I was born at Pett Level on 19^th October, 1925 and my father was a sheep grazier and a coast guard and his hobby was birds and nature; well really he was an ornithologist and you know, he used to teach us all about the birds and the wild animals, and I had a brother who’s two years older.

Unfortunately I lost my mother when I was four and he was six so he was landed with a new born delicate baby and us two, and in those days there weren’t many menfolk who were very domesticated were they? They didn’t know where to start. (Some of them still don’t) The frying pan was used a lot, nearly worn out! It’s about all he could do to fry stuff. And then of course, we went to Granny because she got a bit of spare room at the time and my aunt took my delicate young sister to look after so he was relieved of her, but we went from cousin to cousin, but we spent most of the time with Granny Cooke.

She was quite religious, quite strict really with us when I look back and she was always giving us jobs to do and one of the main jobs she used to give us to do, my brother and I, was she gave us a sack each and told us to go onto the beach and pick up the driftwood for firewood, but you see, it had to dry out, it was full of sea water. It had to dry out so we stacked it up and it dried out during the summer ready for the winter.

That was very frequent; I remember it was sometimes so heavy so all I could do was to drag it  but my brother and I, and Andrew Dunlop’s father, went to a private school in Pett Level. When I say a private school, it was private they had to pay and he was an ex-teacher but I was always in trouble because I used to scribble too much on their books for him, being only four but I soon learnt.

Were you punished?  You got sort of sent out.

Then as we grew older, of course, we went to the village school and that was quite different to what it is now. Pett School was rather primitive toilets, the toilets and so on.

Were the toilets outside?  Yes but we had a nice piece of ground along by the school, which the boys cultivated and grew vegetables and I think they quite enjoyed it, and us girls, we had the flower beds

and it was amazing what we learnt, you know, and what we grew and we became quite enthusiastic gardeners, all of us, boys and girls.

Of course, soon the war came and everything changed. We had evacuees from Camberwell, I felt so sorry for them; some of them so little, five year olds, saying goodbye to their parents and not everybody welcomed them. (They didn’t?)  No although they got room.

(Do you remember seeing them being allocated to families?) Yes yes. (What do you remember about that?)  Well they tried to keep the families together. Sometimes there were twos and threes and they tried their best to keep them together, but they didn’t. Some people, you know, they just didn’t want them and they didn’t do their best for them. I used to feel so sorry for them because little ones

used to cry and wanted to go back to London and of course, the school wasn’t very big and so we used to share it. We would have it perhaps in the morning and then the evacuees had it in the afternoon and vice versa. (They kept the two groups separate then?) Yes we were quite separate. Now of course, that went on until France fell and then they were all shifted off to down the West Country and I think some of the mothers joined them and things were happier. Of course we had so many German planes just come across the Channel, they’d drop a bomb or two where they thought they could do some damage and they got to know very quickly that the top of Chick Hill was military. (Right). We had to move out of our home at Pett Level because it came within a restricted area and of course it was all barbed wired up and and mined and we had to get accommodation at the top of Chick Hill.

We couldn’t take much with us because it was already furnished, this place. We could only really take our personal things and clothing. We had to leave our furniture behind, apart from my father’s desk and those sort of things.

Then of course we couldn’t get down there after that. You know, we just, we just had to hope for the best, our home was left intact but it wasn’t. They took various pictures of the walls and they just disappeared, whether they sold them or not, whether they took them home and I lost quite a lot of clothing.

(You said dresses you’d been given?). Yes they were lovely dresses; they were evening dresses because in those days, although it was wartime, we used to go out for the evening in a long dress, (Really? even in wartime?)  Yes what we got, you know, we couldn’t afford to buy new ones but we used to titivate up the old ones a bit, you know?  I mean, you wouldn’t think of going to a dance without an evening dress on.

(What was your favourite one like?) Well, mine was pink and it was a very nice shade of pink. I had it a long time because we didn’t have enough coupons to buy any more and the ones I left behind because you didn’t do much socializing in the war time and I left a lot of my evening dresses and things behind at Pett Level and they just disappeared.

