News and Views
| Ottershaw Village
Brox Road |
Bousley Rise
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Ottershaw Village has an excellent web site offering
information about all aspects of
village life. There is a page for 'News' items
and a 'Forum' for discussion of topics
anyone cares to raise as well as details of all
community services, doctors, schools
etc. Lots of information. Click on www.ottershaw-village.net
to see for yourself.
We are very grateful to Robert Brown, who runs the Ottershaw Village
site, for his
help and advice with the Ottershaw Society website.
Swings at the Recreation
Ground
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Christ Church
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Christ Church, Ottershaw . Times
of services and all the activities of the church
areshown in great detail on their web site. Look
at www.ottershawchurch.com
for information.
Links to other Ottershaw Groups and
individuals
Ottershaw Players. www.ottershawplayers.co.uk
Ottershaw Cricket Club. www.ohmcc.wanadoo.co.uk
Jim Gallimore, painter and sculpter, supplied the pictures of
the trees on our
home page. Find out more about Jim. www.jamesgallimore.co.uk
Village Shopping
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Ottershaw Village Hall
Brook Hall has provided a focal point for the village
of Ottershaw for nearly 80 years.
The Hall and the land surrounding it were given,
in 1930, to the Parochial Church
Council of the parish of Ottershaw in memory of
the Reverend Arthur Brook by his
widow and daughter. The original building was
destroyed by fire in the early 1940s
and the present building was erected soon after
the Second World War. It has been
extended and altered over the years and has always
been well used by the local
community. It is now beginning to show its age
and needs fundamental improvements
to ensure its continued use and to meet the changing
legal requirements.
A new charity called 'Ottershaw Village Hall' has
been set up recently to manage the
Hall. Its trustees are required to promote and
coordinate the day-to-day running of the
Hall and to organise and oversee the refurbishment
of the Hall. Planned improvements
include new toilets, heat and sound insulation,
rewiring, modernising and extending the
kitchen, new windows and external doors as well
as improvements to the stage and
backstage area. It is planned to upgrade the Hall
through a series of projects, disrupting
the normal use of the Hall as little as possible.
The refurbishment plans, and the fundraising required
to enable them, will require the
support of the village and will ensure that Brook
Hall can continue to be a valuable
asset to the local community. The new management
committee welcomes any input
to their plans and will be very happy to discuss
the renovation proposals.
The Chairman, Peter Williams, can be contacted
on 01932 872692 or 07881 628 139.
Progress on the improvements to Brook Hall
will be reported on this page.
Ottershaw Society has made generous donations to
the development fund.
'Notable Ottershavians'
Here we commemorate the work of persons who have contributed
in various ways to the community of Ottershaw.
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Harold James Macklin
Stratton, better known to his friends as 'Mac',
came to live in Ottershaw in 1959 at 'Langtons' on the Guildford
Road. He was an ear, nose and throat surgeon, a fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh, and worked as
a consultant at Hounslow West, Ashford and Woking Nuffield
hospitals.
Apart from his work as a well respected surgeon, his interests
in local history and the environment involved him in many
societies such as the Georgian, the Garden History, the
Royal Horticultural, National Trust and the Brooklands Society
(which he helped to revive). He drove a Bugatti and went
on the continent to rallies. |
'The Parish News' of September 2001, on which much of
this note is based, records that he and Joan, his wife,
used to hold numerous garden parties on behalf of Christ
Church, Ottershaw, the Children's Society and other charities.
They were keen gardeners, tending to some five acres, and
Joan could often be seen busy with her bees and hives complete
with netting as protective head gear.
'Mac' published two books, 'Chertsey and Addlestone
in the Past' (1980) and then in 1990 'Ottersaw
through the Ages'. Both are now out of print unfortunately,
but can be seen in the Surrey History centre, Goldsworth
Road, Woking, and at The Chertsey Museum. He collaborated
extensively with another local historian, the late Mr Bernard
Pardoe, and from their work and unpublished notes Mrs Hannah
Lane has taken up the tradition of researching and recording
our local history. Her survey and extensive photographic
record can also be seen in the Surrey History Centre.
The photograph shown here of 'Mac' was taken at The Manor,
Foxhills Golf Club which hosted a reception for the Ottershaw
Society presentation of the Ottershaw Historical Map which
had been drawn by Mick Stride and is still available.
I am indebted to Hannah Lane for reference material and
the Mrs Mary Pashley, editor of 'Parish News'.
