If you live on the Estate and have a Facebook account, do consider joining the HCERA Facebook Group. You can post photos, requests for help, offer recommendations, find out about events and share information that would interest other members. If you need a recommendation for a good electrician, where to buy logs, how to find a dog walker, this is quick and easy way to find out. It’s also been a way of alerting others about break-ins and events coming up. Our aim is for it to be a lively, supportive community, so we do have a few rules, one being that the moderators will remove posts that would upset others in the community.

How do I join?
Firstly you’ll need to be a member of Facebook. Log into Facebook, find ‘groups’ and tap in Herbert Collins Estates Residents Association. A message will be sent to you asking you to verify that you live or own a house in the Association’s area. You do need to answer the questions for the moderators to ‘approve’ you and then you’re in!

Tell us if you have been fond of using the public footpath across the railway line into Wide Lane. This is the continuation of Eastleigh Footpath No 28, which starts in Stoneham Lane immediately south of the M27 bridge and then goes through the underpass under Stoneham Way. On the Hampshire Rights of Way Map, it ends when it reaches the bridge over Monks Brook and crosses the County/City boundary. The path from there is a short distance to a level crossing of the railway line and then to Wide Lane. Since the completion of the Jaguar Land Rover showrooms, entry to the public footpath at the Wide Lane end is closed and the planking of the level crossing has been removed.

The process to acquire the Estate moves embarrassingly slowly. As reported at the HCERA AGM, a draft contract was received in October. The Directors responded, but from early November, there appeared to be no activity for many weeks.

We have started to move forward again. The Company recently received from their solicitor, a draft plan for the conveyance showing the land to be transferred, which the Directors are examining.

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The frame with the laser-cut design has been manufactured and although we have not seen it yet, we are assured that “it’s come out absolutely perfect; it’s spot on, all of it, including the smallest elements.” The board is awaiting some small amendments before manufacture.

The total bill of £2,328 needs to be paid, so if you would like to contribute, please email HCERA.

I recently had a problem with my broadband and this set me wondering how we compare with the slowest broadband in the country. That prize goes to Greenmeadows Park, Bamfurlong, Gloucestershire which averaged just 0.14 megabits per second (Mb). Putting our post codes into www.broadband.co.uk gives phone-line broadband average (av) or up to (ut) speeds:

SO16 3DD   7.1Mb (av)        SO16 3DE    4.9 Mb (av)
SO16 3DF   7.2 Mb (av)       SO16 3DG    7.3Mb (av)
SO16 3DN   5.5Mb (av)        SO16 3DP    1.5 Mb (av)
SO16 3DR   3Mb (ut)            SO16 3DU    3.1Mb (av)
SO16 3DW   2.7Mb (av)        SO16 3DX   3Mb (av)
SO16 3DY   3Mb (av)            SO16 3DZ   3.2Mb (av)
SO16 2NN   6Mb (ut)            SO16 2NU   6.9Mb (av)

You can also have a speed test for your own broadband on the same website.

Don’t be misled by “up to” which means consistently available to at least 10% of the users of that service.

The Swaythling Lawn Tennis Club annual quiz will be held on Friday 15th February 2019 at the Pavilion on the Park, Eastleigh. Doors will open at 7.00 pm for a prompt 7.30 pm start. Entry, which must be booked in advance, is £8 per person and includes a ploughman’s supper. Please bring your own drinks, glasses and nibbles. Teams can be up to 6 people, but those not already part of a team can be allocated to one on the night. There will be a raffle during the evening, and contributions for prizes will be gratefully received.

If you want further details, or want to book a place, please contact John Green on 80671016, green.john at btinternet.com. Entries are not restricted to tennis club members, so all HCERA members and their friends are welcome. Last year we had 15 teams, and catered for 96 people. We have agreed that this really is the maximum we can cope with, so we will close the entries when we have 15 teams signed up. To avoid disappointment don’t leave it to the last minute to book!

Our annual event was very well attended this year, helped by the dry, mild weather. Ocean Brass played beautifully, while Lawrence and Louise led us all in the carols and read some festive poems and prose. Tim and Ken’s efforts to light the lights helped with the atmosphere. What a special hour we shared together. Big thanks to everyone who joined in and helped out.
We raised £170 for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air ambulance, the bands charity for 2018.

Our thanks must go to Michelle for organising this event – Ed.

Margaret Matthews, a long standing and much appreciated resident, is shortly moving to sheltered housing and I thought it would be good to hear some of her memories of living on the Estate.

When did you move into Ethelburt Avenue?
In 1934, aged 3, with my mother and father. We were the second residents in the house after an elderly lady moved out.

Why did your parents choose Ethelburt Avenue?
My father admired the work of Herbert Collins and was sympathetic to his ideas about housing and the ‘garden city’. Apparently, the houses on this estate were built for sale to fund the houses built for rent by the Swaythling Housing Society.

Where did you go to school?
Aged 4, I started at a nursery school in Mrs Foster’s home in Channels Farm Road before going to Bassett Green Primary School. In 1940, during the war, I was evacuated to cottages in Ovington, near Alresford, with families from numbers 91 and 95 Ethelburt Ave plus another family from Field Close. My father worked in Southampton Monday to Friday and joined us at weekends. In September 1941, aged 10, I was sent to a Quaker boarding school in Yorkshire. I was very homesick at first. My mother would take me by train to Waterloo and we’d pray there wasn’t an air raid so we could get across to Kings Cross where I would meet the other pupils and teachers to travel north.

What are your early memories of the Avenue?
Walking down the road hand in hand with my mother. In the days before fridges, we had to go shopping down in Swaythling every other day. There was a grocer, a butcher, a fishmonger (where we got cods’ heads for the cat), two chemists, a draper, a Post Office and an ironmonger. You could get everything you needed in High Road. There was even the Savoy Cinema along High Road. Also, a greengrocer would come round the Estate in an open lorry and there was a horse drawn milk float. The horse was partial to the bark on the cherry trees. Lowman’s baker would deliver bread and ‘the onion man’ from France came until about 10 years ago to deliver onions by bike.

[To be continued]