Lancing Memories

Memory from Jan Baker-Freeman

2011-12-16T11:21:00.000Z

This story was originally posted as a comment below another story in May 2010

I should of done it more justice and given it a full placing in these stories . I am correcting this here.

Jan writes..
..I too just came upon this site, and it brings back all the memories of my 7 years of growing up in Lancing, all the people I remember, all the people I would love to know how they are doing now.

This brought so much pleasure it is amazing.

All this started with a need for school records for a job with the Dallas Police Dept, which at 65, I eventually withdrew from.

My name is Jan(et) Baker-Freeman, I moved from Grange Hill Essex, a council house exchange by my Grand parents, William and Alice Baker, to 177 Tower Rd, next to the Messers, Linda, David and I think Christopher, I remember Diane Bacon, Barbara Gorringe, her Father was the rent man, then there was Mr. & Mrs. Tom Reynolds the postie, and they had a son who's name I don't recall, he must not have lived there, as I was close as an only child to these people.

I remember the Brenda and Richard Pitt who emigrated to Australia, I think their Dad had the green grocers on South St. It's people I remember, as well as places, I am recalling the people I used to see in the places you mention.

I remember the Betteridge girls, Patsy Leggit, Frances Martin, Jennifer Cook, Lillian ? from Busby Close, Susan and Janet Shepherd who went to Beverley House on Penhill Road, as did I, after I came out of hospital after contracting polio.

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Huss and chips at the chip shop on Penhill, great pickled onions and gherkins.

I remember Saturday morning pictures, I was on the committee, not sure I ever accomplished anything.

I remember school mates, Frances Shapland, Maureen Singer, Barbara McGuiness, Carol Mason, Sheilagh Churcher, Margareet Deacon, Margaret Cheetham, Ivy Sullivan, Avril Barraclough, just so many girls..

The "rec", biking to Arundel, most likely a difficult feat today, many cars on the roads.

Carolyn Holden, Mary Goldsmith, Christopher Riddle, Jennifer Wintle, Honnie Marshall, Carol Burchet, her mother was the restaurant manager at the Odeon. Just 7 short years, to know and remember all these names, what a great place for a child to grow up.

When I returned I worked for Tesco in Worthing then SPD and Solarbo, A C Draycot part time such a small world. Lovely memories of the ocean, rough and green often, the downs, Devils Dyke, Brighton Pier, Worthing Pier where I spent my pennies in silly games.

What a delightful trip down memory lane.

Lancing Bandstand/Shelter

2011-12-13T11:40:00.001Z

Does anyone have any historical information about the concrete bandstand/shelter at the west end of beach green?

18. Memory from Jan Barwick (nee Stonley)

2011-03-06T13:18:00.001Z

Dear Ray,

I saw your site and had to put down these memories from my childhood in Lancing. I hope you can use them.

I lived in one of the semi-detached houses opposite Lancing Manor park in Old Shoreham Road, just along from Manor Road. The other half of our house was occupied by the Weeburs, and the Grovers were in the house next door on the other side. Bart Grover was a nurseryman up in Manor Road and his children Susan and Diana were in between my brother and me in age.

None of the bungalows in Old Shoreham Road or behind our houses had been built then. Instead there was a wilderness rank with nettles in which we used to play, through which a stream passed. This had a downside. In winter the water table rose and springs used to appear in our garden and flood our garage, sometimes up to a foot in depth.

One of my earliest memories is of bonfire night – probably about 1950. We had fireworks and the families in the houses had built a huge bonfire on the rough ground behind the house around which we all danced singing ‘Guy Fawkes Guy, poke him in the eye’.

At the corner by the roundabout at the top of Grinstead Lane was McCurdy’s shop, a little wooden shack which sold all sorts of basic groceries, fruit and veg, sweets and paraffin. Mr McCurdy was a scot, didn’t like children and was incredibly grumpy with us. He used to play a set of bagpipes under a chestnut tree by the sandpit in the park. He lived in a cottage next door to the shop, opposite which was a conker tree – one of many in the vicinity which we targeted at conker time, throwing sticks up to knock the conkers down. McCurdy always used to come out and shout at us if he saw. Mrs Cane lived in the other cottage next door to the McCurdys, a pretty half-timbered building called Willow Cottage. Unsurprisingly there was a huge willow tree in the garden.

Lancing Manor was still there then. It had a nursery school and I remember walking past the windows and seeing the toddlers on mats on the floor having their afternoon nap. I have a vague memory of them pulling it down in the late 50s - and much stronger memories of the cricket pavilion going up in flames which I guess was sometime in the early 60s. The flames lit up my bedroom one night.

Lancing Manor park was a wonderful place to play, with masses of space for ball games and banks to roll down. There were swings in the north-west corner, a sandpit under trees in the middle and plenty of climbable trees, particularly beautiful big elms which I guess are all no longer there. One of the biggest challenges was to walk the length of the flint wall at the back of the park. Memory suggests that it was about six foot tall but when I went back and looked during a visit in the 90s, it was only about waist height.

Behind the Manor there was a narrow wood between the houses and the field, which led up onto the Downs, another location where we would disappear for hours at a time. The chalk pit at the top of Mill Road was a particularly favoured place to play hide and seek. Beyond here Bartons had a riding stable where we used to go on a Saturday for a half hour ride for 2/6d, 5s for an hour. Pat Barton, the owner, was Irish and had a metal hip. We were all quite frightened of him as he was very intimidating, and controlled the more wayward horses with a whip. His children John and Jane mainly used to take the rides out. They were both as feisty as their father, but Mrs Barton was a much more amenable soul. I remember falling off virtually every week but it never seemed to put me off.

