GOMELDON
When you walk along the lane past the medieval village in the “Humpy field”, you see on the skyline the windmill, brought here by night, which ground barley till 1885. Below you, where the Roman Portway to Silchester fords the Bourne, there are oaks and willows, and the herringbone pattern of the water meadow channels.
Gomeldon Primary School (opened in 1912 for children of the smallholders) was the brainchild of Rev Youngman. Records tell of days off for potato picking and to see the Wild Beast Show. Today it is a happy little school with about 90 pupils, says head teacher, Miss Helen Scott.
But there’s been a “tragedy.” Gales have snapped its famous flagpole in two. “Old pupils think we have closed,” Miss Scott says, “We’ve always flown the flag.”
No one today could dig a well as straight as Mr Hobbs of Gomeldon and Old Jimmy Crouch.
Alison Kidd. Publisher, Salisbury Journal, 1988.
Mission Hall Gomeldon
At the beginning of this century pieces of farming land was sold to developers as small holdings. The actions of a firm titled “Homesteads Ltd” resulted in ribbon development along a continuation on the present Gomeldon road to a point on the A.30 midway between the Pheasant crossroads and the Haven crossroads.
To serve this community a mission hall was built in 1908 and paid for partly from subscriptions but chiefly with a donation by the Rev. Youngman. The building about 40’ by 20’ of flint and chalk construction with a slate roof was erected by Mr Whitworth a “homesteader” and carpenter by trade.
During the first world war the homesteading land was requisitioned by the war department, however the mission hall continued in use until 1939 and was subsequently sold for private occupation.
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