Hambledon Yesterday and Today     
The Local History Group will meet at The  Vine from 7:30 pm on Thursday, 10th March.
  Come along and find out what we are getting up  to. We would like to show you some more
historic  photos and ask you to help us decide what pictures  of Hambledon Today we should be capturing. We  can tell you about the ongoing archiving, oral  history and mapping projects and, if you're  interested, how you could get involved. It's going  to be very informal, so drop in when you can, we  would love to see you and any photos or documents  you bring with you — and of course the beer is  excellent!  Here is the oldest picture we can find of The  Vine (thanks to Fran) we think it must be from  the 1950s. Do you have an older one? If so we  would love to see it, scan and record it.  With The Vine's long history what better place  for our Group to meet? Did you know that The  Vine dates back to the 16th century. In the Tithe  Map of1842 the building on Plot 556 is pretty  clearly The Vine. It was occupied by Henry  Whittenham and owned by William Horne.  Henry Whittenham (57) and his wife Elizabeth (39)  appear in the 1841 Census and he is listed as a  publican — no servants. A Moses W/hittenham (65),  who could well have been Henry's father, was  living at Fairfield House, presumably as a servant  to William Higgens, one of the major landowners  locally.  In the 1841 Census William Horne, The Vine's  owner, is recorded as a maltster — he seems to have  been a widower, with twin daughters aged 30  (Ann and Harriett), a further daughter, Hester,  aged 20, and a son, also William, aged 35. Plus a  servant girl of 14 and a male servant of 55.  William Horne also owned, and occupied, Plot  330 on West Street where the house seems to be  the present Weaverlands. William Horne also  owned Plot 529, a large field behind the complex  called "Weavers Lands". Plots 330 and 329  between them seem to cover most, if not all, of the  old Hartridge site. The Hartridges acquired their  business in the 1880s (possibly from William  Horne Junior), and the purchase seems to include  The Vine, though it might not yet have been called that.  The retouching and archiving of the photos  scanned at our September show—and-tell Qpen  Day is making progress — we scanned about 150  photographs and 23 documents and newspaper  cuttings: more were given to us soon afterwards.        Two of the photos are here for you to see,  the  retouching is not fully complete but they give a  fantastic glimpse of our village history. The two  photographs are the Womens' Cricket Team  c1910 (thanks to ]ohn Wallace) and Cafe Life at  the Copper Kettle With Richard Talling and Roger  Humphrey in 1959 (thanks to the Tallings).        

Caroline, Pat & Murray