This section covers the very early history and the setting of the 1939 period.

Hawkley TO-DAY! by an evacuee, it is assumed that this section was written on return to Battersea as part of a school project, perhaps 1945 vintage?

The working people can be divided into two groups, those who can trace family association with Hawkley (shown left in 2002) through a number of generations. In addition, those who come into the district in search of better employment and who, in most cases, leave again. The men are mostly engaged in agriculture work, but the women are no longer employed in domestic service; they are finding more varied occupations in seasonal farm work especially that introduced into the district by a successful market gardener.

The village is too small to undertake many social activities and although the Parish Council has statutory powers to demand a village hall, it is doubtful whether the limited use of such hall would justify the cost of erection. It is true the village has an 'Institute' but the "Queen's Arms" (renamed as the Hawkley Inn) proves a very powerful rival. As most of the villagers cultivate allotments and produce sufficient vegetables to supply their families for the whole year, they have very little time left for social functions. During the summer months the labourers work overtime and no social activity" could be successfully carried on.

The introduction into the village of the two modern amenities electricity and main water has considerably improved the otherwise primitive housing conditions. With two exceptions the lack of main drainage and a few cottages where the main water comes no nearer than a pipe outside the front door. It is now possible to make the cottages fairly convenient and comfortable although it is true that the present high cost of electricity compels most of the inhabitants to resort to oil and coal for cooking.

The Hawkley farmers were quick to realise the value of machinery and to-day horse ploughing has disappeared entirely. The few horses that remain are used mostly for equestrian purposes. Wartime compulsion has changed the local crops and pasture has had to give place to corn. The holdings are small and the hilly nature of the district makes it impossible to cultivate much of the area. The War Agricultural committee has undertaken the breaking up of some fallow ground and incidentally, have broken up several ploughs in so doing owing to the rock like nature of the subsoil.

Once a year the placid calm of the village is disturbed by the influx of 'hoppers' mainly from Portsmouth but including a few Londoners. Each year a smaller amount of hops is grown and if this reduction continues, the villagers will be able to cope with the picking without the help of outsiders. In the past, this annual employment has been the means of providing sufficient money to set-up the children with clothes for the winter.

The village shop has been affected by changing economic condition. Older inhabitants can remember the time when the shop supplied everything for the village from meat and village baked bread to suits of clothes. With the coming of motor delivery vans and the attraction of 'co-op' trading, the village is now supplied from a number of stores.

Since the regular Saturday bus service, the village has ceased to be a place remote from the quickened tempo of modern life.

Even the children have to acquire the travel habit for at the age of eleven they are transferred to a school at Liss.

In November 1822 William Cobbett rode from Hawkley to Greatham and wondered whether he had ever seen worse roads. They are infinitely better now of course but still narrow, winding and often 20 ft or more below the top of the banks on either side. This was a little before the present A 3 (T) road was built, even in 1939 this road meandered through many small villages and towns.

In 1774 there was a huge landslip a mile east of the village. Though part of a prehistoric series of landslips flanking the Malmstone escarpment, it is the only recorded instance of renewed movement of one of these landslips in historical times. Natural landslips frequently occur on the coastal cliffs but this is possibly the only recorded case of such a slip in inland Hampshire.

Part of the escarpment subsided with deformation and fissuring of the ground below. A cottage was almost engulfed by the movements; this cottage, near Scotland Farm (see map above), was rebuilt and named Slip Cottage. The site of the landslip can be seen from the road above the cottage. The cause of the slip was the sliding of the Malmstone over the underlying Gault Clay after very heavy rain in the preceding months.

Gilbert White described the landslip in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. He said that part of the hanger at Hawkley fell down perpendicularly in such a way that a gate fell 30 or 40 ft and yet still opened and closed perfectly. According to White the length of the slip was 251 yards, about 50 acres of land had 'suffered' and two houses were entirely destroyed. The Hampshire Chronicle reported that 60 acres of land had given way and a house was thrown down. Gilbert White's nephew said that nearly 1,000 people came to view the scene.

