Diana (Dinky) Margaret Legg (nee Crook)
Born 27th July 1933 died 30th April 2020
145 London Road, Cowplain, Hants PO8 8ER
To William Augustus Crook 25th December 1890 – 1961
& Clarice Lilian Stride 5th October 1903 – 1988
 
Nicknamed Dinky by her father as she was a Dinky baby, the nickname stuck through her entire life. She went to school in Waterlooville as there was no girls’ school nearer. It was in Stakes Hill Road, Waterlooville and a series of huts that were the reading rooms.
At the start of the war the community had to go to Jubilee Rd Hall to be given gas masks and an ID card. During the war the children were walked up to Cowplain in twos and went to separate parts of the Secondary School. When walking home from School one day mum and a group of her friends had to dive for cover as a German plane machine gunned down the A3. After that Schooling took place in Cowplain.
The Stride family lived at Hilsea Farm and the family would visit on Sundays. Mum would watch from the gate as the Soldiers and Marching Band went by to Sunday Service.
Great Grandma (Clarrissa Stride) was a tailoress and had a tailors dummy at the top of the stairs called Mrs Murphy. She scared my mum so much that she wouldn’t go upstairs. When the Old Granary on the Farm fell into disrepair some of the Straddle’s (small concrete pillars that keep rats away from the grain) were rescued and they are our mushrooms in 2a Longwood’s garden.
1941 – 42 there was a severe winter, she remembers the snow so deep when she walked to her Uncles at Woodcroft Farm. She got to the Style at the gate and jumped over it, only to disappear down a ditch. The snow had piled up against a hedge.
1942 was also the year that Great Grandma (Clarrissa Stride) moved to 145 London Road. Mum lost her playroom where her and her friends played. But her father found some old frames and a door and filled in the walls and entrance of the Summerhouse for them.
1942 was also the year mum joined Brownies at St Georges Chapel. She was in Elves Six. Went up to Guides in 1944.
Good Fridays the family went to Heaths Stores/bakery and all helped to bake and bag up hot cross buns. There were 4 roundsmen that then delivered them. Any misshapen ones were shared out and eaten with lots of butter.
Autumn Half Terms the school children were encouraged by the School to go and either pick potatoes, hips and haws or collect jam jars. The guides chose to collect jam jars and they collected the trek cart from the ARP (Air Raid Post) in Jubilee Road.
1944 at the age of 11 mum moved up to Secondary School. Because she didn’t want to do secretarial work, book keeping or commerce she was put in B stream. She got a bicycle for her birthday and cycled with her friends to and from school. Many girls from Portsmouth joined the School as they were evacuated out of the City.
Mum wanted to go to Agricultural College when she left School at 14 years old, but the leaving age was raised to 15 and mum missed out on going.
Over the next year Nan tried to get mum to help with Housework but she would be outside helping dad with the gardening. I think she mostly met up with her group of friends and played cricket in the Main Road with a tin as the wicket. There were about 15 of them with a 5 year age difference, mum being the youngest. If the village bobby came along they dived off into gardens and homes. Easy to do as the wall rails had been taken for the War effort.
One time the group performed a play in the barn behind the houses. I think it belonged to the bakery Harry Heaths. Rumpelstiltskin was rehearsed and put on and they invited family and friends. They raised £16 7s 6d for the Red Cross.
Mums dad kept chickens and rabbits and mum got 6d a week if she cleaned them out. No cleaning, no pocket money.
Sundays meant Sunday school at the Chapel in Cowplain which is now the Hairdressers. Mr Snook the Superintendent. Mrs Snook, Miss Greenwood and Miss Patterson were the Sunday School Teachers. There was also a Wednesday Club with Mr Abel where they could play table tennis and darts. There were Bible readings too.
During the summer they would go for cycle rides and visit other Chapels in the area. Each Year for Mothering Sunday after morning Service mum and her friends would go down to the woods in Longwood Avenue (by Idlewood) and pick primroses, bluebells, wood anenomies, Catkins or Palm as this was a coppiced wood. Later some would ride out to Laundry Corner by Hinton Daubney.
1944 a year that at the time mum did not understand the seriousness of, and for the soldiers who were lined up through Horndean and Queens Enclosure with their tanks and lorries. The soldiers became friendly with quite a few in the village. Several would sleep on Nans front lawn. When off duty they would come and take a bath, play cards or darts.
Hadaway Garage (Alma) had been taken over by the Army, mums family got to know the soldier in charge, some evenings he would come in and have supper with the family. Up by Keydell there were the Canadian Soldiers and mum and her friends would go up and chat, sometimes they would get cooked sausages or sweets. And then one morning they were all gone. After the war mums family received letters from some of those soldiers who they had made friends with.
1945 now times were easing. Sticky protection had to be scraped off the School windows. Restrictions were lifted. Sports with other Schools started. Rounders and Netball teams started visiting.
After School or weekends mum and some of her friends would cycle across to Hayling pay 1d for the Toll Bridge and see the Puffing Billy go across the railway bridge. Down at the beach where the concrete fortifications the girls would place cycles for a windbreak and to undress and dress away from the boys.
Some Sunday mornings mum would get put on the Southdown Bus to go to the George on Portsdown Hill. Aunt Rose would meet her and they would walk down to her house at First Avenue Farlington.  They would either stay there for the day or catch the Trolley Bus down to The Hard. Passing the Mudlarks at low tide searching for pennies dropped by the passengers. On to the Gosport Ferry to visit other Aunts and Uncles. Sometimes she would meet up with Uncle John who was the Captain of the Victory. Mum would have the run of the Victory as at the time it wasn’t open to the public and she often played in Nelsons room climbing into his hammock.
The last couple of years at School mums favourite place was in the gardens or with the animals. Her Form Teacher took gardening and quite often left mum in charge of them and the animals. Mum also was still helping her dad in their gardens at home.
1948 having no chance of going to Agricultural College mum found a job in a Nursery. She started on Saturday and then at the end of that School year as she turned 15 she went full time.
Because of the war the Guides had not done camps or hikes and now restrictions were lifted mum would go on hikes, visits by bus or just walking. She went on her first camp in 1949. Mum was a Patrol Leader at this time. The camp was supposed to have been at Lyndhurst but was changed to Hambledon as there was an outbreak of Polio in the New Forest area. For mum this camp was unfortunately cut short as she had appendicitis. Mum was taken to the Royal Hospital. It also meant a delay in starting her job full time.
Her dad borrowed Uncle Harry Heath’s car for a week and the family went to Sussex. Her first holiday. They stayed on a farm and Nan had a go at making butter. From the comments mum made I don’t think it was successful.
Some Sundays they would go down to Hilsea and meet up with family and friends at Port Creek. Aunt Edith and Uncle Harry had a houseboat and were friends with the Chivers family. They would go for walks through the woods to Sheepwash or The Woodland café at Horndean, Strawberry Meadows, Crookhorn to the George and get the bus home.
As mums friends were older the group drifted apart. Mum left Guides for Sea Rangers in 1950 and soon after met Dad who was in Rover Scouts and had been evacuated from Portsmouth.  Who knew when back in the early 40s the Hall she collected her gas mask from was to be 2nd Waterlooville’s Scout HQ where she was asked in 1951 to help as a Cub Instructor.
The Chivers who were great family friends took mum sailing down Portsmouth Harbour on their yacht Dabchick. They later moved in 1953 onto Horsea Island where mum visited with us and grandchildren, often setting up tents on their land and camping for weekends. It was also where the Sea Rangers started to hold their annual regattas as the Navy had constructed a mile long lake for weapons testing purposes.
 
Mums story so far