Author: p

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Ebeneezer

Super google surfer Neil De-Ville has unearthed this photo of the ship ‘Ebenezer’ (on Ebay) that turns out to be another Shoreham built ship photo that has come to light. Our ‘Ships Built or Registered in Shoreham’ listings show it to be a 177 ton brig built in 1860 by May & Thwaites of Kingston that enjoyed a very long working life as a coaster for almost sixty years. It took a German submarine to finally  finish it off on 15th July 1917 when it intercepted the vessel and sunk her with explosive charges.

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Shoreham presentation rolling pin

This is quite a find by Jacqui Hubbard in a Petworth antique shop.
The 1853 presentation rolling pin has the name James Cooper who may have been the shipwright who lived on the High Street then, near to Shoreham’s best known shipbuilder J. Britton Balley so probably worked on his ships too. It would seem Cooper also worked on the ship ‘James Douglas’ but unfortunately I can’t find that name amongst our registers of Shoreham built/registered ships – something to keep a look out for.

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Wartime Eastern Avenue

Having read about the V1 flying bomb that detonated near the top of Eastern Avenue (Bombing and Other Incidents http://www.shorehambysea.com/bombing-incidents-ww2/  ) Gail Underhill has asked for any wartime photos of Eastern Avenue. This one comes courtesy of Sue Vincent that shows VE Day celebrations with Eastern Avenue houses in the background and perhaps one of them showing repaired roof tile damage. Due to restrictions then wartime photos are difficult to find – does anyone have any others?

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The Surrey Arms

Perhaps it’s older than you think? This advertisement for an auction shows it as licenced premises as early as 1833 (Sussex Advertiser 16th September 1833) – older than the Royal Sovereign for example that was first licenced in 1848 under it’s earlier name of Salmon Arms (although the building itself is 18th century). Incidentally, John Fennall, Mercy’s husband, and his brother William had been millers at the Mill Hill windmill. John also ran a bakery in the High Street and had another windmill built in Mill Lane. The brothers amassed a considerable amount of property in Shoreham of which the Surrey Arms was just one.
Also included is what is probably the oldest photo of the pub – just look at the height of that ladder!

Surrey Arms (to the centre right) ghost montage ©Roger Bateman
More pubs…
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Lifeboat house on beach

A postcard that shows a fairly usual view west of the beach end of Ferry Road but one that unusually includes the old lifeboat house that stood there next to the coastguard cottages up to the 1920’s. On the extreme right of the card marked by the asterisk more bungalows nearer to the sea are just visible that were built after 1912 and narrows the probable date of the card.

The Ordnance Survey map of 1912 doesn’t show any buildings nearer the sea but obviously there must have been. Another example of even OS maps not being as accurate as you would think.
(The bungalows in question are marked in yellow)

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5 mile stone

Identifying the location of this building advertised in 1826 prompted a look at the old Ordnance Survey maps to find where the five mile stone was (five miles from Brighton) on the Brighton Road. Turns out to have been the Surrey Arms – originally known as Eastern House a later advertisement shows it to have had eight bedrooms!