(You must’ve been heartbroken?) Yeah but you see we couldn’t take them, and there wasn’t room and we didn’t think they would do such a thing. The sentry stood at the end of the pathway and you couldn’t go anywhere past that.

(So you did try sometimes?) Yes but of course it was too dangerous; it was barbed wired and mined.

(What are your memories of, you mentioned rationing?)  Oh yes of course. For the rationing, sometimes it was a bit better than others but we, father kept sheep and we also had a house cow which I don’t think I mentioned.

Our Oral History Project has shown us how important it is to preserve the memories of those who have lived in our communities. Sadly we have lost several of the interviewees who kindly agreed to share their story but we are fortunate to have those memories to remember how life was in the past.

If you know of anyone who would be happy to share their memories, or you yourself, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us on 07751 251523 or via our website.

Heather Wolfe nee Davis

Born in 1938 in Fairlight

We lived in a bungalow in Hill Road at the top there until I was a year and then we moved here (Gorsethorn Way) cos my father was in the taxi business; that was at the bottom of Waites Lane there on the left a taxi business – that was in 1938 – and that was the garage and he worked there for taxis for people – nobody had cars then. (His name was John Davis). We moved to this house and they were newly built these bungalows and the grounds were all overgrown and my mum said she had to clear a bit of the garden lawn of brambles so I had the space to crawl – you know it was all fields and woods at one time; and she worked in the farm just round the corner and up the hill there (Mr Crisford’s farm).  I was born in 1938 and moved here in 1939.

The war was going on and we had doodle bugs coming over and at night my mum used to shake in fear in case it stopped. If it stopped it would come down and I didn’t know about that of course but I was thinking my mum was cold when she was shaking.

A German plane crashed up the road here. We went up there (I was in bed) and I heard like a train going along outside the window so my mum was still up doing something so I said ‘What?’ I told her about that and she said ‘A plane’s just come down up Fyrsway so put your dressing gown on and we’ll go up and have a look’ and we did and it had gone into the garage there. Yes these things do stand out in my mind.

I went to Fairlight School from the age of 5 to 11 then I went to Rye; and Mrs.Coates, she was a lovely lady. I’ve forgotten the name of the other lady. I went to Rye when I was 11 and left when I was 15 then I did secretarial work after that in Hastings. I travelled there by bus – they were going every half hour in the summer then because people didn’t have cars – the East Kent (red) number 128 I think and it was every half hour so it was wonderful in the summer and every hour in the winter; and they were on time and we got to know the drivers cos they used the same drivers and we got quite friendly with them, you know chatting.

I worked in Hastings for a long time then I went to Tunbridge Wells. I wanted to move away from Hastings and my friends were moving away from Hastings and working elsewhere – Eastbourne and different places and I wanted to do the same so I got lodgings with a friend up there, a lady friend, in Crowborough and worked at the Dr Barnado’s Homes. In Hastings I worked for an estate agents and then a solicitor and then the building society. The building society for 13 years before I left and they were all very nice working at those three places; everybody was so friendly. It was the Hastings and Thanet Building Society on the roundabout there at the bottom of Havelock Road.

I was in Tunbridge Wells for about 5 years then I got to meet John, my husband, who lived in Sevenoaks then after a couple of years, we got married and meanwhile, my father had died of cancer and my mother was living here on her own and she was in her early 70s so we thought she’s going to get older so what we did we had this room built on and she had these two rooms and we had the rest of the bungalow. She could come in and out the rest of the bungalow when she liked and we had our evening meal together – yes it was all very friendly.

In 1938 when we moved in, these bungalows had just been built along here and they were all different inside. They’re different inside – the ones I’ve been to. People I’ve got friends with – I’ve been inside and they’re quite different all of them – nice in a way.

And there were white gates near the estate agents there – came across – this was when I was very young – I can hardly remember – and this was a private estate all round here and it was only people who were related or friendly who could come through those gates and they had a tank up there for water up on the Firehills. There was a Mr Morton I think he did it for a while (minded the gates).

