SINCE the Second World War, village life has changed immeasurably and, in an effort to capture the community spirit of days gone by, Ron Stone has written West Meon Remembered.

Anyone reading his book will be in good company since he has sent a copy to the Duchess of Cornwall, who, as Camilla Shand, spent time at Hall Place, the home of her grandmother, the Honourable Sonia Cubitt.

Ron said that when Prince Charles was stationed in the Portsmouth area with the Royal Navy in the early 1970s, he would call at Hall Place to see Camilla.

However, hers is almost the only well-known name in the book which affectionately recalls the people of West Meon and some of their stories.

Although he now lives in Alton, Ron and his family were central to the village for nearly a century, thanks to their involvement with The Thomas Lord, which was known as the New Inn when he was born there on April 7, 1933.

He was the youngest son of William and Agnes Marion Stone. The Stones had been proprietors of the pub since 1897, firstly through Ron’s step-uncle, Stephen Crockford, who ran the pub until 1901 when the licence passed to Ron’s father and he was landlord until his death in 1957.

In those early days, it belonged to William Woods, of Warnford, and the brewhouse was opposite the pub. He sold it to Amey’s of Petersfield and then the pub was bought by Whitbread.

In 1952, Whitbread decided to honour West Meon’s most famous resident, Thomas Lord, founder of Lord’s cricket ground in London, and renamed the pub.

Ron himself was a keen cricketer and football player throughout his youth and even had a trial for Pompey. A number of his tales relate to sporting activity in and around West Meon but also go back to his school days before and during the Second World War.

Rationing, German prisoners of war working on the farms, stray bombs, the Home Guard, officers billeted at Warnford Park and then the build-up to D-Day are all recalled.

As well as running The Thomas Lord, Ron’s father established a haulage and coal delivery business based at West Meon Station yard and is where Ron became involved.

The Meon Valley railway line, which was open from 1903 to 1955, and its impact on the communities it served, is an integral part of the story of West Meon in the first half of the 20th century. So, too, were the many businesses, now closed, which served the residents and saved them from travelling far to buy necessities.

These included Tulleys grocers, Parsons with its lardy cakes and Smookers, which sold sweets.

West Meon Remembered, which is self-published by Ronald Stone, price £6.95, is available from the Petersfield Post’s office at 33 High Street, Petersfield, at The Thomas Lord in High Street, West Meon, and from Jane Hurst at Alton’s Curtis?Museum.

It is also on sale at The Angel Inn, on the A32 at Privett, where there is a permanent display of 200 pictures, collected by Ron, of the Meon Valley Railway Line.