Contributor: Through Our Ancestors' Eyes

Images: Rosemary Harding, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

Rosemary Harding CH5   Duration:  2:58

CB:  Ah, right, that’s lovely. Okay, tell me the names of the Agisters here, starting on the left. (RH030)

Rosemary:  This is the agisters in the ‘fifties.  On the left is Ron Ings; next is Raymond Bennett; then it’s Raymond Stickland; and Hubert Forwood.

CB:  That’s lovely.

Rosemary:  And that is in Verderer’s Court.

CB:  I was going to say, that looks like Verderer’s Court.

Rosemary:  Yeah, that’s in Verderer’s Court.

CB:  In fact, they’ve just re-done all the floor in there –

Rosemary:  Yes.

CB:  Relaid it. Same tiles.

Rosemary:  And that’s when they wore boots and gaiters –

CB:  Oh, yes!

Rosemary: And you had to do the little buttons?

CB:  Oh yes!

Rosemary:  With a hook –

CB:  Amazing!

Rosemary:  Yeah, ‘cos Geordie had (retired?), but I can’t tell you what year.

CB:  Okay, and that’s when – Raymond retired? (RH031)

Rosemary: No, he did.

CB:  Geordie retired.

Rosemary:  Dad presented it to him.

CB:  Oh, I see.  What a beautiful statue of a horse.  Actually, I can’t quite read on there what date it is.

Rosemary:  No, I can’t.

CB:  That’s lovely. Thank you.  Now, tell me about this photograph. (RH032)

Rosemary:  This is my dad in the middle with a Galloway cow on a halter and it was a gentleman helping him, and Sue Rix must’ve helped them getting him to go on the wharf.

CB:  Yep, and Sue Rix is –

Rosemary:   [information redacted] mum.

CB: [information redacted] and  [information redacted] is an agister at the moment.

Rosemary:  Yes.

CB:  Okay.  Tell me about that one. (RH033)

Rosemary:  This my dad out on his horse in the ‘sixties, in the Forest, having a ride round to see what animals is to be sorted out.  

CB:  Yes, that was the Fritham Conker, that’s the one –

Rosemary:  Fritham Conkers, yes.

CB:  He liked that one, didn’t he?

Rosemary:  Yes.  Yes, he was a good old work horse, like sittin’ in an armchair.

CB:  Was he?

Rosemary:  Yes.

CB:  You rode him?  Did you used to ride him?

Rosemary:  Yeah.  He was my horse, technically. (Both laugh)

CB:  Was he now!

Rosemary:  Yes.  He was lovely.

CB:  You say he was strong enough to bring the colts home?

Rosemary:  Yes, I’ve know dad come home with two colts tied on round his neck.

CB:  Really.  And he’d just walk them on back?

Rosemary:  Yes.

CB:  That’s a tough job.  How big was he do you think.

Rosemary:  He was thirteen two.

CB:  Was he?

Rosemary:  Mmm.

CB:  Very strong.  Real good legs on him.

Rosemary: Then after he passed on, we had Rocky.

CB:  Did you?

Rosemary:  He was a chestnut.  We liked chestnuts.

CB:  I like chestnuts as well.  That’s lovely, thank you.  Okay, and this last one. (RH034)  Tell me about this one.

Rosemary:  This was when my dad retired;  the  [information redacted] presented a photograph – a painting, I should say – of our property.  And with the animals outside.  The only thing he did wrong, he had the horse in the wrong field.

 CB:  (laughing)  Oh, did he!  Look, in the painting.   And that was in Verderer’s Court.

Rosemary:  Yes, the Verderer’s Court.

CB:  And what year was that, can you remember?

Rosemary:  About nineteen eighty-five.

CB:  ‘Eighty-five.

Rosemary:  Mmm.

CB:  Yeah.  Must be very proud of your painting.

Rosemary:  Mmm.

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An interview with Rowena Wedge at Churchplace Cottage on 22^nd May 2016

Images: Rowena Wedge, copyright reserved. For any rights requests, please contact the New Forest Heritage Centre in the first instance.

Rowena Wedge CH1 Duration:   7:59

CB:  This is Clare Bates interviewing Rowena Wedge at her home in Ashurst on May 22^nd 2016.  So can you tell me a little bit about your commoning history, Rowena?

Rowena:  Well I got into commoning in quite a strange way, at the time not realising how much of a connection I had with the Forest.  I started commoning through a lad I was going out with at the time, [information redacted], and the family started me off commoning and that’s how I started in it ‘cause they’re quite an old commoning family.  And I’ve been doing it ever since then,  which is thirty years, I think; yes, but my family, I found out once I’d got into the system as it were, were Keepers on the Forest and they also did some market gardening as well.

