Notes and News: January / February 2010
Friends of the Village Archive
It is hoped that the next evening will be in early May 2010, the subject to be announced in the March / April Notes and News.
New projects and News
Research is at present under way for an article on the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and Mrs. Vetues interests as a local benefactor.
We hope that many of you had chance to look at the Archive’s display over the Christmas period in the window of Keats, estate agents, in the Square. The space was kindly made available by courtesy of Andrew Meehan. Any comments and further ideas for a display feature will be most welcome.
It would appear that during the recent revamp of the Fox and Pelican public house the original ironwork for the sign board has disappeared and replaced with somewhat modern version. We have asked the Grayshott Society to take this mater up with Fullers, the owners. The ironwork was definitely original from photographic evidence and had survived fro 110 years.
Many of you will have noticed the closure of the ‘Coxhead and Welch’ shop in Headley Road. The trading name had survived since the mid 1890s when the shop first opened. The original Ironmongers business was started in 1893 by Edward Coxhead and by 1903 the business was trading as ‘Coxhead and Welch’. Forward thinking, the shop had the second telephone number to be issued in Grayshott, this being x2, appearing in the first National Directory of 1907.
Books
Don’t forget that Grayshott Pottery and Grayshott Bookshop have a good selection of local titles.
HELP
The Archive is in need of two people to assist with the running of the organisation. David Barrett is standing down as Secretary from next May and we also require a new Administrator which entails putting new information into files on the computer data base and hardcopy material into the filling system. If you think you would like to help please contact us.
Richard Peskett
Grayshott Village Archive
Notes and News: November / December 2009
Friends of the Village Archive
A very successful evening was held on November 4th at Grayshott Pottery when almost 50 ‘friends’ were present to hear the most interesting talk by Tim Winter on Woodland Industries and Crafts. Illustrated with some unique photographs and postcards from Tim’s own collection many of the long forgotten skills which abounded during the last century in this district. It is hoped that the next evening will be in early May 2010, the subject to be announced in the next Notes and News.
New projects and News
Brian Tapp has put in much effort to produce the latest web article on those who had served during the Great War from Grayshott. This can now be viewed here and hard copies are also available from Brian on 01428 606548.
Research is at present under way for an article on the St. Joseph’s Cathlic church and Mrs. Vetues interests as a local benefactor.
It is hoped that the Archive will be able over the Christmas period this year have a display at Keats , estate agents, in the Square. Please make the effort to have a look.
The Archive has been pleased to provide the Parish Council with a copy of the photograph of ‘Granny’ Robinson planting the Coronation tree 1911 to be part of the entry to East Hants council.
Local resident Tony Cunningham has provided the Archive with photographs of Grayshott from 1955 onwards, in particular Grayshott Garage and some of the houses now demolished.
Books and Christmas presents
Don’t forget that Grayshott Pottery and Grayshott Bookshop have a good selection of local titles.
HELP. The Archive is in need of two people to assist with the running of the organisation. David Barrett is standing down as Secretary from next May and we also require a new Administrator which entails putting new information into files on the computer data base and hardcopy material into the filling system. If you think you would like to help please contact us.
Richard Peskett
Grayshott Village Archive
Notes and News: September / October 2009
Friends of the Village Archive
Final reminder that the next Friends evening will be held on Wednesday, November 4th at Grayshott Pottery 7.30pm for 7.45pm when Tim Winter will be returning to talk on ‘Woodland Industries and Crafts’. No doubt of particular local interest will be the broom making and charcoal burning of this area.
To clarify the reply to a question asked at the AGM, for anybody joining the Friends the membership will run for a full 12 months from the date of joining, not necessarily from September to September as originally stated. A reminder for any ‘Friends’ who have received a renewal letter and not yet rejoined we do rely on your support for maintaining the Archive.
Membership secretary – Brian Tapp 606548.
New projects and News
The web article is progressing well to produce a reasonably detailed list of those from Grayshott who served in both World Wars.
Peter Leete and Partners, estate agents, have kindly provided the Archive with three mid 1960s images of the Moorlands Garage when the building was still recognizable much as the original structure when it was the stables and coach houses for the Moorlands Hotel. Two of these will appear as Photograph of the Month.
Through the internet I have been able to find copies of the Grayshott entries in Kelly’s and Whites directories for 1878, 1885, 1889, 1895, 1911 and 1920. This has provided much valuable information to the early formation of the village.
It is hoped that the Archive will be able over the Christmas period this year have a ‘Know your history of Grayshott’ display at Keats , estate agents in the Square.
The Archive has been asked to provided comments regarding the extension of the conservation area in Grayshott, which we have done so and a copy of the report can be read here: Grayshott Conservation Area
Richard Peskett
Notes and News: July / August 2009
Friends of the Village Archive
The next Friends evening will be held on Wednesday November 4th at Grayshott Pottery when Tim Winter will be returning to talk on ‘ Woodland Industries and Crafts’. No doubt of particular local interest will be the broom making and charcoal burning of this area. Final details in the next Notes and News.
