How it all began....
Our project started in the year 2000 with a school photo sent in to Heather Hailey of the Daily Echo's " Snapshots of the Past" by Hazel.
At the suggestion of one of the "old girls" a very successful reunion for the school was organised with the help of Nicky as part of the Kinson Village Millennium celebrations. We displayed several photos of the village and some memorabilia relating to the school that had been loaned by an old teacher, Mr.Windell who attended the reunion with his wife who had been the PT teacher at Kinson School in the 1940's, she was Miss Webb in those days.
One of the " old girls" wrote to the papers saying how good it had been and how much everyone enjoyed the old pictures.This was when Hazel decided to carry on collecting as many pictures as she could, at first to do with the school, then the village and latterly of local families that have been in the village for many generations.
These pictures were exhibited at some Local History events and then the Kinson Community Centre launched their monthly table top sale in aid of local clubs and groups. We asked if we could show the pictures and they were most enthusiastic, allowing us to use the whole stage. Our great problem at that time was having to borrow display boards, this meant that we could not arrange any events and be certain that we would be in a position to display any photographs if the owner of the boards needed them.
It was at this point that a friend suggested that we should apply for some funding and told us about the Help the Aged Citizens Action Millennium Awards funded by the Millennium Commission, so we applied and asked for money to buy two display boards and something for general running costs. This was where Valerie joined the team. When Help the Aged said they would supply a computer we asked " Could it be a laptop so that we could set up a slide show of scanned photos to take to home bound old folk who would not be able to visit the exhibition ?" We were lucky, they liked our idea and we obtained all the items that we needed.
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Smugglers Wain
This superb work by David Harbott at the rear of the Kinson Hub was completed on 24th July 2010. It comprises mainly of photos taken from Hazel's collection.
David is pictured here with Hazel.
In 1949 my family moved to Kinson and my late sister Valerie, aged 9 and I, Hazel(Stone), aged 8, went to Kinson Junior School until we were 11years old.
We were both in the same class until we left and went to the senior school. At that time the headmistress was Miss Ward. We very much enjoyed being at the school and being involved in school sports. My best friends were Nicky Cole and Jackie Davy. Occasionally we went to Pelhams for nature study, collecting leaves and fir cones and taking them back to school to draw. The things I remember about Kinson itself were the flower show when we saved up to buy the plants, flowers and craft items and in particular Pavey’s bakery as they sold lovely bread, hot cross buns and lardy cakes.
When I was 13 I did a paper round for Smith’s in Kinson and delivered them up to Bear Cross. At weekends we went to watch my father and brother Bill play cricket.
Other weekends we went to Longham to have a picnic and fish in the river. We also bathed in the river in the summer.
Because I enjoyed my school days so much I started the “Kinson School and Village Memories” project with my late husband Martin and it has proved very successful in reuniting many old school friends, including children who were evacuated to Kinson School from Southampton.
I was very lucky to get Lottery funding to get started. This project is still ongoing and I am always looking for new photographs to add to my collection. I often have exhibitions of these photographs on display boards in the main corridor at Kinson Community Centre, also in their café, and display them in their main hall whenever they have their “Table top sales”.
I also supplied most of the photographs for the large montage at the back of the Kinson Hub. I have also loaned pictures to a lot of people that have written local history books. My displays have also been shown at local fetes, church halls, day centres, flower shows and many more events.
It is my full intention to keep this project going as long as possible.
Hazel Thorby.
Hazel is pictured above receiving her grant from the Hall & Woodhouse Community Chest Awards on 23rd September 2011.The grant will be used to purchase a projector, projector table and screen.
Of the 177 applications, 27 were successful.