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Steam on the Adur

One of our favourite walks over the years has been along the river bank from Shoreham to Bramber and for those of you that still tread its meandering path take a pause before you get to the cement works, look back eastwards across the river to the hills, imagine the same scene one hundred years ago and listen carefully. Within the noise of the traffic from the nearby Steyning Road you may hear the faint sibilant hiss of a steam engine and the churning of boat screws on water as the phantom river tugboat George V puffs by towing two barges back up river for reloading.
 
(A very rare postcard necessarily heavily reduced in resolution from our partnership collection with Marlipins Museum.)

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Feature Films shot around Shoreham

Vernon Sewell is a B-movie film writer / director of the 1950’s who seemed to have an obsession with making films in Shoreham, that included the harbour, boats and often his own boat. (the S.Y. Gilert, 122 tons which was berthed at Southwick’s Lady Bee starred as the Ghost Ship).   

Films to look out for that were filmed in Shoreham are listed below. Many are directed by Vernon and/or produced at Brighton Studios:

Continue reading “Feature Films shot around Shoreham”
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1913 storm damaged bungalows

A successful bid for a set of 1913 storm-damaged bungalows on the beach provided a bit of a challenge as none of the bungalows in them were identified. An extensive trawl through our collections eventually matched them all and even managed to identify a long standing mystery bungalow that by coincidence stood close by!
You’ll see what we mean:- http://www.shorehambysea.com/catty-brown-and-framnaes/

Continue reading “1913 storm damaged bungalows”

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Cosy Nook – Widewater

A bit of a coincidence this – looking through some of our collections and found a postcard from a Nelly Bayle to Mrs Daniels in Highbury. Nelly was staying at Cosy Nook in August of 1908, one of the bungalows that was damaged in the 1913 storm described in the earlier Catty Norman article and gives us a different take on the accommodation compared to the glowing compliments usually seen in postcards home. The lady doesn’t seem too impressed with Cosy Nook nor it’s ‘old carriages’ and you have to admit it did look quite plain. For her it was miles from anywhere and located as it was near the centre of Widewater beach I suppose it would have been a fairly long walk to a sufficient number of shops at Shoreham town or Worthing the other way.  She thought it ‘very primitive and quite down to the edge of the sea’ – something of a prophetic remark bearing in mind the subsequent storms.
37, Liberia Road was part of quite an attractive neighbourhood so perhaps Nelly was used to better things but of course she may not necessarily have lived there………. servant or companion perhaps? you could go on forever wondering couldn’t you!

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High Street 10 years on

2009 was the first part of the High Street Photo project to record the shop fronts of every shop. 

http://www.shorehambysea.com/street-photo-project/high-street/

Is the High Street a better place 10 years on?  Anyone fancy doing the same for 2019?

As for 100 years ago, this then and now slider demonstrates the evolution of the West End.

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Eau-de-Cologne fountains and half a cat! – Indian Temple

A fascinating response to our article on Southwick’s Indian Temple http://www.shorehambysea.com/southwicks-indian-temple/  from Miranda Bowen nee Sweet who lived there in the 1960’s and well worth including here:-
‘My family moved into Ivy lodge in 1955 and I lived there until my marriage in 1967. My Mother and Father continued living there for several years afterwards. I remember digging up colourful mosaic tiles from the back garden and was told that these must have belonged to the remains of the foundations of the Indian Temple. There was an eau-de-Cologne fountain under the floor boards of the ‘long room’ in Ivy Lodge. This was circular and also mosaic with Eastern influences. The reservoir was still in the cellar when we lived there. The present owners who bought the house from us may or may not know of its existence.
Ivy Lodge was haunted by several notables. An elderly gentleman, a little girl and half a cat. (The tail end). Other apparitions were seen or felt by my family and we became quite used to them. It all made for a colourful childhood. MB’

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Did you know? – part 9

Did you know….. that during the Napoleonic invasion scares Shoreham’s largest barracks was between Southdown Road and Ravens Road consisting of  an Officer’s Mess House, five Officers’ Buildings of three rooms each; two Quarter-Masters’, two Sergeants’ and seven Privates’ Huts; an Hospital; Guard House; Barrack Master’s Store; Straw Barn; Granary; Engine House; Magazine and other Buildings.

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Did you know? – part 8

….. that Shoreham’s Swiss Gardens was once a famous and well attended attraction.The biggest attendances were achieved when societies, clubs and companies organized their annual functions there. The southern arm of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows held their annual fetes at the gardens often amounting to 4,000 visitors (1852). In 1856 Messrs.Truman and Hanbury the owners of the London brewery, the largest in the world then, hired a complete train from the capital to Shoreham for their workers, their wives and sweethearts.

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Did you know? – part 7

 …. that in April of 1856 Captain Guy of the ‘Imogen’ arrived at Shoreham from a voyage that took them through the Azores where, he stated, he and his crew saw a large sea serpent – “The creature was in view for a full 35 minutes …. and had the same appearance that I have before seen represented in drawings but without the hairy mane and more like a large conger eel. It was a full forty feet long above water and from the wake it left I would say sixty feet would not be an exaggeration.”