Mobility aids from Alresford Pigs

The Alresford Pigs stock a large quantity of most styles of walking aid, which includes 3 and 4 wheel Rollators, Zimmer frames, crutches and trolleys. These are all used devices, donated to the Pigs for recycling in the local community after inspection and repair as needed, and issued free of charge – but donations to the Charity always are appreciated!

The normal users are elderly people from the different OAP complexes, like Makins Court, Ellingham Close and Wayfarer Place, plus retired people all round town. Around 70% of users are female: there is more resistance to using such things from males. Other significant sources of enquiries are those who have come out of Hospital with not enough equipment, after an operation or accident, and from younger people who have an elderly relative coming to visit or stay.

Hospital patients, after hip or knee replacement, broken leg bones etc, are usually issued with crutches and Zimmer frames (Private Hospitals are less generous). Initially these are used particularly upstairs. Once more mobile the patients graduate to 3 wheel Rollators (downstairs indoors or out) or a trolley (indoors). Requests for associated equipment often include things like shower stools or chairs, perching stools, and commode chairs/toilet aids.

Crutches

Supplied in matching pairs, typically one size, but with adjustable length legs. On some models the distance between the hand grip and the cuff that goes round the arm is also adjustable. The bottom end has a rubber foot.

Zimmer frames

An aluminium frame with four feet, in various sizes, but all have adjustable leg length, typically giving about 8” adjustment. Used outdoors sometimes. We do have a couple of folding ones currently, but the static frame can be difficult to fit into a car! Very slow in use. Can be fitted with a plastic tray for transporting cups and bowls/plates (available from Amazon at £30+).

Three wheeled walker

This might be the thing to first replace a Zimmer frame with, for outside or inside use. It is also the starting aid for elderly people, particularly ladies, who just need something that can carry the shopping, in the bag, but is not as obtrusive/obvious as a 4 wheeler, yet gives them some feeling of stability. Indoors it is far more useful than a 4 wheel unit, as it is smaller, more manoeuvrable, and easily folded away.

Four wheeled walker, or Rollator

This is much more stable than the 3 wheeler, and far better for people who are tending to lose their balance. It also offers a seat, so can be used by asthma, arthritis or COPD sufferers, who might need to stop and rest for a while. Usually there is a basket/bag under the seat, or these bags can be bought on Amazon for £15 approx. Or a shopping bag can be hung/attached somewhere.

The conventional 4 wheeler is a good design, except for the folding – it folds front to back, if the shopping bag is empty, but even then does not stand up, so is always in the way. Modern (expensive) designs are available (Picture 2): most of these fold side to side, and have a canvas flexible seat, but with wear these are less stable, and become loose. We have both types to offer, pre-used.

On both types of wheeled walker, the brakes need constant attention (the brakes are used fairly often, and the adjustment nuts creep). Typically by pushing the brake lever down, the brakes are locked on, and the user sitting on the seat can push up out of it (to stand) without it running away. If the brakes have failed this is a problem – adjustment is by bringing the brake blade closer, by adjusting the positioning of the nuts on the bottom of the cable.

Indoor trolleys

Typically two tier trays, fixed in place on a 4 wheel trolley, with the framework of the trolley extending above the top tray to give a handle. Used primarily for putting a dinner plate (or tea and biscuits) on top to then transport into another room from the kitchen. The trays are staggered to allow them to be used in front of a seated person. Height adjustable on the legs. A variant also has bicycle type handles to act as a walking aid with brakes.

Bathroom equipment

Shower chairs are basically like plastic garden chairs. The stools are taller, and have adjustable leg lengths. In the shower, suction based grab handles are useful, available on Amazon.

Toilet aids include raised toilet seats – a thick moulded plastic seat to go onto the existing toilet to raise the seating position by 4”- 6” approx. If this separate seat does not fit, then a seat on a frame is supplied, usually with adjustable legs (Pictures 1 and 2). The frame has arms to enable the patient to stand up more easily. Often the problem of standing up from the existing seat can be solved by using a toilet frame alone, providing the arms as something to push down onto (Picture 3).

