These recollections have been supplied by villagers who have lived or worked in the village during the past. Some of them are are still living here. The earliest recollection is from a Mr. V.A. Dibble, who was the son of the first schoolmaster of Baddesley School and he was born in 1889.
We believe they provide a fascinating glimpse of what village life was really like in the past and I hope you will find them to be as interesting a read as I most certainly did.
Click on the links below to access each recollection.
Please Note: As some of the recollections are quite long you will need to scroll the bar on the right hand side to access all the content.
| V. A. Dibble | E. Marsh | D. Peckham | B. Myall | M. Gradidge |
| P. Farmer | J. Hibberd | E. Cosier | J. Fowler | D. Biggs |
| P. Haws | E. Gardner | J. MacKenzie | M. Watts | R. Cobern |
MEMORIES 30/11/1996
I am very interested in the news that you and Miss Beryl Green have published a book on the history of North Baddesley, because I have known the village and Chilworth since 1930 when I came to Southampton as Education Architect to the Corporation.
I used to visit the Clump Inn and well remember the Baddesley Post Office kept by Mrs Montgomery, and the ‘Local’.
I was married in 1933 and came to Chilworth to live and in 1948, subsequent in the war I was appointed architect to the old Romsey and Stockbridge RDC responsible for the design and erection of houses in the 32 parishes, one of which of course was Baddesley.
The whole area off Rownhams Road was a Common and the very first section of development was Brownhill Road, which still contains the houses that were built. A road had to be formed across the Common and on the section containing the line of road was a sand lime brick shelter.
This had to be removed and endless correspondence took place between the Ministry and the RDC, but permission to remove it never came through.
The builder of the road was so incensed that one Sunday he called on his tractor driver and they obtained a crane with the heavy metal ball attached and with very little delay demolished the whole shelter.
The story goes that he gave the driver a quid when the estimated cost of removal was several hundred pounds.
When the houses were completed, and they were some of the first in the RDC, an official visit was paid by the Chairman of the RDC Maurice Pugh and councillors and clerk Bob Tanner—I have some photographs somewhere of the occasion.
Middle Road was a grass track lined with all types of temporary buildings, very nondescript with no services. Incidentally we had to arrange sewage for Brownhill Road by siteing a Sewage Disposal Works way down Rownhams Road with the effluent discharging to the brook.
Some time after we had completed the houses, the Ministry ordained that temporary housing accommodation could be built but the cost was restricted. There was a member on the RDC named Jim Ayres who represented Baddesley and was the old Surveyor for Stockbridge. He advertised temporary housing being built by him for £100, and this consisted of timbers driven into the ground covered with chicken wire and plaster, and although I believe some were built, probably Middle Road, I cannot definitely recall any. There were two councillors for Baddesley on the RDC, Jim Ayres and Gradidge and the former was a most cantankerous member—he had a violent spite against one chairman Knapmaun of West Tytherley and some of the Council meetings were riotous, Ayres stamping up the centre of the room hurling vindictive accusations of all kinds at Knapmaun.
I well remember Mr and Mrs McColl and her school because during the war I was on ARP and had to visit to arrange accommodation for the expected Trekkers from Southampton when blitzed. Later I was Chairman of the managers for 20 years, the latter time with Winifred Cox. Incidentally Gracie McRae at Walnut Cottage below us had many photographs of the school and pupils of the old days but what happened to them I don’t know, unless her daughter Anne has them.
My recollection of the School centres round the gypsy camp which was sited in Rownhams Lane where 12 caravans were stationed, eventually with a warden in charge to educate the gypsies to fit them as tenants of RDC houses, which proved very successful, prior to this it was all caravans and tents with the kids being chased by Eagle the attendance officer. His efforts proved so successful that we had quite a number of gypsy nippers at school, but they were far from the scent of honeysuckle and eventually we had a strike of 80 parents refusing to send their kids. We had the Chief Education Officer from Winchester and all the top brass at a meeting which I had to chair, but it took some time to placate the parents and get the gypsies to practice hygiene, rather than visit the woods for dandelion leaves.
It is good to report that of the 12 families who were camped there in the Warden’s charge, all were eventually brought to a standard that enabled them to be housed on Council Estates. We had 2 families in Chilworth, but one proved very difficult and had to be transferred. I wonder sometimes why this successful experiment is not followed with the problem of today.
I am now 95 but I have recollections of many Baddesley points and characters, Browns Stores- where All Electrics is now. Day at the garage who on one occasion being accused of charging too much, said—‘Half a crown for doing it and 10 shillings for knowing how!’
The old Village Hall with which I was associated with Ronald Pugh the Solicitor, in erecting, Mrs Long and the Off License in Rownhams Lane. The Baddesley Arms PH. It’s amazing how swiftly Baddesley has grown since 1949, the date we started on Brownhill Road.
Sincerely
John Fowler
PS The houses in Brownhill Road had to be built by what the Ministry of Housing called the Morris standard. This called for special facilities, size of rooms, a toilet upstairs as well as down, a utility room with wash boiler etc. It is amazing that with these facilities the bungalows cost £800, the 2 bedroom houses £1100, and the 3 bedroom £1300. And on these prices which were by tender, one Financial Officer at the RDC recommended further tenders, as the costs were too high!
I don’t know if the foregoing is of any interest to you, the book having been published but as my old Dad was a Highlander from far, far North—may say they are the blitherings of an old Scot!
(typed by Una 16/10/2007 from original handwritten)