From Tom Nicholson (also known as Bill).Winsham was like a
second home for Tom from 1940 until the death of his foster mother
Kathleen Phillipps in1988
Winsham was my second home from
1940 to 1988 when my foster mother
Kathleen Phillipps (Nee Fowler
of Whatley Farm)died.
My foster father Joe Hodder Phillipps died in 1979. Their cremated
remains were scattered behind the farm house
in the field known as Long Strip, so I don't know
what parish records would be available.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Winsham had its own Web museum
last year when I was given a PC to drag me
into the 21st century.
On the map of farming I see no mention of "The
Farm", High Street which was located at the top of Back Street, and I
see on Google Satellite that most of the
buildings are still there, including
the tractor garage built by Arthur Loaring from
scrap wood in 1941. ( I also used to watch him
making coffins in his work shop on Church St.)
I may have the wrong Loaring but there's probably quite a few still in
the village who will know who made the coffins. The farm now
known as Lime Kiln Farm was built on land
purchased from the Hodder family who farmed in Winsham for at least
three generations at the High Street location. (William, Jane, and Joe
Hodder Phillipps.) The field, on which the new farm was built by
Mr Warry ( I believe), was called Lime Kiln field, and the location of
the original Kiln which has been buried by landfill shows up in the top
right corner of the satellite picture as a much lighter colour than the
rest of the field.
Hope I haven't bored you with so much Winsham Trivia,
but as Joe Hodder Phillipps
and his wife were so active in the
church and parish for many years then I feel that
there should be a place for them somewhere on your wonderful web
site. Hopefully, there are still a few people
in the village who may remember the Nicholson boys up at the High Street
Farm.
I have a photo that be of interest. It's the actual bomb that landed
in a field called 'Gay's Mill which was part of the High Street Farm.
The photo was taken to record the beautiful Laburnum tree, but it
included the historic bomb. It seems that it was part of the bomb load
that was aimed at Chard Junction, but I suppose it got stuck in the bomb
bay, and when it landed in the soft sand it didn't explode.
Looking at Google Earth ,I would say that Gay's Mill was about three
or four fields west of Winsham on the north side of Western Way. For a
case of beer, the disposal squad were quite happy to empty it and leave
an interesting souvenir .
Yours, with kind regards and thanks to the people of
Winsham,
Thomas Wm. Nicholson, a.k.a
.Bill
Editors Note: I saw what
seemed to be an identical bomb in a Museum in Ross-on Wye
recently.It
was a 500lb High Explosive
Some Post Scripts from Tom ...
Hi John,
As I'm sending you more photographs. Winsham was a farming community
back in the forties
then. I assume that any pictures about farming will be of interest. Neddy
Churchill, the blacksmith, is mentioned in a couple of places so you
might like to see one of the High Street horses that he changed the
shoes every few months.
'Rock' was a large horse but he was like a
"gentle giant", and could easily pull
a fully loaded hay wagon by himself. Some of your young readers may not
realize that some of the farms were still using horses instead of
tractors for ploughing etc. in 1940/41 era.

Eric Butler already appears in one of the museum's wedding photos so I
don't suppose that he will mind a picture of himself up at the farm with
me. It didn't seem to matter how many rabbits we cleared in the autumn,
there always seemed to be lots of them running around in the
springtime.
Yours, TWN
Hi John,
I thought that you might be interested in the
photo's. William Hodder as you probably
know was the estate agent for Lord Bridport and he
was also known as "the foreman".
(As mentioned in Paul's memoir.) As we own the
portrait there is no problem with copy-right.

The other picture is of his daughter's
wedding circa 1890 at the High Street farm, Winsham.
As the photo was kept in her bedroom then I assume
that it was of Jane Hodder and C. Phillipps, but I wasn't able to find
any record of the wedding in the church register
to confirm the date.
You probably have more photo's than you know what
to do with, but I leave it to you should you wish to use them for your great web
site.
Best wishes, TWN (July 2010)
Hi again, John.
The attached photo is of the Fowler girls: Gladys, Winifred, and
Kathleen, (L. to R.) at the Whatley farm. I assume that is their proud
father Fred Fowler standing by the thresher in 1905. 
I may have mentioned in a previous mail that we were using the same
equipment circa 1941.
It was quite an event when the " thrasher came to town " at the High
Street Farm.
TWN (August 2010)
Editor: The heart of the Winsham Web Museum lies in the personal
contributions that are being made by so many people. Thanks for your
efforts so far ,and please keep them coming. Dennis Summers added to the
above by telling me that:-
'
I saw Bill Nicholson astride one of Joe Phillips's Shire horses
--"Rock".
During my time working for Joe Phillips,1939 --1944, I used to help my
Uncle Phil, who was the carter for Joe, at the time.
It
was not until Lease Lend from the USA started in 1943 that Ford shipped
the first tractors over and Joe was issued with one. This replaced one
of the horses.The tractor was an original Fordson. It was all
orange coloured, with iron clad wheels. Metal rims had to be fitted to
the wheels before they could be used on the highway.
Back to the horses;
they were all special to me because I used to help harness and
drive them.
There were three shires on the farm, named 'Rock', 'Granny',
and 'Fireman'.
Joe bought 'Fireman' from the Forde Abbey Estate, from Geoffrey Roper .
'Fireman' used to pull the unique Ford Abbey horse drawn fire appliance.
He was sold to Joe when the fire appliance went motorised !
|