Obviously where the only toilet is upstairs the separate commode chair is useful for use downstairs.

The Pigs try to keep a few of all of these toilet aids in stock.

Other equipment

Ladies also often request a perching stool, to help while preparing food or washing up, or standing at a higher worktop – we only have a few of this type of equipment. Other equipment supplied less often, and when it is available, includes bath lifts, cantilever tables (for use over a bed) and riser/recliner chairs.

For further info, and to see the equipment described, with other styles and options, consult https://www.careco.co.uk/walking-aids/ . Careco is a significant supplier to this market, and their catalogue or webpages also show a selection of wheelchairs and powered mobility scooters. Amazon is also a comprehensive supplier of walking aids and other similar equipment. The Pigs get their equipment from donations by other residents, and occasionally from sources such as Ebay.

Contact information

The Alresford Pigs website is www.alresfordpigs.org 

Contact by email at info@alresfordpigs.org

Or phone the Pigs helpline to get a callback, on 01962 658961

WW2: A bombing raid on Alresford

The only occupied house to get damaged from a bombing raid on Alresford in World War II was a small cottage at the top of Pound Hill, just opposite Perins school. The cottage is now much expanded, and known as ‘Honeysuckle Cottage’, but when it was the home of the Cornforth family, it was known as ‘Rose Cottage’. Gerald Cornforth was living there: his family consisted of his Mum and Dad, and his brother and sisters – Desmond, Eileen, Mavis and Peter. In the war Gerald’s Dad went to France with the Army, and in 1940 his unit was part of the rear guard at Dunkirk, whose job it was to stop the German advance into the town for as long as possible. He was injured and captured, and became a prisoner of war, held in a POW camp in Germany for most of the rest of the war. Even so, the remaining family were asked to take in an evacuee from Portsmouth, a lady whose husband was in the Navy. To make ends meet, Gerald’s Mum also had a lodger, Arthur Philips, who was an elderly gentleman with gout. The cottage was pretty crowded!

Honeysuckle Cottage as it looks in 2024

The day of the bombing raid was 19 August 1942. This was the day that the Allies launched the Dieppe raid, an amphibious landing onto the shores at Dieppe, and possibly the bomber was sent over to see what he could target. Alresford pond is a major navigational landmark, easily visible from the air, and so Alresford even now attracts a lot of aircraft navigating by maps, looking for an identifiable landmark. Gerald remembers seeing the German bomber from his back garden, where his Mum was hanging out the washing. The plane was a Junkers 88: it flew very low over the town, and it is believed the pilot and crew saw the gasometer and gasworks in the Dean. He was probably on its way home, having failed to find any suitable target, but wanted to bomb something significant, rather than take the stick of bombs back home. It is assumed the pilot decided to bomb the gasworks, so he did a low circuit around the town and approached the Gasworks again, from the North, effectively coming up the Dean. He was very low, and may have misjudged the release, so that his stick of bombs overshot the target – although it was reported that there were some small fires and damage on the gasworks site. The remaining bombs fell in the fields further up the Dean, and the blast close to, but behind Rose Cottage, made their whole roof collapse. All the upstairs ceilings came down, from the impact of the tiles etc.  A further bomb blast was reported at Perins school, badly damaging the woodworking room, and breaking some soup and pudding plates – no children or staff were in school because it was in the Summer holidays.

Gerald and his Mum were not injured, and his sisters were OK. But after maybe 10 minutes they remembered that the lodger, Mr Philips, was in his bed upstairs. They had help by this time, and they all went up and found him under a load of debris, still in bed. This was the biggest emergency callout the Volunteer Red Cross branch in Alresford had during the War, but Arthur was relatively unhurt, just covered in dust and plaster.

