Christmas Greetings from snowy Bagshot
This seasonal picture of Bagshot in the snow comes courtesy of reader June. We had an inch of snow unusually early on October 28/29 (the first time snow has settled in October since 1934). But as you will have realised, this picture is not of this year. Any help in dating it will be appreciated, all we can say is that it has to pre-date the opening of the bypass in the 1920's.
The view is the bottom end of Jenkins Hill looking towards the High Street. (location) Note the cedar tree on the right, that is still there and stands in front of The Cedars house. The original Hero of Inkerman public house can be seen slightly left of centre and I assume the original Fighting Cocks to its right. The High Street leads away into the distance and with a bit of imagination some of the far buildings can identified today. I have no idea whether the pole is electricity or telegraph.
It has been the coldest start to a winter for a long time, on average some 3deg cooler than normal. But since October we have only had a sprinkling of snow that did not last long, as as I write this a few days before Christmas it is really quite mild.
Village Day
We had a "Village Day" on the 13th December. The plan was for lots of stalls in the High Street, Santa’s Grotto, exhibitions, entertainment, a Carousel, face painting, live music and so on. In choosing the 13th the organisers were obviously not superstitious. It rained and rained. We had over one inch of rain in 24 hours. Many of the prospective stall holders simply did not turn up, congratulations go to those who braved the elements. And that goes for visitors, too. While the indoor events were able to go ahead, the rain had limited how many people turned up and how long they stayed for. A great shame and a huge disappointment after all the effort that had gone into planning the event.
(location)
Village Plan
Another community activity is the Village Plan. To quote from some publicity "The government wants local communities to take more control of their own lives, to say what they want doing in their own neighbourhoods and to engage with other organisations to get it done". A Community or Parish Plan is a vehicle for facilitating this, and we have a steering committee promoting one for Bagshot. I am not sure that my description will have done the Plan justice, so read the full description here.
Can you help?
Nicky wrote in seeking help to decipher an address on a Birth Certificate? Though no sooner had the question been posted than Ian provided the answer - it is a time not an address. That is an interesting point to bear in mind if you are a family history researcher - more details are given in the link.
Road names along what we now know as the A30 are very confusing. Today the road is numbered as one contiguous whole with low numbers at the boundary with Windlesham and high numbers approaching Camberley. However parts are also identified as The Bypass (from the BP garage to the Fighting Cocks) and Jenkins Hill. Prior to the building of the bypass the main road ran through the village and thus the High Street and part of what we now know as Bridge Street would have been part of the London road. The extent of these latter roads is quite clear. But Jenkins Hill is a problem, particularly as many old records, such as the available censuses, identify properties as being on "Jenkins Hill". Can you help Iris, and others, by identifying just what was the extent of Jenkins Hill and when it was subsumed into London Road, at least as far as house numbering is concerned.
To add even more potential confusion, I've seen an old photo that identified the road between about Yaverland and the High Street as "Portsmouth Road". I shall completely disregard the much more recent renaming of most of the A30 from the West Country to London as the Trafalgar Way.
Other requests for help include:
- Do you have any memories of Bagshot Radiator Service
- Gill Basnett is researching the Higgs family and the Victorian history of Bagshot
- Do you know of Amy Parker a.k.a. Granny Smith circa 1900
New on the website
Updates on the website includere more collections
- of the Chobham Common and Old Dean PoW camps.
- the RAOS
- Hastings' mobile shop
- Broadmoor escapes
- the Doodlebug that damaged the Church
- Rapley Lake and an expansion of the text about gardeners at Bagshot Park.
- The Lupin Cafe featured in a 1957 film
- the Nursing Home & Dr Issbister
- We also have a photo of Yaverland house kindly sent in by a reader, and several other piecemeal additions.
You will also find that links to the location of places on aerial maps added to most pages on the 'tour', others will be added in the future.
With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to you and those you hold
dear.
Neil
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The opinions expressed here are those of the author, writing on his own behalf and not representing anyone else or any organisation.
The previous newsletter was late summer.
copyright © 2008 Neil Bartlett. All rights reserved. Published privacy statement.
| ps: each time I do a mailing telling friends like yourself about one of these 'update' pages I get several bounce back as undeliverable because the intended recipient has changed their email address, and I have no way of knowing what it has changed to. So if you change your email please remember to put me on the list of people to tell if you want to keep in touch. |