mag 1210.pdf - Holybourne

Here’s Holybourne! continued
Part
nine
up for sale. We’d often looked at it longingly from across
the road and wondered what it was like to live there. We
aspired to such a house, and never dreamt we would ever
own it. It wasn’t plain sailing though! We had a few false
starts, and some disappointments along the way, but we
got there in the end! We moved in on 10th October 2005,
and we’ve loved living here ever since. We have some
great neighbours, and Heather has got involved with the
Parish Magazine as Editor for the past two and a half years.
We both venture out in sun, wind or rain to deliver some of
them too. We love the walks hereabouts; we like the
friendly vibe in the village; we are impressed that the shop
and pub are so well supported where other villages have
lost theirs. We recently enjoyed the Cricket Club fireworks,
and the Guides’ Christmas Fair. Matt had his 40th party in
the village hall. A good time was had by all!
Heather works in a beautiful setting – Cowdray Ruins in
Midhurst – but still finds the village a pleasure to come
home to. Holybourne - we are big fans!
Heather Ongley & Matt Knowles
Hello Holybourne
It’s often the strangest of things that triggers long forgotten
memories. A song, seeing a long lost friend or a listening
to a particular piece of music but on this occasion it was a
photograph that I took some 48 years ago. It brought back
extremely fond memories of the childhood and early adult
years that I lived in Holybourne and some not so fond
memories of that extremely long and severe winter of 62 /
63. I’ve always had a keen interest in photography and in
that cruel weather as my father cleared the snow I was
indulging in my passion of taking photographs. Perhaps I
should feel bad but, if you look closely, you’ll see my
brother, David, leaning against the door and it doesn’t look
like he was shovelling much snow either!
Having been born in Binstead in 1944, I moved with my
family to beautiful Holybourne in 1953 when my parents
Gerry and Ivy Heather bought the Prince of Wales pub in
the heart of the village. My parents stayed in the pub until
1966 when they moved to their bungalow in Howards Lane.
It brought back childhood memories when I saw the article
about Mrs Gate’s centenary in the summer edition of
Holybourne Village Magazine, as she lived across the road
from The Prince of Wales for many years.
I thoroughly enjoyed life in the village and was lucky enough
to meet my wife, Jane, at the dramatic club in the days of
the old theatre. I served my apprenticeship at Vessa Ltd.
in Alton learning the skills that I would need for my career
as a metal worker making false limbs.
Married life began in December 1967.The day, as it
happens, was something of a winter wonderland with huge
flakes of snow. And so began married life in Alton. I joined
the retained fire brigade and served 18 years until my family
and I moved to the other end of the country.
We moved to Hexham, an historic market town in the heart
of Northumberland as I had taken a job as head of the
metal limb department at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle,
in order to further my career. We later moved to the remote
village of Allendale, which featured on the BBC News for a
few days in February this year when the winter snow was
so severe that there were no food deliveries to the local
Co-op for nearly a week. For me that inhospitable weather
wasn’t quite such a nuisance as it would have been the
previous year, for I retired in the summer of 2009.
My father sadly passed away many years ago but my
mother is still in rude health and lives in sheltered
accommodation just along the road from me. She still lives
independently and gradually moved North, first to Ketton,
near Peterborough, to live near my brother but when he
approached retirement himself mum moved once more to
Northumberland.
This is a fantastic part of the country and I will see out the
rest of my days here, with my children and grandchildren
around me. I now have more time to indulge my passions
of fishing, particularly for salmon on the river Tyne with my
eldest grandson, Thomas. I’ve just started taking my
youngest grandson, Ronnie, fishing on the lake. When I’ve
spread my fishing time fairly amongst the boys I still make
the time to take the occasional photograph!
Rodney Heather
The Holybourne Village Magazine - Winter Issue 2010
Page 19