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 |
Written December 1996.
This is my story, When we moved to North Baddesley I was 11 years old, we lived in a bungalow in the Rownhams Road called ‘Devonfield’, it is now a second-hand car place, no houses were built opposite, only a wire fence around. ‘We’ my brothers and sisters used to walk right over through the woods to ‘Butlers’ big house, also when the shoot was on my brothers used to ‘beat’ bushes to get the foxes out, you got paid one shilling.
One evening in the week ‘we’ the youngest children used to go to chapel, I forgot the name of the road a Mrs Browning use to play the organ and Mrs Chandler used to sing, she had a lovely voice. One Christmas they put the organ on a trolley and wheeled it down the Rownhams Road, half way down they started to play and sing the ‘Christmas Carols’ we did enjoy it, then the snow came down and they had to hurry home. I never forgot it.
Now we started to go to Baddesley School, then we had to go to Romsey School when we were 11years old. A Mr Moore used to take us in his very old bus, then there was too many of us, so the council put on a bus, boys upstairs, girls below, lots of children had a long way to walk before they caught the bus.
There was a Mr Biggs who used to live right at the end of Rownhams Road he was an odd-job man, he had everything in his garden, wood, doors, timber, the lot, now all is gone and a smart bungalow is built there, but it is still called ‘Biggs Corner.’
Some times the village boys would set fire to the common land, we used to get wet sacks to put it out. I remember when the Electric light first came up in the Rownhams Road, my mother had to pay one shilling a week, we only had it put in 2 rooms, as that’s all we could afford as there was eight children all under 16 years old.
The village school promised to build more class rooms, only one was built, as the years went on ‘we’ the young ones joined the army, navy and air force, I went to train as a nanny and my sister went into the WAFFs. All of us travelled all over the world, my brother had the OBE from the Queen. Now the years go on and my grandson and granddaughter went to the new school in Baddesley then to Mountbatten School in Romsey. They lived in Ringwood, now they live in Perth, Australia, and I am a ‘great nan’ of 80.
I hope that will help you along with your memories. Barbara Myall (nee Wright)