Image shows a sketch of a Junkers Ju88 Bomber

The family could not stay in the house any longer, with no roof, so they – in turn – were evacuated to Southampton – with their lady evacuee. They spent around 6 weeks in the home of some Cornforth relatives in Bursledon, near Southampton, and had to sleep many nights in air-raid shelters, as the bombing around there was fairly regular. Quite quickly in fact, their house roof was rebuilt and replaced, so they returned home to Rose Cottage again, bringing their evacuee back with them.

She was not the only person to be billeted with the Cornforths in Rose Cottage! Later, in the winter of 1943, the town was filled with Allied soldiers, mainly Americans and Canadians, preparing for the invasion that eventually started on D-Day, June 1944. Alresford had many tented Army encampments around the town, in the fields, in these months prior to D-Day – these fields nowadays have houses on them. Some of these troops had their tents at the bottom of the Dean, where Arle Gardens and Arle Close now stand. The Americans put a major camp with roads and barracks in the field that is now Valdean caravan park, still using the same road layout. Many lorries and tanks were parked on the Avenue, under the trees so that they were hidden from view from the air.

Several of these troops were also billeted with families in the town, and once again the Cornforth family were asked to open their house to several of two paratroopers, in addition to the other five of them. Gerald remembers that his sisters, who were older than him, and all the other girls in town, loved having the American troops living around Alresford – they enjoyed the parties, the dances, and the Americans even had a movie theatre! He also remembers the disappointment when the girls woke up on that morning in June and discovered that all the troops had disappeared – gone in the early hours of the morning!

Gerald’s father only returned home in 1945, after around 5 years away in a PoW camp: the town brought out the bunting, and gave him a good welcome home!

Local industries – in the area

The next stories are taken from “Round About Alresford”, the 1958 publication from Perins School: these cover some other local industries that existed in the countryside around the town: thatching, charcoal burning, smuggling and quarries.

Thatching, written by Roy Clarke

Have you ever thought how Thatching started? Thousands of years ago, when people tried to lay reeds on their house roofs, trouble arose when winter storms blew off the thatch. Later a man thought of tying the reeds down to stop this, and he used small brambles to tie down the thatch.

To get the brambles down to a certain size the men would use a bramble stripper. This was a piece of iron with holes of different sizes in it. The brambles were driven through each hole in turn until they slipped easily through the last and smallest hole, and then they were thin enough to be twisted. They would then take a hazel rod, lay it on the last layer of thatch, put a bramble underneath the batten, pass it up through the thatch and tie it above the rod. This pulled the rod hard against the batten and clamped the thatch tight. Thatchers in Somerset still use brambles to this day.

Nowadays there are three main kinds of thatching material, and these are Long Straw, Norfolk Reed and Wheat Reed.

Norfolk Reed when fully grown is as hard as a stick. Its length varies from 6 to 12 feet and it is grown principally on the Norfolk Broads. But some has been cut at Totton near Southampton and at Christchurch. It is generally grown on small islands and is brought to the mainland on large rafts.This reed is fixed on the roof by barge hooks, which are driven into the rafters or battens. If this is put on in the right way it will last between fifty and a hundred years.

Wheat Reed is made from wheat straw. The difference between them is that the formeris put through a machine which is fixed in the end of the thresher. This machine removes all the rubbish and ties the reed into bundles. You get around 180 bundles to the ton, and this material lasts for 20 to 35 years.

When you start you must make sure that the rafters and battens are strong. If they are not, the roof will cave in when you get a lot of weight on it. Next you make a lot of small bundles which are set around the bottom of the roof to form the eaves. Then you start laying on the thatch. After you have gone right across once then you tie on the layer with tar-twine and a hazel rod. Tar-twine is a hemp cord that is dipped in Stockholm tar to prevent it from rotting. When you get to the top of the roof the tops have to be turned in and your ridge put on. When the ridge is squared on you can cut patterns. To finish off and make it look smart you take a shearing hook and trim the thatch.

Charcoal Burning, by Adrian Smith

The old way of charcoal burning is being replaced by firing in portable steel kilns which are moved from site to site by lorry.

