From Our Files: Pudding theft... cinema demolition... fence fight... Dibden Bay
75 YEARS AGO
TWO houses in Vincent Road, New Milton, were broken into on Christmas Day, and the intruders stole a quantity of watches, jewellery and money valued at over £150 – as well as a large slice of Christmas pudding.
In both cases the houses were temporarily unoccupied, and windows were broken to gain entrance, the occupants being out visiting friends.
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It is refreshing to know that this house, known as Barton Croft, is not to be lost, although it is being demolished!
The Town Council recently gave the owner, Mr Chalk, permission to pull it down – before it fell over the cliff! – and to rebuild it on the corner of Sea Road and Marine Drive.
Barton Croft was built by Mr W. Rogers – one of the district’s enterprising small builders – in 1911 for the late Sir Benjamin Morgan, one of the country’s big businessmen. Sir Benjamin was told at the time that the house, being so near the front, would not last five years, but he replied that if it lasted him 20 years he would be quite satisfied! That was 37 years ago.
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A STRIKING tribute to the generosity of the local tradesmen and the public was paid by Mr S. A. Nevard, Master of Lymington Infirmary.
He said they had been so generous with gifts, not only in money but in kind, that they had been enabled to give the inmates a real old-fashioned Christmas, with practically everything that was needed to perform this feat in these difficult times.
50 YEARS AGO
A FRESH application for the redevelopment of the Waverley Cinema site, New Milton, as a bingo hall with shops and a car park has been submitted to Lymington Borough Council.
Several times the planning committee has refused permission for the demolition of the cinema, shops and No. 1 Waverley Road, by developer McCarthy & Stone, and the erection of five lock-up shops and 14 flats.
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AN effort at last week’s Lymington Council meeting to block an Amenities Committee recommendation that the present sea water baths should be reduced to about half the present size, and improved at an approximate cost of £42,000, failed by 11 votes to 15.
The report from the meeting stated that considerable public concern had been aroused at the possible closure of the baths “which were referred to as unique on the South Coast”. The scheme for reducing the baths’ size provides for the concreting of the bottom, including the diving pit and it is intended that the other half of the present baths should become a boating pool.
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A RESOLUTION deploring the decision not to fence part of the A337 New Forest road, unless improvements are carried out that would involve the felling of nearly 200 hardwood trees, is to be sent to the Department of the Environment and to Hampshire County Council by New Milton Rate-payers’ Association.
The stretch of road proposed for improvement is between Lymington and Brockenhurst but would mean that 171 trees would be destroyed.
The ultimatum caused a rift between representatives of various Forest bodies: those who abhorred the felling of the trees, and those who felt that fencing of the road, scene of many accidents involving Forest animals, was more important.
25 YEARS AGO
HAMPSHIRE County Council has joined forces with New Forest District Council to examine the impact of proposals by Associated British Ports to develop a major new container port at Dibden Bay.
The port, which would be three times the size of the Southampton container terminal at Dock Gate 20, would also include building two kilometres of quay between Hythe and Marchwood extending a kilometre inland from the shoreline, and a rail depot with 12 tracks.
County councillors agreed during a meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee last week to oppose the development unless and until ABP demonstrates the need for the development and satisfies conditions which will protect the environment and local towns.
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FARMERS are becoming increasingly frustrated by ever higher commercial demands and ever greater bureaucracy – much of which is so often ignored by other European Union countries. Such measures have prompted Gordon Farwell, who has farmed the 900-acre Pylewell Home Farm near Lymington for 22 years, to now reluctantly sell off his 110-Friesian dairy herd.
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A WHISTLEBLOWING policy is being introduced by Christchurch Council as a result of national recommendations made by the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life.
The aim is to allow any worries about suspected malpractice confidentiality and without fear of retribution, explained the authority’s chief executive Mike Turvey.
