Widewater Bungalows

Bungalow Town properties were known by name, not the street numbering system used across the river in Shoreham Town and it was first necessary to identify the location and names of the bungalows at Widewater beach. This has been carried out using photographs, Ordnance Survey maps of the period, Street Directories and the 1911 Census Returns – all have inexactitudes to a greater or lesser extent. Furthermore, the majority of these bungalows were lost to storms and it wasn’t just one storm that caused the bungalows to be

June 25, 2019August 12, 2023

Catty Norman and Framnaes

Joined Neil De Ville at the auctioning of these eight old photos and managed to purchase them.

Pencilled notes on the reverse of some indicate they were photos of Catty Norman and his family who’s bungalow was destroyed by the 1913 storm. No bungalow names were shown but we were able to identify them by by a painstaking trawling through this website’s collections comparing them with similar photos. We thought it might be interesting enough to include an explanation of the identification process and this follows after the eight photos.

Continue reading “Catty Norman and Framnaes”

November 26, 2018August 12, 2023

A Fisherman’s Tale – the Maple Family

For centuries Shoreham folk have earned a living from the sea and one hundred years or so ago the fishing families of Ratcliffe, Page, Laker and Maple were prominent. Perhaps the best known of them were the Maples who sold their fish and oysters from their shop at the west end of the High Street in one of the ancient cottages that once stood alongside the King’s Head pub. Continue reading “A Fisherman’s Tale – the Maple Family”

November 5, 2018February 19, 2024

Shoreham’s Mystery Seaplane Base

A chance swop of postcards between collectors Neil De Ville and Alan Humphries revealed previously unnoticed buildings on Shoreham Beach. The image is of the old Norfolk Suspension Bridge and across the river below the bridge span two large shed-like structures can be made out.

Photo by permission of Neil De Ville and Alan Humphries

The image has been postitively dated as 1921 by local historians at the time when the Bridge was being prepared for demolition so what were the mysterious buildings for? Their location looked to be near Ferry Road and at first sight 1927 aerial photographs seemed to confirm this by showing their likely footprints on the beach, not just of the structures but also a concrete raft or apron on their seaward side.

The Robertsons and their Bungalows

Alexander Duff Robertson, the son of a Scottish industrialist, began business as the proprietor of a laundry in London. He later became predominantly involved in property development both in London and Shoreham. During WW1 he was a captain in the RFC/RAF and afterwards served on Shoreham‘s Urban Council.

Alexander purchased land on Shoreham Beach and went on to build a number of bungalows there for himself, his family and to let out. During their time in Bungalow Town the building work and subsequent residency in their homes was uniquely recorded in a collection of photographs and ephemera that have been generously donated by a descendant who bears the self same names of his forbear.

The O’Neills of Regina and Norfolk Lodge

A fascinating collection of images from the O’Neill family album that gives us a taste of life in Bungalow Town and the homes they lived in. These have been donated by Tim O’Neill of Dublin, grandson of the couple that set up home on the Beach during the early part of the last century. Tim has also provided an informative background of the family and their life that we can do no better than to include here in his own words:-

“My grandparents were Vincent O’Neill (1875 – 1960) and Olivia Graves-Flood (1877-1955).Vincent was a barrister, and had the rare distinction of being called to the Bar both in Ireland (at the Kings Inns in Dublin) and in England and Wales (at the Middle Temple in London). Olivia was from a military family, and most of her family were either high-ranking officers in the British Army in India from the earliest days of the East India Company, or were Church of Ireland (Anglican) bishops. (Her cousin was Robert Graves, the poet and writer).

Peggy McCulloch Collection

I have known Peggy for many years now and first made her acquaintance through my neighbours in Church Street. It was then I discovered Peggy’s interest in Shoreham’s history and learned of her lifelong association with Bungalow Town on Shoreham Beach where, apart from a break during the war, she had always lived. Listening to her stories it was evident that here was an opportunity to record a meaningful record of the town’s, her’s and her mother’s past and this culminated in the fascinating story of ‘Bungalow Town & The Beach Between the Wars’ on this website. Images from Peggy’s family album and postcard collection were far too numerous to include them all with the article but she has kindly allowed us to present them in the following gallery.

Roger Bateman

March 2010

Each image has a title and description. You can search for specific image content by using CTRL+F on your keyboard, (CMD+F on a Mac) and then mouse-over the resulting images to reveal the title.

September 19, 2017February 24, 2024

Bungalow Town Site Map and Index 1917

A very rare map of bungalows and their names as they were in 1917 when the growth of Bungalow Town was really getting under way. There are (as to be expected) lots of familiar and new names on this, some for new bungalows and others that were obviously changed. The footprints for each bungalow are not accurate, though, with no real indication of their shape (as with the 1930’s map) only identical hand drawn rectangles for each showing their location. The map year fortuitously coincides with the 1917 street directory (also on shorehambysea.com website) but already that comes up with a few anomalies (different names for some properties on the same spot, probably in part due to frequent name-changes and different time of the year between the two publications – there are even different names for some of the roads!).

Continue reading “Bungalow Town Site Map and Index 1917”

September 8, 2017January 20, 2020

Snippets

…. from the Daily Express 1904

Continue reading “Snippets”

May 14, 2017March 30, 2023

Bungalow Town Properties 1901 & Lancing Beach 1912-1914

1901 and 1912 to 1914 Properties on the Beach (from Census Returns)

Bungalow Town was then under the control of Lancing Council – no road names are mentioned. The bungalow details are listed in the same order as shown in the census and from the names of some of the properties that survived to the 1930’s it would appear that the list works generally (with some exceptions) from the east to the west. Where the names did survive or locations are known through other research (e.g., ‘Along the Beach at Bungalow Town ‘article) these have been included using the 1935 street names – if they appear on the 1935 property list the numbers are also included. Un-named bungalows appear as ‘bungalow’ and ‘bungalow buildings’ may perhaps be brick built as opposed to all wood construction. The census was carried out in March of 1901 out of the holiday season which is why very few residents are shown. The few residents’ names that are mentioned have been included:-