And then coming home from school at Fairlight cos we walked home along and over the Firehills, there were some German prisoners working along the flat bit there and they were ever so nice and had a chat with us and a laugh every time we went home from school. They were picking up potatoes – one was called Alfred – anyway I liked him and I was only about 7. I liked him so much chatting to him and I had a black and white rabbit around that time and I called it Alfred. (So they worked on the farms after the war?) Yes. They were very nice and one day when I was coming home from school, my mum used to be working in the fields just up here and when she heard me coming home, she’d come back to the house and the teacher at the school said if you see a red light in the sky, when the war was going on, she said lie flat on the ground and I was coming along and I saw this red light in the sky and it wasn’t moving; it wasn’t a plane and I thought ooh do I lay down and I lay there for a little while and it was still there and I got really frightened, and I got up and ran home screaming. I was only little; went home screaming cos my mum she was in the field and she went running home too and got there before I did. Oh dear I don’t know what that was. So the teachers frightened us saying things like that. Lay flat on the ground she said. The RAF (station) were all up there and the dogs in there.

My father was a taxi driver and continued throughout the war and my mum working on the farm. She did the ploughing herself. She worked in the gardens around here for people and she came from a farming family. Her father used to own cows and had a cow shed in the field where he kept his cows; now going up from Ore, up Fairlight Road, there’s the Broadway isn’t there; well just above there there’s a turning isn’t there, there’s a corner there; well the farm was on that corner – Tile Kiln Farm that’s it. Well he looked after the cows but the farming my mother did – that was wheat, potatoes, strawberries – that sort of thing, and of course in my school holidays I used to go up and help; like picking up strawberries – ooh my back did ache and my mum said to me ‘Keep doing it and the back ache will go off’; and haymaking – the wheat when it was all cut and had the stack up near the Fairlight Road there and going up on the tractor and trailer – all that I loved it.

There was the Circle Shop – now you go past the post box, turn left and there’s a house right there – not the one on the Circle – it’s the next one with the big gates and that was a little café and to start with when I was little, the lady Mrs. Williams and they got Windsor the dog – Mr. and Mrs. Williams and they had the cat and the dog (I remember those) and to start with they sold teas and my mum used to be there helping because they were great friends, the three of them, and she would be helping with the teas and she also had a library there. The other shop Rimmington’s near the post box – go down on that path – The Woolpack – before the Woolpack it was Rimmington’s and that was when I was at school and my mum used to get all her groceries from there and it cost around £2 a week; she got everything from there, and the man used to come round with it all as well on a bike – we didn’t have cars in those days or vans. Opposite nearly – you know where the Old People’s (Shepherd’s Court) is – that was the Vicarage, just one building, with grass all round and an orchard at the back with apples and that was at the bottom of some of the fields that my mum worked in, all up there, and behind the Vicarage where all the bungalows are now – that was just a field and we used to go mushrooming round there, and blackberrying – we did that a lot when I was a child. I had a cousin from my mum’s sister who lived in London and they used to come and stay with us which was nice so I had this cousin to play with cos there weren’t many children around cos they’d just been newly built. Most of them (Fairlight School children) lived up near the church so it was a bit lonely life. 

I didn’t go (the Corner Shop in LWL) but I know where you mean and then there was a tea shop in Waites Lane, as you turn into Waites Lane, on the left there and as you go up Waites Lane, in Farley Way, there was a tea shop at the bottom there – Pixie Wood with the big garden, the lawn at the front.

I belonged to the Youth Club when I was younger. (Did you know Sid Emary who ran the Youth Club and Maureen?) and Rosemary – she’s gone now – I was very friendly with her.

He (Frank Message) was a young man when he got killed, we heard (whether this is right or not) that he was he was running away from the enemy up a hill; he was running fast up a hill and had a heart attack and died but whether or not that’s true I don’t know; that’s what we heard. My gran and grandad heard you know – his parents.

I

BRIAN SINDEN

I was born on 11^th October 1937 at Bermuda, Pett Road which is opposite Rosemary Lane. My father bought the house the previous year for £450.