Reg Taylor |
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He
was born and grew up in South Wales, and his chosen career was the regular
Army. The training for this started at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and then the Army sent him
to King’s College Cambridge, where he studied mathematics
and engineering, as well as drawing pleasure and inspiration
from hearing the famous choir at close range.
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Eighteen
months before the outbreak of World War II, at the age of 22,
he joined an Engineer Corps of the Indian Army and was closely
involved with Muslim, Hindu and Sikh soldiers. As well as military
and engineer training there were opportunities for sport – he
enjoyed playing hockey on the very fast pitches of baked mud –
and for trekking in the Himalayas. In 1939 he did a two-month walk through
the remote province of Ladakh, and after the War he had a trip to the Hindu Kush, glimpsing the River Oxus
and the high Pamirs.
His
work was combat engineering, such as clearing obstacles, supplying
water, and building roads through mountainous jungle. War service
took him to the Western Desert, to East Africa including the Battle of Keren
where he was wounded, and later to the Arakan
in Burma. Here he was awarded the Military Cross
for organizing the transport of an infantry brigade across a river
over two successive nights, driving one ferry himself under artillery
and machine-gun fire. He saw many casualties on both sides, and
learned at first hand the suffering caused by war and the need
to do all we can to abolish it. On the partition of India in 1947 he opted to serve in Pakistan, was involved with the foundation of the
School of Military Engineering at Sialkot, and acted as Chief Instructor there. Among later
appointments he was a Field Engineer with the Indian Army force
in Iraq, finding in Basra buildings constructed by the Royal Engineers
in the First World War thirty years before. He also commanded
the Fortress Engineer Regiment in Gibraltar, was Chief Engineer of the British Army
in Malaya, and commanded all Royal Engineer units
in Singapore. During that posting, we saw Somerset Maugham
at the Raffles Hotel, and our son Tom was born in the Military Hospital. We came home on one of the last troop-ships.
There were also desk jobs, including being secretary of a War
Office committee looking into modern management techniques and
their military application.
After
he retired from the Army, he had a second career for twenty years
employed by engineering consultants on industrial planning studies,
mainly in developing countries. In the course of that he filled
in some bits of his personal world map that had been left blank
by the Army, travelling in Ethiopia, Algeria, West Africa and Argentina.
During
the time between trips abroad and after his second retirement
he was churchwarden, with Jack Brotherwood,
for eight years, with some years before and afterwards on the
Parochial Church Council. He saw many changes in the parish and
had a hand in several projects which have come to fruition. He
was the first archivist of Christ Church, and compiled a detailed account of its
history. This was published on the Church’s 125th birthday in
1989, and was revised and updated by Pam Brush in 2004, and given
a fine epilogue. In 1989 and 1996 there were plans to build on
parts of the Recreation Ground (which was given as a war memorial).
With others and after considerable research, he helped to resist
these.
He
always enjoyed a good party, and some people may remember evidence
of his sense of fun at one Harvest Festival Supper: David and
Jack, in furs and woad, gave a stirring performance of the Ancient British scout
song ‘What’s the use of wearing braces,’ to the tune of Men of
Harlech.
As
one of his colleagues in the Bengal Sappers and Miners wrote,
‘We shall greatly miss the modesty, kindness and courtesy of this
remarkable man whom so many both admired and respected.’
Picture
shows David starting our younger son Rhys on his career in mechanical
engineering.
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Mary Fitzhugh. Mary Pleasant
Ormiston was born on the 17th May 1914 at 135 Sheen
Road, Richmond, Surrey, the first child of Philip Herbert
Ormiston, wire manufacturer, and Dorothy Ormiston nee Nicholes.
Mary was the oldest of four children. When she was not yet
nine years old the family suffered a terrible blow when her
father died suddenly from septicaemia at the age of 48. Mary
and her sister Jill were sent to boarding school which she
loved and of which she had very fond memories. On leaving
school, Mary went to work in the family wire-drawing business
in Clerkenwell Road, in London’s East End, but the most significant
and life-changing event of her early life occurred in 1932
when, at the age of 18, she went with a school friend on a
guided tour of Scotland,
her first holiday without the family. The tour began at Fort
William and it was there that she was much taken with the
tour guide – Terrick FitzHugh. |
To ensure that he made contact with her after the tour
she deftly dropped her handkerchief out of the train window
onto the platform as the train steamed away on its journey
south. After a courtship of five years
and she eventually married Terrick at Shepperton church in September 1937, travelling to the reception
by boat. Her mother was living at Dunally. The Thames was always an integral part of her
life – her brother Jack and several nephews rowed at the
Henley Regatta.
