Page 28 • The HERALD • 12th March 2026 v BRINGING THE GOOD NEWS TO YOU SINCE 1994 v Acorn Building Contracts Ltd u Reliable, local builders offering affordable, quality workmanship u Our employees are fully qualified and fully insured u All aspects of building undertaken including extensions, structural alterations, roofing, ground works, kitchens, bathrooms, carpentry and plastering u Drawings arranged u Insurance work undertaken u Local Approved Contractor For free quotations and friendly advice please call Office: 023 8024 3336 Mobile: 07786 656865 Email: acornbuilding@gmail.com or visit our website: www.acorn-builders.co.uk You will not be disappointed 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 FLAT ROOFING SPECIALISTS All Roof Repairs Tel: 023 8184 5632 Mobile: 07880 508415 Email: steve@braithwaiteroo ng.co.uk THE FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST To advertise your business in The Herald, contact Sue on 023 8084 0815 or email: sjones@herald-publishing.co.uk Charlie Ward And The Old Shed by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories One sunny day around May 1988, my mother and I were working in our garden. I was setting about an old wooden shed, more or less rotted and falling down. e asbestos garage next to it had blown over in the great storm the previous October, so the whole area needed a tidy-up. Our house, small though it is, was once two adjoining cottages, knocked into one when we moved in in 1965; decades before, there had been a second pair of cottages a few yards away. None of these properties, all built around 1800, had been any more than two-up-two-down, with no water supply other than a well, so the old wooden shed, little more than 4 or 5 feet square and perched above a brick-lined pit, ful lled a vital function for the four families living there. In some far-o time, it was painted duck-egg blue outside, and lined inside with hardboard. By the time we arrived, things had progressed a bit, so its original function was no longer required; instead, it was used for storing all kinds of things with nowhere else to go. Nonetheless, it was always called “the old toilet shed”. It smelt, as one might imagine, of mould, and spiders. As we were working that day, a smartly-dressed elderly gentleman wandered in out of the blue, introduced himself as Charlie Ward, and straight away said “I built that shed!” He proudly showed a scar on his thumb, which he’d in icted using a saw during the shed’s construction when he was around 10 years old – roughly 1918. What’s more, he had been born in the cottage in 1908, the youngest of ve children of James and Bessie Ward. Passing the area with his wife and daughter, he had decided to see if his birthplace and childhood home was still standing. A er chatting a while, he went on his way, and we thought little more about it. Despite its rotten state, Charlie evidently made a good job of building the shed; we eventually had to get someone with a tractor to pull it down. All this would have remained a dim memory, had someone not posted a photo of the house, with Charlie Ward, his daughter, and my mother, standing outside, in the Fawley and Black eld Memories group on Facebook, a couple of years ago; he asked if anyone knew where this house was, that his grandfather had been born in. Charlie had, apparently, worked at the garage in Black eld, and later in life moved to Somerset, where his family still live. He died in 2001, aged 92. What a coincidence that we’d decided to tackle the shed on the day he happened to walk in. The old shed; drawing by Robin Somes Golden Jubilee Fayre Kick starting National Village Halls week, Beaulieu Village Hall is holding their Golden Jubilee Fayre on Sunday 15th March, 10am–4pm. Showcasing local groups and celebrating wellness and sustainability. Go along for beers and ideas with beer from Vibrant Forest. For more information visit: beaulieuvillagehall.org.uk
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