Victoria Road school has a curious history. Following the Education Act 1870, a school board for New Shoreham was established in 1872, taking over the National Schools and replacing them with a new school in Ham Road in 1875.
In 1915 older children went to the newly built Victoria Upper Council School on the site of the derelict and overgrown Swiss Gardens.
Comparison between 1910 and 1915. The site of the school as seen from the church tower. From the Marlipins Collection
1927 shows the basic design and kitchen block. There was no hall.
The road that became Swiss Gardens in 1915 was previously just a pedestrian track. Even in 1927 Swiss Gardens ended at Freehold Street and it would be another 10 years before Connaught Avenue would be laid out. The photograph above shows the Grammar School Gymnasium in the foreground and the Meads unfenced all the way to Swiss Gardens.
The Headmaster, Oswald Ball presided over the school that had an average attendance of 200 in 1919.
Modern day view compared with 1927. Note the school hall was a later addition. The cart shed in the Meads dates from the time of the Swiss and lasted until the 1990’s
Southlands Hospital’s origin can be traced to the Steyning Union Workhouse that was built in Ham Road, 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. In 1898 a new site of 23 acres was acquired 2 miles to the North-East in Upper Shoreham Road, Kingston – this open land was to become the new workhouse and later the infirmary that became known as Southlands.
The 1836 Workhouse in Ham Road, later to be called St. Wilfrid’s Children’s Home. Only the former laundry block to the far West of the site is extant in 2020.
The Workhouse at Ham Road. This building later became the Children’s Home and finally Council Offices. 1970
1901 The New Workhouse at Kingston
2018 Southlands Entrance Gateway
Similar design cells at St. Lukes Guildford
The new workhouse on Upper Shoreham Road was opened in 1901. Built with a conventional pavilion plan with men and women segregated into buildings to the West and East respectively. The site included large areas of market gardens stretching to the South as far as Middle Road. St. Giles Church was on an adjacent plot to the West. The main entrance to the Workhouse was through an arch in the Gate House block. This building housed a vagrants wards (segregated between male and female, as well as 14 cells of which 10 had rock-breaking facilities, and other padded cells ). These were situated in the Western arm of the Gatehouse block. A separate “Receiving” Ward permitted isolation of vagrants for a week to reduce infections.
To the South of the wards were gardens and the Airing Courts, again these were segregated. There were wooden TB Shelters constructed for those inmates suffering from Tuberculosis (there was little by way of treatment for TB in the early part of the century).
This is the full story of Shoreham’s Radar Station: RAF Truleigh Hill as researched and written by Roy Taylor. This 110 page book was written in 2007 and then updated in 2008. It offers a fascinating insight into the technology and operation of the RAF Truleigh Hill ROTOR Radar station. Likewise it opens the doors on the life at RAF Truleigh Hill Camp in Stoney Lane, built to support the Radar operations. The book comprehensively covers the sites and the personnel posted there.
In preparing photos to load on the website we made an interesting discovery when sorting through the Marlipins Museum photos which has led to an article for the Shoreham Herald appearing.
The large shed(s) or small building(s) marked on the 1931 OS map as ‘Rocket Apparatus’ and with a red dot on the photo, apparently also contained other lifesaving equipment such as lines, breeches-buoys etc., Following the coast from Lancing to Seaford on maps for the same year and earlier faithfully record other coastguard cottages as well as Shoreham’s but don’t seem to show any further references to rocket apparatuses. Why is Shoreham’s the only one to be shown – weren’t there any others at that time? From a practical point of view why weren’t they stored closer to the sea?
We have created a new feature – a Blog. This is a digest of some of the best mini articles created on the discussion forum. You’ll find them in the menu under Blog, or here: https://www.shorehambysea.com/category/blog/
These blog posts have a comment feature and are also included in the search system, and Google searches. If you are a registered email subscriber, you will be sent an email when a new blog post is published. This is in a similar way to email notifications that are sent when a full article is published, listed in the menu under Recent Updates.
Bungalow Town properties were known by name, not the street numbering system used across the river in Shoreham Town and it was first necessary to identify the location and names of the bungalows at Widewater beach. This has been carried out using photographs, Ordnance Survey maps of the period, Street Directories and the 1911 Census Returns – all have inexactitudes to a greater or lesser extent. Furthermore, the majority of these bungalows were lost to storms and it wasn’t just one storm that caused the bungalows to be Continue reading “Widewater Bungalows”
Not Shoreham related exactly but such a fascinating, rare and historic collection of naval photographs from Shorehambysea.com long standing member and Shoreham resident John Lyne that we had no hesitation in including them on the website. The photos record some of the ships and events from John’s father William Joseph Lyne’s service with the Royal Navy during WW1 and after. William served initially from 1911 to 1921 and saw action at Heligoland Bight and Jutland. Called up again during WW2 he participated in the Dunkirk withdrawal followed by a posting to Lowestoft providing minesweeping training to Scandinavian refugee sailors. Continue reading “John Lyne Collection”
John Bartlett is descended from the Winton and Maple families of Shoreham. His mother Daphne Maple married Robert Bartlett, both of Old Shoreham, in 1940. The Bartletts came from Lancing and settled in Old Shoreham where John’s grandfather was the collector at the Toll Bridge. John has kindly provided us with a selection of his family photographs dating from the early 1900’s.
1. Robert Bartlett senior, the father of George, was the Lancing Stationmaster and Postmaster seen here outside the post office with his postmen, in Lancing’s North Road.
2. This postcard shows the backwater at Lancing after the 1910 storm. The scene appears to be the coast road looking up South Street with the Three Horseshoes pub on the right.
Recent posts and articles listed in published chronological order.