Housing development started in the 1950s. The first bungalows were built down Manor Way then along Manor Close. These building sites were great places to play and we used to purloin bits of old equipment – planks and tarpaulins and the like, to make camps. At the end of Manor Close was Mr Kirk’s farm. Mr Kirk kept pigs and chickens and showed me how he used to kill the chickens quickly by wringing their necks. We used to help him muck the pigs out – all except the boar which was too dangerous to get in the pen with.

The banks of the stream that ran alongside his property was riddled with holes. If you sat quietly for long enough you’d spot water voles coming out. They were very common then.

I went to primary school at Lancing Prep, which was behind the church in South Street.

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The headmistress when I first went there was Mrs Rees, then Miss Kirk took over and was there until (I believe) the school closed in the 1960s. Mrs Pell was another teacher that I remember with great fondness. There were only two main classrooms and a small outside area where we could play. For more vigorous activity we used to be taken in a crocodile down to the beach green. The school was very small – probably no more than 20 or so pupils – and probably kept going in great part by the Johnson family of which May, Pauline, Philip, Tony, Wendy and Ann were all there at one time together. I think the youngest one, Caroline, never got to the school because it had closed by then.

One thing I don’t remember, which is surprising as we used to ride up that way a lot, was the dew pond up by the clump. Is this a recent development, or is my memory here at fault?

Regards,

Jan Barwick (nee Stonley)

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My Reply..

Hello Jan

This was a lovely surprise to receive your memories. Thank you very much.

I will be very pleased to add them to the existing collection.

A small family coincidence is that my wife's mother lived at a bungalow opposite the park in the mid 1930's for short time. Later she worked for the Weeburs at their glassworks.

My wife (her name is also Jan) asked about the church school you mention, is that the building on the north side of St Michaels Church.

(You probably know that you can view it on Google maps)

The Dewpond was relatively recently restored, the first time in 1991, and again around 2000, with occasional repairs and maintenance up to the present.

I have heard mentioned that the girl guides used to make camp fires on the site when it was just a forgotten hollow in the ground.

___________________________________________________________________________

Jan replies..

The church was the one a few yards down from the Farmers’ Pub . I couldn’t remember its name (the school didn’t have anything to do with the church as far as I can remember, certainly never had services there – we just used the rooms behind) but I had a look on Google street view and it’s right next door to the Circle Garage. It’s an imposing building with a gabled frontage and a narrow spire on the left hand side. Not to be confused with the Methodist church of St Michaels which is further down.

Funny your comments about the Weeburs. I had no idea he had a glassworks, but I guess when I was a child and they lived next door he was already retired. He was quite a grumpy old thing.

Was your wife’s mother in Manor Road – the one that runs up to the Sussex Potter? I remember we used to play with Keith and Robert Pudd who used to live there (in a bungalow in Manor Road, not at the Potter) and who also went to Lancing Prep. My brother Derek used to work in the Potter (then the Corner House) in his long vacations when he was at Cambridge University. After they’d converted it I also worked there behind the bar in the vacations. Other places I worked in on Saturdays and in the holidays were the laundry in (I think South Street) although I hated ironing handkerchiefs so much I only lasted a week, and the Mermaid on the beach green. I was waitressing there in 1966 during the World Cup and remember rushing home on my bike and arriving home shortly before the ‘they think it’s all over.. it is now’ moment. In my childhood a Mr and Mrs Booth ran the Mermaid for a while. Their daughter Janet invited me to her 7th birthday party and I fell over on the concrete strip that ran around the house and cut my knee to the extent that I needed six stitches. Still got the scar.

Glad my memories of the dewpond were correct. I was a fanatic natural historian and always made a beeline for anywhere wildlife rich, so I’d certainly have been there with my net and jamjars. One place we used to love was a fantastically clear pond at the junction where the road to the old tollbridge split from the Coombes road, on the airport side. It was quite deep and full of water weed. I had a look on Google earth but it looks like it’s been filled in. The whole of the south side of the road between that junction and Mash Barn Lane was always very marshy. There used to be a lot of travellers that camped in a layby there.

I’d love to hear any more of your wife’s memories. I have such strong recollections of a very happy childhood in the village.

Story 17 from Brenda Grover

2009-07-30T19:24:00.004+01:00

In Reply to Alan Brenda sends this story..

Reading your Lancing history, i have just come back to live here, and i saw your parents were friends of my Uncle Pearce and Aunty Mildred. I love being back here and just walking around, brings back so many memories of such a wonderful childhood, and what a wonderful place to live.
My sons who are 35 & 37, grew up here, and they are always saying thankyou for a wonderful childhood. With as you say the beach and downs. I went up the Lancing Ring after the storm, and cried as my great grandfather helped to plant those trees, and i knocked at the door of church villa , and asked if i could look around the old family house, wonderful so many memories. I love Lancing, it has got a bit more larger,but in a way has not changed at all. Thank you again for your write up.
I live Penhill now but used to live North Lancing, and went to North Lancing primary school with Miss Tait and Miss Humphries, I remember Mr Stear.
Thank you again for a nice and good read.

See this and other stories on the Tithing Times website
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Story 16 from Rose (Marg) Moloney

2009-05-31T19:36:00.004+01:00

This lovely recollection has just been sent in. We thank you Marg

I was a neighbour of Paul Kidger in the 1950s and 60s in Ring Road and remember the family well – Lyn was in my class at N Lancing Primary School. I also remember the dog walking old lady who would bleat ‘ Kiltie, Kiltie ‘ which the dog ignored.

