9:18am Thursday 4th February 2010
By Richard Garfield
OVER the past 40 years, the pace of life and character of many of the villages which are dotted around Basingstoke has changed.
Mac Capelin has witnessed many of these first-hand in the village he has called home since the 1960s – Sherborne St John.
Back in 1966, Mac started a new job with Hampshire County Council and was required to live within seven miles of his office, which was in Cliddesden Road, on the site of what is now is Queen Mary’s College, in Basingstoke.
He worked for the Basingstoke Development Group, which was made up of members of the county council, district council and London County Council, tasked with redeveloping the town. Initially, starting as the deputy engineer, two years later, he became the group’s engineer.
Bringing his wife and two daughters down from Wolverhampton, Mac found a suitable house in Vyne Road, in Sherborne St John, which is still the 80-year-old’s home today.
While moving in, Mac got an idea that choosing to live in Sherborne St John was a good choice.
He recalled: “Our first contact with the locals came from a knock at the door when a neighbour asked: ‘Would you like a tray of tea or something to help you settle in?’ “This was encouraging and we found it fairly typical of the villagers, who were mostly friendly and we found the community welcoming and co-operative.”
Mac also discovered that the ancient village, whose history dates beyond the Domesday Book, had not long emerged from the feudal system.
“The last squire had died in the late 1950s and the Vyne Estate had been passed to the National Trust.
“Many of the sitting tenants of the estate had been able to buy their houses and become minor property owners in their own rights.
“Quite a lot of updating and overdue maintenance work was needed on the older houses. The Vyne Estate had a reputation for extreme thrift in the way its repairs had been carried out in its later days,” said Mac, who recalled that central heating was beginning to replace open fires, which was the cause of some very smokey chimneys.
He also remembers that the older roads in the village had no pavements, although there were rough grass verges, as well as open drainage ditches in places.
“Traffic was light so this was not a great problem,” said Mac. “There was no street lighting, so we had an open sky background and could see the moon and the stars properly at night.
“Car ownership was much less common and parking problems hardly existed. There were a lot more people using motorcycles and bicycles.”
Several of the roads have been straightened and realigned in places, including the busy Aldermaston Road.
“Forty years ago, the village was more self-sufficient,” said Mac. “We had our own resident policeman, several working farms, more shops than now and several travelling shops or delivery services.
“These included three milkmen, two bakers, a vegetable van, two or three coalmen, a fish and chip van and ice cream vans.
“We also shared a telephone exchange with Monk Sherborne which was manually operated. Many older subscribers will remember being told such things as ‘it’s no good ringing them. They’ve gone to tea with their children in town’.”
Mac notes that all these services required employees, but nowadays most people have to travel outside the village to work. Sport played an important part of village life, with the spoil from local road schemes being used to extend the Chute Recreation Ground.
Mac remembers the former Boy Scout Hut being moved to the ground, where it was renovated by young people to become a youth club.
“Sadly, it burned down before it came into use and for lack of a water hydrant,” said Mac. “The fire brigade could only sit round in a circle and admire the fire while it burned out.
Luckily, the sparks were just far enough away from my house roof to avoid my house catching fire too.”
The Swan pub and the Working Men’s Club, which took over the Parish Hall, as well as the Village Hall, also provided a variety of activities and entertainment.
Mac said the moral well-being of the village was looked after by St Andrew’s Church and a chapel in Aldermaston Road.
“It used to be said that churchgoers owned houses with tiled roofs and chapelgoers houses with slate roofs,” mused Mac.
“In 1966, the village was a thriving, largely self-contained, well-maintained and enjoyable place to live. One had to be a very unhappy person to be unable to find something interesting to occupy one’s spare time.
“The number of people born and raised in the village has dwindled to a very small proportion. Many have moved in because they like the idea of a peaceful rural background and not because they wish to participate in country ways. Self-sufficiency is seen less as being important and a ‘townie’ attitude to life is creeping in.”
■ Are you a long-time resident of Basingstoke and Deane with a memories story to tell? If you are, you can contact Richard Garfield on 01256 337430 or email richard.garfield@ basingstokegazette.co.uk.
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