The history portal for Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
In the south east corner of Mill Lane Cemetery, overlooking The Meads and backing onto a spur of Greenacres, is the grave of a French sailor formerly of the SS Lutetia, who died in 1919. There are no other gravestones near to this isolated stone cross marker, giving it rather a sad and lonely appearance, perhaps reflecting the nature of this sailor’s death, a young man from another country who lost his life under tragic circumstances.
To coincide with the re-opening of Shoreham’s Marlipins Museum this May 2022 it is worthwhile mentioning that a visit to the first floor gallery will give a rare opportunity to view in person the original sketch made by Butler in 1786. This accurate snapshot of Shoreham is especially revealing. Roger Bateman’s meticulous examination and research is linked below.
After a very long time closed, the Marlipins Museum re-opens on 5th May 2022.
Entry is now free.
This is also an opportunity to re-watch Roger’s superb montage video about the origins of the museum.
On Palm Sunday 2022, Mike Riddiford recorded the Bell Ringing before the Service and later recorded a fascinating interview with Ian Vaughan from the St. Mary’s Bell Ringers in the Churchyard. The recording starts with the sound from the inside Ringing Room, where you will hear Ian calling the bells and then later the Tower Captain Hamish leading the bell ringers.
The St. Mary de Haura Bellringers are keen to encourage new ringers to join them. Bell Ringing uses number notation, so it is not necessary to have any musical knowledge, although a sense of rhythm and a good memory can be helpful. Once the basics have been mastered, ringing becomes a group activity with the opportunity of visiting other towers and making new friends.
http://www.stmarydehaura.org.uk/church-life/bellringers/
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”