I was part of the St James the Less Players, a church drama group, which started my career on the boards.

The Downs,The Manor, The Park, The Clump, The Chalkpit..The Woods The Beach..were all special places in our wonderful Sussex childhood.

Our teachers were dedicated – I am sure Paul will remember Pop Stear, Miss Tait, Miss Laugham, Mr Cox !

Hill Barn Farm which Paul mentions had utterly vanished when I went for a look in 2005…odd because though it was a wreck in the Bartons time it had been the Lancing College Shepherds farmhouse and was a sturdy ancient house. In a way I was relieved – it was a place that featured in bad dreams for me, as a teen I had seen horses in dark barns on filth there. But…a landmark gone…………everyone has gone now what a migrant generation we were…

In a folk club in Somerset I met a comedian who had grown up in Lancing pre-War till 1950.

He remembered Lancing at War – and Canadian Soldiers building Ring Road !, he also recovered from an adder bite on The Downs which brought back memories of stepping accidentally on one in 1959. They were definitely a hazard – we were always building camps, rolling on the grass etc, and must have been near them.

Nov 5th was hugely important, Ring Road kids built a communal bonfire and we shared our fireworks. Early on the Russell family who left late 50s, made jacket potatoes for us in the ashes.

Peter Russell has become an author and speaker on Green issues and meditation ( Title The Gaia Hypothesis ).
It was a pagan event really and kindled my love of pagan fire ceremonies. Trick or treat we never heard of. It was a road of children then and we played outside all the time. Beach picnics in the summer and The Mermaid was another fixed point in our infant geography. There was an innocent small summer fairground of a roundabout, swing-boats and something else – it was lovely to see my own son when he was small enjoying these in 1982 they were still going.

The Park or Manor was much larger then and the focus was a superb Georgian Manor House – that came down with the Tythe Barn – in the 60’s, there were terrible losses before the Grade 1 and 2 listings came in.

My father was active in the Community Association and I recall delivering an Xmas box to a coastguard cottage on the seafront – also the real poverty there.

Since I left I have researched the area and realized there was a Roman Temple on Lancing Ring where we often played, and a Roman Villa in The Street, and a Saxon Graveyard in The Woods. The history of the old track behind Ring Road goes back to Stonehenge times at least 6000 years.

I also now know Lancing grew exotic fruits and flowers to sell in London and was famed for convalescence homes. The railway works destroyed the Market Gardens and were a short-lived industry, closing after a few decades, leaving rows of terrace houses where lilies and grapes had grown. Our history teachers were ignorant of all this and probably still are.

Overshadowing us all imperceptibly was the War – all our parents had been involved and were busy establishing new lives, but it loomed over us. Then we all left……..

We sold the family home in 1991 after Mum died, Dad having died in 1978. Mrs Ward I think must have gone but she was there in 2000. A Mr C. Morris lives still in the road who may be Clive – part of a family who lived there in my time.

A friend was John Robinson who I saw on the news is a councillor in Shoreham - and I would like to contact Stephen Buchanan from primary School Days….

PART 2

The Lancing Festival was our family name for an event that my father, Pat Moloney, organised annually on the Whitsun Bank holiday in May. This was a highlight of our year in the 1950s and 60s. It was held on The Manor in North Lancing. The Bran Tub was a huge favourite and I recall the days before the Big Day wrapping small gifts which were then hidden in sawdust in the barrel. I always remember Festival days as sunny, the smell of cut grass still brings back memories of the green turf of The Park. There were stalls and competitions, raffles, pony rides and tombola. In the afternoon there were races. One year I won the running race for girls of my age – the prizes were gift tokens to spend at Edlows, the stationers. One year Dad went modern – the Red Arrows flew over, there were barrels of ale and a spit roast, and the venue was The Reck or Recreation ground in S Lancing. It wasn’t the same – next year it was back at The Manor.

Friends of our family were The Wrenches – Ted was one of the bank managers in the village and Pat was a Commissioner for Girl Guides. The Red House was their Victorian home near St James’ church bearing on one wall the mysterious sign Ancient Lights. 40 years after they moved on I met again Tony Wrench the eldest son of the four : website : www.thatroundhouse.com
As a boy Tony caught snakes on The Downs, there were Grass Snakes as well as Adders, and he kept them in an aquarium by the front door to welcome visitors. ( One year they came back from holiday to find the aquarium empty. Despite a few nervous nights in the house, no snakes were ever found !) However they were Methodists and our social life revolved around St James the C of E church. The Fete, the annual church garden party, was held in the vicarage garden which had an interesting cave facing the front door, that we children liked to explore… I was surprised to read years later in a Readers Digest compendium that Lancing Parish Vicarage garden was unique in having an Easter Tomb with Stone. Odd that The Vicar, as we called him, knew nothing about it and kept bikes there !

Only occasionally did we find out the story of the war adventures of men in the village. One man, reader of the lesson in church, had a monotonous voice that drove us mad – later we found out he had spent years in a German prisoner of war camp – enough to flatten anyone’s voice. I recall seeing Mr Faltineck collapsed in the road, outside a club called Sosybah my mother helped run. He was a Polish airman in the RAF in The War and had stayed on. The ambulance took him away but he was already dead.

