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This article written by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine in February and March 2021 After our recent articles celebrating the works of various past illustrious male residents of Thursley, including an architect, a composer and an artist, it is high time we turned our attention to one of the most distinguished ladies that has had the pleasure of calling Thursley home. This month and next, we delve into the imaginary world of children’s author and naturalist, Monica Edwards. Part 1 is about her early life and how she arrived in Thursley. Part 2, next month, will be focusing on her career and latter years. Monica Edwards (née Monica le Doux Newton; 8 November 1912 – 18 January 1998) was an children's writer of the mid-twentieth century, best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels. She was born in Belper, Derbyshire, the third of four children born to the Reverend Harry and Beryl Newton. In 1927, when Monica was 15, the family moved to Rye Harbour in Romney Marsh, Sussex, where Harry Newton remained as vicar until 1936. Her formal education was fragmented and she spent a lot of her time on the Marsh, observing fishing boats, sheep shearing, sailing with fishermen and riding shepherd’s ponies. In later years she was able to use this experience to good effect when writing her “Marsh” and “Punchbowl Farm” books. Among the people Monica met at about this time was Bill Edwards, a young man some ten years her senior. He lived principally in Rye, but spent most of his summers in a fishing hut on Camber Sands. Amongst other things, he and Monica shared a surprising interest in, and aptitude for, gymnastics! They appeared performing a balancing act in festivals in Hastings and Battle, and even appeared on picture postcards. Perhaps this was at the root of parental disapproval of the liaison. Certainly, there was a point at which her father forbade her to see Bill again until she was twenty-one. Monica accepted the dictum, but on her twenty first birthday, she returned to the precise spot on Camber Sands where she and Bill had parted, to find him waiting for him. Parental opposition was duly removed, and they married two days later. They remained married for over fifty years until Bill’s death in 1990. How wonderfully romantic! By 1947, Bill and Monica were living in Send and now had two children, Shelley and Sean. Monica, by this point, had had a couple of books published and this allowed them to think about buying a larger family home. Various properties were looked at and rejected, and eventually Monica attended the auction of Pitlands Farm, Thursley, more in a spirit of idle curiosity than with any serious intent to buy. She put in a single bid, because the price seemed so pitiably low, and, to her astonishment, found that she had bought it! Thus, began the family’s life in Thursley. This photograph, from the Estate of Monica Edwards, is a view of the farm before they moved there. It is very similar to that shown in Whittam's drawing below. When they arrived, the house had no electricity, no mains water, no sewage. Water was wound up from the well, a privy was placed at a discrete distance from the house and baths were taken courtesy of a friend. The house dates from 1332. The Edwards’ changed the name of the farm and many of you will recognise this early photo of it as Punchbowl Farm, at the top of Highfield Lane, now the home of the Scheffers family. In older Ordinance Survey maps, the farm still retains its original name. Its location is shown in Geoffrey Whittam's illustration from Monica’s book, “Black Hunting Whip ” . Here the farm is being approached from the village down the sunken lane. Behind the farm is the barn and beyond, Barn Field rises to the left to meet the other sunken lane. This later picture, taken by Monica Edwards in 1953, shows the approach to the house from the farm gate (Bill is on the right). By this time the chimney on the right-hand part of the house, visible in the earlier photograph, had been dismantled by Bill. This was the kitchen chimney in the oldest part of the house and it was in a precarious state. For some years, until it was rebuilt, the smoke from the range exited through a pipe in the roof. Just visible in the end wall of the older wing, where a part of the house has long since fallen, is the window put in for the bathroom. The bathroom was created partly from chimney space and in part a 'Priest's Hole'. From the Surrey Daily Advertiser, May 31st - June 1st, 1974 Anyone lucky enough to have read “The Unsought Farm” will be familiar with the absorbing story of how the Edwards family gradually renovated the house and land, and took to farming. It was in a terrible state when they bought it. The land was derelict and the house scarcely less so. Plainly, the land was not going to generate much income for some time to come, and this was the necessary spur to start Monica’s literary career. Her first two books, “Wish for a Pony “and “No Mistaking Corker”, were published before their arrival in Thursley. And so, for the next twenty-five years she continued to write steadily, publishing one, and sometimes, two books a year. To be continued…………. Acknowledgements: Thank you to V K Lindley for the account of Monica’s life in Thursley. The Monica Edwards website http://www.monicaedwards.co.uk/ Sean Edwards, son and Thursley resident. Monica Edwards at work at her desk in Punch Bowl Farm

