Wherwell WI - extracts from prize-winning Scrapbook, 1952

THE LEGEND OF THE COCKATRICE

The Wherwell book has on the cover the symbol of a cockatrice, a reminder of the ancient village legend set out below, and describes the
history of the area from the year 986 AD until the present day. In that year the Abbey was founded by Lady Elfrida, the wife of King Edgar the Peacemaker. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was the scene of a skirmish in 1141 between the troops of King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. In 1540, after the-dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII, the lands were sold to Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr.
The scrapbook is notable for some fine photographs of the village, which
is often claimed to be one of the most beautiful in the county, and drawings and paintings of flowers, fish and birds to be found locally.

WHERWELL FAIR

There is a description of the ancient Wherwell Fair, which has died out
since the coming of mechanised transport. “The sheep fair was always held on the 24th September of each year, and on the previous evening and the early morning of the 24th the drovers and dogs with the flocks of sheep used to fill the roads on their way to the Fair Piece, where the sheep were all penned in hurdles for the sale. Farm hands, looking for work with new masters, used to come to the fair for fresh jobs. Carters used to have plaited whipcord over their shoulders, and shepherds
had a piece of sheep’s wool in their caps to show the jobs they were looking for.”

A TALE OF TERROR

Among the village legends placed at the end of the book is the legend of the cockatrice, from which the village gets its symbol. “A duck laid an egg
in the crypt of the Abbey, which was hatched by a toad, and turned into a
cockatrice – a kind of dragon. It grew to an enormous size, and having a
voracious appetite, killed and ate anybody who entered. The nuns who lived in the Abbey were in terror lest it should escape, and this continued until someone thought of a means to end this disastrous situation. He let down a strong mirror into the crypt and the cockatrice, on seeing his image, fought it until he was exhausted, and the originator of the idea went down and killed it.”

FIRST CLASS AWARD
The Wherwell scrapbook, which won a first class at the exhibition, was prepared by members of the Women’s Institute, and compiled by Mrs. M. Jewitt and Mrs. A. Jenkins.

Local Institutes to gain placings were Hurstbourne Tarrant, gold star; Abbotts Ann, St. Mary Bourne, Amport and Wherwell, first class; Chilbolton, Eversley, East Woodhay, Kingsclere, Overton and Thruxton, second class; and Appleshaw, third class.