I started school in January 1943. We had a mile to walk to Pett School; we used to walk home again at 12 o’clock to have our dinner; country folk it was dinner at midday then walk up there again at 1 o’clock then walk home again at half past 3. That’s quite a walk for a five year old kid.

Where were you actually living then? Still at Bermuda. I remember one afternoon walking home from Pett School with my sister, Ronnie Barden and his sister Joan and my cousin John and this 109 Messerschmitt came flying over the roof tops and it was firing at the troops who was at Pett Garage. As my cousin just walked across the road all these machine gun pellets were coming up the road and it was so scary but all the mothers came out the house to see if we were alright.

Did you say there were troops at Pett Garage? Yes. I had two friends who were up by the Village Hall, the old Village Hall, and they said this plane was coming down the road; they used to come right down low because there was anti-aircraft guns up on the bank opposite Peter James Lane and a searchlight so they used to come down low so they got below the guns.

Where was the searchlight? Up where the beacon is? This was up at the field (near Shelly’s Green).

One afternoon we were at Pett School, we were out to play and this B17 came over, a Flying Fortress, and it was all alight and the troops, they were all parachuting out, and we all had to go into the shelters because we had three air raid shelters where we used to have our lessons.

At home we had a Morrison shelter which was a table shelter and us three kids, me and my two sisters, used to sleep in there at night. One night a bomb went off and all the plaster ceiling came down. And there was lots of bomb damage at that time.

Do you know where the bomb landed? No but I remember when Mrs.Elliott and her maid at the White Hart, they took a direct hit and they were both killed and my aunt lived about 200 yards across the road and the chimney from her house came right through their roof. I remember going to my aunt’s house and seeing daylight up through her kitchen right up through the roof. (So the Elliott’s chimney went across and into your aunt’s?) Yes. 

But Pett in those days was tribal – everybody’s related to everybody and you knew everybody. All the boys were taught to kill all the predators, to kill all the badgers and squirrels and crows and magpies. We had guns and knives and nobody ever got hurt. I bought my first double barrelled shotgun, 12 bore, when I was 13 years old. (Was that normal?) Yep that was normal. All the kids in the village were taught for hundreds of years that you have to get rid of predators and in them days, there was so much more wildlife around because we hunted down the predators. All the farms had chickens and ducks and geese and they all went off somewhere and hatched out and came back with loads of chicks but now I’ve still got chickens but I have to make it like Fort Knox to keep the badgers out. (I suppose you didn’t have licences then? Gun licences didn’t exist?) We did have licences – get them from the Post Office five shillings. (Any age?) Yes just go and get a gun licence. Five shillings in old money. Everybody was either related or blood related or through marriages.

There was no traffic; if you heard a car you wondered who it belonged to because there were so few. There were army lorries around but then I remember there was army everywhere. They took over some of the houses because a lot of people had evacuated. (So there were empty houses were there?) Yes there were empty houses which the army took; I remember Roughters next door to Breanross and the army being in there. It was quite a big house. The army were down Peter James Lane; yes there was an army camp down Peter James Lane too. (Whereabouts?) As you go down where it levels out, that bit there. It was all army camp there. (That’s Winterstow now?) No on the other side (where Cherry Garden is now). That flat field I remember being full of army. I remember my father taking eggs and selling eggs to them for the army. (I’m sure they had money). Yes.

So who else were you at school with? Can you remember names? My sister in ’45, she was two years older than me; Vic Goodsell; Molly and Joan Barden; Tony Turner; Muriel Turner; Peter Bateup; Phyllis Bateup; David Cooke from Pett Level; Rosemary’s sister; Jimmy Cooke. I’m talking about when I started there’s quite a few younger than me. When I started at five those were the ones that were there; Anne and Eve Bull who lived where John Cooke does.

Maureen Burt – maiden name Bird

Date of Birth 14^th August 1938

Place of Birth Kempston, Bedfordshire

Our family moved from Bedfordshire to Fairlight at Easter 1956 into ‘High View’ at the top of Battery Hill. My father became Secretary of the Hastings Car Club and held this position for 13 years. He also ran the Bodiam Hill Climb.