To clarify the reply to a question asked at the AGM, for anybody joining the Friends the membership will run for a full 12 months from the date of joining, not necessarily from September to September as originally stated. A reminder though, as September is approaching rapidly, many memberships will be due for renewal and you will receive a letter from Brian Tapp to this effect.
New projects and News
Web articles: A list of these articles which appear on our web site has now been printed in hard copy and these articles are available. Further information and copies of the list please give Brian Tapp a call on 606548.
Further to the last notes regarding the ‘Granny’ Robinson Yew tree on the Lyndon green it has now been realised that that not only the tree but the origins and name of the greens should be recognized with a suitable plaque and name board. It is hoped that this will be carried out in due course in connection with the Parish Council and Grayshott Society.
Recently Bob Harmer spent a day here, ‘Granny’ Robinson was his great grandmother and we were able to visit Purchase Farm in Whitmore Vale where she was born and Crossways House where she spent most of her married life until her death in 1929. We also managed to include a visit to St.Luke’s churchyard where her grave is and also those of Ruth and Horace Harmer, Bob’s grandparents.
We are in the process of producing a reasonably detailed list of those from Grayshott who served in both World Wars.
Peter Leete and Partners, estate agents, have been approached by a television production company regarding the property ‘Crossways House’ which they are currently offering for sale and it has now taken part in one of the relocation programmes. The Archive has been pleased to supply the history of this important building being the first property to be built in 1885 as part of ‘modern’ Grayshott. The three plots of land which it and the present Post Office now stand on were bought by Henry Robinson in 1879 for a grand total of £ 19.10s.0d.
Richard Peskett
Notes and News: May / June 2009
Friends of the Village Archive
A very successful evening attended by almost 40 people was held at Grayshott Pottery on April 29th. Mike Hibberd , now retired from the Imperial War Museum, gave a most interesting talk on the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and quoting many of the incredible facts and figures and the world wide scale of their work. Thanks to Mike, the Directors of the Pottery and Phil Bates for their contribution.
It is hoped that the next Friends evening will be towards the end of October. More details next time.
The archive has through the good offices of one of our members produced a new leaflet about the Friends scheme and archive. Already from this we have several new ‘Friends’ join.
To clarify the reply to a question asked at our recent AGM, for anybody joining the Friends the membership will run for a full 12 months from the date of joining, not necessarily from September to September as originally stated.
Annual General Meeting.
This has been and gone, slightly less than 20 people attended and the business of the evening was soon dealt with. We are extremely pleased to now have Clive Slaughter to represent the Parish Council on our committee . Clive has always shown much interest in our organisation and with a wealth of material held by the Council we are pleased to continue our close relationship.
New projects and News
Fox and Pelican Sign: Still no further news.
Web articles: A list of these articles which appear on our web site has now been printed in hard copy and these articles are available . Further information and copies of the list please give Brian Tapp a call on 606548.
More interesting photographs have come to light. We are pleased that Bob Harmer has joined the ‘Friends’, Bob’s connection with Grayshott go back to the fact that ‘Granny’ Robinson is his Great Grandmother and his family has had many other connections with the village. Bob has kindly made available to the archive many ‘new’ photographs including early fire brigade, scouts in the teens and twenties, Robinson and Harmer family and a different view from that recently acquired by the archive of ‘Granny’ Robinson planting the Yew tree for the coronation celebrations 1911.
1911 Coronation Yew tree on the Lyndon Green planted by ‘Granny’ Robinson. It is hoped that the tree which is still alive and well is going to be recognised by a suitable plaque in due course.
Grayshott Bowling Club: Two group photographs have been given by Derek Read. The green was for a great number of years on the site of the present fire station. One of these pictures will appear as Photograph of the Month in due course with many of the group named.
Richard Peskett
May 2009
Notes and News: March / April 2009
Friends of the Village Archive
The next Friends evening will be held on Wednesday, April 29th, 7.30 for 7.45pm at the usual Grayshott Pottery venue. Mike Hibberd, now retired from the Imperial War Museum will speak about some of the military graves in both St. Luke’s and St. Joseph’s churchyards and work of the Imperial War Museum and War Graves Commission. Our thanks to the directors of Grayshott Pottery and Phil Bates for again allowing us the use of these premises.
Annual General Meeting
The 2009 Annual General Meeting of the Archive will be held in the small hall at the Village Hall on Tuesday, May 19th, commencing at 7.30pm.
New projects and News
Fox and Pelican Sign: Following the good publicity the Archive had in Antiques Trade Gazette and the Haslemere Herald unfortunately no further information as to the fate of the original sign has come to light. Any further information would be gratefully received.
