No . 123
The Trusty Servant suspended across the street . But I do have an earlier memory from Mill Cottage of going down the lane to the corner of College Walk to see the gas lighter with his long pole arriving on his bicycle around dusk to switch on the gas lamp .
My mother told me years later about the calling-card protocol which was still in force when we arrived . She was expected to call on certain other key wives , certainly the Headmaster ’ s and possibly the Bishop ’ s . She didn ’ t have her own calling card but , as was the custom , used my father ’ s . The tradition was for the wife to leave two cards ( I believe so that , as well as the wife , the husband of the family being visited could have a copy and could keep tabs on what his wife was up to !). When cards were left , etiquette dictated that no communication was made . If the new acquaintance wished to develop the initial contact , she would deliver a card in return . Apparently , but this never happened to my mother , if no card came back , or the return card was sent in an envelope , it signalled that the new acquaintance did not wish to develop relations . The next stage would be an arranged visit to take afternoon tea . First-name terms would only be contemplated if the friendship developed significantly thereafter .
With the coming of the telephone , the calling card formality was disappearing . Our phone ( with its fourdigit phone number ) was at first located in the sitting room , the room used only for formal entertainment . To the logic of the 1950s mind , the phone belonged here as this was the room for making contact with the world outside the home .
Winchester College estates : six centuries of land ownership
RV Chute ( E , 61-65 ; Estates Bursar 81- ) relates :
The history of Winchester College as a landowner goes back to 1 st September 1385 , when our Founder , William of Wykeham , granted his school the Manor of the Church of Downton in Wiltshire . This was when land was still feudal , with everything belonging to the King by right . He allocated land to tenants-in- chief , who could again pass it on to subordinate feudal tenants , with each tenant paying his immediate lord some form of rent or service . The most important member of this family tree was the Lord of the Manor , who had powers over not only the land but the produce , equipment and personnel of the community .
Our Founder continued his permanent provision for the maintenance of the scholars by appropriating the Manors of Eling , Coombe Bisset , Durrington , Vernham Dean , Ropley , Meonstoke , St Cross on the Isle of Wight , Twickenham , Harmondsworth , Hampton-on-Thames , Hamblerice and Worldham . Some Wardens too were great buyers of land , notably John Baker ( admitted 1454 ) who bought land at Soberton , Hawkley , Newton Valence , Goleigh , Empshott , Basingstoke , East Tisted , Will Hall and Merstone on the Isle of Wight .
The first challenge to the Estates came in 1544 when Henry VIII decided to increase the size of his hunting ground at Hampton Court by acquiring Twickenham , Harmondsworth and Hampton from the College . In exchange , the College was given the Manors of Sydling , Moundsmere , Portsea , Woodmancott and Piddletrenthide .
The precise area of the Estates between the mid-16th and mid-20th centuries is uncertain ( largely due to different forms of land tenure , such as copyhold ) but it did not change much between 1544 and 1948 when the area was 20,933 acres . Management was tight and , although some land was sold , it was usually on a long leasehold , and other parcels were purchased .
The second challenge arose following the economic depression of the 1930s and the Second World War , when the College was faced with a serious shortage of available funds to pay for essential repairs and improvements to cottages and farm buildings , made necessary by rising standards of housing , hygiene and agriculture . I suspect that mismanagement in not having a separate Estates Bursar between 1952 and 1961 did not help , but the College was certainly not alone in selling off land .
Between 1930 and 1960 the annual cost of repairs was between 30 % and 40 % of a largely static income , whereas today it would be about 10 % on traditional tenancies . This level of expenditure could not be sustained , so some 7,000 acres were sold off . The biggest sale was that of the entire 3,792 acre Piddletrenthide Estates in 1952 for a paltry £ 40 per acre , including the Manor House , a number of farmhouses and many cottages .
The College then appointed its first and only qualified Chartered Surveyor as a Fellow - Lord Saye & Sele , who , although Founder ’ s Kin , was an Old
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