The kilns are 12 feet in diameter, six feet high and consist of three sections, the upper two tapering off to form a cone. A good seal is obtained by putting sand between the sections. Four short chimneys are fitted to the bottom section, and four draught holes are dug in the ground beneath it. The kiln will hold one and a half cords of wood when it is tightly packed. The wood is usually cut about a year previously and left to die off, though it can be burnt at once. Ash is cosidered to be the most suitable wood.

It takes from two days to a week to erect, load, fire, cool the kiln and bag the charcoal. The kiln is put out by withdrawing the chimneys and sealing the holes. The charcoal is then sieved through a quarter inch mesh, and the “lump” and “fine” are bagged. To produce sticks, willow twigs are packed in a tin supported by charcoal dust and then placed in the kiln.

Much of the charcoal produced is used by the chemical industry.

Smuggling, by Peter Stevenson

Many years ago when whisky was very popular with the people living in and around Ropley, the locals used to cheat the Customs men by smuggling the whisky in kegs from Portsmouth to the woods just South of Alresford. From there it was taken to the cellars of the villagers and afterwards sold to the people at Monkwood on a Sunday evening.

One daring man had managed to obtian a cart load of kegs, and he was on his way back to Ropley when he found that he was being pursued by the Customs men. Quickly he whipped up his horses and eluded them by by galloping the 30 miles from Portsmouth to Ropley, and hiding the kegs on Monkwood hill.

A Ropley man was extending his dining room, when he came across some brickwork going underground. When it was uncovered, it was found to be a brick chamber measuring 7 x 7 x 7 feet. This cubicle had obviously been used as a cellar for storing whisky, for underneath the rubble was discovered an empty barrel with 3 x’s clearly marked across one end. A local lane is still known as Smugglers’ Lane, as doubbtless are manyother byways between here and the coast.

[Editor’s note: At the end of the sheep drove route from the south into Alresford, the Old Sun public house at the end of Sun Lane was also reputed to have had extensive cellars for the storage of smuggled spirits]

Ropley Quarry by Anthony Smith

Near Ropley is a quarry from which lime chalk is taken for fertilizer. In a good year they take out nearly 15,000 cubic yards of chalk.

A tractor towing a set of disc harrows is driven up and down a 4 or 5 acre chalk plateau to cut up the top layer. Another tractor with a scoop goes round and piles the chalk up near an elevator. It is then pushed onto a rapidly vibrating grill, which allows the fine chalk to go through to a lorry beneath. The load of about 5 cubic yards, is then covered with a tarpaulin and driven to a farm where it is needed.

The chalk is spread evenly on the field by two revolving turntables which are fed by a small conveyor belt from inside the body of the lorry. the belt and discs are operated by shafts driven by the engine

Local industries – in the town

The next stories in “Round About Alresford”, the 1958 publication from Perins School, were about Watercress, and other industries found in and around the town.

“Watercress” was written by C Rowe and D Gollins

“Watercress has only recently been cultivated in this country, though it has been known as a river weed for several hundred years, and still grows wild in our streams. It had been cultivated in Germany for quite a long time. The flavour is due to traces of sulphur, iodine, iron and phosphate in the leaves.

Growing watercress is an important industry in Alresford, and in many parts of the river valley a green carpet of cress can be seen covering the shallow beds. This industry is being modernised. Beds were originally fed by stream water and contained by earth banks, but now artesian wells help to ensure a constant flow and the banks are being replaced by low concrete walls.

Before the watercress can be planted the beds have to be cleaned. This is done by draining and rolling them. When it is selling time in Spring one bed is allowed to go to seed. Then the top part of the plant is cut off and trodden into another bed, being planted parallel to the flow of the water.

When this bed and the others have grown the tops are again cut off to make new ones. By the time Spring comes all are planted and ready to be cut and sold.