When I was 17 or 18 I used to go to the Pier with friends but my father always insisted on picking me up which was very embarrassing!

When I was told that we were moving to Fairlight, I applied to the Hastings and Thanet Building Society in Hastings to be a cashier but was turned down as they didn’t employ women cashiers!

I then applied to Plummer and Roddis (where Debenhams is in Robertson Street) to be a junior clerk but the money was too low. The Borough Treasurer’s Department initially turned me down for a clerk position but offered me a job as an Accounting Machine Operator at their offices in Wellington Square, Hastings. I was responsible for all Borough workers’ wages. As part of my job, I had to go to the Ladies toilets below the Carlisle pub on the sea front to pay the female staff. (A man from the same department paid the male staff at the Men’s toilets). I also took a taxi to pay the policemen at the Police Station – the current Lansdowne Hotel was the front of the Police Station. It was amazing that, being so young, I was given so much money to carry around!

After a transfer to Hospital Management in buildings behind the White Rock Theatre, I did the stocks at the Royal East Sussex Hospital and was responsible for the hospital staff wages. I was actually told not to get married for two years but I did get engaged after one year! I worked for the Borough Treasurer’s Department for five years.

I got engaged at Christmas 1962 during the bad winter of 1962/63. The snow was so deep in Fairlight that the buses had to stop at Ore and I had to walk from Ore to Battery Hill. On one occasion I walked back with an old lady who lived at the Alms House and there was a breakdown lorry across the road as a car had gone in a ditch. We had to climb over the lorry and jump down the other side but the snow was so deep that we disappeared! Church Farm had a light on outside and and we mistakenly thought we were near home and took a wrong turning down Lower Coastguard Lane. We turned round and then met my father with a large shovel who had come looking for me. It was so icy cold and in those days we wore skirts not trousers! My head scarf was so iced up that it stuck to my head and it had to be warmed up to get it off. Dad also put my feet in hot water.

The East Kent Bus Company ran buses from Hastings to Pett Level and the last bus to Fairlight left Pelham Crescent in Hastings at 10.20 p.m. At Battery Hill George and I would get off the bus after an evening out and the bus continued down to Pett Level by the Rescue Boat Station where it turned round. When it got back to near my house, the bus beeped and picked up George to take him back to Berlin Road, Ore. Jock the bus driver lived at the Coastguard Station.

My brother Roger used to forget his exercise book when the bus stopped to pick him up and the driver patiently waited each time he had to go back to the house to get it.

The field by the layby at the top of Battery Hill was not overgrown in those days and two horses lived in the field. One day George and I were looking at the horses and we heard a hooting sound. I called out ‘Johnny’ and an owl came down from the woods behind the church and frightened the life out of George! The owl was very tame and I have a photo of my mother feeding it. I think it may have come from Mallydams.

I didn’t go down into Fairlight Cove very often but we did used to drink at The Hayloft (now The Cove).

As youngsters we visited Nancy at her sweet shop (now The Coastguards Café). She used to sell bits and pieces but I don’t know if she served drinks as well.

Janet and Sue Sweetman were the daughters of local builder, Reg Sweetman, who had a house in Waites Lane near the Garage.

Janet and Faye Griffen came to my wedding.

Janet, Sue, Faye, Janet Dyer and myself all used to get the bus together.

In July 1963 I married George Burt at Fairlight Church. We held our wedding reception at Fairlight Village Hall (where I had also had my 21^st birthday party).

George lived at No.1 Fishponds Cottage (a tied cottage) with his parents. George’s father was a farm hand on Funnell’s Farm and George used to help on the farm milking cows. After George was demobbed, he did two years’ National Service but during that time, his father died and his mother had to move out of the cottage. When she rang him to tell him about his father, George suggested to his mother that perhaps she should tell him her new address so he knew where to go when he went home!