“Who lived in The Manor House ?”, I asked my father who was a solicitor in the village and held the deeds of the estate of the Carr Lloyds, the last family to live there. It was a shock to learn that the last Lord of the Manor committed suicide in 1919. Was that to do with the first World War ? That too still cast a shadow on lives in the village. In 1975 I visited Miss Laugham who had a Hansel and Gretel type cottage in the woods at Hoe Court by The College. She had been a witch as well in my childhood mind when in 1955 aged 6 I was to enter her class at Lancing CP School and refused to go. Now retired she had mellowed. Even so it seemed odd to be drinking sherry with Miss Laugham. I looked at a photograph of a young naval officer in her lounge – and she told me he had been her fiancee, killed in 1918. She had never married. There were so many older women who stayed single in my childhood, the men had been lost in World War 1. But the greatest casualty has been the loss of innocence since those wonderful days in Sussex after World War 2…………..

Marg (Rose) Moloney

Story 15 from Alan John Marshall

2008-10-14T08:44:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Alan for this marvellous account:

I was living in Sompting Road up until the mid-1960s. Myrtle Stores were at 109, just up the road from Myrtle Road. I remember so much about Boundstone Lane, and the school being built on the land which my father worked as a Market Gardener. In the War, and just after, they had an orchard there, with lots of gooseberry bushes under the apple trees; daffodils in the spring time; and I used to go finding birds' eggs along the line of elm hedge, beside the twitten - that ran along the northern edge of Dad's gardens.

Middle Boundstone Lane then was just a true "lane" with a rough surface, big puddles in the rainy times. I was born right at the top of Upper Boundstone Lane, just below the cemetery.

Also, just at the end of the War, when I must have been about 4 1/2, I attended the South Lancing Primary School. That was a very unhappy time for me. I remember the air raid shelters, they were under the northern ramp of what is now the railway bridge. Frightening places, closed by big double doors sloping up the side of the ramp.

A teacher there, a woman whom I was frightened of, had us lined up for punishment, for trespassing on the grass slopes of the ramp. I remember something like having to dip our fingers in mustard water, and suck on our fingers. Was this just a figment of my imagination? Or did it really happen? I cannot be sure. Anyway, the fear of that school, and the screaming from me in the mornings at having to go to school made Mum keep me at home until I was 5, then they got me into North Lancing Primary School, under Miss Daisy Humphreys. That was much better.

That is all I can come up with right now, but if anyone is interested and wishes to connect with me further, you can use my email address, anakial@hotmail.com and let me know who you are.

Alan
8th October 2008

Alan adds..
My parents, Peter and Cecily Marshall, were very close friends of Percy and Mildred Grover. The Grovers had their nursery at the corner of Boundstone Lane and the "top" road (South east corner), with several glass houses there. After retirement, Percy and Mildred moved up to near Storrington.
My dad was from a very old family of Lancing, and Mum's parents ran Myrtle Store for several years. Dad's parents had the semi-detached houses 2 doors up built in 1912, and the space between the back of those houses and Myrtle Crescent was market garden too.
We had a huge bonfire in Middle Road, each Nov 5th. One time, I was only a very little boy, my chip basket full of fireworks, was put "for safety" down by the fence, "out of the way." But someone lit a roman candle on the post above, and my whole basket full went up at once. I was so sad and in tears for remainder of the evening.

Alan wrote further

Mum died on Dec 23rd 2000, as a consequence of a road accident in Sompting Road. She was knocked off her bicycle. Quite an active cyclist was Mum, at 86 yrs old. Dad survived her by almost 2 years, and spent that time in Ibiza with my sister.

Dad was related to the Bushys, Fullers, Lishers and Charles Colbourne who was a very respected butcher in Brighton (Chas. Colbourne). Colbourne's drapery store used to be at the top of Penhill Road.

Dad's aunt Mary lived at Skirwith, the market garden which occupied the site on the corner of Crabtree Lane and Grinstead Lane. One of their greenhouses had a grape vine growing in it. I understand that prior to the late 1800s grapes were grown extensively in Sussex, because of the high sunlight intensity between the Downs and the sea.

Then improved sea transport meant that imported wines and grapes from France made the grape industry of Sussex unviable, and the "new" crop of tomatoes became very popular.

Having grown tomatoes virtually all his life, and with a good reputation for sweet and tasty produce, Dad continued in his retirement to grow tomatoes in his little back yard garden at Cokeham Lane.

The Rowans, 113 Sompting Road

He was born at The Rowans, 113 Sompting Road and told me in those years there were very few other houses in Sompting Road or Boundstone Lane. Indeed, I remember when both sides of Upper Boundstone Lane were orchards. (That is the area between Crabtree Lane and the Upper Brighton Road.) The last house on the right hand side at that time was occupied by McIntyre, one of the coal merchants. Boundstone Lane at that point was still a muddy, puddley, unsealed road surface.

A pretty good job of re-building the road was done, around 1951/2 I would say, because I left North Lancing Primary School in 1952 and it had been done whilst I was there. The foundation of the road surface was a mixture of old house bricks, flints, rubble down to a depth of approx. 1 1/2 feet. They used a steam roller for surfacing.

I attended Worthing High School from 1952 to 1957(Dec).

Editor note:
I emailed Alan on 16/12/2011 to establish he is available for correspondence. He has confirmed this.
He added this note to his profile:
Son of Peter John Marshall,market gardener, who was son of Percy George Marshall. Numerous family links: Lisher, Fuller, Grover, Bushby, Long, Colbourne, Judd.

I now live in Tasmania. Born 1941. Attended North Lancing Primary School, Worthing High School.