New acquisitions: A few further items have been added to the Archive from the estates of Bet and Midge Simmonds including two very important photographs. The former residence of Bet Simmonds was ‘Ash Villa’ in Headley Road and from here during the period 1904 to the late 1950s Funnell and Furlonger ran a carriers business. One photograph shows three of their horse drawn carriers vans in the station yard at Haslemere about 1908. The other photograph is of ‘Granny’ Robinson planting the Yew tree on the Lyndon Green in celebration of the 1911 Coronation, the tree fortunately is still in place and it is hoped to commemorate this with a suitable plaque in due course. Both photographs are in poor condition and Jim Henson has taken on the task of restoring them.
Jim Henson has decided to retire from the Archive committee for health reasons but will continue to take an active interest in proceedings. Jim was instigator in obtaining the grants for the refurbishment of our rooms at the Village Hall, for setting up the system of recording all information gathered by the Archive and also the setting up of the public use computer in the Library. The Archive is much indebted for all his time and efforts contributed to make all such a success.
Richard Peskett
March 2009
Notes and News: January / February 2009
General Matters and Reminders
Friends of the Village Archive
The next Friends evening it is hoped will be held on Wednesday, April 29th, at the usual Grayshott Pottery venue. Mike Hibberd ,now retired from the Imperial War Museum will speak about some of the military graves in both St.Luke’s and St.Joseph’s churchyard and work of the Imperial War Museum and War Graves Commission. Confirmation of date and venue will be announced in the next Notes and News.
New projects and News
Fox and Pelican Sign: Following investigations by the Archive as to the present whereabouts of the original Walter Crane painted sign a summary report and photographs has been published in the Antiques Trade Gazette and the Haslemere Herald giving us some useful publicity and we are indebted to the publishers for taking an interest. In brief, the original sign was upon the sale of the premises by the original owners to the PRHA in late 1913 handed over to the Parish Council for safe keeping and in turn handed to the Village Hall management committee to be hung in the Village Hall. At this point the trail goes cold, it is possible that the sign was, via Dr. Lyndon, sent away for some restoration work to be carried out and with the onset of World War One either it was never returned or if returned almost immediately removed from the hall when the premises were requisitioned by the Military authorities for billeting purposes etc. Any further information would be gratefully received!
Notes and News: Further to a request at the last Friends evening for those who do not have access to a computer a hard copy of this will now be available at the Library, Village Hall; The Post Office; Co-op and the Fox and Pelican for general reading.
New acquisitions: A few items have been added to the Archive from the estates of Bet and Midge Simmonds including some pre war exercise books from Grayshott school, a note and 1932 calendar booklet from Miss Maule’s stationary shop on the corner at Crossways and a fine photograph of the Grayshott football team for the 1920/1 season, which is the photograph of the month for February.
Web site: It is hoped shortly to make some alterations to the web site which will make life easier for Neil Jaques our webmaster and amongst various improvements we will be able to send copies of Notes and News etc. to those registered to us with an email address. The present sample of document listings held by the Archive will be replaced by a most comprehensive index of which work is well under way , but it will take considerable time to complete so will appear in stages. The sample of photographs will also be replaced with more comprehensive listings.
Richard Peskett
January 2009
Notes and News: November / December 2008
General Matters and Reminders
Friends of the Village Archive
A very successful meeting was held on October 28th. at Grayshott Pottery with over 30 people attending. Tim Winter’s talk was very well received and gave a most interesting insight into the world of collecting picture postcards.
Next Friends Evening
It is intended to hold these at about six monthly intervals and the next should be at the end of April 2009. Watch this space!
New Projects and News
Web site: The next article to appear will be on the Post Offices of Grayshott. ‘Photograph of the Month’ will continue with hopefully some of the more unusual images in the Archive.
Photographs: Through the good offices of Gillian Rawcliffe I have been able to obtain from the estate of Bet Simmonds, well known Grayshott resident who died awhile ago, numerous photographs including two ‘new’ important images, these being one of the Nurses Cottage and wooden Clinic building in School Road c.1925 as originally constructed there on land given by the Whitaker family as a ‘Peace Memorial’ to the Great War. The other is a view of our present post office ( Thornton House) taken from the Lyndon Green in the early 1920’s when in its previous guise of ‘Tea Rooms and Apartments’ and ‘Open and Closed Cars For Hire’ run by Peter Robinson. Other interesting photographs have come from Kay and Jim Houlin, including J.E.Grimditch’s ( butchers ,at the premises now occupied by Kaighin and Daughter) delivery van , an Austin of 1926, and from Dr. and Mrs. McNicol two views of their former house ‘Woodcote’, ( now ‘Wytchwood’) Headley Road dating from about 1920.
