Web Page 1108
29^th December 2012

First of all I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Pam and I would like to thank you all for the cards, ecards and best wishes which have received from all over the World in the last week or so, they have been really great. So now lets look ahead to 2013 but unfortunately I start this year with three sad pictures of the interior of the Essoldo (Carlton) in Cosham High Street as it was being demolished. How many happy hours some of us spend in the back row there ?!!!!!!

 Top Picture: Front Row of the Stalls.

 Middle: View from the back row.

  Bottom Picture: Foyer.

Firstly a very happy New Year to you all and off we go into the 11^th year of this blog. It does not seem possible

Having spent 21 years of my life in the Drayton Farlington area I have come across a few odd tales and stories about the area. Here are a selection.

Ghost

Farlington has its local ghost, as recounted in the magazine for November 1865. She was Alice Noyes, who lived at Farlington Farm House (beside where the Sunshine Inn now stands) in about 1765. She was a well brought-up young lady who became the victim of irregularity and idleness…. She lost her faith in God, and she had no-one to turn to for help in her shame…”. It doesn’t take too much imagination to surmise what was probably the reason for her shame, knowing the moralistic attitude of the time.  The account goes on to accuse Satan of putting the idea of committing suicide into her head, which she eventually did by drowning herself in the farm well. She was buried on the north side of the chancel of St Andrews Church “but when the new vestry was built over the place about in about 1800, the tombstone was removed, and laid flat outside the entrance door, where it still forms a threshold to the room”.

Her ghost seems to have operated around the church, rather than around the farm. The old parsonage house, replaced in 1826, was reputedly haunted. The December 1865 magazine tells how the ghost was laid “about the time of the commencement of the French Revolution”. The rector, who did not believe in such things, had asked to be informed when the ghost next put in an appearance. One night near midnight, there was a scream from one of the maid’s rooms, and she called out “there it is, sir, by the pea sticks”. The rector had loaded his gun with parboiled peas; he opened the window, took careful aim and fired – whereupon the maid cried out “Oh, Sir, you’ve shot my Billy Boy, you’ve shot my Billy”.  The ghost may have been laid, but in the late 1970s a young lady parishioner said that she went up to the church one dark winter’s Sunday evening to see if there was an evensong that night; on approaching the church she was overcome with irrational panic, couldn’t so much as set foot in the churchyard, and swiftly turned tail for home.

A further graveyard tale.

Known only from the registers is a man called Luke Kent, who was buried on 13^th August, 1808.  After a varied career, he became guard on the Portsmouth to Chichester stagecoach, and was the first guard on the Royal Mail coach that took its place. On his death, he left a sum of money to be paid to his successors on condition that they blew the coach horn as it passed Farlington church. I wonder if this applies to bus drivers today?

Other interesting tombstones that survive include one commemorating Thomas Atkinson, First Master Attendant H.M Dockyard, Portsmouth. “He was Master of several of Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagships, including the “Victory” at Trafalgar”, and another remembering a man called Peter (the surname is illegible) who died in 1724 and whose tombstone has a skull and crossbones engraved on it. Local tradition has it that he must have been a pirate or a smuggler, but the skull and crossbones on tombstones were not uncommon at that time – but there again, neither were pirates or smugglers!

Industry

Whether we consider the parish of Farlington in its old north-south alignment taking in Wymering and Widley or in its modern east-west one, it was always basically rural, until housing development and latterly light industry occupied most of the modern parish. Housing spread gradually eastwards from Cosham along the main road, so that by the early years of the twentieth century, there was already some building north of the main road in Drayton, while Farlington itself still consisted largely of the Church, the farm, the old rectory, East and West Lodge, and Farlington House which was on the land between Gillman Road and the church. Farlington’s only significant industry apart from agriculture has been the waterworks. Grant, Evelegh, Galt, Gillman, and Blake were all directors of the water company who are commemorated in the names of local roads. It’s perhaps just as well that it was decided not to name a road after the chairman from 1857-9, who rejoiced in the surname of Dalrymple-Horn-Elphinstone. There is an intriguing story about Peter Taylor, Lord of the Manor 1769 -1777.  He sought a source of water by digging an immense well downwards from the top of the hill, variously stated as being from Crookhorn Copse or behind the site of the later Farlington Redoubt; there were four such wells, the first at the Copse, the fourth at the Redoubt, with the others in between. The intention was then to tunnel into the hill from the south to meet the well(s), with the hope of striking enough water to provide a piped supply to Portsmouth. Some sources say that the works didn’t get very far; others that the tunnel was at least partially brick-lined, and emerged either at the back of the church-yard, or “80 yards SW by S” of the church. Another story to appear in print is one of a horse and cart sinking into some sort of hole on the side of the hill, which turned out to be brick lined, and assumed to be part of the tunnel. In any case, no water was ever found.

Leisure

One nearly forgotten feature of the parish is the racecourse, which from 1891 to 1915 occupied the land south of the railway line at the bottom of Station Road and to the east of what is now the Eastern Road. The War Office commandeered the course the year after the outbreak of the First World War the last big race being held on 17^th April, 1915 and was won by the appropriately named Final Shot at 10-1. The course was in its day as prestigious as any in the country and there was a palatial grandstand in the north-west corner, and extensive railway sidings and a station that appeared sporadically in the timetables. The station is shown on a 1910 railway map as Portsmouth Park. The Ordnance Survey map of 1897 calls it Farlington Station, while that for 1932 names it Farlington Halt although photographs taken in 1936 clearly show the name board as simply Farlington. It finally closed in July 1937. Curiously, although this latter station was located in the north-eastern apex of the triangle of lines there were platforms only on the Portsmouth-Havant part of the triangle so although there was a shuttle service of trains between Cosham and Havant, they couldn’t call at Farlington.

The Race Course was taken over after te last race by the Army Veterinarian Corps as a hospital for their horses. In fact there is a post card showing the  `Farlington Veterinary Hospital Staff’, at what is clearly the footbridge giving access to the station from the bottom of Station Road. Extensive research has failed to find any more about this establishment.

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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It was announced in November that former Beatles manager Brian Epstein will be honoured with a statue in his native Liverpool, provided supporters can raise the necessary £60,000. The city council has already given approval for the statue, to be placed at the one-time home of his father and grandparents, now known as Epstein's Guest House.

On this day 29^th December 1960-1965

On 29/12/1960 the number one single was Starry Eyed - Michael Holliday and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was the day after next was the last day for being called up for National Service.

On 29/12/1961 the number one single was I Love You - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Russ Conway Show (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/12/1962 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money wasworth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/12/1963 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/12/1964 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 On 29/12/1965 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.