Story 14 from Adrian

2008-10-14T08:40:00.001+01:00

Story 14
I have just found your website on Lancing which is where I grew and more notably, my mum is the last of the Grover Family (or the youngest at least!)

I love seeing pictures of the village, it will always have a fond place in me, especially the pictures of Crabtree Lane where I used to hang out as a youngster!

I shall have to find a picture I have of my mum as a youngster at a Grover family get together in North Lancing which is where they lived as a family of market gardeners!

Anyway, just to say a great site!

Regards

Adrian

Story 13 from Brenda Redford

2008-10-14T08:39:00.002+01:00

Brenda writes:
I used to come to Lancing to visit my Grandmother in North Farm Road in the fifties as a youngster in the school holidays. My aunt and uncle lived in Tower Road. I remember going to the Luxor to see Singing in the Rain and other films that were on at the time. I remember walking a lovely Labrador called Jaffa as he was orangey red in colour. My grandfather worked for the railways which was at Churchill Industrial Estate. In North Road there was a cobbler and a small sweet shop. Also Woolworth's had small shopping baskets for us children that couldn't manage a large one. I also remember a horse drawn milk float delivering milk and groceries. Sadly my Grandmother has passed on now but I am now living in Lancing myself and still walk dogs, my own and also run dog training classes. I expect some of you have seen me around and maybe have come to our classes. Lovely memories. I still love Lancing.
-she adds
I also used to ride the horses up over New Road owned by the Bridles.
Regards
Brenda Redford

Story 12 from Karen Foster

2008-10-14T08:38:00.000+01:00

I found your web site by accident, it was such a delight it was to read everyones memories, that I thought I would write some of my own.
Just the word Lancing conjures up pictures of my childhood.
I was born in Tower Road at No.84 moving to No.80 (the one with the steps) in 1967. My first school was South Lancing Infants in North Rd in 1958, the classroom with the veranda, must take a photo of it one day before it disappears. I can remember the air raid shelters - as remembered by Paul Bridle and woe betide anyone who went near them. I believe the headmistress was a Miss Birch, she had a large jar of sweets in her room, don't know how I know that one! We were told one day that we had to move schools, so we packed up our books and pencils and walked up to The Unit, which is now Boundstone Nursery school. Mr teacher was a Mr Juleff. We soon settled there until we did the same thing again and walked round to Irene Avenue for our last term before Boundstone.
I spent many a happy playtimes in those schools, playing marbles etc. Does anyone remember standing tea/gum cards against the wall and flicking other cards to knock them down, winner takes all? We had lovely tea parties at Christmas in the school hall, food provided by our parents. We also had a Beatles club there when I was older, it cost 3d, and we received a small daisy shape badge made of felt!
School holidays were filled with trips up the downs, playing in the chalk pit, plenty of room to use a child's imagination; you could be anything up there. other times spent on the beach, building the proverbial sandcastles with moats, drinking orange squash and cheese and sand sandwiches!

I remember Brooklands paddling pool opening. There were lots of animal shaped pools for us to play in and rocks to climb, what fun. Fishing under the bridge that led into brooklands for sticklebacks and minnows. Someone told us that there was an eel living under the bridge, hidden in an old mine, that was buried there. You believe anything when you are young.

My friend Sheila Haite, who lived next door and I used to go tto the Luxor together to see Walt Disney and Cliff Richard films, the first film I saw was Bambi it cost 9d. We used to look for which films were on, on posters in Sompting Rd, just outside the knitting wool shop, which was next to a grocers shop owned by the Street family, then owned by the Brown family. This was next to Mr Jones the chemist. I remember Paul Bridle's grandparents shop on the corner of Myrtle Rd, my mum Lilian Wingfield used to shop in there, but worked in the other grocers shop. She later went to work at Woolworths. My dad Reginald worked in the railway works, but left in 1963 before it closed, to go to Solarbo in Commerce Way. I remember Dr Alexander he was my dads doctor, but us children saw Dr Whiting, he was a lovely man.

I could go on forever, but will stop my parents and sister still live in Lancing and although I only live in Rustington, I still think of Lancing as my home.
Karen Foster nee Wingfield.

Story 11 from Paul Kidger

2008-10-14T08:37:00.000+01:00

Paul Kidger replies to the question from Paul Bridle
Yes I remember the DUKW at Lancing and the method of refuelling....someone would carry a 5 gall drum of petrol from the local garage and just tip it in. Struck me as very crude. Was it painted yellow? We did go out on it one or twice. There were 2 at Worthing painted Red White and blue for coronation year and maybe one was named Princess Anne.
At the side of the Mermaid beach cafe was a kiosk which at one time was run by an enterprising young lady. I think that she used to ride a motorcycle which was guaranteed to turn a few heads.
In the early '60s I used to work at Monk's Farm petrol station during holidays and at weekends. The owner Mr Lyons also ran the beach garage for a short while. His brother Alf, used to run a driving school. I remember the foundations for that station being dug and seeing them flood at high tide. That part of Lancing, just North of the police station, is actually below the high water level even though it is about a mile from the sea.

My own driving lessons were by courtesy of Mill Rd driving school. That was run by another enterprising young lady who once owned the nurseries which were then redeveloped into the Norbury estate of bungalows. She was one of the regular dog walkers who would pass by the rear of our house in Ring Rd. One old dear had a dog called Kiltie. I mistook her summoning her dog and she was henceforth known to us as the 'Filthy lady'. Another dog walker would come past at 1 pm and I called her the 1 o'clock jump after the Benny Goodman hit of the '40s. Both parents collapsed with laughter. It wasnt until many years later did I realise the significance of my comment.
Pat Barton used to run the horse riding stables at the top of Mill Rd. Since he used to sell horse muck as garden fertiliser, he was known to us as Dungo Barton and the parth through the chalkpit, which he used with his horse and cart was Dungo's path. The Barton farm is no more, fallen down and totally overgrown...well it was a few years ago. I was at school with Jane Barton, his daughter.

