OBSCURITY AND REFINEMENT

I know of two Fawleys. The first lies high on the downland of the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border country. This Fawley was the setting for Marygreen in Thomas Hardy`s novel, `Jude the Obscure` and afficionados will recall that Jude`s full name was, in fact, Jude Fawley. From the high ground, Jude looked out northward and could see the dreaming spires of Oxford in the distance....and vowed that he would be there himself one day.

When my youngest son was studying for his A-levels, he and I made a pilgrimage to Fawley, so that he could identify the place with the novel and perhaps gain more insight into Hardy`s work. The tranquility of the place left a lasting impression on us.

But there is another Fawley. This one is 100 miles or so to the south, nestling on the western shore of Southampton Water. The picture above shows Fawley`s 12th century church.....but the top photo shows Britain`s largest oil refinery, which these days dominates the village and the area around it - they make for a startling comparison between the very ancient and the very modern.

The old village of this second Fawley is steeped in history, again both ancient and modern, with All Saints Church built on church land mentioned in documents dating from AD971 and, in more modern times, Fawley being the home for some years for the Tristan da Cunha Islanders after they were evacuated from their island when the volcano erupted. But it is the refinery which has dominated Fawley for all the years I can remember. It wasn`t always this big, of course. There had been a small refinery here - operated by the Anglo-Gulf and West Indies Petroleum Company - since just after the first World War and it wasn`t until just after the second that the expansion really took off.

During the latter stages of the second World War, my mother and I lived with my aunt and uncle in a house in Blackfield - a couple of miles from Fawley - my father being incarcerated in Stalag V111B at the time. And so in 1944, when it was time for me to start school, I began my academic career at Fawley Primary School. Now, for some time before starting my school life, I had been repeatedly told that I would be going on a certain day. Came the day, off I went, quite convinced that that was the one and only day that I would have to go. Such a shock next morning to be sent again.

I have a cousin who lives in Fawley still - she has spent most of her life there. Last night, having read my blog, she complained that Fawley had not been mentioned. Well, it has now and I regret not doing so before, since there is so much of interest and history attached to that small village and its very large neighbour with its constant refinement, a hundred miles or so from the obscurity of Hardy`s Marygreen Fawley.