HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY, VILLAGE HALL
On October 18th 1909, Buriton's original Village Hall was opened for the first time – and the building, on the same site as today's hall, became a social hub for the village for the rest of the century.
As Percy Legg, a schoolboy at the time, recalled later in life: “The building was erected and paid for by the then Village Squire, Mr Lothian Bonham Carter ... who realised that there were many young men working hard on farms and limeworks in the area with nothing much to do after work was done for the day.”
“After much discussion it was decided that a wooden hut should be built in the centre of the village and a Norwegian firm was called in to start the work. Wood was brought in to Buriton by rail, unloaded at the sidings up Kiln Lane and hauled to the chosen site near the village school on the Squire's farm wagons. All this action caused quite a stir in the village and was much enjoyed by the lads.”
Initially the building was a social club for men, the Men's Institute, with a reading room, billiards table, rifle range and other recreational pursuits for long winter evenings. The men were too busy working during the summer!
The Buriton Women's Institute held its first ever meeting in the hall in December 1921 and met there for a few years before Mrs Seward of Weston Farm paid for the neighbouring ‘Church Hall' (as it became known in later years) to be built for the WI.
When Lothian Bonham Carter died in 1927 the original hall was left to the Parish Council so that the social club could continue – and £50 was also bequeathed so that it could be put in good order!
But by 1990 much of the wooden hall was in poor condition and the Social Club closed in October 1993. A new management committee was formed and in less than four years almost £250,000 had been raised and a completely new hall built. It was fitting that the first village function to be held in the new hall, in August 1997, was the flower show.
At the time of writing, the Village Hall Committee is considering installing internet access to the hall for users and villagers – what would Lothian Bonham Carter, Percy Legg and the other early users of the hall have made of that?!
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VISITORS FLOCK TO OUR 2009 EXHIBITION
Well over a hundred visitors squeezed into Buriton Village Hall on September 26th for our annual exhibition.
And once again we had visitors from as far away as Australia as well as local villagers and their relatives.
Two separate families had travelled from Sydney and Perth, Australia, to find out more about their ancestors who had come from the parish - and there were also families from Nottingham, Reading and many other places who made special trips to see the exhibition and to visit their family roots.
As in previous years, the exhibition re-united a number of long-lost friends and relatives – many tracing details of their ancestors. This year some cousins, all part of the local Harfield family, met up for the first time in 45 years. None of them had known that the others were coming; it was all quite by chance – and quite emotional !
Two other family groups visiting the exhibition discovered that their great grandparents had shared a house in the village about 150 years ago. The people are completed unrelated - but many families shared homes in those days. They studied our information and had a lovely chat over tea and biscuits – much like their ancestors might have done!
The latest exhibition yielded yet more old photographs for the village archives – including some fascinating accounts of local forestry work from about fifty years ago. We have now collected well over 2,000 old photographs which we feel is quite an achievement for such a small place.
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150th BIRTHDAY
January 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the first train passenger service to run through the parish on the “Portsmouth Direct Railway” (connecting London with Portsmouth via Godalming and Havant). Construction had commenced when John Bonham Carter cut the first turf at Buriton Manor in August 1853. All the details are recorded in our “Buriton in Living Memory” publication – along with copies of original lithographs. We hope that the Heritage Bank will be able to contribute to local celebrations.
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IN LOVING MEMORY
November 2008 marks the 90 th anniversary of the end of the First World War and the Heritage Bank provided a special article for the autumn edition of the Buriton Parish Magazine - to reflect on some of the effects of the conflict on the parish and to say thank you to those to whom a great debt is owed.
At the time of the outbreak of the First World War the size of the population of the parish was very similar to that of today – about 780 people. Almost 200 men from the parish took part in the war meaning that about one in four of the residents that would normally have been seen around the village were away from home at some time.
Of those who went away, one in five (39 out of 197) did not return. With the casualties all being from the younger and fitter end of the age-range (all were under 40 when they died) their loss was inevitably felt in the parish in many ways for many years.
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VISITORS FROM AUSTRALIA AT OUR 2008 EXHIBITION
Our 2008 exhibition attracted visitors from as far away as Brisbane , Australia as well as local villagers and their relatives. Families from Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire and Kent also made special trips to see the exhibition and to visit their family roots.
