55. Mary Lethby neè Gascoyne remembers her days in Lancing

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Early School Days at South Lancing

I was born in Lancing and attended South Lancing Junior School, where the Headmistress was Miss Cates. I didn't dislike school, but the only thing that bothered me was my eyesight. My desk was always in the fron,t and then I couldn't always see the small writing on the blackboard.

Wartime Memories and Family Fundraising

I do remember some very cold winters with the school milk popping out of the bottles, so that we tried to thaw them out on the school hot pipes. In that freezing weather, we all wore homemade clothes, which luckily our mother could always manage. She was very good at knitting and sewing, so that in 1944 my sisters: Averill, Frieda and Veronica Gascoyne, our cousin Peter Voice and his friend Derek Denyer went out to sell tea cosies, bed socks, kettle holders and anything Mother had made to raise the princely sum of £21 for the Red Cross. Anything over went to the hospital. A newspaper cutting of 1944 has a photograph of the six children and reports that they sold dolls, toys, iron-holders, flannels, lucky dips, brooches, powder-puffs, shoe-polishers, bath salts and other articles in their third sale. The unsold toys were sent to the Hospital, and they received a letter of thanks from Sister Foster of Ward 1. Peter and the Gascoynes have an aunt, uncle and two cousins who interned in China.

Post-War Entertainment and Secondary School

After the war, my sisters and I would go to the Regal Cinema along Penhill Road for Saturday matinee. Then I went to Irene School, which was nice and near home.

Early Working Life - The Wool Shop

After leaving school, I worked in a lovely wool shop in Chapel Road, Worthing, called Evelyn's. At this time, in the '50s, there were another three wool shops in the town.

Railway Works and Cycling Culture

On my way home each day to Lancing Station, I would call in to buy my Dad the Evening Argus. No way could he leave his bike to shop when the Railway Works emptied. There were hundreds of bikes along North Road. You wouldn't dare cross the road.

Singer Sewing Machine Company

Then I worked for Singer Sewing m/c Co. in Worthing, and again there were three other m/c shops. Now there is only one left. How times have changed.

Marriage at St Paulinus

By the '60s, I was married to Derek in the Cokeham R.C. Church of St Paulinus, with Father Quinlan officiating. Even this church is now gone.

Working for Walter Bros

For a short time, I worked for Walter Bros, who were a well-known Worthing family, who had been trading for over 100 years. All the family were most friendly and approachable, not stuck up at all. Mr Leslie Walter was a well-known councillor and alderman, and when I asked him if he would have liked to have been mayor, he laughed his head off - "not likely", he said.

Mary Lou Fabric Centre

As time went by, they sold the business and my husband and I purchased the lease to the Lancing branch, calling it 'Mary Lou Fabric Centre'. I spent nearly 30 happy years there and never forgot a customer's advice: "always smile".

Musical Evenings with Dr King

My mother and father lived in Lancing, so it was very convenient to meet up when Dr King had his symphony concerts with a small group of passionate musicians. It was a perfect musical evening and we all loved it.

North Road Neighbours and Local Shops

Next door to us in North Road was a Co-op shoe shop, soon taken over by Mr and Mrs Lyons. We all got on famously, dressing up for the late-night shopping. In those days, Lancing had three shoe shops.

There was Mrs Mitchell, a florist, on the next block who had been in business when I was a child. Mrs Mitchel always remembered your name.

Also, we had a fruit and veg shop owned by Mr Boulter, who became so busy he opened three shops, and always called out at the end of the day, with his bargain prices.

Commuting and Friendships

I used to travel on the train home with one of the girls who worked at Woolworths. What a shame when that closed. I still see Olive in Worthing occasionally and recall when we walked home to Worthing in the snow when the trains had failed.

Reflections on Lancing

Lancing has treated me very well, and I consider myself so very lucky to have been born and bred here.

51. Mike Reynolds sends this great memory of happy times

A Glimpse into a Lancing Childhood

NEW Experimental AI-generated podcast from Mike's Story

In these times of coronavirus lockdowns, I found myself with time to browse the internet and found your website. I thought I would send you some of my memories of a Lancing childhood


My name is Michael (Mike) Reynolds, and I was born in Lancing in June 1937. My parents, Eric and Dorothy Reynolds,(I think a year or so before I was born), bought a new bungalow at 14 The Drive, South Lancing, and it was here that I lived with my family for the whole of my childhood. The family consisted of Mum and Dad, my Dad’s father, Frank Reynolds (Pop), and my brother Geoff, four years older than me.

The Family Business and Wartime Lancing

Before the war, Dad and Pop had set up in business with a bicycle shop in South Street (number 111 I think),- W.F. and E.F.Reynolds- but when WWII started, Dad was called up into the RAF, and my earliest memories of the shop have Pop in the workshop at the back mending the punctures, and Mum running the shop at the front. The other shops I can recall nearby were the World Stores, a grocery where the front of the counter was lined with glass-topped biscuit boxes, Surfleets Chemist on the corner of Penhill Road, Colbourns Haberdashers, Potter Bailies Grocers, Isteads Hardware shop, and on the other side of South Street was the Co-op, where the money was sent on overhead wires from the counter to the cashier.