When the cress is about half an inch high, the bed must be weeded and free of sewage or it will choke the young plants. It will grow much better on a chalk or gravel bottom, and when it is put in, the water is kept to a depth of one inch. As the cress grows, this is gradually increased to a height of four inches. It is essential to maintain a constant even flow.

To keep the birds away from the young plants scarecrows, bangers, trip wires and other devices are used to frighten them.

When the cress is fully grown it is cut with big knives and packed into chips. At Alresford early each morning in Spring, the watercress is taken to the railway station where it is packed in closed trucks, and then taken to distant parts of the country.

“Alresford in the Past”, an edited collection by numerous authors

“This pleasant country town with its Georgian architecture was once a thriving centre of trade and industry, and, if the present plans are carried through, will be so again.

It is well known that Alresford was once a great centre for the wool trade. Within living memory the sheep fair, held on the first Thursday in July, was the market for thousands of sheep, which were driven into the town from five in the morning, and the trains leaving with the sheep were still leaving late at night.

Less well known is the fact that there was, until about 1855, a Tan Yard at the bottom of Broad Street near the mill. The boys used to go there to get cows horns, with which to make a noise….

At about the same time there was a brewery in West Street, owned by Hunt and Co., which supplied Alresford and nearby villages. There were also two Malt Houses, one on each side of the road. The entrance to Number 1 Malt House was through the Volunteer Arms and Number 2 was in the yard opposite, here malt was made throughout the season. At other times they were used as storehouses. When old Mr Hunt died his son Edward carried on the brewery for a long time. Eventually it was sold for a store, and later was finally closed. It is now a builder’s yard.

At one time November 5th was celebrated by a torchlight procession through the town, with a parade of fancy dress and dressed wagons, finishing with a bonfire and firework display in the first field up Jacklyn’s lane, beyond the railway bridge. Still a source of delight to the local children is the pleasure fair held in Broad Street on the first Thursday following October 11th.

Alresford has many links with the past ranging from a coin of about 280 AD, recently found in a local garden, to the riverside grave of a dog cherished by the American forces stationed locally during the war. Mary Mitford’s house in Broad Street is marked by its plaque. There is a Norman bridge under which the water from Alrresford pond flows. The causeway which holds back the pond waters is a permanent memorial to Bishop De Lucy’s scheme for linking Alresford and its wool trade with the port of Southampton and continental markets. A less happy link with the Continent is that of the churchyard graves of five French prisoners of war who died here in captivity. The church tower was at one time home of the local fire engine.

Up till about seventy years ago there was a Pound at the beginning of the Avenue in which you would often see impounded a cow, donkey or horse that had been found wandering along the road or straying from a field. The owner had to apply to the police to have it released and pay for its keep during the time it was shut up. It was a good size piece of ground with high rails and is probably the origin of the name Pound Hill.

Before the days of Board and State Schools there were two in the Dean, the British and the Church of England. Fees were threepence a week for an only child, or threepence for the eldest of the family, and a penny a week for the others. Children could start at the age of three. The British school was where the Primary is now and consisted of a school and a Master’s House. The Church school was in Crockford’s yard and was later used as a Drill Hall by the Volunteers. When the Board Schools started both were closed and the boys went to the Town Hall, the girls to the Chapel School Room and the infants to a barn in the Dean. These were later replaced by the Dean School.

[Editor’s note: Crockford’s yard is behind the small houses on the North side of the Old Chapel in the Dean, next to the current factory of Williams Plating, which is itself soon to be replaced by a car park and housing.]

“Legends” – Deer, and ‘Precious Feet’

Stories from ‘Round About Alresford’, by Perins, 1958

‘Precious Feet’ was written by Michael Snelling:

The horse with the golden shoes was supposed to have been a racehorse which won a lot of money for its master. He was so pleased that when it died he had golden shoes fitted to its hooves. To cover the horse’s body his master said that every person who went to his house had to take a stone and put it with the others over the horse’s body. The usual precautions were taken of laying curses on anyone who removed a stone, to prevent curious people from testing the legend.

