Sunday School at St.Julian’s Hall and life in Kingston and Southwick in the 1930’s
Life in Kingston and Southwick
Post Office staff at Shoreham 1937
Paul Plumb
The Life of Paul Redgrave Plumb 1924 – 2012
Written by Nick Redgrave Plumb for his father’s funeral ceremony in 2012
Paul was born on November 22nd 1924 to Daisy Ellen Plumb (formerly Barnes) and Ernest Redgrave Plumb at 27, Queens Place in Shoreham. He had an older brother Allen and sister Doris.
When he came into the world Doris immediately sent brother Allen to the Post Office (just over the road) where his Dad worked to tell him the good news. Allen ran all the way, so when he arrived he was completely out of puff and could hardly speak, but through the panting managed to say ….”It’s here!”. Paul had a thick mop of golden curls until the age of about 3. He remembered having a huge pram with big wheels & canopy and being pushed along by his sister Doris.
Continue reading “Paul Plumb”Shoreham or Newhaven?
If unsure, just land and ask a local.
This photograph was unidentified until recently. It is of a daring early aviator Louis Emile Train who designed his own aircraft and competed in a number of races. The story behind this photograph is amazing. It should have been taken at Shoreham airfield at the penultimate stage of the Calais to London Air Race of 1911.
Unfortunately after flying over the English Channel heading to Shoreham before taking the last leg to Hendon Louis was presented with a challenge – what did Shoreham look like? He knew the Adur was a landmark, with Downs all around – but he came across Newhaven first and when Louis failed to find the aerodrome he decided the best approach would be to ask a local for directions. He put down his aircraft in a sloping field to the north of Newhaven.
He executed a difficult landing on a sloping field without incident, until the aircraft came to a halt – at which point it rolled backwards down the field. Unequipped with brakes the aircraft ended up in the field fencing and the tailplane was irreparably damaged. Louis was forced out of the race and never got to Shoreham.
The photos of the hubbub that ensued once the locals learnt of the unofficial French invasion and landing can be seen here.
The location of the field at South Heighton is here.
Middle Road School 1946
An excellent photograph has arrived from Colin Wadey who has kindly permitted us to re-publish it here. This is Middle Road Secondary Boys School in 1946, around 10 years after the school was built. Colin has listed his classmates – with quite a few familiar Shoreham names in the roll.
Sam Youles
Sam Youles, the Harbour and Kingston
Where is Shoreham’s Pickett-Hamilton?
There is a curiosity hidden deep in the plans and maps of Shoreham Airport… the previous existence of three WWII Pickett-Hamilton Defensive Forts. Are they still hidden under the grass and tarmac? Are they lost?
Ropetackle – the last 300 years
– a collection of images from the galleries and collections of shorehambysea.com illustrating the changes to the area since the 18th century.
What a wonderfully eccentric place it was! Besides a fascinating ropemaking and shipbuilding past there were, in Victorian times, ancient buildings still standing, quaint cottages, wharf houses, a gas works and, spookily, a mortuary alongside an incinerator! In the Little High Street there were peculiarly shaped houses and strange, shop-like windows.
It was never a fashionable area, being part industrial and part residential where the poorer, labouring families largely dwelt. In 1817 William Butler’s poor grammar described it as being “the lower ‘hend’ of town” and goes on to mention a ‘pour new’ shop where he had ‘connections’ with Sarah Fillaps. Something of a mystery and perhaps a pawn shop (a corruption of the French ‘for us’) or as William’s escapades suggest one of the numerous brothels in Shoreham port then?
During the early part of the 19th century Ropetackle included wharf houses, sheds, a brickyard, coal yard, a bonding pond, Thomas Clayton’s deal yard, his cement factory, stables, a mixture of 17th to 19th century houses and even a mill pond. By the Victorian era there was also a sewage plant and of course the gasworks, flint-built ware houses, incinerator and mortuary. It all added to a certain air of eeriness and mystery to the area.
Continue reading “Ropetackle – the last 300 years”Southlands – Workhouse and Hospital
Southlands Hospital – brief history
Southlands Hospital’s origin can be traced to the Steyning Union Workhouse that was built in a different location, at Ham Road, in central Shoreham in 1836. Later additions included infirmaries built in 1870, vagrant’s wards and a chapel. The union included parishes in East and West Sussex and the growth of population in its coastal areas meant that, despite much additional building, an enlarged site was required by the 1890s.
Continue reading “Southlands – Workhouse and Hospital”HMS Dover
Naval sketches of the fourth rate, 48 guns, three-decked man-of-war HMS Dover, built at Shoreham in 1653, give the impression of a very large ship. Surprisingly at 533 tons and keel length of 104 feet it was very similar in terms of length and tonnage to many of Shoreham’s typical 19th century home built merchantmen such as the Shamrock 500 tons/117 feet; Agricola 600 tons/119 feet and Cambria 500 tons/116 feet.
Visual comparisons perhaps give more idea of sizes and this view of an average 19th century vessel between the Dover (left) and the considerably larger Britannia (right, recorded at 800 tons and a length of 140 feet) reveals a perhaps diminutive but nevertheless beautiful example of Shoreham’s shipbuilding history.