School Days and Steam Trains

I walked each day to South Lancing Primary School, just over the Southern Railway line. I suppose I would have started there in 1943, but I can’t remember the names of my teachers. I remember that afternoon school finished at about the same time that the “Steyning Flier”, one of the last steam trains to run through Lancing, would come puffing through. We boys would run quickly up and onto the footbridge over the railway line and wait for the Flier to pass underneath, shrouding us in a cloud of smoke and steam – we also tried to spit down the funnel!

Playtime and Wartime Memories

As others of your correspondents have told, the war years made the beach a no-go zone, but with very little traffic on the roads, The Drive and Chester Avenue were our playgrounds. The horse-drawn cart of Mr Souter, the milkman, Lisher’s coal cart, or the rag and bone man’s cart were about all the traffic there was!


I don’t have any clear memories of the air raid on April 25, 1941, in which two houses in The Drive were bombed, but the bombed sites became makeshift (and not very safe) playgrounds.

Exploring Beyond Childhood

When I got a bit older, I had my own bicycle, and I was able to range further. First, the Cubs, and then the 1st South Lancing Troop of the Boy Scouts kept me out of (most) mischief, and at age 11 in 1948, I started at Worthing High School for Boys in Broadwater.


If any of the above jogs other memories, I can be contacted by email at reymor@bigpond.com

45. Jenny Shackley (nee Charman) writes about life in Lancing from 1947

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Jenny writes...

I have just read all the memories of people on your website.

Early Life in Lancing

I was born in Lancing in 1947 at 8 Tower Road. My Dad used to work for Frank Lisher and, in fact, looked after the shire horses referred to in one of George Forrest’s comments. My sisters (of which there were 4) used to go to the stables to watch the horses being fed or mucked out, or get ready to go out. My dad loved these horses dearly, and whilst I don’t recall, he must have been heartbroken when he did not look after them any more.

School Days

I went to South Lancing School, both infants and juniors and then on to Irene Ave for one year and then on to Boundstone Comprehensive when it was brand new. Oh, how privileged we did feel with that school. I had Mr Jones as my first form teacher, and he said to me, “Are there more of you Charmans at home?” as apparently, he knew the rest of the family.

I stopped on for an extra year to do GCE and was sad to leave the school to go to work. I then got married after a few years and finally ended up in Bristol, where I still live.

Fond Memories

I have a sister who still lives in Lancing and was an usherette at the Luxor, and I do visit about three times a year. I still remember fondly the sweet shop in North Road where we used to go on the way to school, the bread shop opposite South Lancing school where we used to buy a crusty roll for a farthing and eat all of the insides, leaving only the shell to eat on its own.

In the summer holidays, I had friends who had one of the beach huts and we used to spend many happy days on the beach. I still like to go down to the beach whenever I visit.

All in all, your website has brought back many happy memories.

Jenny Shackley (nee Charman)

jenny.shackley@blueyonder.co.uk

35. Graham Franklin

Graham.Franklin

My Time on North Rd

I lived in North Rd, number 55, which was a grocery and pet food shop. ( I think it sells fish and chips now!)

School Days

We moved there in 1961, I was 5 and went to South Lancing School, almost opposite our shop. Then went on to Irene Avenue School and finally Boundstone. I moved away from the area in 196,9 aged 13, to Bournemouth.

Magical Memories

I think it is a magical place. I have fond memories of all my old school friends. Lancing Rec, he manor where I attended Sea Scouts, tennis at The Manor with Susan Collins, whom I admired from afar!

Adventures and Fun

The Chalk Pit, great fun to be had.  Evening football training with Lancing FC under floodlights, wow, such great memories.

Getting in Touch

Any old pals who want to get in touch I am on Facebook, or graham.franklin@jewson.co.uk

Great pages, thanks.

GRAHAM FRANKLIN

33. Dorothy Yeates

Dorothy Yeates commented on Memories

 

Milk Delivery with Jack the Horse 

 
I also have just found this site and reading through made me remember the milkman delivering milk with his horse, that was when we lived with my grandparents in Annweir Avenue. I believe the horse was named Jack, not too friendly. My grandmother collected what he left behind for the roses, as did other residents, cleaned the street up nicely!

Grandparents’ Sweet Shop in Wembley Avenue

For a while, my grandparents ran a sweet shop in Wembley Avenue, I don't remember the dates exactly, would have been during the 1950s

Shops in Crabtree Lane
Someone mentioned the shops in Crabtree Lane, I remember Hibdiges, also, I believe the coal was delivered by Lishers.

My Father’s Land and Boot Repair Shop

My father had a piece of land behind the Luxor where he kept chickens. Before that, he had a boot and shoe repair shop, I think, in the High Street in Worthing, I remember the Phillips stick-a-sole metal sign outside. Years later, he used it to 'draw up' the open fire, having attached a handle made from some sort of very strong metal spring, which worked like magic.

Coronation Day Memories

 On the coronation day, I went to a neighbour to watch on the television, we had moved by then to Griffiths Avenue, and I started at North Lancing Primary. The milk would freeze in the crates and push the tops off, ice would coat the slope to the top part of the school, and the boys would love sliding down it. And I wonder how many hundreds of children have sat on the low branch of that famous tree up the clump?

Remembering Mr Rogers, the Schoolteacher

Does anyone remember a schoolteacher whose name I think was Mr Rogers? I can't remember if he was in North Lancing or Boundstone, but he was affected by the war, it was probably called shell shock back then. I always felt very sorry for him.

Thank you to those who have jogged my memory somewhat.