Regarding the Corner house, before it became the Potter and a eatery, it had lovely oak panneling in all bars.

Anyone remember the slightly eccentric 'Lord Lancing' who would cycle around the town wearing a boater, striped blazer and flannels, probably a monacle and cigarette in holder?

Paul Kidger

Story 10 from Paul Bridle

2008-10-14T08:36:00.002+01:00

Story 10
I was born in Southlands Hospital, Shoreham-by-Sea on 8th November 1951 and lived with my parents in Lower Boundstone Lane, Lancing from then until later in the 1950s. My father was an architect and my mother a housewife. I attended Lancing Infants School and recall an air raid shelter in the grass playing field at the back of the school. I, along with the other pupils were too afraid to go down the steps to it.

My grandfather owned and ran Melhuish's Stores until he retired and moved to 25, Upper Boundstone Lane, where he lived until the early 1970s. I can remember the building of the school in Upper Boundstone Lane and the A27 'top road' My great grandfather who lived with my grandparents used to walk from their bungalow each morning up to the top road and back for exercise.

Does any one else remember the ex-army DUKW vehicle which used to take people out onto the sea?
At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis I and my family were at my grandparents' beach hut when we saw a large cargo passing along the channel out to sea. It would seem that it was being shipped to Cuba by the Russians. I was blissfully unaware of the fear of war that so many people hat.
Reply from Paul Kidger

I still remember the excitement of seeing a Battle of Britain class steam train going over the level crossing in Lancing. Magnificent and a change from the electric trains.

In addition Paul writes..

I'd be pleased to hear from anyone who remembers my family in Lancing - My grandparents owner Melhuish's Stores in Sompting Road, which I think was called something like Myrtle Terrace or Parade. The shop was on the corner of Myrtle Road and Sompting Road. It was converted to a house, possibly in the 1970s.

Our family GP was Dr. Alexander (called "Dr. Alec"). He had a crease in one cheek from a bullet wound in WW1 when he was a fighter pilot.

Paul Bridle

Story 9 from Paul Kelly

2008-10-14T08:36:00.001+01:00

Having been born in Worthing and lived there until just before my 21st birthday
I was having a good look at the Lancing and Sompting site and came across the photo of the ironmongers shop in Penhill Road.
You may be interested to know that I worked in that shop for a while after I left school but it was then owned by A.J. Eakins.
I got the job through his son John who I went to school with. I wonder what happened to them all.
Other than that the shop doesn't look so different than when I worked there in the late 1950's

Paul Kelly
Adelaide, Australia

Story 8 from Marjorie Lisher

2008-10-14T08:34:00.000+01:00

The Lisher Family
On the 5th of February 2002, I spoke to Marjorie Lisher about her memories of the Market Garden Business her father ran on the land east of the Southern Railway Carriage Works in Lancing.
Marjorie Lisher lived in Lancing all her life, she was born in 1912 in the same house at Salt Lake where her father Frank had been born, in what is now part of Freshbrook Road.
The small modern house where she now lives is on the site of the house her Grandfather lived in when he had set up the Lisher Coal Merchant business.
Frank Lisher set up a Market Garden business on the land surrounding his parents home.
In 1929 he built himself a house right next door. It was named the Finches.
The Nursery site took up much of what is now Chester Avenue, The Crescent and Finches Close.
On the site there were sixteen large commercial glasshouses as well as a packing shed and stables for their two horses.
The main produce was Chrysanthemums and Tomatoes, these were taken to the old Market at Brighton via the coast road by horse drawn van.
Sometimes this trip was made three times a week. Frank Lisher would set off at 8pm in the evening so the produce would be on the market stalls first thing the next morning.
Franks daughter Marjorie took an active part in the family business, she remembers they also grew runner beans and mushrooms, these did not go to Brighton but were packed onto the train and sent to Covent Garden or Brentford Market.
She recalls that horse manure required for soil improvement used to come by train from racing stables to the goods yard of the railway. There it attracted a great number of rats which became a daily hazard.
To help them to be as self-sufficient as possible the family also kept chickens, pigs and rabbits. It was not wise for the younger members of the family to grow attached to the animals because they would often be on the menu.
One of Franks two brothers joined his father in the Coal business the other was involved in the local Dairy

Story 7 from Valerie Brown

2008-10-14T08:33:00.000+01:00

Story 7
I lived in Pratton Avenue from 1938 (then 2 years old) to 1955. We used to play in a field at the top of Pratton Avenue, which is now a built up area. At the other end of the street we used to shop at a green grocers owned by two sisters, I think their name was Hibdige and also a sweet shop owned by a Mr Brown.
The bungalow we lived in was called Lorretto and I think it was number 9. My Dad built an air raid shelter in the back garden which we used to sleep in when the siren went off and my brother and I slept in hammocks which I remember falling out of.
I attended North Lancing school when Miss Humphrey was headmistress and Irene Avenue Secondary School and the headmaster then was a Mr Russell.
I have been in Australia since 1965 but visited Lancing a few years ago and much had changed - I managed to get a photo of Lorretto which had been wonderfully updated but unfortunately no one was home!
I vividly remember the huge concrete blocks and barbed wire all along the seafront during the war years and was delighted when it was all over and we could spend school holidays on the beach.