If you go to Bramdean you can still see the huge pile of stones, which is supposed to cover the horse, by the Petersfield Road. The story was illustrated by the picture of the stones shown below

‘Deer’ was written by Michael Willetts:

Recent news items about the White Stag of Epping Forest, deer hunting with hounds in Somerset, and the shooting of some 3800 deer on Forestry Commission land, make one wonder at their continued survival in this heavily developed country.

Deer have occupied an increasingly romantic place in the land since olden times. The naturalist, Gilbert White, wrote of seeing a herd of fallow deer at Alice Holt near Bentley; and there were several local herds until a gang of poachers, the Wlatham Blacks, caused great losses and the despatch of survivors to Windsor. There are still several private herds in the area and a number in the New Forest.

It is rather a pleasant thought that it is actually possible to see fallow deer roaming wild in the surrounding woodlands and commons. They may be animals strayed from the New Forest, or escaped from private herds. Though mostly single animals have been sighted there may even be small local groups, as a buck was recently noticed in the company of five does.

An idea of the number of deer roaming in the district can be gained from the frequency with which their scent is blamed for putting off thehounds in the local hunts.

“Round about Alresford”

In 1958, the Art Department of “Alresford County Secondary School” (Perins) published a little book of local memories of stories relating to old myths and legends about the area around Alresford. The Preface by T H P Trussler, presumably the Headmaster at that time, was as follows.

“I wonder if those who visit these pleasant Hampshire villages thinkof their history and legends? Many of the older inhabitants [pass on their knowledge of the past, but unless it is recordedin a more permanent manner, the stories will one day be lost.

For this reason I have invited the children of this school to write about the legends, the past of their villages, their people, their deeds and their buildings.

The production of this book has been carried out, during and after school hours, with a very hard working team of boys and girls, vigorously led by David Gollins. Their co-operation has made the production of this book a pleasant task and I greatly appreciate the spirit and care with which they have worked. THPTrussler”

The book is also illustrated with lino block prints, produced by: S Munn, J Forbes, R Tilcock, D Gollins, M Snelling and D Nicholls. The Church tower view to be shown below was used as the book frontispiece – you will note that the Mathesons Opticians shop was then occupied by J S Stiles, the predecessor to “Homestyle”. Other shop surveys over the years are published elsewhere in these articles.

[After publication here the little booklet will be passed on to the Alresford Museum]

Sun Hill Saxon burial ground

On 3 January 2024 the first showing of a new report in the “Digging for Britain” archaeology series on BBC2 was screened. This series, narrated by Alice Roberts, looks at the various archaeological digs in progress round the country. One of the items in this programme featured a recent dig in New Alresford.

In series 11, Episode 2, Alice visits the Sun Hill development in Alresford, and explains that before the construction of the new houses was allowed to start, some three round circles found on aerial photographs were investigated by archaeologists…. and this turned into a major dig. The graves and the remains found in them are very close to the surface, because of previous intensive farming and ploughing, and presumably erosion of the topsoil by wind and rain on the north side of the hill – down towards the railway line on the Northern side of the hill, overlooking the upper part of the Alresford pond.

The round marks seen as crop circles are described as ring ditches that encircled Bronze age barrows or burial mounds, and the graves in and around these rings are believed to be Anglo-Saxon, mainly pagan, dating from the C6. This resulted in quite a lot of “grave goods”, a pagan practice, but here these were mainly knives, and in one case some shears – possibly sheep shearing shears. But at the end of C6 there was growing Christian influence, believed to be from missionaries sent from Italy. A large number of these Saxon graves have been discovered oriented east-west, with the head to the West.. These were possibly early Christian burials, and had few items present – although one gold round pendant type brooch has been found, pictured below.

The pendant is very light, with filigree work making the pattern.

The archaeologists believe there are over 100 shallow graves on the site, arranged in lines and well aligned, also well cut down into the harder chalk. It shows a special specific burial site organised over some years.

