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Life
at the Royal Oak, Hooksway, a century ago, when my maternal grandparents
were in charge, was hugely different from what it is today.
It was an old-style ale house, a villagers' meeting place, little
changed since it was built in the 1400s. There were oil lamps
to be lit, brick and stone-flagged floors to be swept, deal tables
to be scrubbed, water to be drawn from a well and a primitive
wash-house for laundering.
But judging from my mother's memories it had its lighter moments,
and from her parents she learned the resourcefulness and skills
which would help her survive her own hard times.
Like many working class families of their day, William Woods and
his wife Martha knew tragedy and misfortune and it was one such
setback which led them to the Royal Oak.
The couple were married at Stoughton in 1866 and settled in Forestside.
By 1875 they already had five children. Then William succeeded
his father as gamekeeper on the Stansted Estate, then owned by
the Wilder family but now the seat of the Earls of Bessborough.
The appointment meant a move to Woodberry Lane at Racton on the
road from Rowlands Castle to Westbourne. There Martha gave birth
to six more children including, in 1880, my mother Emma. She was
followed three years later by triplets - two girls and a boy.
This brought the first family misfortune for within 16 months
the boy and one girl had died; they are now buried together in
Forestside churchyard.
William and Martha's last child, Ethel Louise, was born in 1885.
Three years later misfortune struck again when William was attacked
by poachers he surprised one night. His injuries ended his career
as a gamekeeper and led to the move to the Royal Oak in November
1889. Officially William was the licensee but it was the indomitable
Martha who, besides bringing up her large brood, ruled over the
business.
For his part William was consigned to looking after the seven
acres of pasture and woodlands which went with the inn along with
an assortment of stables, pig pens, fowl houses, barns and outhouses.
Here he kept a range of animals, grew the produce which kept the
family self-nourished and made hurdles, chestnut fencing and the
like.
Martha meanwhile pursued an "open-all-hours" policy,
ignoring the prevailing licensing laws with impunity by the simple
expedient of regaling the local bobby with a constant supply of
free beer, eggs, wild rabbits and other produce.
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