From our Files: Smashed boat...allegations of imports...angler’s naked catch
75 YEARS AGO
“THE Fire Services and the police treat this affair as one of very great seriousness as dam-age caused by fires has been considerable”, said Police Inspector L. C. Orchard at Lymington and New Forest Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, when Edward Kitcher, Forest Heath, Furzey Lodge, Beaulieu, had pleaded guilty to attempting to set fire to heath and gorse.
He was fined £20, and the chairman (Mr P. J. Horlock) told him: “There have been a lot of fires in the Forest and they can cause a lot of expense. When you find this is done deliberately it is time it was stopped.”
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A 10ft dinghy, complete withy inboard engine, was smashed to pieces on the defence works at Barton-on-Sea on Monday. It had apparently broke adrift off Hengistbury Head while being towed to Poole by a yacht owned by Mr Maddocks, of 3 St Peter’s Crescent, Bournemouth.
The sea was too rough to enable the dinghy to be recovered, and it drifted in at Barton where some Borough workmen got it onto the cliffs.
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THE funeral took place at Hordle Parish Church on May 25th, of Mr Frederick Henry Black, of Laurel Bank, Ashley Road, Hordle, whose death took place the previous Thursday at the age of 38 years.
Mr Black had been an invalid for the past 11 years, but before his illness was a keen and active sportsman. He was a member of the Hordle Tennis Club and used to play regularly for the New Milton Wednesday Football Club and the Hordle team.
50 YEARS AGO
ALLEGATIONS that some of the “home grown” strawberries sold on roadside stalls be-tween Cadnam and Winchester are in fact imported, are being investigated by the Hampshire County Council Weights and Measures Department. Local growers are concerned that the British strawberry will fall into disrepute as these imported ones may have travelled from as far as Italy and are far from fresh by the time they reach the customer.
Mr Charles Richards, NFU County Horticultural Committee chairman and a Burridge grower has said that 99 per cent of the produce sold by stallholders is imported.
He told the “A&T”, “We utterly deplore the practice of selling Italian and imported strawber-ries along the roadsides of Hampshire when signs are exhibited saying “local grown” or “fresh picked”.
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A 16-YEAR-old Lymington boy who had been manufacturing a homemade bomb in a garden shed while his parents were away on Monday, was said to be fairly comfortable in the Royal South Hants Hospital after the bomb had exploded in his face. Roger Alfred How, of Withybed, All Saints’ Road, Lymington, was initially taken to Lymington Hospital with metal embedded in his face. The explosion which occurred on Sunday, blew off his left thumb and part of a finger.
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SPRING Bank Holiday saw more campers staying in the New Forest than ever before. Figures released by the Forestry Commission for the five-day period of the holiday are for the tents and caravans which booked into the two equipped and 17 informal camping areas in the Forest, and includes the overflow sites at Beaulieu and North Bentley. The peak was reached on Sunday when 5,489 tents and caravans booked into camp sites. Other figures were: Friday 3,425, Saturday 3,579, Monday 5,147, Tuesday 3,028. These figures represent 400 more camping permits than the same period last year. Over the five days, 62,000 camping nights were paid for and the Forestry Commission estimates that on Sun-day’s peak there were abut 17,000 people camping in the Forest.
25 YEARS AGO
FRIENDS and family who had gathered in Milford-on-Sea to welcome back a cyclist after his round Britain charity ride were shocked to hear that he had fallen and broken his back just 13 miles were short of the finish.
Jonathan Etherton-Baker was crossing a cattle-grid at Summer Lane in Exbury on Saturday, when he was involved in an accident with a tractor. He was rushed to Southampton General Hospital where he has since undergone a four-hour operation on his spine for a fractured vertebrae. It was from his hospital bed that he received the medal from his father which would have been presented to him at Milford.
The accident shattered Jonathan’s long-standing ambition to complete his marathon coastal trip for charity.
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LYMINGTON Sea Fishing Club chairman Chris Clark has gained an international reputation for his angling skills – he’s a former world champion – and in the process has collected an amazing array of trophies and prizes. Chris has just competed in a Belgian national competition, and turned up at his allotted “peg” on the beach at 9am – but an hour-and-a-half later found he was surrounded by nudists! “I’ve never felt so inadequate before,” he admitted to the “A&T”.
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A TINY Brockenhurst bridge is one of 10 post war bridges to have been listed by the Gov-ernment as a building of special architectural or historic interest, following recommendations by English Heritage.
Heritage Minister, Tony Banks said the bridges stood as evidence of the technical innova-tion of post-war bridge building in England, and each was a triumph of engineering and creativity.
