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February 2022 February 2022
Stream, and the gravel pit at the top of Rye Hill. As a collie she needed a great
As I levered myself up the steps onto the pontoon, lifeguard Chris Campbell came deal of entertaining and exercise. She loved to be in the Garden with my mother
over. He had spent the past eleven seasons (the pond is open all year round) often at the back of No 90 where my mother grew vegetables and I kept
working here and loved the place. “Fancy a cup of tea and would your wife like chickens. She spent hours looking through the fence at the chickens but it was
one too?” he enquired. What better than a nice mug of English tea after a cool even better if one got out she would track it round and round the garden until it
refreshing swim? I sat a while with Diana and we chatted to a couple of
gentlemen who were using the Lifebuoys area for sunbathing and reading their wished it hadn’t escaped.
books Pic 04 Judy Helder and Jackie Legg took over some of the walks. Jenny soon learnt to
run up from the Manor House to Turberville Court to meet her dog walker. The
The Pond is used a lot by single men and is popular particularly amongst the gay
and Jewish communities. I can understand why people from all walks of life have telephone would ring and Megan would say to Jenny “Do you want a walk?”
used it as their little retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life. It is an Jenny would run up past the Elder Road Bungalows and up to the Car park. To
extraordinarily peaceful place. Barry Nicholas who had spent the last 14 summers start with people wondered if she was a stray but after a while would say “Oh, it’s
and Anderson Dos Santos who was in his first year gave us a cheery farewell wave. only Jenny going for her walk”
Both Diana and I were enchanted by this aura of old world charm, a peaceful She was an intelligent and
place to while away a warm sunny summer afternoon.... intuitive dog and soon worked
out where to go, who her
Bob Holman
friends were, where she could
get biscuits and who would
throw things for her. She liked
routine and I am convinced she
knew what day of the week it
was. She became a
community dog visiting the
ladies in the Woodbury Singers.
Kath Jeeves was not a dog
lover but was seen on
occasions to throw toys for her
in the corridors of Turbeville
court. Roger Angel would throw
her sticks in the churchyard. She would call on next door neighbour Richard
Cunningham Wood and had her own biscuit jar. At the Pop Inn Tony Shave
would ignore the demands of his vegetable purchasers and go and get a biscuit
for Jenny if she arrived. She never forgot Adrian and Elaine Standfield and always
made a great fuss when ever she met them.
She seemed to take a keen interest in everything, the diamond Jubilee
celebrations, the unveiling of the Bere Regis Stone at the Western End of the
village and at the Women’s Institute bulb planting round the Rye Hill Stone. She
has been to Gardening club, the Scout Hut for the Big Fund Raising Breakfasts and
Women’s Institute Events. She went to the tree planting day at Mays Wood and
even met and was stroked by Brian May. She was very Star struck. She was
always very grateful to him as he opened up the woods and all the new tracks for
all the generations of Dog Walkers and their dogs.
After my mother’s death and the sale of No 2 The Manor house, Jenny moved to
live with me in North Street. I had never had a dog before but soon adapted to

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