Back through the pages: Hampshire murdered railway worker

ANDOVER AND REDBRIDGE RAILWAY – CONSTRUCTION OF WORKS

We are pleased to find that the construction of the above railway is to be proceeded with at once, and that in the course of a few days, several hundred hands will be employed in its

formation. The contract has been taken by Mr Brotherhood, who is well-known as a first-class contractor, and who has executed railway works to a large extent for the Great Western Company. There is now a good hope that within a year this line, which has passed through such varied vicissitudes, will be open for traffic; and if the promoters of the Bills for the extensions at each end are successful in their applications during this session to Parliament, we believe the through line from Southampton to Newbury may be opened simultaneously with the Andover to Redbridge section, a cherished hope of many a long year.

CORRESPONDENCE

Sir: Having friends in the neighbourhood of Andover, my attention was drawn to a report in your paper of 21 February concerning a concert which took place at Vernham Dean. The insipidity of the report might pass unnoticed, but the concluding paragraph creates in me some little surprise. Pray what is the inference to be drawn from the following: ‘One thing worthy of notice was the exceedingly suitable and neat attire worn by the females of the choir, as well as the cheerful yet modest conduct of both sexes.’

First, is the assumption that those who kindly officiated in the choir, were not young ladies, but low chorus singers, who were more in the habit of presenting themselves on those occasions before an audience in an UNsuitable attire, and then, ‘the cheerful yet modest conduct of both sexes,’ would lead those who read such lines, to suppose that the modest behaviour of one sex towards the other, in that part of the county, was the exception and not the rule.

I should not have taken any notice of this, but it is so conspicuously obvious that future notices of such gatherings should, it is hoped, be in future committed to those who have more circumspection and integrity, and may be able to make some distinction between females and ladies. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, VIGILANS.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 8 MARCH 1901

MURDER OF A CLANVILLE MAN

Dr E Grace, coroner of Bristol, has held an inquiry concerning the death of a navvy, known among his colleagues as ‘Hampshire Slen.’ This man was shot dead under the following circumstances: Deceased, at the wish of his landlord’s wife, entered the landlord’s bedroom to take a revolver away from him after he had gone to bed. The landlord’s name was George Henry Everitt, a man between 50 and 60, who formerly lived at Shepton Mallet. After working for a short time on the new railway line he found a living more to his taste by becoming proprietor of a navvies’ hut, deceased being one of his lodgers. The new line is that of the Great Western Railway to provide a more direct route to London from South Wales. Deceased was a young fellow who had only recently been employed on the line, and was called Hampshire Slen by reason of his slender build. He has since been identified by his brother as Harry Waite of Clanville. George Hayden, in the course of his evidence said there was a quarrel on Monday between deceased and his landlord, Everitt.

No dispute occurred on Wednesday, but when witness and deceased came home at night Mrs Everitt asked them to take a revolver from her husband, to which deceased agreed. He went into Everitt’s bedroom and a shot was fired. Witness ran in and seized Everitt, but found the latter was too strong for him, and then ran out and fetched the doctor and police. Henry Pool and other witnesses said Mrs Everitt asked the lodgers to stay up with her because she was

frightened at her husband having a revolver. Everitt said the gun went off in a scuffle. A verdict of Wilful Murder was returned against Everitt, who was remanded in custody.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 5 MARCH 1926

THREE CANDIDATES FOR ONE SEAT AT TOWN COUNCIL ELECTIONS

A casual election to fill one vacancy on Andover Town Council, caused by the lamented death of Mrs Dorothy Hodgson, who was the junior councillor, will take place next Tuesday. There are three candidates and the polling booths will be at the same places as for previous elections. The names of the councillors are Alfred Ernest Daniel of ‘Summerfield’, 118 Millway Road, school master; Edwin Charles Lovell of 23 Hatherden, Andover, farmer; and Charles Ernest Peel, 47 Junction Road, Andover, Insurance superintendent.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 9 MARCH 1951

HURSTBOURNE VIADUCT REPAIRS

The repairs to the viaduct, which have been going on since last October, will be completed on Sunday and, commencing with the 7 am Yeovil to Waterloo and the 10.45 am Basingstoke to Salisbury, the train services will revert to their normal state. The repair work has involved the lowering of the track over the viaduct by some two feet, entailing the removal of 3,000 cubic yards of material and the strengthening of the arch spandrils with 800 cubic yards of lightweight concrete.

In addition, a continuous strip of 9ins thick reinforced concrete slab, over 400 feet long has been laid throughout the length of the viaduct. During the whole of the work, the viaduct has been kept open to traffic without any serious interruption to train services. The job has been carried out and completed ahead of programme, despite the bad weather, and reflects great credit on the men engaged who have had to work some 65 feet above ground in very exposed conditions.

FORTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 9 MARCH 1979

DEATH OF A FORMER GUNSMITH

A man who spent the whole of his working life in the same Andover gun shop has died in hospital at the age of 90 years. Mr Reginald Webb, who lived at Wool Grove, Andover, was apprenticed in 1905 at the age of 16 years to Mr E Chamberlain, whose gunsmith shop was on the corner of Winchester Street and Bridge Street. He was one of three brothers who were all tradesmen in the town –one a tailor and the other a hairdresser.

In his younger days, Mr Webb was a keen sportsman and a handy shot with a gun, taking part in game shoots on many farms and estates around Andover. He was always willing to give any sportsman advice on the handling of shotguns. When Mr Chamberlain died, Mr Webb continued to run the shop until he retired himself.

Before World War II, Mr Webb, on a sunny day, would have the workshop window open and one could see him working at his bench making guns. On a Friday, during market day, he would take orders for thousands of cartridges and sometimes within an hour he would have

taken enough orders for cartridge loading to keep the shop busy for the following week. During World War II he served as a special constable.