Valerie Brown
Secretary
Mallesons Stephen Jaques
Sydney
T +61 2 9296 3080
F +61 2 9296 3999
valerie.brown(at)mallesons.com

Story 6 from Joan Hamilton

2008-10-14T08:31:00.000+01:00

Story 6
Joan (Sparkes) Hamilton writes:
Quite by accident I came upon your very interesting site.
I started this morning on Google looking for Halewick Farm, Sompting, that used to be my home.

Lancing Clump was a favourite place of mine, I daily rode my horse through and around it when I was a teenager, before the war.
Then there was an old tree with a big low branch, gone after that storm, [1987] but I have pictures of my children and then grandchildren standing on it.

I am very glad to learn that the area has been made a reserve.
I also lived at Cokeham Manor, at a very early age, I see you have found my cousin Edward Sparkes's Mumblings, what an interesting morning I have had!
I have lived in Canada since 1946, I married a Canadian soldier and came to Canada as a War bride, my visits are not so frequent now but I still have lots of memories.
If you would like to contact Joan write to: jehamilton(at)sympatico.ca

Story 5 from Paul Kelly

2008-10-14T08:30:00.000+01:00

Story 5
Paul Kelly recalls
I used to live in Broadwater and had an Aunt who live in 1st Avenue Lancing.
We had lots of good times in Lancing but the memory that seems to stick is standing outside the Corner house, in the snow, waiting for a bus home.I see they have changed the name to the Sussex Potter - what a shame.
I now live in Australia - have been here for 39 years

contact Paul Kelly paulk(at)kdfisher.com.au

Story 4 from Diane Sisman

2008-10-14T08:29:00.000+01:00

Story 4
Diane Sisman recalls Lancing in the 1930's and 40's
"I am an old resident of Lancing. My parents had a bungalow at 16 Chester Avenue *..Is it still there?* At that time, 1938, they paid 700 pounds for it......... The end of the road there was a tall stone wall where there were the cows for the little dairy in the main road. There was a path at the side of the last house which was known as the -right-of -way which was used by anyone going shopping. There was a bakers shop called Leroys with mouth watering pastries, a grocer called Potter Bailey with sawdust on the floor and huge wheels of cheese. They had a little container that the money was put into and then sent by pneumatic methods to the other regions to be counted and change and receipts to be returned to the customer. There were two old chairs so that even older customers could sit down. My sister and I would go to the dairy and watch the milk run down rollers to be chilled and which I can still smell. I can also still smell the wonderful aromas of Potter Bailey. There is so much more I remember . I am now 70. Is there anyone out there who still remembers, too. Happy New Year.........Diane."
Further memories of Diane Sisman:
"On the beach itself were some bungalows. One was called No No Nanette and was owned by , I think, the writer of the show. **
There was also one that belonged to jockey Gordon Richards whom we knew very well."

Editor Note:
*Chester Avenue has since been extensively developed and '16' is now a number nearer 100 according to Diane's sister who visited recently.
**I can't find any evidence to support this idea

Story 3 from John Drewett

2008-10-14T08:28:00.001+01:00

Story 3
John Drewett
I worked for Typower ltd as a Draughtsman, then Sales Engineer from 1964 to 1970.
Typower was previously PG Tyrer (Turbines), we manufactured Diesel Generatings sets mainly. We had our works in the old Railway Power House, on the Churchill Industrial Site.
My wife worked at Beechams Laboratory, later at Bentalls Worthing, my daughter at Dodds the Estate agents, we lived in Sompting actually, in Steepdown Rd. My Chief draughtsman Ted King still lives in Worthing, he is now 86. I am 76. We went to South Africa in 1970, I kept in the Diesel Business in Johannesburg. We are now in Valentine NSW Australia, since 1991 when I retired, with my wife and daughter and grand kids.
Ted is the only bloke I have been able to keep in touch with , it would be nice if I could find any of those who remember me from those days. I have sent a brochure of Typower, it shows the DO, I am on the right with Ted and Ernie Hall, its not too clear I'm afraid.
I remember Tony Dix , (Ken Holden, Ron Boot, Cliff Bloom) these went to Ruhaak in Worthing.
I was lucky enough to visit Uk a few years ago and drove around Lancing area with Ted King, I have a cousin who lives in Worthing also.
I have very pleasant memories of our years spent there. The Beaches are a more sandy here!
Hope I haven't gone on a bit .
Regards
John Drewett

Story 2 from Paul Kidger

2008-10-14T08:26:00.001+01:00

Story 2
Paul Kidger
'I went to North Lancing school then Worthing Technical High School until 1963 when I went off to University and then to various jobs in the UK and elsewhere finally settling in Suffolk. My mother moved from Ring Road after my father died in 1990.'
Paul goes on to say...
'my father was an amateur painter and painted several local scenes, some from real life and some from postcards etc. There may well be a few around in private hands.
My own interest is engineering and we should not forget that one of the 20th century's foremost engineers lived in Lancing namely Sir Harry Ricardo who lived in Penstone Place The site is now the library.

