— HISTORY TIMELINE — relating
particularly to Flora Thompson's time in Hampshire and after—
1874
Apr 4: John William Thompson born in Ryde, Isle of Wight
1876
Dec 5: Flora Jane Timms born in Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire [Lark Rise]
1878
Sep 29: Sarah Annie Symonds [Alma
Stedman in 'Heatherley'] born in Liscard, Cheshire
1879
Sep 12: Flora’s brother Edwin Timms [Edmund in her books] born in
Juniper Hill (Canadian Army documents give this birth date), baptised 2
Nov 1879
1880
Flora starts attending school at Cottisford, Oxfordshire
1884
Professor John Tyndall builds a house at Hindhead,
encouraging other ‘eminent men’ to follow
1891
Apr: John Thompson begins training in Bournemouth as
sorting clerk & telegraphist
Flora begins work at Fringford [Candleford
Green] post-office, aged 14
1892
Walter Chapman [Mr
Hertford in 'Heatherley'] takes Grayshott post office
Nov: Annie Symonds moves from Cheshire to Hindhead, aged 13
1896
Arthur Conan Doyle moves to Hindhead for his wife’s health
1897
Flora leaves Fringford, (after the
Diamond Jubilee celebrations, June 22) to take temporary jobs
elsewhere, possibly Twyford, Bucks, and then Essex
October: Arthur Conan Doyle moves into Undershaw
at Hindhead
1898
Flora sees her first moving film in Halstead,
Essex – from her description of it, we think it may
have been Le Coucher de la Mariée,
a French short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made. The film was
produced in 1896 by Eugène Pirou (see YouTube)
June: George Bernard Shaw (GBS) spends his honeymoon at Pitfold
House, Hindhead
Jul: Foundation stone laid of St Luke’s church, Grayshott
Sept: Flora arrives in Grayshott, aged
21, to train Annie Symonds in the use of the new telegraph machine and
lodges with the Chapmans (Walter & Emily) – photo of post office
Nov: Dr Lyndon notes Walter Chapman made accusations of his
wife’s immorality at this time
Nov: GBS rents Blen Cathra (now St
Edmund’s School) close to Grayshott village
1899
Jan 28: GBS delivers a ‘vigorous oration’ at a Peace
Meeting in Hindhead Congregational Hall – Conan Doyle in the chair also
spoke. Flora mentions attending meetings here
Doyle, Shaw and other eminent
writers of the day living in Hindhead use Grayshott post office
regularly
Mar 1: Thomas Gillman Chapman born to Walter & Emily
Aug 23: Fox & Pelican opens in
Grayshott—Flora orders her ‘immense ninepenny dinners’ from it
Flora starts seeing ‘Mr Foreshaw’ about this time?
Oct 10: Boer War begins
Edwin enlists for Boer War—meets Flora on Aldershot railway
station
1900
Jan 6: Boers attack Ladysmith
May 17: Mafeking relieved
May: Dr Coleclough fined for poisoning dogs at Grayshott,
mentioned in Heatherley
June 6: Ethel Chapman born to Walter & Emily
July 31: ‘Mrs Parkhurst’ gives birth to ‘Elsie’? – actually
Alice Levett gives birth to a son, Aubrey
Aug 10: John Volckman [Mr
Foreshaw in 'Heatherley'?] dies at Grayshott, aged
63—buried in Headley churchyard
Flora starts seeing ‘The Jeromes’ about this time?
Sep 1: Hindhead telegraph facility opens – first wire sent
off from Hindhead this week. – "the number of telegrams sent and
received at Heatherley went down 80 per cent." Earliest
date for Flora leaving Grayshott
Sep 15: "Initial telegraph work at Hindhead was 60
telegrams per day, and it has considerably relieved the strain which
hitherto existed at the Grayshott post office."
Oct 17: St Luke’s church, Grayshott, consecrated
1901
Jan 22: Queen Victoria dies
Mar?: Latest
date for Flora leaving Grayshott
Mar 31: Census – Flora
at Yateley, Hampshire, working in the Post Office – her occupation
given as 'Post Office Clerk' – living with the sub postmaster William
Bettesworth and his wife and their servant. John Thompson working as a
Post Office Clerk in Aldershot, Hampshire—just 8 miles away.
