Froyle, 100 Years of Memories
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Froyle, 100 Years of Memories Froyle Collected by Annette Booth 100 Years of Memories What is it about Froyle? We discovered it nearly thirty years ago on a damp, dull, February evening while searching for an affordable house near London, and we are still here. Many others have come to the village intending to stay for just a few years and then move on, but they too are still living in ‚The Village of Saints™.Why? The answer is the people. There is something about the spirit of fellowship that exists in the village that gets to even the most insular of folk. In the last twenty years we have lost our Froyle vicarage, our school, our shops, our pub and our Methodist Church and yet the feeling of community has got stronger year by year. This book records the memories of those living today and the writings of those who have long 100 Years of Memories since passed away, illustrated with more than 200 photographs, dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Perhaps in these pages you can discover for yourself just what makes this Collected by Annette Booth small village such a special place. Since they moved into the village of Froyle, in About the author Hampshire, in 1971, Annette Booth and her husband, Chris, have been collecting Annette Booth was born in Northampton in photographs and information about the place 1946 and spent her childhood in Bridport, they are proud to call ‚home™.Overthe past 29 Dorset. years they have collected in the region of 500 A qualified teacher, she gave up her career photographs of Froyle. when she moved to Lower Froyle with her In 1995 they set up the Froyle Archive, with husband in 1971. the specific aim of not only collecting as much For twelve years she worked as the village information as they could about Froyle, but correspondent for the local newspaper, also making that information available free of turning her hand to authorship in 1992 with charge to anyone who might care to use it. the first of four books on local history. Today the Froyle Archive reaches far beyond Deeply immersed in village activities, she was Hampshire to the rest of the world with a 300 appointed MBE, for services to the page web site, at www.froyle.demon.co.uk, community in Froyle, in the New Years whereby anyone with Internet access can Honours List of 1996. trace their relatives and relive the history of this tiny Hampshire village. This book contains some 225 photographs, as well as stories from the villagers of Froyle themselves; some from memories put down on paper several years ago, others told over a cup of tea only yesterday. Jacket photograph Lower Froyle village pond at the turn of the last century £9.99 Froyle, 100 Years of Memories Froyle Collected by Annette Booth 100 Years of Memories What is it about Froyle? We discovered it nearly thirty years ago on a damp, dull, February evening while searching for an affordable house near London, and we are still here. Many others have come to the village intending to stay for just a few years and then move on, but they too are still living in ‚The Village of Saints™.Why? The answer is the people. There is something about the spirit of fellowship that exists in the village that gets to even the most insular of folk. In the last twenty years we have lost our Froyle vicarage, our school, our shops, our pub and our Methodist Church and yet the feeling of community has got stronger year by year. This book records the memories of those living today and the writings of those who have long 100 Years of Memories since passed away, illustrated with more than 200 photographs, dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Perhaps in these pages you can discover for yourself just what makes this Collected by Annette Booth small village such a special place. Since they moved into the village of Froyle, in About the author Hampshire, in 1971, Annette Booth and her husband, Chris, have been collecting Annette Booth was born in Northampton in photographs and information about the place 1946 and spent her childhood in Bridport, they are proud to call ‚home™.Overthe past 29 Dorset. years they have collected in the region of 500 A qualified teacher, she gave up her career photographs of Froyle. when she moved to Lower Froyle with her In 1995 they set up the Froyle Archive, with husband in 1971. the specific aim of not only collecting as much For twelve years she worked as the village information as they could about Froyle, but correspondent for the local newspaper, also making that information available free of turning her hand to authorship in 1992 with charge to anyone who might care to use it. the first of four books on local history. Today the Froyle Archive reaches far beyond Deeply immersed in village activities, she was Hampshire to the rest of the world with a 300 appointed MBE, for services to the page web site, at www.froyle.demon.co.uk, community in Froyle, in the New Years whereby anyone with Internet access can Honours List of 1996. trace their relatives and relive the history of this tiny Hampshire village. This book contains some 225 photographs, as well as stories from the villagers of Froyle themselves; some from memories put down on paper several years ago, others told over a cup of tea only yesterday. Jacket photograph Lower Froyle village pond at the turn of the last century £9.99 Froyle 100 Years of Memories Froyle 100 years of Memories Collected by Annette Booth The Froyle Archive www.froyle.com First published in 2000 by The Froyle Archive Little Greystones, Lower Froyle Alton, Hampshire, GU34 4LJ [email protected] Copyright © Annette Booth MBE, 2000 The right of Annette Booth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Annette Booth, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser This electronic version published 2009 Contents Foreword Introduction It was ever there 1 At Home 27 At School 67 At Work 95 At Play 127 At Church 155 At War 177 At The Millennium 193 Appendix 197 Compiled by Annette Booth for Froyle Millennium 2000 This book is dedicated to all the people of Froyle past, present and future I would like to thank my husband, Chris without whose expertise and guidance I could not have even contemplated this project Foreword Those of us fortunate enough to have lived in the 20th, and now the 21st, centuries will have found this a time for looking towards the future and contemplation of the past. We in Froyle, in common with so many others, have endeavoured to mark the Millennium in a variety of ways. This book by Annette Booth MBE is an apt and enjoyable reminder of the last 100 years. Annette’s past career as a journalist, her previous books on Village Life in Hampshire, Alton, Farnham, and Haslemere, all in old picture postcards, coupled with her role, along with her husband, as joint custodians of the Froyle Archives, gives her insight and knowledge to make this book important to those interested in rural life throughout the past century. The research has been wide ranging, as will become obvious to the readers of this fascinating and evocative book. I commend it to anyone interested in history, life in the country, or Froyle. Anne Wetherall, Chairman, Froyle Millennium Committee 100 Years of Memories Introduction In 1908, in a book entitled ‘Highways and Byways in Hampshire’, D.H.Moutray Read wrote, “Though Froyle is old, it lacks all recorded history.” Just fourteen years later a new Headteacher arrived at the Village School and started collecting snippets of information about this tiny Hampshire village. That man was Tom Knight and he started something which, like Topsy, just grew and grew, until today Froyle is one of the best documented villages in the county. Tom Knight spent a great deal of time transcribing the Church Registers and talking to the local residents, often scribbling down notes on the back of cigarette packets. His ‘Historical Notes on Froyle’ has formed the basis of all research since that time. Lt.Col.John Willcocks produced several pamphlets and booklets on St Mary’s Church and the village of Froyle, culminating in his ‘Little History’ and, in 1993, a fascinating history of Froyle School was produced by the late Mrs Nora Jupe, its last Headteacher. Since we moved into the village in 1971, my husband, Chris, and I have been gathering photographs and information about the place we are now proud to call ‘home’. Over the past 29 years we have collected in the region of 500 photographs, some 230 of which are here for you to enjoy. In 1979 as a member of Froyle Parish Council, I became the official Village Archivist and, on retirement from the council in 1995, was asked to continue in that role. Chris and I set up The Froyle Archive with the specific aim of not only collecting as much information as we could about Froyle, but also making that information available free of charge to anyone who might care to use it.