In the Hyde Parish Plan of 2005, under action E13, a Parish History Group was formed. Building on the Millenium Project, further work was done by a wide range of people studying the history of the area, stories from local families, and the ‘House Histories’.
There is now a large body of historical information within the Parish.
You will find that the content will especially illustrate the changes that have occurred during the years from 1900 to 2000. For example, in 1900:
People got their water from wells and used candles, the majority of people could not read or write as the present village school had only just opened with education available for all, the census returns for 1911 asked each household how many children they had ‘that had died’ and how many ‘were still living’, and people worked as ‘carters’ and now we have ‘pilots’ living in the village.
This will be an ongoing project, so if anyone has anything they wish to post – photographs, stories, and research about the people in Hyde Parish up to the year 2000 – or would like to ‘add to ‘ or ‘correct’ the research, we would welcome contributions.
In the first instance please contact the Parish Clerk, Sue Thurston; whose email is parish.clerk@hyde-pc.gov.uk
We are starting our History pages with details concerning those members of the Parish lost in the First World War
There were 16 men from our Parish lost during the Great War. Their names are recorded in the War Memorial Hall.
It is regrettable that 70% of their service records were lost during the Second World War when the building that contained them was hit by a bomb and destroyed by fire. Therefore this information has been gathered using local knowledge from the families, Forces War Records, War Grave Commission, Census Returns and with the help of Carole and Richard at the Lyndhurst Museum. Some have been very straight forward.
Of the men recorded on our memorial, the majority were born in the parish; it also included men who were living here at the time they enlisted. The memorial also includes men who had emigrated to Australia and Canada.
Various interesting facts have emerged:-
The WITT family lost 4 sons, with 3 of them dying within 3 months of each other on the Somme in 1916. A relative told me that the brothers enlisted on the same day – this actually appears to apply to two of the brothers, whose army numbers are very close together. The Witts were not the only family to lose more then one son, the MORGAN family of Hungerford lost 2 sons.
The overwhelming majority fought on the Western Front with the Somme in 1916 claiming 4 lives and the 3rd Battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele) in 1917 claiming 5 lives.
Ann Sevier
Ode of Remembrance taken from Laurence Binyon’s poem – For the Fallen
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
In Memory of Members of the Parish lost in the First World War
