Kingsclere

A Bit Of My History and A Bit Of It’s History

I “grew up” in the Hampshire village of Kingsclere, where my mum was a teacher in the primary school. Here’s her first class, in 1950:

(lots of those faces ring bells 70 years later)

In 1950 care arrangements were few, so I went to school at 3 and a half, crawling around my Mum’s classroom. One day she was testing the kids’ reading (Old Lob cards). I asked her if I could be tested too! She humoured me and I could read!! (she loved telling that story)

By 1957 I was in Miss Holman’s (the headteacher) class:

1957 Kingsclere Primary School Miss Holman class (I’m second from right) (N=27)

Here’s my mum and her last class in 1972

1972 Kingsclere Primary School Mrs Watkins’ last class (N=27)

I then went on to secondary ”grammar” school in Basingstoke, as did my lovely sister Lyn.

Kingsclere is a village with history. See, for example:

https://kingsclereheritageassociation.wordpress.com/a-brief-history-of-kingsclere/

https://www.hugofox.com/community/kingsclere-heritage-association-6501/history-of-kingsclere/

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~langdongoff/history/whatsnew.html

This is often shown in buildings. For example there are 95 listed buildings in the parish.

I collected images of them (and uploaded them to British Listed Buildings)

Kingsclere-BLB-N95-sm.pdf (813 downloads)

Here’s a version that includes the listing text

Kingsclere-BLB-N95-with-listing.pdf (532 downloads)

I then put them together with the neighbouring parish of Ashford Hill and Headley – the two villages we had lived in previously – total 141!

Listed-Buildings-in-Neighbouring-parishes-SM-74pp.pdf (625 downloads)

and I’ve done a listing of Kingsclere buildings past and present – 57 with pics from nearly a century ago with their modern pics, plus four which are no longer with us.

Kingsclere-past-and-present.pdf (682 downloads)

But the past of buildings is no always clear – some have been “re-fronted”. Which ones? A collection of internal and external views may help.

Refronted-Kingsclere.pdf (534 downloads)

And also Hampshire County Council has 73 “Treasures” listed in Kingsclere. That made the basis of Gordon Timmins’ book. Here’s an illustrated version:

Timmins-2001-Kingsclere-illustr-2020-73ill-sm.pdf (752 downloads)

Postcards often give nice views. Here’s a collection of 94 from 1938 to 1969 by Frith’s (copyright expired)

Past-Postcards-N94-sm.pdf (1065 downloads)

a selection of postcards gives the story of Kingsclere’s trees

Kingscleres-Trees-Past-and-Present.pdf (395 downloads)

Kingsclere’s Albert Hall story

The-Albert-Hall-9pp-21ill.pdf (905 downloads)

Here’s a central feature: Kingsclere Stream and Mills

Kingsclere-Stream-and-Mills.pdf (808 downloads)

And here’s another extraordinary feature: 11 pubs

A-village-with-11-pubs.pdf (919 downloads)

plus some past views of St. Mary’s Church