Old Fort Road from the air

Widewater in 1913

The Old Fort wasn’t considered old in 1913 – so much so that the beach road to the new bungalows was called Fort Road. The shingle spit of land in 1896 was still correctly titled Lancing Beach but by 1909 the maps showed it as Shoreham Beach. Perhaps the later title of Bungalow Town was to placate both factions… until the question of the airport name was mentioned!

Inset: Good Shepherd Church ©Doris Steers Collection
OS Maps 1896 & 1909

Kissing Tree Gate

This delightful photograph that is pre-1915 is of the twitten alleyway and gate at the junction of Southdown Road and Mill Lane. The field behind is Oxen Field – often used for town events and sports. The twitten was the route north to Little Buckingham, with a high flint wall on the boundary with the vicarage in Shoreham Court to the east.

3rd Shoreham Scouts

A Brief History

The 3rd Shoreham Sea Scout Group was formed in 1919 by William L T Roberts a Cornish seaman who settled in the town at the termination of the First World War. In 1923 he joined the Metropolitan Police, later transferring to the Thames River police. The first recorded Group Scout Leader was Captain C T Keigwin, R.D, R.N.R, F.R.G.S, also a Cornishman, appointed in 1929.

In 1919 the Sea Scouts occupied a small shack situated on the Surry Hard. The shack was originally used by 1st Shoreham Scouts from 1911. During the First World War the number of Scouts dropped and by 1918 the 1st Shoreham Group fell into abeyance. 3rd Shoreham Group took over the building from 1919.

Surry Hard 1932 https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW039497

It was in 1939 that the Group adopted the title ‘Sea Scout Ship Terra Nova’ after R.F. Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition, officially known as the British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913

In 1939 a new HQ was built from a second hand aircraft designers’ building acquired from the now famous F G Miles the British aircraft designer and manufacturer. This was sited in the Shoreham Urban District Council works yard in Ropetackle.

The Ropetackle hut 1939-1980. Note the davit on the left which swung over river wall and the rail viaduct signalling in background.
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Who is who?

The recent re-discovery of the Buckingham Book and the uncaptioned contents has raised many questions about who in the Head family is in the photographs. With over 130 years elapsed since many of the photos were taken and the last of the subjects having passed away by the 1980’s there maybe only a few people who will have met any of them to identify them specifically. A few named photographs exist as references – notably Sir Henry Head, Hester Pinney and Christopher Head. But who are the others?

As you browse the scrapbook and scrutinise the faces do you see similarities that will help identify individuals? Most of the photographs are undated so it is useful to see Bernard Head in many group photos as we know he was born in 1876.

Mystery photograph 1:

Henry Head (far right), eldest son, seems to appear only once in the Buckingham Book in a family group photograph which I assume is mother and brothers. Bernard at the back, but is that Christopher (with the camera) and Francis on the left? And if Hester Head is in mourning then that would date this image within a year of Hugh’s death in November 1890. That would make Bernard 15 years old in this photo.
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Homicide at the Buckingham House?

In 1853 the home of the local Squire Bridger was the scene of a night-time burglary. This was not unexpected after a series of break-ins in previous days. Servants had been put on watch in the darkened manor house and were armed with guns. They had not to wait long before a man entered the property through a window. When confronted and ordered to surrender he bolted for the exit. In the ensuing fracas he was shot in the back and clambered out of the window before dying in the garden outside. The reulting court case is outlined below.

The Dungeons of Shoreham

In 1857 there was a bit of to-do about the state of the Dungeons – a narrow high-walled alleyway between Victoria Road and what later became Connaught Avenue. It was the most direct pedestrian twitten (betwixt and between) between New Shoreham and Old Shoreham. It was dark, very boggy and in places was covered over by buildings straddling the alley making it a menacing place and earning the nickname “The Dungeons”. The alley bisected the Swiss Gardens site so had particularly tall sides for the entire length to prevent illegal access to the pleasure gardens on either side. For those patrons inside the Swiss Gardens there were wooden footbridges that bridged the alleyway.

The Dungeons looking East from under the Theatre c1910

The 1857 newspaper report: “We have carefully inspected the footway under the Swiss Gardens, and are of opinion that more head-room is required in that part of the passage immediately under the Swiss Cottage, that the height from the ground should not be less than 6ft. 6.; that the passage should be made a little wider under the cosmormamic views; that the pathway should be levelled and made clean; and the water drained off on the right side, from east to west; that the water-spout should be prevented from dripping in the passage; and that sufficient light be admitted for passengers to discern where they tread, -all of which suggestions Mr. Goodchild has engaged to carry out, under the inspection and to the satisfaction of the Surveyors.”

1914 map showing the alleyway and dungeons (marked in orange) passing under the Swiss Gardens Theatre and footbridge.
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Origins of the name Southlands Hospital

Records held in the West Sussex Health Authority archives hint at the earliest mention of the name Southlands. A 1934 correspondence between the then–Steyning Union Board and local land agent Frederick J. Mewis refers to “the Southern Lands Estate” — a tract of former market garden plots south of Kingston Lane, bounded by what is now Upper Shoreham Road.

Maps from 1898 in the National Library of Scotland’s collection show the area labelled simply “Southern Lands,” a local term apparently used by fishermen navigating the Adur estuary to distinguish the fertile southern fields from the rougher grazing north of the town. In hospital committee minutes dated February 1935 it is recorded that trustees voted “to adopt the long-standing field name for reasons of local familiarity.” Trustee and local landowner Raymond Gorringe suggested an amendment that the truncated form “Southlands” would be preferable – and his considerable sway led to unanimous agreement.

Thus, the hospital’s name quietly preserves a fragment of the town’s agricultural and maritime lexicon. Since 1940 “Southern Lands” ceased to be used in Shoreham.