Further information on the wooden Clinic building adjacent to the Nurses Cottage, School Road, it is now confirmed that this structure was previously Lloyds Bank at Bramshott Camp during the Great War and was bought by the Lyndons to serve as the school clinic.
Grayshott Weather: The extremely unusual happening of snow falling and laying here in October took place on the night of the 28 / 29th. This will no doubt go down in the record books.
Richard Peskett
November 2008
Notes and News: September / October 2008
General Matters and Reminders
Friends of the Village Archive
We would very much like to have more people join the ‘Friends’ scheme. It’s extremely important to have such support as our future financial structure depends much upon it in order that we can continue to improve our web site and the facilities for recording photographs, documents etc, within the scope of the Archive. For details of the scheme and membership application form please contact: Brian Tapp, 15 Tudor Close, Grayshott, Tel. 606548, or through our contacts page.
Next ‘Friends’ Evening:
This will be held at the Café Bistro, Grayshott Pottery on Tuesday, October 28th at 7.30 for 7.45pm. Tim Winter from Haslemere is coming along to give a talk on the ‘Origins and collection of the Picture Postcard and their link with Local History’. Tim has been a long standing and respected collector and dealer in postcards and I am sure his imparted knowledge of the subject will be most interesting.
New Projects and News
Website
The next article to appear about the 20th of September will be extracts from the interview with Kenneth Hollywell who joined the RAF in 1938 and had considerable success as a pilot during the second world war. Following on in October will be an article on some of the more famous occupants of St. Luke’s churchyard.
The Clinic / Nurses Cottage, School Road
An article for the web site on this building is being researched. Still eluding us is a photograph of the wooden clinic building, which it is rumoured started life as Lloyds Bank at Bramshott Camp during the first world war prior to being sold as government surplus and its move to Grayshott.
Dame School, Kingswood
Research is well advanced on this, the school for the many local children living in the Pitfold, Kingswood Lane, Waggoners Wells area was active from the 1850s until Grayshott school opened in 1871.
Mission Chapel, Portsmouth Road
Research is now complete on this and will appear on this web site in due course. An original copy of the ‘prospectus’ for the building with picture has come to light and we have also been fortunate with permission and assistance from the Highways Agency to have been able to inspect the building, which to our surprise still contains some of its original features.
Grayshott Parish Council Archive
Again we have been fortunate in being given permission to inspect the very interesting collection of documents, minute books etc. held by the Parish Council. Material from this research will gradually filter through to our records and web site.
New feature
From our archive it is hoped to be able to publish on the web site at the beginning of each month a photograph or postcard image of local interest with appropriate caption. The first of these for September can be viewed here.
Richard Peskett
September 2008
Notes and News: July / August 2008
General Matters and Reminders.
Friends Evening : the next evening will take place on Tuesday , October 28th at Grayshott Pottery when Tim Winter from Haslemere will give a talk on Collecting Postcards to do with Local History.
The ‘Blue Plaque’ to commemorate Agnes Westons stay in Grayshott was successfully unveiled at ‘Ensleigh’ on May 10th. For more information on Agnes Weston please see our web site article.
New Projects and News.
The Clinic/Nurses Cottage, School Road
With the imminent demolition of properties in School Road the Archive Committee would be most interested in any photographs of the original nurses’ cottage and wooden clinic building previous to the present structure. The land was given by the Whitaker family in 1921 as a ‘Peace Memorial’ to the Great War.
‘Blue Plaques’
in recognition of various personages and happenings in Grayshott it is proposed that in connection with Phil Bates/Grayshott Pottery and the Grayshott Society that two more plaques will be added this year. At ‘Amity’ Crossways Road , the site of the Post Office where Flora Thompson worked in the late 1890’s and at the ‘Fox and the Pelican’ originally owned by the Grayshott and District Refreshment Association whose management committee members included most of the notables of the district at the time.
Mission Chapel, Portsmouth Road
An article is being researched on this building which in more recent times has been used as a private dwelling and has become more visible with road works taking place at Bramshott Chase / Chase Plain. The structure is the last building on the right hand side going south, now somewhat altered , red cedar boarded and named ‘Southdown’.
Website
The next article to appear will be extracts from the Grayshott Village Magazine, a short lived publication dating from 1983/4. Following this will be extracts from an account of Kenneth Hollywell’s career in the RAF which he joined in 1938 and gained considerable success as a pilot during the Second World War. Kenneth (or Holly as he was known) was Maintenance Officer at the Village Hall for several years after settling in Grayshott.
Finally, it is with great sadness that I have to note the recent death of the Archive’s Secretary, Dr. Mike Fasham, FRS. For too brief a time, Mike provided the Archive with sound advice and much help. We miss him and our thoughts are with his wife, Jos and his family.
Richard Peskett
July 2008