Photographs from a display board created by the History of Thursley Society See also The Fosberry Family Tree entry

Photographs from a display board created by the History of Thursley Society, See also The South African (Boer) War entry on the Fosberry windows in St Michael and All Angels. William Karn Fosberry, born 1816, died 1883 aged 67 Charles, Albert and Alice

Article written by Jackie Rickenberg for the Thursley Parish Magazine, September 2023, about Joan Pearl Wolfe, 19, known as the 'Wigwam Girl' which inspired the name of the case Joan Pearl Wolfe at 19 This month there is a very long overdue memorial service taking place in the churchyard. At the same time a memorial stone will be erected, identifying the currently unmarked grave of Joan Pearl Wolfe, murdered on Hankley Common on 7th October 1942 at the age of 19 years old. Joan’s relatives will be attending as well as members of Thursley History Society and other interested villagers are invited to attend. Joan’s story is a complex and complicated one but it is summarised below: Joan was not local to Surrey. She grew up in Tunbridge Wells and attended Mark Cross Convent School, paid for by a wealthy aunt. She had a troubled upbringing, her father committed suicide when she was 7, her mother soon remarried and then Joan found her stepfather dead on the kitchen floor, again her mother remarried shortly afterwards. She ran away from home when she was 16 and lived a nomadic life, occasionally staying with a Thursley resident, Kate Hayter, whom she had befriended. At this point in the war, Canadian troops were based nearby and Joan met a French-Canadian soldier named August Sangret, a year older than Joan. He also, had had a troubled past. Throughout the 1930’s, August accrued an extensive criminal record, which included violent assault, threatening to shoot a woman and numerous convictions for vagrancy and theft. He was regularly unemployed before he enlisted to serve in the Battleford Light Infantry in 1935. Joan and August first met in a pub in Godalming on 17th July 1942. The pair had a dysfunctional relationship over the next two months. Joan had nowhere to live, so after their second meeting, they returned to Houndown Woods near Thursley and near August’s barracks, where he built her a wigwam shelter for Joan. This hideout led to the naming of the eventual crime.  After the destruction of a second shelter by the army, August broke into the Thursley cricket pavilion, where Joan lived for a few nights before disappearing on 14th September. August had a partial alibi for that night and made half-hearted attempts to investigate her disappearance. He had, after all, promised to marry her and gone as far as applying for permission to wed from his commanding officer. Joan’s writing on the wall of the cricket pavilion – “Somewhere in Canada with you” On 7th October, two marines patrolling the wood noticed what appeared to be a hand protruding from a mound. They informed the authorities who excavated Joan’s body. Primarily based on evidence from the known relationship between Joan and August, he was eventually arrested and tried for her murder. Fifty-three witnesses were called for the prosecution (including many well-known Thursley characters including Kate Hayter aka “The Witch of Thursley”, who lived in The Bungalow at Pitch Place and William Featherby, who lived in The Bungalow, Thursley and was known as Mr Thursley), whereas August was the sole witness for his defence. Hardly surprisingly, the jury found him guilty under the circumstances, but they urged the judge to show leniency in sentencing. Mr Justice Macnaghten ignored this request, put on the black cap and condemned August to hang. Joan Wolfe was buried on 8th January 1943 in the churchyard in an unmarked grave by the Rev. H. Gordon French, vicar. August was hanged on 24th April 1943, despite an appeal and the jury’s refused request for leniency being reported to the Home Secretary, who choose to uphold the judge’s sentence. He was buried in a mass grave at Wandsworth prison. Brookwood Military Cemetery records his name on their wall of honour, as having died in service- the Canadian Army had not discharged him before his execution, so officially, he was one of their war dead. The memorial makes no mention of the circumstances in which he died. These passages were taken from “Tales from a Country Churchyard” by Guy J. Singer, available directly from him on www.GuyJ.Singer.com or from Amazon. Guy published his book in 2022 and it’s a fascinating record and insight into the graves and memorials in the churchyard and the sometimes-lost stories of the people at rest there. I would thoroughly recommend it and in it you can read the story of Joan and August in much more detail than I am able to reproduce here. So, there you have it. A sad tale of two vulnerable people and the strange twists of fate that led them both to spend the last few months of their lives together in Thursley. As mentioned above, until now, Joan’s remains have lain in an unmarked grave. Her family and the church wanted to put that right and as a result, generous donations have paid for a headstone for her, which will be erected and celebrated at a service in the churchyard on 28th September 2023. From Surrey Live, 27th December 2022: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/nostalgia/surrey-wigwam-murder-unique-british-25778274 There is also an extensive entry on August Sangret in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Sangret And a book by M J Trow:

