My Mother's Diaries
Welcome to My Mother's Diaries
My Mother’s Diaries tells the story of one Hampshire farming family through the diaries my mother kept from 1948 to 1976. Set around Hiltonbury Farm in Chandler’s Ford, they capture the everyday joys, hardships, humour and changes of family and farming life in post-war Britain.
Meet the Woman Behind the Diaries
Margaret Kathleen Vining — known as Peggy, and later to the family as BeBe — never set out to write history. From 1948 she simply recorded everyday life at Hiltonbury Farm: the weather, visitors, children, cattle, shopping, dances, illnesses, harvests and all the small details of family life. Decades later, those diaries have become a remarkable record of a changing way of life.
Inside the Diaries
For nearly thirty years, my mother recorded the ordinary details of family life at Hiltonbury Farm — the weather, visitors, children, cattle, harvests, outings, illnesses and countless little moments that might otherwise have been forgotten. Today those handwritten pages give us a remarkable window into everyday life in post-war Britain.