As well as displays of our recent “Dr Who” material, we were able to unveil new information about Ditcham House and the Cave family who had the current building, now Ditcham Park School , constructed for them over a hundred years ago. We are very grateful to Judith Patrick who has undertaken a lot of work for us following a study for the Hampshire Gardens Trust.
A couple of our visitors have subsequently commented as follows:
“Just thought I would follow up on my visit too the wonderful exhibition that you hosted at the village hall the Saturday last, (13th Sept). I was rather nervous when I arrived in your pretty village and parked my car outside the church. But my fears were unfounded as I was welcomed with open arms and lots of very friendly people. I had a wonderful time … I think that the Heritage Bank that you have set up is without doubt exceptional and although I live too far away to be able to be much use as a regular helper I am more than willing to help out with any Heritage Bank matters if you require... “
“Just a quick note to say a big thank you to you and your team for a very interesting and enjoyable visit last Saturday, The exhibition was brilliantly put together and displayed. We were made to feel very welcome and we thank you all for that. My wife, sister and cousin really enjoyed the visit to your beautiful village and we all felt an affinity with the place. It was lovely to see you again and thank you for the research you did whilst we were with you. We were all so impressed with the work you have done on Buriton's Heritage … Long may it continue …”
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TOURING EXHIBITION A GREAT SUCCESS
Having been chosen by the Hampshire Records Office as a shining example of an innovative local history project, Buriton's Heritage Bank is now showcased as part of a new “Accessing Hampshire's Heritage” project – an initiative aimed at encouraging more people to research their local history.
Some of our old press cuttings and photographs are now available as part of an on-line guide, illustrating the sort of sources that can be used to investigate local history. Have a look at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/hampshire-heritage.htm and http://calm.hants.gov.uk/DServeA/search.htm
And the village was selected to host a special touring exhibition of material to promote this initiative: starting at the Village Show on August 16 th the exhibition then visited the Five Bells (17-23 August), the Master Robert (24-30 August), St Mary's Church (31 August-6 September) and the village school (7-12 September) before finishing at the annual Heritage Bank Exhibition in the Village Hall on Saturday 13 th September.
Lots of people took the opportunity of looking at this exhibition which was quite an honour for Buriton and its Heritage Bank.
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Dr WHO TAKES HERITAGE BANK INTO THE NEXT MILLENIUM
Buriton's Heritage Bank started collecting together information and old photographs of the parish in 2001 and, thanks to Dr Who, we have just reached a major milestone - 2,000 old photographs.
We think that this is quite an amazing achievement for a relatively small community.
Back in 1985 parts of an episode of Dr Who were filmed in the parish and the Heritage Bank has obtained a series of unique photographs of the film shoot. The Tardis landed near to Bolinge Hill Farm on a cold January day with snow on the ground and a four minute sequence took most of the day to film – involving men in wet suits in a nearby pond, machines making mist for special effects and a large quantity of buns (a vital part of the plot!). Several daleks and the Tardis lived in one of the local grain stores for a few days adding to the fun.
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HIDDEN ON THE TOP OF A WARDROBE
We are particularly indebted to Gordon and Mary Bray who have been tidying out some of their cupboards at Nursted Farm. Hidden away on the top of a wardrobe was a box of papers and photographs which had been collected together when the local Women's Institute was preparing its wonderful ‘Scrapbook of Buriton' in 1951. The box contained a number of things that had not been included in the final Scrapbook – but they are certainly of interest today.
One old photograph shows the grand opening of the original village hall in October 1909 with a dozen smartly dressed waiters and waitresses waiting to serve the celebratory meal.
And the box contained some handwritten memories from some of the (then) village elders: Thirza Budd and Mr & Mrs Welch. The notes describe how the village used to have a drapers shop, a bootmakers, a butchers shop at the Five Bells, a wheelwrights and undertakers opposite The Maple Inn and how bread was baked for sale at the Post Office.
We have also received correspondence and plans from 1953 with details of commemorative trees planted to mark the Coronation and even press cuttings from as recently as 1991 can be of interest – showing pictures of the huge construction work which took place near to the end of Greenway Lane during the building of the Petersfield bypass.
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SNIPPETS FROM THE 1970s
Recent additions to our photographic collection include photos of tree planting ceremonies to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee, snapshots of Buriton's triumphant netball teams of 1971-72 and a postcard sketch of St Mary's church which is thought to date from about 1973.
We are always looking for more photographs and more information about life in the parish in years gone by. Do get in touch if you think that you can help in any way.