This article by Rosemary Stockdale was published in the Parish Magazine When war broke out on 1st September 1939 life changed overnight for Poland and all her people. One such person was Janina Macsimowich (later Kot). The first 2 ½ years were spend avoiding working for the Germans but in March 1942 she was called up and sent to work in a fish processing factory in Cuxhaven where conditions were extremely hard. In summer of 1943 she was snet to work on a farm outside Cuxhaven due to shortage of fish. After the Summer she returned to the fish factory a cycle repeated in 1944 and was there in May 1945 when Cusxhaven was relieved by the British. Her husband to be J Kot was 20 when the Germans invaded Poland on 1st September 1939 which was followed, 2 weeks later, by Russian Red Army invading from the East. A few months later 13th April 1940 the family was forced out of their home and boarded a Kattle wagon, classified as a ‘Dangerous Element’ on a journey east that took nearly a month, part on the transsiberian railway, to reach their destination of Kustanay from where lorries took 25 families including children and elderly to state farms, in isolated villages on Russian steppes, about 50 miles away called Worobiowka. The local villagers, deported from Ukraine in 1935 welcomed them and they started in their new hard rural life. In summer of 1941 the Germans invaded the Soviet Republic and all young and not so young men were conscripted into the Soviet Republic army to work for victory. In winter of 1941 the , US entered the war, alarming Stalin and negotiations started to via Polish diplomats to release Polish people from prisons and camps to create a polish army. However Russians did not have arms, tenrs or food so after the amnesty Brisitsh and Americans agreed with Russia to take Polish people from Russia to Middle East. In January 1942 they were conscripted by Russia to join the Polish army and eventually arrived in Pah-Levi in Persia (Iran) in April 1942 and then Tehran and then onto a training camp near Bagdad and onto Palestine in May ’42 and Suez Canal. With situation improving in North Africa the army decided to send some 15,000 soldiers to South Africa to recuperate. The ’Mauretania’ transported Kot, in great comfort, to Durban and by train to Natal where they were pampered with food and drink for 3 months. Then the US and British armies started to prepare for the invasion of Europe and after months at sea Kot arrived in Grenock, Scotland. From there he was sent to Berwick and joined the newly created 1st Polish Armed Division in Light Anti Aircraft Artillery. After a brief holiday touring the Highlands, he was sent with his division and their guns to defend Tilbury Docks. After successful Normandy landings he then went by boat to Normandy and fought his way through France, Belgium and Holland where they spend the winter of 1944 – 45 waiting for the US armies to successfully cross the Rhine and start their push across Germany. In March 45 Kot entered Germany with no passport and successfully occupied the Nestfollen Zone for 2 full years until 1947. The Geneva Convention prevented them from repaying their enemies for the atrocities Kot and his country men had suffered under them. In April 1947 Kot sailed to the Uk and joined Polish Resettlement Corps (P.R.C.) and was snet to Tweedsmuir camp in May 1947. He had met his future wife Janina previously in a Displaced Persons Camp who after the war was then sent to work in the Cotton Mills. In 1948 they were married in Bury Lancs and then returned to Tweedsmuir Camp, Thursley to start their married life. When their children were born Kot went to London to find work and for next 30 years worked night shifts at Heinz. On retirement, following a partial stroke, he came back to live in Thursley, the village he had fallen in love with, to enjoy life with his wife, children and grandchildren.