Jun 16: Ernest James Chapman born to Walter & Emily
Jul 29: Walter Chapman murders his wife Emily at Grayshott
and is committed to Broadmoor (see Sept 1921)
– Emily buried in All Saints' churchyard, Headley
1902
Flora goes to work at Twickenham in about 1902 and for a
while lived as a lodger in Heathfield (Road) North
1903
Jan 7: Flora marries John Thompson at St Mary’s, Twickenham
Thompsons make home in Winton, a new suburb of Bournemouth – rented 4
Sedgley Road (later moved next-door to No.6)
Oct 24: Winifred Grace (‘Diana’) Thompson born in Winton,
baptised 7 Aug 1904 in St John's, Moordown
1906
Mar 15: All five of Walter Chapman’s children re-baptised
at St Luke’s, Grayshott
Edwin returns from India to work on local farm in
Oxfordshire
Winton Library opened – Flora 'slipped in like a duck
slipping into water and read almost everything'
1909
May: Flora recalls (in her Peverel Paper
of May 1926) being on the Isle of Wight when she read of the death of
one of her favourite authors, George Meredith (d. 18 May 1909)
Early autumn: Flora visits Juniper Hill with Winifred to
see Edwin before he emigrates to Canada
Oct 6: Henry Basil Thompson born in Winton
The Thompsons move a couple of streets to rent a bigger
house at 2 Edgehill Road, Winton –
they call this house 'Grayshott Cottage'
1910
Jan 12: Annie Symonds marries Harold Oliver Chapman (nephew
of Walter) at St Luke’s, Grayshott
Flora acquires a typewriter, to type minutes of her
husband's Postal Clerks Association meetings
1911
Feb: Flora wins competition in The Ladies
Companion for essay on
Jane Austen – Flora’s first published work
Apr 2: Census shows Flora's brothers Edwin (31) and Frank
(22) as Farm Labs living with their parents at Juniper Hill – soon afterwards the brothers emigrate:
Edwin to Canada and Frank to Queensland
Apr: Flora has her essay on Emily Brontë published in The
Ladies Companion
July: Flora wins again in The Ladies Companion
for an essay on Shakespeare’s heroines – she chose Juliet
Jan: Short story (‘The Toft Cup’) published in The
Ladies Companion – Flora’s first payment
Flora wins prize for writing a crit. on Dr Ronald Macfie’s
ode on the sinking of the Titanic
Macfie visits Flora, and starts a literary correspondence
1913
Flora writes ‘The Leper’, set on the Isle of Wight, and
sells it to The Literary Monthly
1914
Spring: The Thompson family visits John's widowed father on
the Isle of Wight – Flora mentions seeing a rainbow over Ryde in April
(in her Peverel Paper for April 1924)
Dec 12: Edwin Timms
(No. 81889) joins the 32nd Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force in
Winnipeg (in Canadian Army
documents he is referred to as Edward Timms!)