George bought an A40 van which we took on our honeymoon. It didn’t have any windows as you had to pay extra tax for those.

Our first home was 53 Canute Road in Ore but in 1977 we moved to 46 Canute Road. It was a large detached house that I had always wanted to live in and eventually I did! There was no point in hiring a van as the houses were very close so George set up some scaffolding poles on wheels to transport things like the wardrobe.

George died in 1983 but I stayed on in the house with our sons until 2005 when I moved to St.Leonard’s.

Ore was a really thriving village when I lived there. We had three butcher shops (I used to go to Gray’s owned by Dick Gray), three banks and building societies, two shoe shops, the International store which was a supermarket, George Cornelius’ fruit and veg shop (taken over by Winchester’s) and Britts’ grocer’s shop.

There used to be a hall in Grove Road, Ore (since demolished) where the Brownies met. I knew Brown Owl as my sons used to go to Cubs and in 1983 she wanted to raise money for the Brownies. I held Tupperware parties and agreed to hold one at the hall to help with their fund raising. One of the ladies who came to the party was just on holiday and therefore wanted to take her order with her. Normally I would place an order and then deliver it when it came in but as she had placed quite a large order, I agreed to let her have the demonstration Tupperware which she was happy with. Her name was Margaret Thatcher!

JEAN  RAMSAY AND DANIELLE CHRISTINE COLLINS

Jean:  I trained at the Royal East Sussex Hospital as a nurse.  I worked at St. Augustine’s Nursing Home, then I went to work at the Sussex Private Clinic, St. Leonard’s.  Nurse training in January 1960.  As Staff Nurse on Eye Ward and Night Sister at the RESH.  Then to St. Augustine’s in 1971 until 1980 and after I worked at the Sussex Private Clinic where I stayed until Clinic closed in 1998.

Danielle worked alongside Jean at SPC.  I moved from London nursing and was posted to SPC.  

Both lived in Fairlight for many years.  Jean moved to Fairlight in 1972.  Danny in Fairlight for 35 years. Initially in St. Matthews Drive, moving to Fairlight, prompted by Jean, to Primrose Hill.

Jean First memories of living in Fairlight – still very much a village – no in-fill building, mostly original large plots.  The house had only been used for holiday accommodation. We totally refurbed the house. Elderly population then, not many children.  There were a lot of Colt bungalows – wooden houses – a company in Bethesden, Kent that sold these structures.  Some still exist.  Colt houses do need a lot of maintenance – painted every couple of years.  Jean’s house was built in 1932 part of Waites’ estate – 2 thirds of an acre plots.  Everyone’s house built about 1930s. As people got older they sold land and then infilling began.   Danielle came to live in Fairlight and said it was quite villagey, very community, no street lights and skies were stunning and near to the sea.  Colt houses still in – Rockmead Road, and Clinton way.  

Jean:  Shops: Fairlight post office, The Woolpack near the circle run by 2 ladies who did knitting, making things from materials.  They would put on a show every year – by Patent wools.  They would bring all the clothes  you could knit and got villagers to dress up in these clothes –  they put on an knitting exhibition with models, Circle Shop – people ran it did home delivery, Avenue Stores (corner of The Avenue and Lower Waites Lane) Griffins Farm shop as you went to Pett Level on the right, and Wakehams on left side, Market stores in Pett Level, Staffords and petrol station which is now Alldays ,the Co-op. Another little shop on the opposite side to Staffords was called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a little food shop and then farther on righthand side was the Windmill Stores (now a block of flats). Everyone used the garage for petrol and it was served to you – not serve yourself.  Servicing was done as well.  Sue, Garage owner’s wife, had a hairdressers at the back of the garage!!   