She and Terrick made their first home in Richmond on Thames
and, having also left the wire business, she became a student
teacher at the Old Vicarage School on Richmond Hill. After
the second World War started and
Vara had been born, they returned to the Shepperton area and made their home at Rest Harrow, in Upper
Halliford, moving to Fernleigh,
Manygate Lane, Shepperton
in 1948.
During the Second World War, while Terrick was serving
in the RAF, Mary, then with two small children, was left
at home. She became a welfare officer for Land Girls in
1942. Four land girls had been recruited to work at the
Halliford French Gardens (now
Squires) opposite Rest Harrow and one was billeted with
Mary. They all joined in social evenings there – reading
plays etc, carol singing, producing a play for the Village
children at Christmas and many other things to help during
the war. The girls would baby sit for Vara and Ticky
and were well rewarded with tea and cakes. Mary also lent
her wedding dress to one or two land girls, a very welcome
offer because one had to give up valuable ration coupons
for a dress.
But looking after land girls was not enough. Mary was a
staunch member of Halliford Women’s
Institute, and became County Drama Adviser for the Middlesex
WI Federation, directing plays for the WI over many years.
Her interest in drama had developed early - in 1934, she
had been a founder member of the Richmond Shakespeare Society
to which she returned as a guest of honour at their 65th
birthday celebration in 1999.
In 1944, very close to the end of the war, a chance meeting
with a lady swimming in the Thames led to a lifelong friendship,
a teaching post for more than 30 years and early education
for two generations of FitzHugh and Williams children. For
that swimmer was Audrey Kaye, proprietor of Danesfield School in Walton-on-Thames. Mary taught drama
at the school and introduced many children including her
own and her grandchildren to performing.
She helped to found the Shepperton
Players, for whom she acted and directed. Open Air Shakespeare
in Manor Park was a yearly institution, always directed
by Mary. Rehearsals would be held in her garden and the
casts were dressed from her extensive collection of period
clothes which was housed in her home.
When she moved to Ottershaw in 1962, Mary, quite naturally,
became involved with the Ottershaw Players. The costume
wardrobe expanded with the extra space at Meath Cottage,
drama societies and individuals passing to her costumes
which she cared for and hired out.
Politically, Mary leaned to the left, at one time standing
for election as a Labour councillor in Shepperton
– she didn’t get in. Terrick probably influenced her; he
for a while in the 30s was an intellectual Communist and
subscribed to the Left Book Club, and when first married,
they belonged to the Unity Theatre. In later life she supported
the Liberal Democrats. Although she often said, “I could
have had many more friends, had I been a Conservative”,
she remained true to her ideals and had many good friends
from all parts of the political spectrum.
Mary retired from Danesfield in 1979. So she had to find more to fill her time.
What did she do? She created the Runnymede Arts Association,
became its first Chairman, retiring in 1990 when she was
made President and honorary life member. Her work for the
Arts in Runnymede was recognised in 1983 by an award from
Surrey County Council.
She also kept busy with her craft group that met every
week at Meath Cottage and her poetry group. For her 90th
birthday the craft group presented her with an
embroidery depicting her life.
Mary and Terrick were happily married for 53 years. She
felt Terrick was her mentor, always very knowledgeable and
a real gentleman. On leaving the RAF after the war, he
entered the film industry and became a director of documentaries.
After he retired, he could devote more time to his life-long
hobby of genealogy, having several successful books about
family history published and embarking on writing his own
family history dating back to the 14th century. In 1989,
he was awarded the gold medal on the Society of Heraldic
and Genealogical Studies. He also started a magazine called
“The Amateur Historian” which was professionally distributed
for several years. Terrick died in 1990. They had three
children, Vara, Terrick and Nigel. When Mary died in 2005
she left four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Tragically, her son Terrick, also a talented actor, died
when only 50 years of age in 1992. Vara followed her mother
in becoming a drama teacher, pursuing amateur drama as her
hobby and becoming a member of the Board of Trustees of
Hampshire WIs.
Mary was very influential in the local drama festivals
in Spelthorne and Woking. When old age prevented her taking
an active part, the organisers would send her free tickets
to the festivals and Mary loved attending every evening
that she could, and especially discussing the plays afterwards
in the bar. Quite often she hosted the adjudicators at
Meath Cottage and most of those who had enjoyed Mary’s hospitality
remained great friends with her. She was a larger than
life character and had the gift of making and keeping friends
wherever she went. She is well remembered and sadly missed
in Ottershaw.
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