Photographs, please! The central focus for the year was the Jubilee weekend in June 2002 which began with a classical music concert in the gardens at Buckingham Palace. There was a Jubilee Church Service at St George's Chapel in Windsor and a National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral which followed a Ceremonial Procession from Buckingham Palace. Events culminated in a pop concert at Buckingham Palace with performers including Paul McCartney, Bryan Adams, Elton John and Shirley Bassey. The evening ended with a spectacular firework display and The Queen lighting the National Beacon, the last in a string of 2,006 beacons which had been lit in a chain across the Commonwealth. It was much more difficult to track down much information on how the Golden Jubilee was celebrated in Thursley despite it being only twenty-two years ago. It was noted “That on Saturday the 1st June, there will be a Thursley Village party – a pig roast, jazz and fun for all the family in the Village Hall”. And so, it was to be. A fantastic whole village feast was prepared. Long tables were set up, bunting was hung and young and old enjoyed a day of sunshine, celebrations and commemorations for our dearly loved Queen.

The History of Thursley Society (HoTS), the forerunner of Thursley History Society, used the opening of the renovated barn at Wheelers Farm as a focal point for their exhibition in July 1996. Other examples of HoTS's activities are shown below.

Ann Wakeley wrote in December 1996, "We have lived in Little Green ever since we were married in 1967. It started off as a "dolls house" and has subsequently had four extensions, to grow with the family. Oliver is 27 and works in the research department of BT in Ipswich. Fenella is 25 and is a primary school teacher in Huntingdon. Melissa is 18 and in her last year as Downe House taking three A levels. Adam is 18, in his last year at Radley and he is also taking three A levels.

This parade was arranged to celebrate Thursley winning the Best Kept Village Competition Ben Wonham as William Cobbett Other floats celebrate the Farmers; Association (Tom Ranson); the British Legion; the Unknown Sailor; Emergency Ward 10

Introducing Mary Bennett and her parents, H A L Fisher and Lettice Fisher, from these three articles written by Jackie Rickenberg for the Parish Magazine Mary Bennett outside Rock Cottage Her childhood calendar Rock Cottage and some neighbours Thursley in the Twenties

