Simon English
England Revisited

On a school crossing sign in Hatherden. 3 miles north of Andover.

On a school patrol sign in Hatherden, not the same plain school sign as in 1971 but a more modern replacement complete with yellow flashing warning lights, a 30mph roundel and a triangular advisory of a left bend and junction. This new replacement is about 2 yards further south of the original, as to whether this move was an arbitrary decision of contractors or whether it was moved slightly futher from the school to conform to new highway regulations.

On the whole the scene is almost unchanged from the earlier photographs except the trees in the garden of the adjacent house. The Irish yew is nearly as high as the roof. Next to the sign a copper hazel and snow berry hang into the road while the Lombardy poplar towers above. Under these the laurel hedge is still clipped to the same height as it was however in front of the house this hedge has been removed so that there is now a lawn from the house to the roadside uninterrupted. Over the road a big oak still stands although the sight of a couple of dead branches makes one hope that it shall not become like a couple of its kin in the hedge round the field. These now stand not stag horned but dead, ivy clad with the branches bleached against the sky.

The view further into the village is also unchanged except the pocket handkerchief tree now obscuring the black timber clad house at the junction and that a glass fronted village notice board attached to the bus shelter. This displays the notices of a vigorous community; village fetes, flower shows, toddler groups, church services, and lost cats.

The village school is round the bend in the road next to the church. It is a Church of England primary school and displays a sign to say that it was set up in 1720 with an endowment from a local merchant to educate the poor of the parish. It still flourishes and has even built a new extension. This is heartening where many village schools have closed either due to less rural children or the educational rationalisation of bussing children to larger urban schools. It seems that this trend can be stopped is where there is a school is short of local children, those that in the past might have walked each day, the numbers can be more than made up by parents prepared to drive out from the local town so that their young offspring can get a start in a smaller and quieter environment.

This back and forth in cars needs somewhere safe to drop off and pick up on the school run. To this end a car park has been laid in the field behind the oak. This gives safer passage to the school also to the field behind where the land owner is part of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. This gives people improved use of footpaths and bridleways also walking on the 5 meter strip of grass left unploughed round the edge of the field.

The relationship of the village to increased traffic and highway authority efforts to make things safer have reportedly produced odd decisions in the village centre. While on the outskirts in the countryside to the south a rugby club built a club house. Access was to be off a cross roads. As there were now five roads coming together so a roundabout was built, but a roundabout needed to be lit. Each joining road needs two lights on the roundabout and two maybe 10 metres before. So now there are now 20 street lights is a great pool of light in the fields.
Points 72, 69 & 70