Hawkley Mill (1774), in 1939 this was part of the Hawkley Hurst estate, now a private house, stands beside a tributary of the river Rother. It has an inscription on the wall: "Hocheleye Mill. Ancient mill of the Bishops of Winchester taken from them by Sir Adam Gurdon given back under King Edward AD 1280. Burnt down and rebuilt 1774. Became a cottage 1880. J.J.M."

Adam de Gurdon, lord of the manor of Selborne and warden of Woolmer Forest, was a follower of Simon de Montfort and fought against Henry III. He lost a duel near Alton with Prince Edward (later Edward 1), who spared his life and restored his estates. The mill here is probably on the site of the one mentioned in Domesday Book as being at Empshott. In 1564 it was purchased by the warden of Winchester College

HAWKLEY - 1901 Census of addressees.

1	Brickfield Cottages	William Etherington
2	Brickfield Cottages	Arthur Smallpiece
3	Brickfield Cottages	Harry Knowles
4	Brickfield Cottages	Thomas Elliot
5	Hay Barn Farm	James Budden
6	Farewell Cottage	William Lilleywhite
7	Farewell Farm	Robert Vear
8	Farewells	William Etherington
9	Pococks Lane	Betsy Durman
10	Pococks Lane	William Western
11	Pococks Lane	George Parker
12	Queen's Arms Inn	James Hayes
13	Pococks Lane	James Dear
14	Pococks Lane	Herbert Bellamy
15	Pococks Lane	William Knowles
16	Pococks Lane	George Mills
17	Cheesecombe Farm	William Coles
18	Churchlands,	Gilbert Rideout
19	Churchlands Cottage	James Knowles
20	Coach House	not occupied and no entry
21	Tubbs Farm	Benjamin Bone
22	Hermits Cottages	George Port
23	Hermits Cottages	Richard Budd
24	Rose Cottage	George Rout
25	Upper Green	Korah Carpenter
26	Upper Green	Elizabeth Knowles & John Frederick (son - single)
27	Post Office	Charles Matcham
28	Almshouses	Henry Woods
29	Almshouses	George Clarke
30	School House	William Hookes
31	Vicarage	James Harkness
32	Church Terrace	Thomas Gardner
33	Church Terrace	Edward F Edwards
34	Church Terrace	George Kingshott
35	Greenlands	Albert Howard
36	Jolly Robins Farm	William A Symonds
37	Jolly Robins Farm	John Higley
38	Uplands	Herbert G Ingate Warren
39	Uplands Cottage	Arthur Howard
40	Scotland Farm (Slip Cottage)	Andrew Aylward
41	Scotland Farm (Jacobs Cottage)	Robert Taylor
42	Scotland Farm	Henry Andrew
43	Snailing Lane	Thomas Baker
44	Snailing Lane	Harry Etherington
45	Snailing Lane	Harry Blyth
46	Snailing Lane	Ann Legg
47	Bull's Brook	Sarah Ventham
48	Champler's Farm	Arthur Munday
49	Lower Green	James Arnold
50	Lower Green	Thomas Rod
51	Lower Green	Richard Etherington
52	Lower Green	William Marshall
53	Eames Farm	Henry Budd
54	Blacksmith's Cottage	William Pierson
55	Lower Green	Robert Collis
56	Lower Green	no entry
57	Lower Green	James Fisher
58	Lower Green	Alfred Parfoot
59	Lower Green	Thomas Marshall
60	Lower Green	Harry Mills
61	Lower Green Farm	Benjamin Warner
62	Hole Cottage	Thomas Betsworth
63	Hole Cottage	unoccupied
64	Mabbotts Farm	Elizabeth Wakeford
65	Mabbotts Farm	no entry - unoccupied
66	Hawkley Hurst	Norah Mabberly
67	Hawkley Hurst	Charles Godden
68	Hawkley Mill	Arthur Corps
69	Hawkley Mill	Benjamin Taylor