SETTING THE SCENE

North Waltham as a village dates back at least a thousand years and has been home to countless people down the centuries. From its beginnings and until the Second World War, the majority of the community depended on the land for a living; those who were not directly employed in an agricultural capacity, were generally providers of the essential services required by a fanning community.

Its physical structure has altered little and geographical features are virtually unchanged. The fields are still here and whilst a few may have been altered in shape over time and some have been claimed recently for housing development, essentially they look much as they have always done.

The roads too are relatively unchanged: those giving access to housing developments are, of course new, but the original ones remain in daily use and are, for the most part, much as they always were. Level Lane and Fox Drove, both ancient trackways, survive, but are no longer used as thoroughfares along which sheep and cattle were driven to and from market. Today they provide access to adjoining fields and part of Level Lane is a designated footpath. A few original footpaths in the parish have been retained and these are now used mostly for recreational purposes, have been given "official" status and are protected by law. Most of the original paths have fallen out of use as their original purpose of providing short cuts over the countryside has diminished in the past half century.

Most of the hedgerows, especially those along the roadside have stood the test of time, although some between fields have been grubbed out to make ploughing and maintenance easier. However, in common with much of southern England the decimation of elm trees by the scourge of Dutch Elm disease has caused changes to the appearance of the village landscape in the past 40 years. Elms were very much a "country" tree, whether left to grow to full height within a hedge, or as stately specimens in the open countryside.

The fields and gardens are littered, as they have been since man first tilled the ground, with flints of all shapes and sizes. It is remarkable that with the tons removed over the centuries there are still so many left - indeed it seems as if they re-generate themselves and those which blunt spades today were responsible for breaking the first primitive ploughs!

It is the way people live that has altered so dramatically, especially during the past 50 years. The quality of life in the North Waltham of the 1990s, is light years away from the very real poverty experienced by most of its previous inhabitants. The development of nearby Basingstoke in the 1960s transformed job opportunities for those living in the surrounding rural communities, and this, combined with a national increase in the value of land and the multitude of other social changes, has produced an affluence and way of life far removed from this village's humble origins.

As with any radical change, some aspects of it are for the better and some are not so good. Whilst physical needs and comforts are immeasurably improved, it is arguable whether the solidity of the bond between fellow inhabitants is as strong now as it used to be. For example, today people tend not to walk in the village other than for a brief visit to the shop, to exercise the dog or enjoy a stroll on a sunny afternoon with visitors. People drive their cars to work outside the village as opposed to walking to the fields or their place of work within the parish boundaries, or, perhaps in a few cases, to a neighbouring one. Water comes from indoor taps rather than being drawn from a well shared by neighbours. Fetching water was always a sociable task. In rural areas, many women have always worked, but it would have been within, and in many cases, for the community rather than outside it. People knew and were dependent on each other and although there would have been squabbles and disagreements, their common need to survive, formed a unity and with it a "Comm - unity".

Some of the changes are less tangible. The village "smells" differently since its agricultural base has changed. Whilst people living in the country still enjoy(?) the occasional whiff of manure as it is spread or inhale the dust of grain being harvested, many countryside smells have either disappeared altogether or are masked by alien traffic lumes, crop sprays and the like.

The all pervasive smell of smoke is experienced infrequently now, perhaps being confined to the occasional barbecue, bonfire or for those who still have fireplaces, a log fire at the week-end. Fires would have burnt every day of the year and rooms, clothes and even people had an ingrained smoky smell. A chimney, winter and summer was rarely seen without smoke coming from it. As well as being used for warmth and light, fires had to heat every drop of hot water and to cook food. Convenience food was unheard of and eating out was only for travellers who could afford the luxury of eating at an inn.

The earliest labourers' houses did not even have chimneys but the smoke escaped as best it could through a special hole in the roof. In Tudor times, a house with a chimney carried a tax as it was assumed that with such a luxury, the inhabitants were sufficiently wealthy to be able to afford the extra payment. It was called the "Smokefarthing" Tax but was eventually repealed as the benefits of having a chimney became generally accepted.

Later, many cottages had a range installed where open fires had once stood, a "modern" invention which was appreciated greatly. Fuel is now delivered to the point of need, but before electricity was brought to the village in the l950s, most people gathered their wood for burning. Often it was wet, and had to be dried before it could be used. Before the introduction of the range, ovens were heated by "bavins", bundles of brushwood either gathered from common land or maybe bought from the woodman. Put directly into the oven, set alight and slowly burnt to heat it, the hot ash produced by the smouldering wood was brushed out again before the food was put in to be cooked. Bread, which required a high temperature was cooked first, then as the oven cooled other, slower cooking foods such as pies and meat were put in. Coal and paraffin were used too when they became available and were delivered by horse and cart before the days of motor transport. Of course the disadvantage of these fuels was that they had to be bought, wood generally came free. Gas, a cheaper form of heating and lighting which was available in the towns during Victoria's reign, is still to make an appearance in North Waltham.

