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Bill Gebbett – a life with bees

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.

Bill Gebbett the master of bees, in Southwick age 20

HMS Victory at Shoreham in 1935

Victory being towed out along the canal at Portslade 1935. © SAS Marlipins Collection

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.

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Brook Harrison in Shoreham

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.

1873 Shoreham, Brook Harrison © Mike Holland Collection

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.

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Crash of G-AKXO March 1964

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.

Southern Aero Club’s Tiger Moth in 1958 at Shoreham. The aircraft was the same age as the pilot. It was built in 1940 and used as an RAF trainer until 1948. ©Courtesy Air-Britain Jennifer M Gradidge Collection
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War beyond Shoreham Camp

The attached extract is from a book originally written by Fred Knight who was an ordinary soldier in the Canadian armed forces during WW1 and my grandfather. He was billeted close to Shoreham so his story compliments the information regarding the camp.

I had always been immensely proud of my grandfather who had fought bravely in WW1 and was therefore overjoyed when I was informed that a lost draft of his life story had been found and published by my cousin Graham.

While I found reading about his adventurous life a real pleasure, I was completely surprised to discover that he was billeted in the camp at Shoreham where I have lived for the past 25 years. He had talked fondly of his time in the area prior to being sent to France and so I am very pleased to have extracts from his WW1 soldering experiences placed on the Shoreham history website close to the information about the camp.

Brian Knight 2021

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A Southwick Quaker

Early Memories of a Southwick Quaker

A unique record of the 1830’s Southwick childhood reminiscences of Lucy Rickman Penney (nee Lucas). Documented by B. R. Bryant in 1913 it was discovered in Southwick resident Alf Browning’s collections and has been kindly loaned by Yvette Hammond and photographed by Neil De Ville.

The complete 42 page typed document includes the Lucas family’s travels to, and living at, various places far beyond our locality. Selected extracts have therefore been made together with additional background research to provide a little of the story of Lucy’s Quaker family during their residence at Southwick that include visits to the Brighton Meeting House and her father’s beautifully described walk to Portslade.

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