This article was part of The Wedding Belles exhibition held in the Village Hall in 2007 On September 25th 1915 Lt. Colonel Walter Cecil Wright of  the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers married Mrs. Jane Edith Marion Johnstone. Colonel Wright lived and owned Rock Cottage at the top of Highfield Lane. This, in itself, was unusual as all the surrounding property was part of the Cosford Estate. The Colonel was a good friend of a gentleman artist who lived in Helen Allingham’s old house in Sandhills,   Walford Graham Robertson, who affectionately called his friend “Dolly”.  The Colonel’s bride was a widow with two children (Ralph and Lettice). Graham Robertson attended with another local child, Rachel, and described the wedding and marriage in some of his many letters to his friend Kerrison Preston: 7.8.1915 [sic.] “Lettice’s mother has been passing through a time of great sorrow and anxiety, but she is now a widow and is going to marry Dolly, at which I am delighted. They thoroughly deserve great happiness and I trust they will find it if there is any such thing left in these days. I am to be Dolly’s second-best man, and Lettice will appear with her grandfather in the character of the bride’s mother” 20.8.1915 [sic.] “Lettice and I have appeared in our respective roles and the performance is over. It was really very sweet and pretty – just what a wedding should be – absolutely. Rachel and I arrived first at the little old Thursley Church, near Rock Cottage. Then came Colonel Dolly with his best man, Major Campbell, another stray major and Lettice, absorbed in her new shoes and the difficulty of keeping on her first hat. Also big Ralphie, her brother, who had managed to get there unexpectedly. Then the bride came in with her father and though we tried to turn her out again, and make her enter properly at her proper cue, she sat down calmly, remarking that she was always punctual if the padre wasn’t, and she was not going to hang about for him or for anybody else. Then when the clergyman did put in an appearance, we lost the best man and Dolly clung miserably to me, wailing at the top of a naturally powerful voice, ‘What am I to do? Where am I to stand? I’ve never been married before.’ However, Major Campbell reappeared and sorted them and got them comfortable, and they got through very well, the children deeply impressed by the mystic ceremonial. Then we went up the narrow lanes to Rock Cottage, where we had chicken and wedding cake and blackberry gin. During the meal I noticed, through the window behind the bridegroom, strange and unaccustomed presences bouncing about the garden and staring in from the sacred, newly-turfed terrace. ‘What is it?’ he inquired, noting my rapt gaze. ‘P-pigs, Dolly,’ I murmured, loath to disturb the peace of the assembly and feeling sure that the colonel, lately become rather peppery and particular from overwork, would burst from the room like Betsy Trotwood. However- ‘Pigs?’ said he, dreamily. ‘Oh, yes, of course. They are the Baker pigs from over the way. They were specially invited and arrived bright and early this morning. She says they’re lucky. They were all in the dining-room when I started for church.’ I thought that, as a first concession on marrying an Irishwoman, it was charmingly tactful and appropriate. When the happy trio left (Lettice accompanied them), the bride’s father said to her in joke, ‘Well, Edith, you had better come back with me to Ireland now and rest a bit,’ but Lettice, departing with the bridegroom, called patronisingly over her shoulder, ‘No Mummy, you may come with us. We should like it.’” “The Times”, September 28th 1915 The Wrights then enjoyed a simple country life here in Thursley as further letters describe. 20.8.18 “Yesterday was my weekly ‘Rock Cottage’ day, and the walk home in the evening along that wonderful valley was quite exquisite. They have induced a village lady to come in and ‘oblige’, so Dolly and I cook no more. I’m rather sorry, though the interest was almost too painful; we distrust each other’s methods so deeply. However, after my triumph in the regrettable incident of the bouquet garni, which Dolly had so far forgotten himself as to allude to as ‘your damn flowers’ and which proved the making of the boiled salmon, I was able to take high ground. Mrs. Wright has developed extraordinary talents as a bee mistress, very luckily, as no bee master is now within summons. She goes calmly to work with bees in her hair and bees covering her face and hands, veilless and gloveless, and all is well. She took over twenty pounds of honey the other day.” W. Graham Robertson painted Lettice many times and described her head of blond hair as “a dandelion clock”. The little girl Lettice Mary, was born in 1908 whilst her elder brother, Ralph U. Johnstone, was much older having been born in 1894. 15.8.19 “The Wrights of Rock Cottage have been wrenched from me, and they all vanished last week”. The Wrights remained at Rock Cottage until 1919 when it was bought by Mrs. Lettice Fisher, so that her husband H.A.L. Fisher who was then Minister of Education in the post-war Coalition Government could have a place in the country that was still within reasonable reach of London. Colonel Wright died on September 8th 1939. Rock Cottage remained the home of Mary Bennett, nee Fisher, until her death in 2005.

From Thursley Parish Magazine June 2019 ”Placed in chains, and there close by The London Road to be hung on high... A sight more loathsome none could see.” But did you know that the links used on the gallows to hang the murderous sailors were forged at Forge Cottage, dating back 700 years, here in Thursley? The Forge, was run by Uncle Tom Khan, his father and grandfather and, it is thought, was worked until the last decade of the 1800s.  The Hammer and other historically interesting items were acquired by Haslemere Museum. The forge, as it would have been at the time of the murder, is depicted in drawings done by Mr Khan. Popsy Holford, who lived at Forge Cottage for over 50 years, has allowed us to reproduce them here.