The blacksmith's shop would have contributed the smell of hot metal and burning hoof which is particularly pungent. The smiths led busy lives and their establishments were a focal point in the community; the warmth produced in the forges making them especially popular in cold weather. A more appetising aroma came from the village bakeries and the malt house. The brewing of beer, boiling of washing and general domestic cooking smells all permeated the atmosphere as doors were generally left open unless the weather was especially bad. Ventilation in cottages was difficult and trying to keep unwanted smells out, whilst maintaining a comfortable temperature and a small degree of privacy within, was very hit and miss. Before the use of septic tanks, and still more recently, a sewerage system, perhaps the most obnoxious of all smells came from the "privies". When these were emptied, the contents were spread onto gardens, thus enriching the quality of home grown crops and the atmosphere at the same time!

The farm animals were kept in much more intimate conditions than today and sheep, pigs and poultry kept close to the centre of the village gave off their own characteristic smells. Most cattle grazed in the fields or on the common land, but an odd milking cow would be kept close to home. Sheep were kept in the churchyard in the seventeenth century and the following entry in the Churchwardens' Accounts is typical of many:

"It is agreed that Peter Biggs shall keepe the sheepe, being in Number xxii for one yeare more, paieing for the Hire of them Tenne shillings; Ande at the end of the said yeare to deliver the said sheepe or Fowre pounds nineteene shillings, for the Price of them, at the Choice of the Parishioners: as afore 1602, 1606, 1608, 1610, 1612."

The transactions concerning the sheep were second only in importance to the handing over of the Church property by outgoing to incoming Churchwardens from one year to the next. In 1613, the items handed over to Peter Biggs comprised:

"A communion cupp wth a cover of Silver. A Pulput cloth, three Table Clothes, Two peaces of Linnen, Two Quishions and a Linnen Bagg"

In medieval times pigs were taken to the woods to forage (this was called pannage). The pigs in the churchyard in 1765 were obviously uninvited guests. When the Rector made his report that year to the Bishop of Winchester he writes:

'The churchyard hath been very much incroached on, the graves trod in, and digged by hogs, owing to the neglect of Thomas Archer, or else of John Savage".

More recently pigs were kept at the bottom of gardens, and hens, geese and ducks, scratched about in yards, gardens, fields and on the roads. Animals around the village were commonplace, as was the evidence of their presence. This would have been especially so around the village ponds which were used as a source of drinking water for many of them. Village ponds and ditches with the mud and effluent that seeped into them were often smelly places, particularly during hot, dry spells.
Horses, which have their own peculiar odour, were constantly going back and forth pulling ploughs or carts for transporting things and people. A few fortunate residents kept a horse to ride as a means of personal transport, but only the wealthier members of the community such as the rector, the better off trades' people and a couple of gentlemen farmers could afford such a luxury.

The village would have "sounded" rather different too. Today, there is the background noise of aircraft, traffic and machinery as well as radios, televisions and a whole variety of domestic appliances. Although untroubled by these sounds, the former villagers would certainly not have lived a life of complete silence. As there were many more people around the village during the daytime, voices would have been heard talking, shouting, calling and laughing, especially those of children who, until the last century, had no school to go to. Animals were responsible for quite a lot of background noise. A cow bellowing for its calf, geese honking a warning, the crowing of a cock at dawn, hens cackling when they have laid an egg, and sheep baaing for reasons known only to themselves, can all create a considerable din. The North Waltham rooks whose raucous calls are still part of the village scene today, created a backdrop to the rest of the animal orchestra.

The road surfaces were dreadful: muddy when it was wet, dusty when dry, the ringing of cart wheels and horses hooves on the flints must have been heard a long way off. In bad weather, poor women wore pattens, a sort of overshoe with a raised metal sole to keep their feet out of the mud; men's and children's boots had nails or studs on them to help prolong wear and as they walked on the rough stones these added to the general clamour. Another metallic sound was the clang on the anvil in the smith's workshop hour after hour regardless of the season. The clank of water pails as people went backwards and forwards to the wells countless times a day, together with the noise of buckets hitting the sides of the very deep wells and the winding of the windlasses drawing them up and down added to the cacophony. Hammering, banging and sawing were familiar sounds too as new buildings were put up or older ones repaired or replaced. The church in particular was constantly undergoing maintenance and its bells would have been heard more frequently than today.

These are just a few of the many ways in which past and present can be compared and contrasted. For older people who grew up here or in similar villages, and who have lived through the more recent changes, these comparisons may bring back one or two glimpses of the past, whilst those who are younger or who have little experience of what a working, agricultural community was like, may perhaps gain some insight into daily life in a place such as this. Many of the happenings which appear in North Waltham's records on which this view of the village is based, were common to many other parishes. However, by taking a closer look, only a little imagination is needed to come to a greater understanding of what people in this particular village experienced; history is put into a more personal perspective. It is the people who made their homes in this particular village and lived all or some of their lives here who have shaped its past and have helped to mould it into the North Waltham of today.

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First Posted March 2000
Copyright © Ann Lloyd 1998.
Acknowledgements