CB:  Shall we have a look at this first photograph here?  (RW001)  Can you tell me about that one?

Rowena:  This is a very old photograph, family photograph, of Mallards Mead which is half way between Ashurst and Lyndhurst and it’s almost like part of the family holiday; and what they used to do was go out to make the hay and in the picture you can see the hayricks in the back and they set up their tents and..

CB:  And actually stayed there?

Rowena:  Stayed there as a holiday, and in the photograph is my great grandfather…

CB:  So he’s stood next to the tent on the left?

Rowena:  With the hat on; he’s a very tall gentleman and his name is William Maynard-Hoare.   And stood in the first tent on the left is a man called Sid Callaway; and there’s my great grandmother with a scarf round her head by the other tent.

CB:  Stood up?

Rowena:  Stood up, yes; and long skirt, and she was Sarah Hoare, but she was Sarah Louise Pilgrim originally.

CB:  Lovely.  Okay,  so on to the second photo – (RW002)  (Back ground talking).

Rowena:  This is a picture again of my great grandfather, down at Longwater…

CB:  What’s his name?

Rowena:  His name’s Bill Maynard-Hoare and he’s stood next to a stone stating that there’s 12 miles to Southampton.

CB:  And this was actually on the Forest?

Rowena:  This is on the Forest next to the – well it goes, it becomes the Beaulieu River but at Longwater Lawn.

CB:  I know.  And it’s not there anymore?

Rowena: The stones aren’t there any longer; for some reason they were all removed; but there’s a guy in the Forestry Commission that could tell you where, what happened to them all.  

CB:  Okay, lovely.

Rowena:  And it’s in about – say the 1920’s that this picture was taken, ish.

CB:  Ok that’s lovely.  Ok let’s look at this. Number three – (RW003). (Back ground noise)  OK, on to the third photograph.

Rowena:  Again this is over at Mallards Mead.  They’re camping.  I think it’s after the hay making.  I can’t see any ricks in this one, and what they used to do, as I say, they used to get together out there to do work.  Later on, this field changed from hay to a market garden.

CB:  Okay,  and where did these families come from?

Rowena:  Ashurst and Hounsdown, so quite local.  But back in those days it wasn’t quite the same as now.

CB:  When do you think this was taken?

Rowena:  I would think this is the late 1800’s.

CB:  Ok, that’s fantastic; super quality still.

Rowena:  They all got sort of hidden away and sort of got lost, really, and then we uncovered them all again.

CB:  That’s lovely.  So now the fourth photograph – (RW004)

Rowena:  Again they’re at Mallards Mead, I’m sure; and they’re stood by a tent, which strangely enough has a firm’s name on it so…

CB:  Oh yes.

Rowena:  Joyce of Southampton, so I presume they may have rented these tents even for this period of time.  Again it’s my great grandfather William Maynard-Hoare with his brother in law, which is Sid Callaway.  William, actually – there’s a little bit of history – was an illegitimate child; so, back in those days, it was quite a thing and he – his father though, even though he was illegitimate because they weren’t married, gave him his name which was even more unusual and that’s why he has the double barrel of Maynard-Hoare because it was his father’s name.  (See copyright form)

CB:  Oh, brilliant.  Okay, on to the fifth photograph – (RW005)

Rowena:  Now this is, I think, a very glamourous picture of my Great Great Aunt Ada and she was a Pilgrim who came from Ashurst originally.  She travelled the world but she came back to Ashurst.  She married a Swiss National who she later divorced; and she then lived with a gentleman called Bill Nichols.  Now they bought – or she bought some property in Fletchwood Lane to be near her mother and later on, the properties she converted or broke up into sections and made three small farms, which are still there to this day, being Martinscroft Farm …  I can’t think of the others, off hand.

CB:  That’s [information redacted] at Martins….

Rowena:   [information redacted] is Martinscroft and his family bought the – or his father bought the farm from Ada and he’s lived there ever since and he’s now in his nineties.

CB:  Lovely.

Rowena:  A bit of document on Ada, picture five …. (Document/ Photo RW006)

CB:  On picture five.  Okay.  Lovely.  That’s all I need, it’s probably on there.

	Rowena Wedge main page

Rowena began commoning in the 1980s having been given the opportunity to become involved by an established commoning family. Her family has a history of Keeping and market gardening in the New Forest. Her memories include New Forest characters and farming activities such as haymaking, prompted by family photographs from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

Rowena Wedge, transcript 1