View Larger Map
Sir Harry was slightly later but almost can be considered as a contemporary of Dr Rudolph Diesel.
Sir Harry is credited as being responsible for the development of the modern diesel engine into the form we benefit from today. The significance of the Riccardo works by the toll bridge is well known as an engine development organisation.
Also there was the work in aviation undertaken by FG Miles at Shoreham. FG Miles almost had the first supersonic aircraft had the government not ordered a halt to the work and the files handed to the Americans who went on with an almost identical design to achieve that target. When I was a child, there were several FG Miles development aircraft flying around. Living in Ring Road provided an almost a grandstand view. '
If you would like to contact Paul Kidger write to: paulkidger(at)aol.com

Story 1 From Geoff Walden

2008-10-14T08:23:00.000+01:00

Geoff Walden lived in Lancing in the 1960's, he emigrated with his parents to New Zealand in 1967
This is his story, lightly edited, sent to me on April 9th 2002

'I was 11 years old when we emigrated to New Zealand in 1967.

Brighton Road
I was born in Furnace Wood East Grinstead in 1956, and my family moved to Worthing in 1959/60 then to 349 Brighton Rd in 1960/61.

At the same time my grandparents moved from Furnace Wood to Monks Close Lancing by the railway line.

Widewater

While living at Brighton Road, we spent a deal of time playing at the beach, especially by the Widewater. I have a pretty good recollection of those years, and I can remember we used to fish for those Sticklebacks with tiny nets you brought on the beach at Brighton. I remember the water at the widewater was quite brackish and that there was a lot of rubbish like old prams dumped, so we weren't allowed to do any more than paddle.

Where we lived there was a set of shops, a corner shop like 'Arkright's open all hours' with the grocer called Mr Bolt.

Just opposite I think there was a set of stairs where you could go between the houses to access the Widewater. There was a causeway to get across to the actual beach. I remember there were at various times, swans swimming there and there were postcards with the swans swimming in the widewater nearer to Shoreham.

Broadway
Thinking back, we were only at Brighton Rd for about 2 years because Mum and Dad sold the house to the developers who built the big development on the roadside, was this the Broadway? There was also a problem with tidal flooding and the basement of the 2-story house was damp on the high spring tides.

Fishing off the beach
Dad and my grandfather used to fish from the beach a lot and used to take my older brother and myself with them for overnighters. I can still remember collecting driftwood for fires and helping dad light the Tilley lantern.

I remember they caught a few fish too, because we were always helping out gutting them and digging holes in the garden when we got home to bury the offal.

Farmland
Just along from the back alley behind the house at 349 was an access road where you could walk through to farmland we called the forest. I believe this was behind West Way somewhere. Then you could be gone all day playing in what was just fields and countryside without any sort of trouble.

After my youngest brother was born in 1961 my parents decided to move again to Grand Avenue, I think in 1962 or so. My oldest brother and I had started school at South Lancing in the main street not far from the railway station. When we shifted house we all moved to Irene Ave primary.

Old Salts Farm
My grandparents moved from Monks Close to Old Salts Farm Road about 1961/2 and as this was so close to the beach we spent a lot of time with them.

View Larger Map
Opposite their house 7 Old Salts Farm Rd was a caravan park with lots of holiday and permanent people in it. Looking on the street maps it seems that the caravan park may be gone and a housing estate established. The fairway? Is that right?

Chalk Pit
As kids we divided our free time between exploring the South Downs up by the chalk pit in (I think) Mill Rd and the beach.

We either pushed our bikes up that hill and played all day and came down through the forest to the Manor, or came down the hill and hoped our brakes worked.

Railway
We did the train spotting thing from the over bridge at the railway station. Even then steam trains were a rarity, but I remember the occasional one coming along.
I remember buildings on both sides of the platform; we used to have to get a spectator ticket from a penny machine to prevent getting kicked off the station. They must have pulled the buildings down from that side.

Cinema
We spent many Saturdays at the pictures at the Luxor watching the kids features for 6d. We used to go into a shop beside the Luxor and get 3d [3 old pennies] bags of fizzy sherbet and liquorice.

Scout Hall
I used to be in the Cubs, then the Scouts and went to 2 different scout halls. One was a huge old hall that had a rabbit warren of old rooms, and a huge concrete yard with high walls around it behind the hall. think this was on the corner of Kings Avenue and the main street. Not far away from the Farmers pub.

View Larger Map

The other scout den was over the road from Grand Avenue and the Upper Brighton Rd and we had to run down a tiny alleyway between a graveyard and an old church to get to it. Boy did we run in the dark.

Hardware shop
You mentioned Gardner & Scardifields as the builder's hardware place, I can remember going in there with my father for bits and pieces.

Beach Green
Over the Brighton Rd was the track leading to the Mermaid [cafe] and the beach, along with the huge open green. I spoke to my father the other night after I had found your website and he told me that that huge green where they have all the fairs and boot sales now, was compacted and established with all the broken up concrete from the WW2 war defences that was laid along the beach. He was there when they were doing it. We used to call that big old home the donkey home, [St Peter's holiday home] I think it was an old folks home. There were certainly donkeys kept there for us kids to ride on in the summer. I also went to the county fair there while I was little, dad winning goldfish that never made it home. I watched the wall of death one year, the noise was fantastic.

School
I notice Irene Avenue Primary school has changed its name to Oakfield Middle county school. Any clues why?

They opened a tiny outdoor swimming pool the I think in 1965 or 1966. My class were the first to swim in the pool and I was the first boy in when the teacher called for volunteers, as I was a good swimmer. Imagine that. It was mid summer but probably freezing!

We used to travel by bus to the Heene Road swimming pools in Worthing for winter swimming. Are they still there? '

If you would like to contact Geoff Walden write to ( replace[at] with @ symbol): geoffwalden[at]xtra.co.nz