SOME evocative photographs from the Chronicle archive, stored at the Hampshire Cultural Trust’s headquarters at Bar End.
The post-war years were a time of great change in the countryside. The horse and cart in Soberton captured on a bright day was already becoming a rarity. Bulldozers were an increasingly common sight and the hedge-trimming machinery, although a bit Heath Robinson, was a sign of how machines were replacing men in farming.
It would be a few years yet before manual labour in the watercress industry was largely replaced by machines. The photo of the workers in Ovington captures some of the drudgery of the work.
The visit of the Duchess of Kent to the YWCA, shows the continuity of the Royal Family, then as now.
The Chronicle would welcome any readers’ photos from the post-1945 era.