From Our Files: Carnival queen... lightning escape... save fox hunting
75 YEARS AGO
LYMINGTON’S Carnival Queen Miss Jean Bennett (19) is going to have a busy week! Chosen Queen on Monday (August Bank Holiday) at the Carnival Ball by a “well-known personality”, she and her maids of honour will be driven to London on Tuesday to the Gainsborough Studios where they get their outfits.
On Wednesday she descends from the skies by helicopter to be crowned under the eyes of a BBC commentator, reporters and the news reel cameras, and on Thursday she attends the variety concert.
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NEW MILTON District Nursing Association were strongly advised to spend the £666 they have in the bank before the Government’s new Health Bill comes into operation.
Mrs Courtenay, a member of the Hampshire County Nursing Association, speaking of the future of the Association when the Government takes over, said: “One thing is certain – don’t keep your money and hand it over next year to the Government.
“I strongly advise you to use your balance at the end of the time either as a donation to the Nurses Benevolent Fund, or to provide for a second nurse. Whenever the change does come, nobody can foresee what will happen.”
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COL. O. E. Crosthwaite-Eyre MP, who has been elected president of the newly formed Lymington branch of Young Conservatives, urged, in a speech at the inaugural meeting on Friday, the vital part the younger generation has to play in the country’s affairs and in the solving of its problems.
The strength of those who had to bear the strain of two world wars was waning, he said, and there was a desire to hand over the reins to younger people. Time and time again in the House he had noticed how many leaders on both sides were tired.
50 YEARS AGO
AN assurance was given by Mr Donn Small, Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest, that no tree on the open Forest, and that includes all the ancient and ornamental woodlands, can be felled without his personal permission and signature.
This assurance broke for the first time, the Forestry Commission’s silence since the row over the Denny Lodge tree-fellings had started in mid-June.
Mr Small explained to the panel that he could not give as full details as he would like to because of the inquiry which is taking place. He did, however, apologise to the panel for not consulting them prior to the actual fellings taking place.
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THIS year could see the last New Milton Carnival, at least in its present form. The popular carnival, which raises funds for local charities and which runs for a week, has been threatened for the last few years because of doubts as to the unavailability of an arena at Fawcetts Field.
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A MAN washing his car at his home in Sway narrowly escaped death when he was struck by lightning during Monday afternoon’s thunderstorm.
Mr Colin Belcher (59), was knocked unconscious by the shock and both his hands were burned.
His neighbour, Mrs Margaret Meredith, who saw the flash of lightning from her back door, described is as “a ball of light” about twice the size of a balloon, which came quickly almost like an explosion.
25 YEARS AGO
FIVE-YEAR-OLD Lymington poet Bolton Browne has won two major young writers’ competitions and will soon be able to see his work in print.
At an award ceremony at the National Theatre in London on Tuesday, Bolton was presented with first prize in the under-7 category of W. H. Smith’s young writers’ competition, The Inky Foot Awards.
His poem, Butterfly Loops, was selected from among thousands of entries by a panel of eminent writers headed by Poet Laureate Ted Hughes.
Earlier this month, Bolton, who is a pupil at Hordle House, won the Bridport Prize with a poem entitled Bowls, about Lymington Recreation Ground. Butterfly Loops, which is to be published in an anthology by Macmillan, recalls his experiences in the school dining room.
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TWENTY-ONE people took the stand to speak against a ban on hunting in the Forest at the Verderers’ Court on Monday.
Commoners, country workers and a London businessman all made presentments as a result of a request from the League Against Cruel Sports for the Verderers to prohibit the Forestry Commission from issuing a licence to the Buckhounds and New Forest Fox Hunt.
Many were ashen-faced as they told the verderers how businesses, homes and livelihoods would be lost if the Forestry Commission did not issue licences for the forthcoming season. The court was told: “If hunting is banned it will be lost forever”
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A GARDEN contracting business can continue to be run from a Boldre farm, an appeal inspector has held, quashing an enforcement notice served by New Forest District Council.
The notice had been serviced on Godfrey Wallis, of Home Farm, Boldre Grange, after complaints from neighbours about noise, traffic movements and fumes from the burning of garden rubbish.
