All I can remember is Mary the horse who belonged to Mr Green and at four o’clock she would come back and she would stand the post box is now in Back Lane and she would stand there because there were wooden stables all along there and she would wait for Mr Green to come and put her away for the night. She would spend all day out on the […]
Category: Ham Common
Ham Common history
Pub Tug of War, Ham Common – by KS
All the activities that went on went on on the Common. That was the official place where everything went on. I mean tug of war through the pond that was a big charity thing and there was teams from each pub. How they managed to get their prams I don’t know but one pushed and a man sat in the pram and just run round.
Pub pram race and Tug of War, Ham Common – by KM
I was too small to be in the tug-of-war but I know a lot of the big guys who did. Later on it was held on the grass but the early tug of war used to be on a huge, huge long rope and so the 2 teams would line up on each side of the pond, with a red ribbon tied round the middle of the rope towards the […]
Tug of War, Ham Common – by EB
Oh yes there was, I think that was the same day that they did the tug-of-war through the pond. It was a drinking race really, they were all in prams and dressed up with little bonnets on and would race from the New Inn down to the Crooked Billet and back up to the Hand and Flower whether they went up to the one on Wates Estate I don’t remember […]
Coronation Sports Day, Ham Common – by DM
My father was one of the founder members of what was the Coronation Sports Day. We had a sports day every June 2nd or 3rd or the nearest Saturday to it and it was an athletics meeting and very amateur athletics meeting and the Common was marked out with running track and there was a tug of war through the pond and there was a pram race round the pubs […]
Pub pram race and Nov 5th bonfire, Ham Common – by MG
The Pram Race once a year, and obviously it was men pushed the pram and then they had a man in the pram dressed up as a baby with a hat and all that on. They pushed the pram round the Common and they stopped at the Hand and Flower and had a drink, then went round across to the New Inn, then down and… then to who won, who […]
Nov 5th bonfire, Ham Common – by HS
I always remember one, one of the things that I regret doesn’t happen now, as kids, there used to be an enormous bonfire on the Common for Guy Fawkes night and people used to contribute stuff for that over the rest of the year and it was quite an occasion. Unfortunately had to be stopped because vandals were setting it off, setting it alight long before November the 5th and […]
Nov 5th bonfire, Ham Common – by PP
Bonfire night on Ham Common was wonderful. The locals used to start building the bonfire at the beginning of November or even before and people used to take down an enormous pile. They would take their fireworks down and everybody got together. Everybody from the village went down there on Bonfire Night and had great fun and then people started to come in from outside. “Let’s go down to Ham; […]
5th November bonfire, Ham Common – by KM
There was indeed a bonfire. I believe, it was an event that attracted many from afar. They would collect loads of wood from the area we called the Pits and take the wood there. It would be a huge bonfire. It would be for Ham and Petersham people but maybe people would come from miles around as well.
5th November bonfire, Ham Common – by MF
Then you had the next estate, which was started at Woodville Road, Woodville, Stretton, Neville, what have you; that was what we called the new estate. I remember on Bonfire Night, there used to be a little bit of a competition, they’d build one down on the new estate… but the one on the Common, that was a big affair. They’d sort of burn each other’s one down before the […]