As touched on in a previous article, Woodlands probably became a section of the nearby Basing Park Estate in the 1880s. The estate owner, William Nicholson d.1909, was responsible for the building of so many of the buildings that still cover 8,446 acres of the former estate. Having bought Basing Park in October 1864 for £67,000, William Nicholson expanded the estate by over four times its original size, eventually encompassing Woodlands.
However, as with many estates of this size, when William Nicholson died in 1909, his son, William Graham Nicholson, inherited it, and needed to pay heavy death duties as a result. In 1913, following the departure of farm manager Matthew Williamson, Woodlands Farm was let to Francis Arthur Baring. William Graham Nicholson later remarked that “he could not help thinking they had been very fortunate in obtaining an excellent tenant in Mr Baring, and especially fortunate for the reason that Mr Baring had taken on all who had formerly been employed on the estate” (Hants and Sussex News, October 1913).
The 17th century farmhouse at Woodlands became the Baring home, following alterations in 1914 by Francis Hayward Floyd of Newbury, and there they raised two children, Francis and Anne. At that time, Woodlands was a thriving country hamlet, equipped with a chapel and a school. The Three Horseshoes public house also operated here, but this had closed in 1903. The Woodlands Infant School was situated in the house now known as School Cottage. It had been in existence since at least the 1890s. Miss Jessie Smith was the last headmistress of the Woodlands Infant School. She first lived at Pursers (then a farm) and was later employed by the estate for teaching the children at Woodlands School, where she lived. Beginning education at the age of four, the Woodlands children stayed until they were seven, before going on to the school at West Meon.
Each year the children of Woodlands were treated by the estate at the annual Harvest Home, which had been described as the red-letter day for the estate workers. The event was held at Basing Park, with the children from Woodlands arriving in a wagon. The children were gifted a bun, or an orange, or some toys, which would often be accompanied by a big piece of cake.
In 1942, following the death of William Graham Nicholson, the Basing Park Estate once again suffered because of heavy death duties, resulting in it being sold in 1944 to the Earl Fitzwilliam, of Wentworth Woodhouse. Supposedly, Fitzwilliam decided to buy it as an investment, and the following year, began to split the estate up. Each tenant was given first refusal on the farms, and as a result, Woodlands and Upper House Farms were purchased by Francis Arthur Baring, who was then the 4th Baron Northbrook. By that time, Baring had moved to Pursers, which he had purchased in 1930. He bought what had been described as an “old fashioned house with 70 acres”, and later extended an already commodious structure to have a total of 17 bedrooms, walled gardens, staff accommodation, and several outbuildings.
From the outbreak of the Second World War, many of the farms in the local area struggled with their day to day running due to there being fewer employees. There was a prisoner of war camp at Brockwood Dean, and it is likely that some of the Italians held there would have been sent to work at Woodlands. Francis Arthur Baring notably purchased 240 cigarettes for the Italian prisoners from a nearby shop, simply because he felt sorry for them.
By 1945 the Woodlands School had closed, and was left to deteriorate, until 1968 when it went into private ownership. The Woodlands Chapel had also been sold in 1942, to Baron Willoughby de Broke, who later gifted it in 1949 to West Meon Parochial Church Council. As detailed by the late Ray Stone in two West Meon Parish News articles (and now formally transcribed into a book by his daughter Lorraine), life at Woodlands under the Barings was largely pleasant. At Christmas time, the men of Woodlands would receive a joint of beef, the ladies two tins of sugar and two tins of tea, and the children had pullovers for the boys and dresses for the girls. Woodlands also had (since at least the 1930s) its own cricket team and pitch in a field adjacent to Upper House Farm.
Pursers was a private home until September 1940, when the house was utilised for use of a hostel for about 60 elderly ladies from Portsmouth and Southampton. It became known as the “Pursers Hostel” and played host to several fetes and garden parties, in order to raise money for it. Pursers was later sold in about 1949, when Frances and Nicholas Gold became the next residents. The house had been purchased by Frances’ mother Noel Theodore Russell, and the couple moved in in February 1949.
Nicholas Gold (also known as Klaus Barth) had been a German parachutist during the Second World War. In 1947, he had failed to return to the camp in Somerset where he was being held. He had been given the job of whitewashing the ceilings of nearby Beckington Abbey, and following a period of searching, the authorities appear to have given up. Frances Russell was then living at the Abbey with her parents, who had bought it in 1946. Suspicions arose when a housekeeper noticed that in the time following Barth’s escape, Frances would have two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners sent up to her, despite the fact that there were only three people in the household. Mrs Isabel Boyle, who worked at Beckington, later revealed that one day, when delivering the meals to Frances’ room, it was Barth that answered the door. Mrs Boyle recognised him as the escaped prisoner. Frances’ mother Noel had been previously introduced to Barth as her daughter’s fiancé, and in July 1947, the couple were married and later had a baby. Barth was notably introduced to visitors as the son of a Danish princess, or also as an “Irishman with a Gaelic accent”. In 1949, both Frances and her mother Noel had been each charged £75 for harbouring a German prisoner of war. The couple’s time at Pursers was short-lived, as the house was sold just a year later in 1950, perhaps owing to the couple’s story and address being reported on in various newspapers of the time.
While these are only small snippets of Woodlands’ history, I hope it sheds some light on the interesting, and important story of this small Hampshire hamlet.
Thomas Carpenter,
Bramdean