Memories of problems with cliffs – there weren’t problems initially.  On Sea Road – they were beginning to crumble in the  early 1970s.  ‘Greengates’ – Jean looked at this property.  (My parents were living in Gorsethorn Way)- Covehurst on Rockmead – had asbestos, ‘Fairview’ (a wreck) and ‘Greengates’ which was lovely  – lovely garden and cliff!. Only 3 houses for sale then. My mother said no way her grandson was going have a garden that went off a cliff – after much persuasion we bought ‘Fairview’.  They moved ‘Green gates’ nearer road on rollers!! Also ‘Greywings’ was moved on rollers.  ‘The Arc’ completely disappeared down the cliff!  You could walk the whole of Channel Way right down to Pett level over cliffs.   There was a footpath at bottom of Briar Close that went up between the two houses (Two boys) into Cliff Way..  

Jean heard this from a patient at SPC – an elderly lady who, as a child, used to come down in the summer to stay in The Haddocks (Coastguard cottages) Her father, she said, dug stream lane out and carried stones from the beach up the cliff on a ladder with a big basket on his back and laid the lane with the stones over several years.  His name was Drake.   Stream Lane is an ancient path.  It was one of the old walkways and he dug it out for vehicle access.

Jean: Coronation memories  I was living as a schoolchild in Dartford – my parents had a TV for this.  I had a friend who came to stay for the day to see it.  It went on all day!  on TV.  She came from a Colonial family (having lived in South Africa and a great royalist) and every time the National Anthem was played she would leap up and stand to attention.  My mother made us both dresses one was red with white stripes and the other was blue with white stripes – very patriotic for the Coronation.  

Winter of 1962/63  Jean was living in Nurses’ Home at RESH working nights at St. Helens Hospital. The ‘buses didn’t run so we walked from RESH to St. Helens in the snow to do 12 hr shift.  Dreadful – There was an epidemic of ‘flu over this winter. There were power cuts all the time – lifts weren’t working. St. Helens had three floors.  A lot of staff at St. Helens were pupils in training as SEN, RESH was SRNs in training so had set wards. One nurse on each ward and auxiliary between wards. 21 bedded wards night shift. If someone died, as lifts weren’t working, we would carry the body in a canvas bag down three flights of stairs – then outside walking down the path to the mortuary in the snow with a Tilly lamp plus the canvas bag! –  the mortuary was so full that when you opened the doors there were bodies on the floor and you had to push the body in to make room.  It was a traumatic time.  We all had starched uniforms, sleeves, and hats with cardboard inside and the starched hats would catch in the curtains round the beds! 

Sheila Rosemary Rita Burgess (`maiden name: Wenham)

Born: 75a Middle Road, Ore 1933

We moved several times as we were bombed out of original house in Middle Road and moved to another house in Middle Road.  We went to stay in the Cemetery for six weeks (in the Lodge) with our aunt whose husband was the foreman in the Cemetery.  Our father was in the Army at the time.  Then we got a little house in Old Top Road, then we had a house in Grove Road until I was married.  Married – 2nd April, 1955.  I have been a widow for nearly 26 years.  I was born at home.  In those days we lived with mum and dad, and in the other part of the house our aunt and grandfather lived in same house.  Our aunt was evacuated.  War came… Grandfather died and mum and dad had another house and Gill came along.

Gillian Rose Burdett (Maiden name Wenham)

Dob 14.9.38

I was born in my grandma’s house in Ashburham Road.

I remember going to the Glen with our mother – the entrance was at the lower end of Fairlight Road in those days.  Before the houses were built there was a big house owned by Major Sayer Milward – where my mother was working as a domestic.  When they realised I was coming, all clothing was knitted for me a new baby.  This house was then demolished.  There used to be a little hut at the entrance to the Glen selling lemonade and ice cream.  This area always belonged to Sayer Milward’s.  The estate was then sold to Hastings Council, but they didn’t buy the paths.  The Council then made new rights of way, this didn’t include the waterfall and beautiful areas.  Waterfall, bluebells – a lovely walk.  Once the Council took it over they put a cinder path in that didn’t take in the beautiful waterfalls etc. It was closed off.  

