Page 30 • The HERALD • 5th October 2023 v THE HERALD - YOUR COMMUNITY MAGAZINE v AUSTIN WINDOW CLEANING Professional Window Cleaning Service established 25 years From £18 per house Tel: 07733 205341 www.austinwindowcleaning.co.uk SOLENT SKIP HIRE LTD FOR ALL YOUR COMMERCIAL AND DOMESTIC WASTE MINI ~ MIDI ~ MAXI SKIPS ALSO CUBIC YARD BAGS OWN BAG COLLECTION AVAILABLE 023 8066 0123 01590 619700 • 01962 588288 Email: office@solentskiphire.co.uk One Tragic Night in November 1940 by Marc Heighway, mheighway@hotmail.com Marc hosts monthly local history talks, visit:nfhwa.org/events for details. e Lu wa e is estimated to have dropped 2,300 bombs on Southampton during the Second World War. is amounted to an incredible 470 tonnes of high explosives that damaged or destroyed around 45,000 buildings. e human casualties were also high. November 1940 was one of the deadliest months, as hundreds of people were killed or injured. I was recently reminded of these tragic events when I spotted a grave in Beaulieu Cemetery. It belonged to George Albert Meager. He worked at a searchlight position just outside of Beaulieu village, and along with other men it was his job to monitor the night skies above the New Forest for enemy aircra , many of which were making their way towards Southampton. Sunday 17th November 1940 was one such night, when German aircra bombed the town with air raids lasting well into the next morning. irty two people clean three inch hole in a nearby telegraph pole. I believe Ernest was the rst person from the Waterside area to be killed in an air raid. It wasn’t until the next morning, Monday 18th November that the bombs fell silent. e wartime logbook for Hythe School records this, and notes how attendance was less than 25% that following day, with just thirty one children in classes. e headteacher wrote that “Heavy noises in the night, all night, up to 7.30am” were responsible. Reading the headteacher’s words it’s hard to imagine the panic and fear that must have been felt that night and into the following day. Which brings me back to George Meager who was at the searchlight position outside of Beaulieu. He would have been working all throughout the night, attempting to spot enemy aircra , then helping to relay those positions back to anti-aircra gunsites, just like the one at Hardley, all working together to prevent death and destruction. But it’s here that George’s life ended. At 7.24am, just 6 minutes before the Hythe school headteacher said the sound of the bombs stopped, the searchlight position at Beaulieu was hit by a bomb. It was one of the last to fall that day and claimed George’s life. George Meager’s grave were reported killed, mainly in the Shirley area. ese air raids also a ected the New Forest and Waterside area. irteen bombs landed in Exbury that night, thankfully with no casualties in the village. Sadly, this was not the case three miles away. e events unfolded when the nearby Hardley anti-aircra position was hit by a stick of bombs, also causing signi cant damage to the local Methodist Church and school. Ernest Renyard, a 44-year-old blacksmith and part-time police o cer, ran to see if he could help. Whilst directing people to air raid shelters, he was killed on Lime Kiln Lane in Holbury. Eyewitnesses reported that he was hit by shrapnel that le a Its Pannage Season Again! If you’re out and about enjoying the autumn air in the New Forest, keep your eyes peeled for pigs as its pannage season once again! Pannage is a historical tradition that allows commoners to let their pigs loose on the Forest, to hoover up fallen acorns which are poisonous to ponies and cattle. e pigs also eat beech nuts, crab apples and anything else they can nd! e season varies year on year and the exact dates are set by the Verderers and Foresty England; this year pannage season o cially started on 11th September and will run until Friday17th November. As with all the New Forest animals, you must not touch or feed the pigs, keep your distance from them and when out driving please pass them slow and wide. Snuffling snouts keep the forest floor free from acorns
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