, over the fields which were owned by the Potter family. One of the sons, named Roy, was my friend and I had my first boyfriend kiss from him when I was 6 years old (what an impression he must have made on me). I cannot recognise any of the photos. The school is huge now, it must have been rebuilt. I was wondering is it on the same site? We used to go to Saturday morning pictures in Fleet, we would cross the canal over a rickety bridge that would have not passed Health & Safety rules.