June 2016 - Hambledon Homepage

Two fascinating sets of written memories have surfaced recently. In the mid 1980's Geoff Hartridge encouraged Aubrey Taylor to write down his memories of Hambledon life — Hambledon Through Two World Wars. His father Harry Taylor was born in Hambledon in 1864; Aubrey, born in 1906 followed his father into his painting and decorating business.
In 1988, Williarn Heath was persuaded by his daughter to write down his — Wills Wanderings Down Memory Lane. William was a farmer, based more in Denmead — his parents moved to Little Denmead Farm in I908 — but his experiences echo those of our local farming community and equally informs our Hambledon history.

There is so much of interest in both books - they ﬁll gaps and as usual we will continue to mine them for future articles. This month we are picking up on some of the war stories. We recently featured the purchase by Hartridges of the Alliance Brewery from the Horne family. Now on 7th‘ December 1940 this brewery took a direct hit from a German high explosive bomb and was completely destroyed. The aftermath was captured in the photo. The Droxford ARP handwritten District Report of the incident recorded: "on the outskirts of Hambledon village several incendiary bombs followed by a stick of high explosive bombs across the village. No casualties. Hartridges Brewery completely destroyed and ceilings and Windows of about 50 houses damaged. Telephone wires down. Morale of inhabitants OK". These were by no means the only bombs to fall in the area, Taylor writes that over a 100 high explosive bombs dropped in the vicinity — especially during the blitzes on Portsmouth and Southampton. Fortunately, although woods were set ablaze on several occasions, other damage to property was limited. (A map exists of where the bombs fell - we are trying to locate a copy.)

William Heath also captures the experience of bombing, "I remember one evening I was on the tractor ploughing and a Land Army Girl was following me with a horse and a presser when a German plane came over the top of us — he was being chased by our ﬁghters and dropped four bombs in the ﬁeld at the back of the Farm buildings ~ fortunately it did not do much damage, just made craters, whereas at Anthill Common, about a mile the opposite side, the blast blew out some of their windows".
These eyewitness accounts by local people at the time remind us of the impact of the war in Hambledon's daily life. Farmers were under enormous pressure to provide food and after the war William Heath was presented with a certiﬁcate thanking him and including the words ‘The task of British Agriculture, an arduous, indeed a vital one was to keep the nation fed. With your help it has been done People dealing with new responsibilities, new living arrangements, new people — evacuees, prisoners ofwar, soldiers — all suddenly appear in a previously close knit community.
Farming was for so long the driving economic force for Hambledon and we want to focus on it and how it has evolved in the village over the coming months. We plan to hold another Pub meeting in the Autumn where we will highlight Hambledon's farming heritage. Please give this thought and be ready to share your stories and memories.
Today, it is much easier to capture the moment in photos — so don't forget to record what's happening in 2016 and enter the Horticultural Society Summer Show Photo competition! But if you know of other memoirs and personal notes like Aubrey and William's, which can add to the Hambledon story, please do let us know.
Thanks to Geoff Hartridge, James King and Nick Bailey for their help in informing this article.
Caroline/Murray/Martyn