The history portal for Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
This blog contains articles and posts taken from the Shorehambysea.com Forum.
Shoreham Beach resident Gill Wright kindly allowed us to record some of her memories of when she lived in “Town” (West Street) and then when her parents moved to the “Posh part” (Old Fort Road). The lack of transport to Southwick from the east end of the Beach at the time, was resolved when a friend introduced her to “The Ferryman”.
Recorded in interview with Mike Riddiford in 2022. The recording is around 14 minutes.
Long time Shoreham resident Bill Gebbett kindly allowed us to record some of his reminiscences from a diverse life in Sussex ranging from his exploits on the farm at Holmbush, driving tractors at 12 years old, becoming a bee expert, amateur film-making, and earning his living as a roofing contractor. Recorded in interview with Mike Riddiford in 2022. The recording is around 47 minutes.
A unique 1:4 scale sailing model of HMS Victory made a rare visit to Shoreham sometime in 1935. As a consequence of a wager between two naval officers a model, about 46ft long was built in Gosport in 1935. It was exactly based on the HMS Victory lying in Portsmouth dry dock No. 2 at the time, as she looked after her restoration 1922-28. This giant model set sail with crew (full size!) to prove that the original ship had indeed been a man-of-war with outstanding sailing qualities.
Continue reading “HMS Victory at Shoreham in 1935”Resident in America for many years now, Shoreham born Mike Holland has gathered an interesting collection of paintings of the town and area of his birth that he has kindly had digitally copied for Shorehambysea.com and can now be seen at the end of our paintings gallery.
One is of Brook Harrison’s view of the town from the south side of the river and was painted in 1873. A large sailing ship stands on the stocks at Dyer & Sons’ yard with another moored at Stow & Sons yard, now the Sussex Yacht Club.
The last three large ships to be built built at Shoreham were the Mizpah 1874, Britannia 1877 and Osman Pasha 1878. As far as is known all three were built at the old shipyard not at Dyer’s new ‘patent’ slipway that seems to have only ever been used for ship repairs.
Continue reading “Brook Harrison in Shoreham”Friday 13th March 1964: A light aircraft recently departed from Shoreham Airport crashed into a tree and the front garden of a house, 77 Buckingham Road, Shoreham. Both occupants of the Tiger Moth aircraft died either at the scene or en route to nearby Southlands Hospital. The deceased were pilot, Colin Barrett (23) of Hove and passenger Harold Ginn (33) of Brighton.
For a town that has no purpose built cinemas it is interesting to chart the history of cinemas from 1910. There were never more than three cinemas at any time in the last 100 years and all have disappeared except one – hiding in the guise of a goods store of a High Street shop.
The Bijou Electric Empire was opened in June 1911. It was built as a garage behind the old shipyard. It was a wooden building with a corrugated -iron roof and an earth floor.
By 1925 it was operated by Sussex Picturdrome who also operated the Duke of York’s Cinema in Brighton and the Bijou Electric Empire was re-named Duke of York’s Cinema. The Bijou entrance had a painting on the ceiling, it depicted some Cowboys chasing after some Red Indians. There was a piano by the screen, and the pianist accompanied all of the films, the floor at the front was covered in peanut shells and orange peel. There was also a large spitoon. The full name of the Cinema was Bijou Electric Empire.
It was closed on 5th August 1931 when it was completely destroyed by fire.
Continue reading “Cinemas in the early years”
Many of Shoreham’s old photos of the High Street and from across the river show a familiar chimney on the spot where Coronation Green is now. Originally part of a cement works in the early 1800’s it later became a brewery.
Continue reading “The Old Brewery Chimney”Here is an interesting curio from the 1870’s, kindly donated by Chris Fippard of Shoreham.
‘When milk was a penny a pint’ – more on Bungalow Town in the early years with Doris Roberts