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BURITON'S HERITAGE BANK REACHES AFGHANISTAN
As a result of contacts made at our 2007 Exhibition (see below) we have received an email from Afghanistan with the promise of some fascinating information about our little parish.
The email came from Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, HM Ambassador in Kabul. His ancestors had acquired the estates of Ditcham and Sunworth in 1545. The estates remained in the Cowper family until 1767, when Richard Cowper, the last male heir died. The estates passed to his first cousin, John Coles and the families of Cowper and Coles were thus united. In 1865, after the death of John Coles's grandson, the Reverend John Coles, the estate was sold to the Cave family.
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MORE FANTASTIC PICTURES BROUGHT TO OUR 2007 EXHIBITION
Our annual Heritage Bank Exhibition, held in the Village Hall on Saturday 15 th September 2007, was another great success and attracted visitors from as far away as Australia as well as local villagers and their relatives.
One man, visiting England from his home in Australia , was able to see old photographs of his ancestors at Buriton school and there were also families from Nottingham and Leicester who made special trips to see the exhibition and to visit their family roots.
The latest exhibition yielded over 100 more old photographs for the Heritage Bank archives – bringing the total collected over the last five years to over 1,800. We feel that this is a real achievement for such a small community.
This year, Colin Harfield of Petersfield brought along a special album of photographs of Buriton which had been taken 120 years ago. It had been sitting in his cupboard for many years – but the quality of the photographs is amazing. They had been taken by the professional photographer J Milman Brown and he has signed the album in October 1887 when he presented it to Mr Forder who lived locally when he established the local limeworks in about 1860. It is great to know that such a wonderful record of the community still exists.
Quite a lot of visitors were tracing their family trees and, as in previous years, the exhibition re-united a number of long-lost friends and relatives – a completely unforeseen aspect of our project, but we always learn a bit more about the local history of the parish from their reminiscences.
The exhibition also revealed more information about the history of local forestry activities on the South Downs . This new material, including a number of old photographs, will be available for the Village Association's autumn meeting on Tuesday 23 rd October.
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BURITON CHOSEN FOR 21 st CENTURY ARCHIVES PROJECT
The Buriton Heritage Bank has been chosen by the Hampshire Records Office as a prime example of an innovative local history project and is to be showcased as part an exciting new “Accessing Hampshire's Heritage” project – a project aimed at encouraging more people to research their local history.
As part of the project some examples of our old press cuttings and photographs will be made available as an on-line guide, illustrating the sort of sources that can be used to investigate local history.
The project should be available online from February 2008 and we plan to illustrate a number of local themes such as farming, hop growing, the limeworks, the school, church and chapel, sports and leisure, wartime, transport etc.
We feel that this is a great honour for our Heritage Bank work and we would ask anyone who has provided items for the Heritage bank - and who has any objections to them being displayed on the internet - to contact us as soon as possible.
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MORE INFORMATION FROM NEW ZEALAND
The Heritage Bank has recently received a ring-binder of information all the way from New Zealand . Catherine Butland has sent us some lovely information about her grandparents: Charles and Bertha Holloway.
From about 1906, Charles had worked as a Head Gardener for the Bonham Carter family in Buriton. A large market garden on the estate employed about fifteen gardeners and produce (vegetables and flowers) were shipped by rail to Covent Garden Market every morning. Bertha Holloway also worked in service for the Bonham Carters and helped in the glass houses. They lived and worked in Buriton until 1921 when Charles died.
We are aware that 2007 marks a couple of special anniversaries for Buriton: it is 20 years since ‘the Great Storm' swept across the parish. It brought down a gable end of the village school, blocked the railway line and closed local roads for days. Parts of the High Street and North Lane were left without power for over a week and a wartime spirit was re-kindled in the village as neighbours helped each other with supplies of hot water.
Some fascinating local photographs of the aftermath of the 1987 hurricane will be on show at our 2007 Exhibition but we hope to collect more information and memories.
It will also be 10 years since Buriton's new Village Hall was opened. Strangely we don't have many photographs of our old Village Hall. It had been built in 1909 and was, for most of the twentieth century, the social hub of the village. We have a wonderful description of how it had been built (and what a stir this had caused in the community) but we have very few photographs of the building.
Please let us know if you think that you can help.
And we are still keen to collect more information about the Forestry activities that have taken place in the parish over the years.
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Visitors flock to our 2006 exhibition
Our annual Heritage Bank Exhibition, held in the Village Hall on Saturday 9th September 2006, was another great success, attracting visitors from across southern England as well as local villagers and their relatives.