– see acknowledgement
1915
The Ladies Companion ceases publication
Feb 23: Edwin's battalion sails for England
May 5: Edwin sent to join the 2nd 'Eastern Ontario'
Battalion in France (the regiment had been there since Feb)
The Thompsons move locally again to rent 42 Frederica Road,
Winton – they also call this house
'Grayshott Cottage'
Nov 20: Edwin hospitalised with rheumatic fever for eight
days
1916
Mar 20: Edwin granted 8-days leave in England – Flora
cannot see him due to her children's illness
Apr 26: Edwin killed in action in Belgium (after the battle
for the St Eloi craters) – buried
in Plot II.F.3 in
Woods Cemetery, Zillebeke, Ieper, Belgium – see also plaque in Cottisford church
May 30: Vacancy for sub-postmastership at Liphook
advertised in the Post Office Circular – salary £125 per annum
Aug: Thompson family moves from Bournemouth to Liphook – photo of post office
1917
Flora joins the Haslemere Natural History Society (also
1918 & 1922–27) as ‘Miss F Thompson’
Jan: John Mumford arrives in Bramshott—becomes friendly
with one of Flora's post girls, 'Louie' Woods—he is posted to France in
October (and survives the War)
1918
Oct 19: Peter Redmond Thompson born in Liphook
Nov 11: Armistice day—end of First World War
Flora writes: "I had my husband and the two elder children
in bed with [the 'flu] … Peter, an infant, to attend to, no servant,
and the post office work." [Letter
to a Peverel Society member in 1937]
Dec: Albert Timms (Flora’s father) dies, aged 64
1919
Flora takes a correspondence course in the Daily News
1920
Flora writes six stories for ‘The Catholic Fireside’,
including a rewritten version of 'The Leper'
May: Emma Timms was sent Edwin's three service medals and
the Canadian Memorial Cross by the Canadian Army; Edwin's 'Death
Plaque' sent to his father (although he had died in 1918)
June: Flora's literary essay on Robert Louis Stevenson's
home Skerryvore appeared in 'The Catholic Fireside'
? Sep: Flora revisits Grayshott
1921
Flora writes monthly ‘Out of Doors’ nature articles (set in
the New Forest) for 'The Catholic Fireside'
March: Book of Flora’s poems published: Bog-Myrtle & Peat—her
first publicity—pictured at her typewriter and reported in the national
press – see photos
May 14: Article on 'Flora
Thompson: Poet and Nature Lover' in The Civilian,
the Civil Service magazine
Country bus services start in Liphook
? Flora visited by ‘Mrs Parkhurst’ and 'Elsie' from
Grayshott
Sep 15: Walter Chapman dies in custody, possibly Exminster
Asylum
1922
Flora begins writing her monthly ‘Peverel Papers’ nature
notes (set mainly around Liphook) for 'The Catholic Fireside'
Flora writes in a Peverel Paper (Sep 1922) about 'the
necessity every week or so to take a short train journey'
Sept: Basil Thompson (aged 12) starts at Churchers College
1923
Aug: Flora visits Northamptonshire (‘Peverel Paper’ for Sep
1923)
Peter (aged 5) starts at school
1923-25
Flora writes a ‘Fireside Reading Circle’ article and a
‘Peverel Paper’ each month, plus setting and judging competitions and
dealing with volumes of correspondence
Flora ends the ‘Fireside Reading Circle’ and starts a
postal writers group ‘The Peverel Society’ with Mildred, issuing ‘The
Peverel Monthly’. The Society publishes a small book of verse.
1926
Feb: Basil Thompson (aged 16) and Cecil Cluer (aged 20,
engaged to Diana) go out to Queensland, Australia
– Cecil never comes back
Jul 2: Thompsons buy new house Woolmer Gate
at Griggs Green, near Liphook – the
first house of their own (previously they had lived in rented
accommodation)
1927
Jul 6: Vacancy for postmaster at Dartmouth advertised in
the Post Office Circular – salary £215 per annum
Aug 3: Appointment of John Thompson to Dartmouth recorded
in Post Office Circular
Sep 9: Woolmer
Gate put on the market at an asking price of £750
Nov 10: Presentation to John Thompson, who moves to
Dartmouth—Flora, Diana & Peter stay in Griggs Green
Dec: Last ‘Peverel Paper’ appears
1928
Flora’s novel ‘Gates of
Eden’ appears in serialised form in copies of ‘The Peverel
Monthly’
Flora starts to write ‘Dashpers,’
but only completes four chapters
Sep 16: Peter Thompson lost at sea, aged 22, when his
merchant ship Jedmoor (carrying wheat) was torpedoed
– see plaque
‘Peverel Society’ disbanded; Flora developed pneumonia over
the winter and was ill in bed for some weeks
1942
Flora writes ‘Candleford Green’
1943
Jan: ‘Candleford Green’ published, to magnificent reviews
Geoffery Cumberlege of OUP writes to Flora: 'One day we
must talk about the trilogy'
Mar: Flora talks to OUP of publishing ‘The Peverel Papers’
as a book
1944
Mar: Flora receives proofs of Julie Neild’s engravings for
the ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ trilogy
Jul: HJ Massingham agrees to write the Introduction to the
trilogy
Flora invited to speak about her books to a group of
Oxfordshire librarians but she could not go
Flora completes ‘Heatherley,’ but does not submit it for
publication
1945
Apr: Trilogy ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ published
Flora starts writing ‘Still Glides the Stream’
1946
Jan 10: Date on Flora’s last Will and Testament, in which she states: ‘if any headstone
should be erected to my memory I wish that the name of our beloved son
Peter Redmond Thompson shall appear thereon.’
