Lancing Village Memories

  Alan Marshall said... Hello from Lancing to Alan Marshall in Tasmania. Thank you for sharing these wonderful memories. I have formatted your text with subheadings and corrected some punctuation to make it easier to read. School Days David, thanks for all those wonderful memories you have brought back to me. I am somewhat younger than yourself (I was born in 1941), but I do remember the old schoolroom, and Mrs Thomas used to teach there. The name Miss Allman, I think she became Mrs Horne. At that age, I had no idea of people getting married and changing their name! Michael Ayling was in my class at school. I attended there from about 1946 to 1952. The "new" dining room and kitchen were built at the top northern side of the playground, close to the bicycle shed. I will always remember the horrible smell of grease and food waste oozing out of the waste pipe from the kitchen, and that horrible minced meat, hard potatoes, and spinach! It was an awful taste for a 7 or 8-year-old....

Hear the story 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 phot...

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 th...

Hear Jo's story Jo writes about the Canadian troops preparing for D-Day Birth During Wartime I was just going through our file of important documents and found my birth certificate. It gives the address where I was born as 1 Saxon Villas, Lancing, on 10th February 1943. I have been on Google Maps, and that address isn't listed any more, so I presume it no longer exists. Obviously, I have no personal memory of the time in Lancing as just before I was born, an attachment of Canadian troops moved into the area and, in fact, took over the house where my mother was staying. All the surrounding area was evacuated, I gather, as the whole area around that part of Lancing was full of army lorries and vehicles, loaded with ammunition, etc., as they were preparing for a possible invasion by the enemy. As I was due at any time, they allowed my mother to occupy the upstairs bedroom whilst the troops took over the rest of the house. In the meantime, the local midwife was detached to try and...

Tower Road Memories When the war ended, my father returned from his army service, and a short while later, we moved back into Tower Road, a bit further up the road this time. This changed my area of play, new friends and neighbours, new places to explore and things to learn.  The Brooks and Cokeham Lane The area we knew as "The Brooks" was close at hand, a way into the countryside. The brooks started at the end of Tower Road, where Carnforth Road now begins, no more buildings, just fields. The boundary to the open fields was Cokeham Lane, and this had a long line of large elm trees, sadly now gone. Cokeham Lane at the bottom end was no more than a track which ended with a solid white gate at the railway line.   On the south side of the railway line on what has become a much larger industrial estate were a couple of businesses, I can recall Solarbo, Lancing Packers and I believe Manhattan kitchens, I believe the correct name was Robinsons, A number of people from Tower Road...

Hear David's  stor y   David Nicholls Summary This text is an excerpt from a personal website, written by a man named David Nicholls. He describes his childhood growing up in Lancing, England, during World War II, recounting memories of school life, air raids, and the presence of military personnel in his town. He also remembers daily life and common places in the area, including the  local cinema, his paper route, and a nearby manor house. The excerpt reveals the impact of the war on his everyday experiences as a young boy. AI-Generated Overview Podcast I found this website by chance, and it certainly triggered off some Memories of Lancing for me. Memories of Lancing. Early Days in North Lancing I grew up in North Lancing.  In 1939, my Dad bought a small bungalow at Lewes Road off Fircroft Avenue. I remember the cost of our home (just five hundred pounds). Then, Fircroft Avenue was an unmade road lined with almond trees which shed their blossoms like confetti. T...

Hear Vera's story in her own words Vera Bartram A Nostalgic Reflection A friend lent me a copy of your Lancing Village Memories, which I found very interesting.   Early Life in Lancing My family moved here from London in 1931 when my father opened a barber shop on Brighton Road by Chandler's Corner called "Bob's". I have lived in Lancing ever since, except for the period when I was working at Bletchley during the War.   School Days   I went first to a little private school called Viking House School run by Mrs Old in Kings Road, but when my sister started school a couple of years later, we went to South Lancing Primary, which in those days was the only primary school in Lancing. Seniors went to North Lancing in what is now the St.James the Less church hall, where the hall was divided into two classrooms by screens. I remember the school in Irene Avenue being built, and that is where I went at 11 years old. Many years later, when I had two sons, they wen...

Ted White Ted has kindly sent a picture of his family for an article about Penstone House  and also enclosed the picture below... He writes:- My Time at South Lancing School (1941–1947) I went to South Lancing School next to the Main Post Office from 1941 to 1947 and I have attached a photo of the teachers who were there in about 1946/7. I think that the one with the flowers in her lapel was the headmistress, Miss Kates, and in the middle was Miss Alexander. On the right is Mrs Curd of an old Lancing family. Who were the others? Life During Wartime  I really enjoyed my days at the school, except of course that these were the years with frequent visits to the Air Raid Shelters.  Classmates Names such as Jackie Jasper, Daphne Chamberlain, Brian Vincent, Mike Smith ... were some of our classmates. courtesy  Ted White