This year we collected even more information about the hop-growing traditions of the parish. One visitor brought along about 20 old photographs of the huts in which the hop-picking families had lived whilst staying in Buriton.
And we also had a pair of giant stilts on display which had originally been used in Weston to tie up the strings and wires for the hop bynes to grow up.
We have also been given copies of some old posters which had been produced in the village in the late 1960s or early 1970s. One of them appears to be encouraging objections to proposals to build a monorail and modern roads in the Queen Elizabeth Forest , before it became a Country Park . We will try to find out more about this issue over the coming months.
And quite a lot of visitors were tracing their family trees and taking the opportunity to look at their Buriton roots. Researchers were tracking down the Harfield and Pretty families but there was also interest in the Strugnells and others.
But the main attraction of the exhibition was undoubtedly the tiny coin which had been found in the parish over 80 years ago. It dates from about 150 BC and had somehow travelled over 7,000 miles from its origins before being dropped and lost near Nursted. It was amazing to see the little coin which has added another fascinating story to our swelling archives.
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BBC features old Buriton coin
We had an exciting prelude to our big annual exhibition when an ancient coin, unearthed in the 1920s near to Buriton, was a central feature of the August edition of the BBC History magazine.
Although the coin is older than the ancient coins generally found in Britain , the age of the coin isn't the most remarkable thing about it. T he really stunning thing about the coin, as the author of the article Dr Llewelyn Morgan explains, is not its age - but where it originally came from and speculation about how it got here.
Dr Morgan, a fellow of Brasenose College at Oxford University , explains that the King whose profile is depicted on the coin, King Menander, ruled between 155 and 130 BC. He was a Greek King but the territory that he ruled at that time covered a swathe of what would now be Afghanistan , Pakistan and northwest India .
By the time that somebody mislaid the coin in Hampshire it had travelled some 7,000 miles – in an age when society was much less mobile than our own today.
The coin was dug up by Albert Passingham sometime in the 1920s in the course of his work as a gamekeeper on the Nursted House estate, Buriton. Albert gave the coin to his sister and in turn it has been passed it on to her granddaughter, Catherine, who now lives in Fareham . Albert's daughters Jill (who still lives in Buriton today) and Rita have been in contact with Catherine and Dr Morgan as the story of the coin has unfolded.
Dr Morgan explains that the coin was probably dropped in Hampshire around 100AD, shortly after the Roman Conquest of Britain . It would already have been an antique and would not have been legal tender. It can only have been a keepsake – perhaps of a long-distance traveller or merchant.
What tales the coin could probably tell, suggests Dr Morgan: a month-long sea-passage with the monsoons across the Indian Ocean, camel caravans across the Egyptian desert to the Nile, the gruelling journey up the valley of the Rhone in the teeth of the mistral winds and finally the strong tides and unpredictable foggy weather blanketing the English Channel .
Dr Morgan had made contact with the Heritage Bank to see if we could shed any light on exactly where the coin might have been found.
The information has added another fascinating story to our swelling archives – and has already encouraged a number of local people to have a look for other local history about Buriton.
We hope to feature information about the ancient coin at our special Heritage Bank Exhibition on Saturday September 9 th .
[More details about the ancient King Menander coin and its passage to Hampshire can be found on pages 46-47 of the August edition (vol 7, no 8) of the BBC History Magazine.
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Our 2005 Heritage Bank Exhibition (September 10th), was another resounding success with hundreds of visitors, some travelling thousands of miles to visit their Hampshire roots and to meet up with long-lost friends and relatives.
One visitor, now based in Japan, arranged his trip back to the UK so as to be able to visit the event - and he brought with him more information about the local limeworks and how they were used for dangerous bomb disposal activities during the Second World War.
But perhaps the star of the show was 89 year old Hemsley Budd who drove to Buriton from his home in Teignmouth, Devon to visit the village where he had grown up as a boy and where he had worked in the chalk pits and limeworks.
“I was one of the pony boys” explained Mr Budd. “I helped to look after the horses before they were replaced with locomotives. At the end of a hard days work pulling wagons full of chalk from the pit, I would take them for a wash in the village pond. We would then race back through the village High Street, riding the horses bare-back, much to the delight of the local children.”
