Fond Memories Of Fordingbridge

A Memory of Fordingbridge.

My family moved to Fordingbridge in 1948 when I was 7. All three boys went to the Primary School and I was the last Head Prefect and House Captain of the Red Team before the older children went to the Burgate school. I have good memories of my first kiss. Monica Kensington and Hazel Oxford pushed me into a hedge a gave me my first smacker. When the snow came we made sleds and went over to the hill at the Parsonage. In the Summer we were all up in the Whitsbury woods. We had great teachers. Mrs Butcher, Mrs Carter, Mr Stevens, Miss Cope, Mrs Mellor, Mr Carter and Mr and Mrs Tiller, the Headmaster and his wife. I sat with Derek Jerrad and Brian Wyatt in the back row of Mr Carters class. I had to go and ring the bell to bring the kids in from the playground. I remember the whole school going across the road to see the Queen's Coronation in colour. My brother Bob and I bought a canvas canoe and spent many an hour going up and down the river. I worked on the farm in the summer and left lines overnight where all the broken eggs were thrown and caught eels. My neighbour Mr Gould would take them and eat them. I fell out of a conker tree and broke my wrist and had to go Salisbury to get it put in plaster. My mother took me to see Othello at the movies and I had nightmares for a few nights after that experience. Us boys really enjoyed the river and the 'Rec'. We were always swimming in the River until it was too cold to go in. I spent quite a few hours playing in Bickton Mill with Leonard. One of my best friends was Barry Bromfield. We used to go with our pellet guns and shoot rabbits and then along came myxomatosis and we would go into the woods and club the rabbits and put them out of their misery. (Much like the series I am watching 'The Walking Dead'). I loved cycling in the Fordingbridge area and my first full time job was in Martin and I cycled there 6 days a week in all sorts of weather. I was there three months and then obtained a 5 year apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong at Hurn. I cycled the 14 miles there the first day. Then I found that some fellows were car pooling. So I traveled with them. After 18 months there was huge redundancy at Hurn and six of us apprentices were accepted by English Electric in Stevenage. So ended my days in Fordingbridge. However I return as much as possible. Meeting up with old school friends like James Clover, Edward Bailey. Geoffrey Palmer, Colin Burt, Bob Curtis and Sally Crook (Nee Buttle), Dian Nicklen and Margaret Howell. Hopefully in September I will meet them all again.