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View of Headley High Street looking north in the 1890s
In 1912, Percy Suter wrote to his fiancée:-"Thought this might interest you as it is copied from a photo in our possession which was taken over 20 years ago. Mr Gamblen had over a thousand done. Notice how short the trees are by Curtis's shop. Now you cannot see the building as you walk down the road. Where the pea sticks are on the right hand corner Kennett's shop now stands. Our place seems the only thing not altered. Same old ivy, same old trees, same old everything."
He lived in Suters, which is the tile-hung house centre-left and is one of the oldest buildings in the parish. |
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Headley High Street in the early 1890s |
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Headley High Street, 1901 |
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View of Headley High Street looking north, 1901
Taken about ten years after the previous picture-the trees have already grown to obscure Curtis's. Note also the growth of ivy and the appearance of the clock on the church tower.
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Other useful clues to dating pictures of the High Street are the size of the chestnut tree and the style of the signpost on the triangle. Here the tree, planted in September 1891 on the site of the old stocks, is about 10 years old. The column of the wooden signpost appears to be used as a village notice board!
Found on the reverse of this postcard was part of a longer piece of correspondence. It was undated, but presumably written during the First World War:- "Snow here yesterday and has been very cold. It is just coming on to rain as I write this. I am writing this in the Congregational School Room at Headley where we are working. It is turned into a soldiers club. I am sending you some views of the place. It is a very pretty place. Do you remember Matthew gave me a book I was very interested in called White's Selborne, well …." And at that point our imagination must take over. |
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Chestnut Tree, High Street, about 1940 |
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The chestnut tree in bloom just before the Second World War
Bearing a postmark of 20th December 1940, this picture by R.G. Waller of Bordon was presumably taken before the start of hostilities, as the signpost had not been removed. It is now a lower, metal construction with a 'polo mint' top, and the road number B3002 shown in white letters on a dark background below the arms. Note the metal seat around the base of the trunk-also the painted kerbstones. |
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View of Headley High Street looking north, probably 1950s
The signpost is still the lower, metal construction with the 'polo mint' top, but B3002 is now in black letters on a white background, as it has been in more recent years. The picture was probably taken in the 1950s - the card was posted in 1958. |
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Headley High Street looking north, probably 1950s |
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View of Headley High Street looking south, c.1906
The photographer seems to be well observed: by the two children outside the Headley Insurance & House Agency; by the gentleman in shirtsleeves at the door of Mr Kennett's shop; and in the distance, beyond the Holly Bush pub, by a man in an apron outside Mr Rogers' shop. |
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Headley High Street looking south, about 1906 |
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Behind the triangle, the white stable-block was regarded even in those days as a traffic hazard. It was demolished in 1927-see the next picture.
Wakeford's, for many years a butcher's shop, is partly obscured by the chestnut tree.
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Headley High Street, 1927 |
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View of Headley High Street looking south in 1927
Much the same view as the previous picture, though from a position including part of The White House to the left and Curtis's shop by the church gate to the right. A shower seems to have cleared the street on what is obviously a winter's day. |
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The three wooden buildings with corrugated iron roofs in their time housed a variety of businesses. Mr Kennet was a watchmaker, jeweller and photographer; Mr Louch a harness-maker; and the middle one was for a while a house-agency. The White House has, in its time, been a dairy, three small shops, and (as now) a private house.
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The Holly Bush and Rogers' stores in 1911
The landlord of the Holly Bush at this time was Thomas Keeping. The pub had been sold by Hall of Alton to the larger firm of Messrs Courage in December 1903. It seems that the Holly Bush was not always in this location. Village legend places it across the road in the Wakeford's building-possibly in the left half, with a shop in the right half (see next picture)-when William Cobbett visited Headley on one of his Rural Rides in November 1822. |
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Holly Bush and Rogers' Stores, 1911 |
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The end of a wooden beam on which the inn sign is supposed to have hung is still visible on the north-east corner of Wakeford's.
We believe that the licence moved to its present site at some time prior to 1851 and that the building has been enlarged since then.
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View of the Holly Bush Inn, Rogers' Stores and Wakeford's taken in 1931
By 1931, the road has been paved, kerbs added, and the old signpost painted with regulation black and white bands. The buildings look much the same as they did in the 1900s.
A delivery van of the period waits outside the Holly Bush. Rogers' stores is the white building across the road with The Laburnums, the home of Mr Rogers, to its left. Wakeford's the butchers is to the right.
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Holly Bush, Rogers' Stores and Wakeford's, 1931 |
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Rogers' Stores, about 1957 |
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Rogers' stores in the 1950s
This picture was taken just before Leonard Rogers sold out to Miss Biddy Bargrave Deane for £2,000 in 1957. It had not altered significantly, however, for many years before that.
In 1908, he had inherited the shop from his father William, who had run a business there since 1865. |
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William Rogers used to publish a regular threepenny booklet called the Headley & Kingsley Almanac and Directory, full of local information and advertisements.
Some years earlier, in 1830, the stores were run by John Lickfold, who gave an eye-witness account of the agricultural riots of that year in Headley .
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Wakeford the butcher showing his wares at Christmas around 1901
Frederick Wakeford and his second son James, aged 15, stand in front of their butcher's shop at the turn of the century.
Frederick was one of the three men who planted the chestnut tree in 1891. The others were the Rector, Mr W.H. Laverty, and the licensee of the Holly Bush at the time, Mr J Kenyon.
Note the blanked out upper windows. The one in the middle at the front was never a proper window, but two of those at the side are today glazed again.
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Wakeford the butcher, about 1901 |
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The War Memorial in 1925
Designed by Woodbine Hinchcliffe and unveiled on 4th July 1920 by Major General WD Brownlow, CB-the War Memorial is seen here in its original roadside location.
The names of 96 officers and men lost in 1914-1919 are listed.
After suffering damage by a Canadian army vehicle during the second world war it was moved in 1945 to its present position, set 10ft further back away from the road.
In 1995 the names of those lost in the 1939-1945 war were added to the side columns.
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War Memorial, Headley in 1925 |
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