MOST villages had stocks on the village green, where punishment for minor misdemeanours was handed out in humiliating and sometimes painful fashion.
The earliest record of their use in Breamore is February 17, 1586, when John Cooke was "whipped at the post" and put in the stocks for three hours after he stole a horse belonging to John Harris.
Breamore's stocks stand by the A338 just opposite the Bat and Ball pub, on what was known as Little Marsh, but this particular section of green disappeared when the village school was built in 1872.
Before that, school had been in a thatched cottage on the Marsh.
The purpose-built premises was an elementary school, taking children from five to 14, until the Burgate School opened in 1956 and Breamore reverted to being a primary school.
Gerald Ponting was a pupil there.
"When I was at Breamore School, we had gardening once a week," he said.
"We used to have plots and mine had two fruit trees and the village stocks.
"I used to curse those stocks and think we had the most difficult plot."
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