By coincidence, another of the visitors to the Exhibition, Peter Albuery of Sumner Road , Buriton, brought a picture of one of the horses at work in the chalk pits. “That could well be my horse” said Mr Budd. “My horse, Colonel, was a grey.”
The exhibition yielded another 60-70 old photographs for the Heritage Bank archives – bringing the total collected over the last few years to over1,500. We feel that this is a real achievement for such a small community in such a short space of time.
We even had nine photographs emailed through to us from Canada on the eve of the exhibition showing scenes around Nursted Farm during the First World War. The grandson and great grandson of one of those featured in these photographs were at the exhibition and were able to see photos of their ancestors that they'd never seen before.
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Over the preceeding few months we had reproduced a series of old photographs for display in both our local pubs - the Master Robert (formerly The Maple) and the Five Bells.
We are particularly interested in finding more old photographs for display - including more of the local sports teams who have represented the village over the decades...
Why not call into one of the pubs, have a look at the photographs on display and let us know if you know of anybody who might be able to help add to our collection.
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Visitors from across the south of England had also joined local residents for our September 2004 Open Day - one person had left Cornwall at four o'clock in the morning to travel to the exhibition! As on previous occasions visitors brought more material to add to our records and, for the first time, we were able to scan old photographs directly into our archives so that everyone could take their treasured photos back home with them. One visitor brought a wonderful album of pictures taken around Wardown House over seventy years ago and we also learnt more about our local limeworks.
After the Exhibition we heard from Mrs Edna Hendrie (now living in Chichester and in her 90s) whose late husband, Tom Hendrie, was posted to Buriton as Head Forester in May 1941. The couple lived at Dean Barn Cottages on top of the downs and Mrs Hendrie recalls walking down to Buriton every day to collect milk from the Bonham Carter's farm.
We also received, through the post following an exchange of emails via the Heritage Bank website, some very fine original documents dating from 8 May 1859 - complete with wax seals on parchment paper. These documents are now safely deposited at the Hampshire Records Office in Winchester where experts confirmed that the paperwork was transferring a strip of land to the Portsmouth Railway Company.
And we discovered another “local luminary”: Sir Roderick Murchison (1792-1871), a remarkable man, whose achievements eclipse many of the great explorers and adventurers of his time. Although he spent only fleeting periods of time in the parish himself, it is clear that the influence of his wife, Charlotte Hugonin of Nursted House, helped to shape one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century – a man who changed the face of geology.
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The Buriton Heritage Bank achieved
a major milestone in autumn 2003 with the publication
of nine booklets about
the parish.
All the booklets are crammed with fascinating information and lots of pictures
- including hundreds of old photographs collected during the course of the project.
For details of the publications and how to order your copies click
here.
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The booklets were launched at a special exhibition in Buriton Village
Hall on 13 September 2003 with hundreds of residents
and visitors obtaining copies.
As with earlier exhibitions, the event turned into a wonderful reunion for many,
with people meeting up with friends and relatives who had left the area many
years ago. We also re-united one cricket bat, last used before the First World
War, with the descendants of its original owner. John Bone travelled from Luton
to the exhibition to collect the bat from local resident Aubrey Bicknell who
had been keeping it safe for the last few decades.
The exhibition included new displays about Weston, Nursted and Ditcham, as well
as more about Buriton itself. There was also new information about famous people
who have lived in the area, about our natural history and about Buriton 'beyond
living memory': from the stone age to the steam age! Our new books cover all
these themes. Visit our Publications page for
details.
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More and more people are taking part in the Heritage Bank project with
this web-site producing information from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand,
Canada, Florida, Japan, the West Indies and Chile as well as Northern Ireland,
Cumbria, East Anglia and places nearer to the parish. Although we have now printed
many of our findings, we know that there is probably still much more to find
out. Please get in touch
if you think that you might be able to help in any way.
E-mailing from New Zealand, Catherine Butland told us that
her grandfather, Charles Holloway, and his wife Bertha, used to live in North
Lane, not far from the Bonham Carters. Charles was a gardener for the Bonham
Carters and also looked after game on the estate. Catherine has fond memories
of her last visit to Buriton, in 1996, even though she is now so far away.
Michael Marriner, e-mailing from Chile, has told us about his
grandfather's work driving one of the small railway engines in the Buriton limeworks
and Debbie Paul of Tallahassee, Florida, reports that her great grandfather's
brother was the butler at Ditcham House around the turn of the nineteenth century.
He may well be featured in one of the photographs in our new books!
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