Aug: Flora completes ‘Still Glides the Stream’
Dec 25: John cooked Christmas dinner, as Flora was ill in
bed
1947
Flora writes an article ‘A Country Child Taking Notes’ on
her life and work for ‘Readers News’ – see
photo
May 21: Flora dies in bed in the evening, aged 70 – memorial to her and Peter
placed in Longcross Cemetery, Dartmouth
Aug 16: Probate of Flora's Will granted at Exeter
1948
Jul 13: John Thompson dies, aged 74
‘Still Glides the Stream’ published—Diana is literary
executor
1956
Tribute to Flora broadcast on radio by Margaret Lane
1957
Margaret Lane’s essay published in ‘The Cornhill’ magazine
1966
Winifred (‘Diana’) Thompson dies, aged 63
Flora’s papers sent to the University of Texas
Margaret Lane publishes Purely for Pleasure,
a collection of articles written by her including the one on Flora
Thompson which had previously been published in 'The Cornhill' magazine
1969
Jun 29: Annie Symonds (Annie Chapman) dies, aged 90
1970
Anne Mallinson of Selborne discovers the East Hampshire
connection with Flora
1976
May: Centenary of Flora’s birth—literary lunch held at ‘The
Royal Anchor,’ Liphook
Winter: Article by Simon Appleyard – 'In the footsteps of
Flora Thompson' published in This England
1978
March: Play 'Lark Rise' written by Keith Dewhurst performed
'in promenade' at the Cottesloe Theatre in London
May: Plaque to Flora unveiled on the old post office at
Liphook
Nov: Play ‘Candleford’ written by Keith Dewhurst performed
'in promenade' at the Cottesloe Theatre in London
1981
May 21: Sculptured
bust of Flora by Philip Jackson unveiled at Liphook, outside
the then current post office (now the sorting office) in Portsmouth
Road (re-cast and moved inside the Library in 1995)
1983
Apr 21: 'Lark Rise to Candleford' republished by Century
July: Play
'Flora's Peverel'
performed again in Surrey and East Hampshire
July: BBC begins filming a 10-part TV series based on Lark
Rise to Candleford, starring Dawn French and Julia
Sawalha
2008
Jan 13: First episode of BBC TV series Lark Rise
to Candleford is screened
Planning application submitted to demolish Woolmer Gate,
the Thompsons' house in Griggs Green near Liphook – retracted in 2009 and the house then put
up for sale as an entity
May: The
Peverel Papers published in their entirety as a single volume
Blue plaques put up on houses associated with Flora in Bournemouth and Brixham
2009
Jan–March: Second series of BBC TV series Lark
Rise to Candleford is screened
May 2: Blue plaque
put on building in Crossways Road, Grayshott where the post office had
stood when Flora was working there
Jan–March: Third series of BBC TV series Lark
Rise to Candleford is screened
July 4: Unveiling of a plaque in Fringford ('Candleford Green') church
by Linda Bassett ('Queenie' of TV) – see photo & details
2011
Jan–Feb: Fourth series of BBC TV series Lark Rise
to Candleford is screened
2014
'Dreams of the Good Life' by Richard Mabey is published
Thanks
to Gordon Crossley, Archivist of the Fort Garry Horse Regiment,
Winnipeg, for information on Edwin Timms' service record in the
Canadian Army