The programme is shown on the BBC iPlayer, and is entitled Series 11, #2, “Anglo Saxon Gold and Rebellious Nuns”.

John Primmer at the Tichborne Arms

The Tichborne Arms is a well-known country pub on the Tichborne Estate, close to Alresford. In 2022 the pub re-opened, after some significant modernisation of the main bar, and extension of the building to include the area between the pub and the outhouses that contain the toilets used by the guests. In addition the garden and car parking facilities have been extended, with new shelters a separate play area, and many more tables.

One of the previous ‘fixtures’ in the bar at the Tichborne Arms was a local man called John Primmer. Anyone visiting the pub would have met John at the bar – indeed it was rumoured that the pub had a special barrel of beer allocated to John, which had to be replaced on a weekly basis.

The locally produced booklet ‘Tichborne 2000; A portrait of a small parish in the year 2000’ gave some of his background. He was born in Tichborne, went to school in Tichborne, Cheriton and then Perins, leaving there in 1952 to start work at Grange Farm, and retired in 2000. He lived at New White Cottage, but apparently spent lunch and evening times at the pub, where he looked after the garden – he was also keen on cricket, and was the Tichborne wicket keeper for 20 years, then an umpire for the Club.

The main image of John that a lot of the previous visitors to the Tichborne Arms  remember was the life-size mural, painted on the wall of the toilet block, showing John apparently working in the pub garden. This is pictured above!

If anyone can add anything to this story, or knows who painted the mural on the toilet wall, please get in touch! 

Pudsey bear comes from Alresford!

An earlier post on this site mentioned in passing that Alresford Crafts made some of the first prototype bears for the BBC, for them to consider using the image for the “Children-in-Need” bear.

Jenny Lawes from Alresford, who worked at Alresford Crafts in Station Mill, remembers them producing these first versions of Pudsey, the BBC’s “Children-in-Need” bear, with the eye patch.

The original prototype Pudsey, from Alresford Crafts: note the bandage is over the left eye!

The Alresford made prototypes, built to a BBC design, had the bandage over the other eye (his left eye!). The bears were sent up to the BBC, and when he finally made an appearance, the patch had moved to the right eye! So Pudsey really was first created here in Alresford, by the workers at Alresford Crafts!

There was other work for the BBC, one presenter on children’s TV had a lamb puppet from Alresford Crafts. The company was featured in a “Made in Britain” film, and in a Pebble Mill report. The town mill also hosted visits from Angela Rippon, and even Kate Adie, but not when the latter was a war correspondent!

Memorial bench for Pam Stevens

A new public bench has been placed under the trees on the Avenue, which is dedicated to the memory of Pam Stevens, for many years a Trustee an Secretary to the NATT (New Alresford Town Trust). In this capacity she was also the untiring organiser of the town Minibus, organising the drivers, passenger lists, and trips. In this role she was a major point of contact for many of the older residents of the town, and kept them in touch with charities and other organisations that could be of use to them.

Pam died in the Autumn of 2020, and the bench, which is situated between Arlebury Park and Pound Hill, is a pleasant place to stop to rest weary legs after climbing Pound Hill, or when waiting for Perins pupils. Steve Brine, the local MP, attended the dedication ceremony, and said “Pam was in so many ways Mrs Alresford, and she put so much into the townto help so many people. She was never bothered who got the credit, she just wanted to get things done! And she certainly did that, time and again. Alresford will certainly miss Pam Stevens, and so will I.”

Mark Stevens, Pam’s elder son, summed up Pam’s devotion when visiting her in Hospital – he found her working on her laptop doing Town Trust work. He thought the Avenue was a fitting place, which his mother loved, for the bench.

The bench was provided and installed with the help of many organisations and people who had worked alongside Pam and who admired and appreciated her efforts for the town: these included local charities such as Rotary and The Pigs, plus contractors Peter Bridges and Paul Daubeney.

Pam’s bench in the Avenue