Rosemary Langrish neé Oakley
Rosemary Langrish Oakley, a former resident of Lancing, shares her memories of growing up in the town during the 1930s. Her reminiscences span a variety of events, including her first school experiences, a fire at a local timber yard, playing in a chalk pit, participating in a parade celebrating a royal occasion, and encountering various itinerant figures who were common in the area at the time. She recounts both happy and unsettling experiences, highlighting the unique character of Lancing during her childhood.
We moved from Portslade when I was about 4 years old 1932.
We lived in one of the houses almost opposite Hoe Court Track. My first memory
of Lancing was starting school at what is now called Freshbrook*. I was 5 years
old mum took me on the back of a bicycle with a cushion on the carrier, one
morning a little boy ran from Addison Square* straight into the road and was
hit by a motorbike, he flew up into the air but I don’t think he was killed,
also about the same age, I was sitting in the garden on an old cycle frame
leaning against the fence watching the red glow in the sky over Shoreham where
White’s* timber yard was on fire. The bike fell over and I broke my arm which
took a long time to heal and would not straighten out. The hospital gave me a
lovely big doll to carry back and forth to help straighten my arm but it is
still bent to this day.
Opposite the Withy Bed [clump of Willow trees] we used to see snakes curled up in
the sun on the bank, some were very big.
We went with friends up on the hills to play in the Chalk
Pit* and one day we found a big Wallpaper book which we managed to carry home
for drawing on. Also one time we could hear a person singing ‘Morning has
broken’ and was lovely as it echoed in the Pit.
I’m not sure if it was Queen Mary’s Jubilee or the Coronation
of King George and Elizabeth but I was in the big parade and dressed as a
Victorian maid. It was a lovely crepe paper dress in green with a frill around
the bottom, white cap, apron and lace-trimmed pantaloons split through the
middle nearly like two separate legs.
The parade started at
Penhill Road so Mum took us on the bus. As I got off I caught my plimsoll in my
dress and tore the bottom. The parade started off ok. But walking around by the
Farmers pub and cottages it pelted down with rain and a little boy dressed as a
red post box got soaked he was as red as his box. We finished up at Lancing
Manor Park. A short while after that we each received a special Coronation mug
from a really big wooden box in the hall at school.
We sometimes had Tramps* [homeless person] call and ask for hot water or
something to eat. If dad was home mum usually gave them tea and thick cheese
sandwich, we think they passed the word around. Also, gipsies called selling pegs
or sprigs of heather for luck. Onion men on bicycles came around as well. An
Indian man selling things but we were told ‘never to open the door’.
Another time while playing on the hills some boys came over
and asked if we would like a sweet, of course, we said ‘yes’, when they opened
the tin it had a snake curled up in it. Whether live or dead I don’t know. All
I do know is I don’t like snakes.
We moved house a few times and eventually left Lancing for
Shoreham when I was about ten. I missed my old school (Mill Hill) so I played
truant and took my 2 sisters and brother walking over the Old Shoreham toll
bridge to the Manor Park for the school sports day.
You can guess I had a good telling-off when we got back home.
PS Just remembered I think it must have been an Air Display
as a couple of planes dropped what we thought was ribbons so we ran across the
fields to find it was toilet paper.
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