Uncle George lived in a house where the Cove is (it was called the Barn) where the hairdresser’s is now.  It was a barn in those days.  In the 1950s we would go to see him but used to wonder where they slept as it appeared to be one big room.  (George Glazier – was our mum’s brother).  Before this they lived in Rosemary or Peter James Lane – we used to go for Sunday Tea.   There were chickens and birds in the house.  Then they moved to Pett – a few relatives still live in Pett now.  Our mother’s grandparents (Glazier) her grandmother was Foord and they lived in Chapel Lane and Mother’s great grandmother was called Wilson. Still have photographs of ancestors painted on hardboard – our Great great grandmother.  Grandmother died at 49 and looked 80!  She wore high black necklines, long black skirts. (lived Chapel Lane, Guestling). Our mother did not travel any further than Guestling to Ore.  Records show our mother and father never left the area.   The barn – was a big open room – cattle barn.  Uncle George worked for the pub as odd job man.  The barn went with the job.  The pub has been there a long time – cove hotel.  Upstairs they had a ring thing that you had to swing and hook it over the nose of something like a bull head on the wall (game).  Just Aunt and uncle lived in the barn. They had six children who all married. Eldest son Bert, George was killed at Dunkirk.  Betty was a twin – but twin was lost.  Two more sons who were younger and Gordon still alive and lives in a caravan at Shearbarn.  Betty Glazier (had two daughters) and used to live in Coastguard cottages.  Her husband was Auxiliary Coastguard – and they lived there for many years.  We visited there and took the dog for a walk.  Fairlight was cut off regularly every year.   Mother had Harry – when Harry was 12 he left home and came to live with grandmother in Chapel Lane and worked on the Farm – he was killed in 1st World War.  Gill’s son was in territorial army – He has been to the War graves in France and our father’s father was killed in 1st world war – Uncle Harry was killed in 1916 at Battle of the Somme.  Gill’s son has been to France and put crosses on graves of Mother’s family.  Gill’s son found all the details and put a cross on each of the graves and takes a party each year to the War Graves in France.  

There was a time when we could not go over to Fairlight in the War as it was heavily mined in the cliff and there was barbed wire.  When they came to clear the mines, the cliff had moved and the plans were all wrong!!  There were several explosions.  Our brother was a bit mischievous and they would get birds’ eggs.  We were told Don’t go to Fairlight because of the danger.  They would take a frying pan, a few sausages, bit of lard and bottle of water and they would camp up Fairlight.  The bomb squad were billeted in Ore and my friend met one and married him.  They were some months clearing mines.  No accèss to Fairlight Glen then.  Lovers’ seat was there then, but not there any more.  It was called this as a girl was jilted and she threw herself over the cliff (not sure if true) At Ecclesbourne, there were houses and a cafe. You could walk from Firehills right through to East Hill. We would go to the sand quarry and kids would play all day round there on school holidays – didn’t go out spending large amounts of money on them. Cricket and rounders were played.  There was a building there with a gun on it (pillbox) when children were small.  My eldest son was always in there.  There was quite a hill there and kids would slide down the hill.  

Sheila – When we went to Christ Church Sunday School every year they had an outing to Crowhurst; I mean we thought we were going miles you know and our dad used to say ‘Have you got your passport and don’t fall in the treacle mine!’ he used to say. Gill – we used to believe there were treacle mines out there but we never found them! Sheila – there was this little river and they all had these long tables with all the food – there was cups of tea – you didn’t get lemonade or stuff like that; you had a cup of tea and sandwiches; and there was this river and it always seemed a fine day and all the boys used to play in this water and they got soaking; then we all had to come home on a bus; but we had races and games and all that sort of thing. I can’t remember quite where it was but I know it was in Crowhurst. Gill went to Sandown School and she went – they used to have 14 buses and they were all up the road. Gill – yes Alfred Road – the whole school went and the canteen provided a packed lunch and there was always something that cropped up. First time we went, we stopped at Blue Boys on the way to London, and this boy went ‘I am Tommy Walls and I can fly.’  He jumped out of a tree and that was the end of him. Another day two boys disappeared – they followed the elephant and were taking the elephants back to their house and course we were about three hours at London Zoo while they were searching for them! Honestly the Headmaster and Headmistress were wonderful to take us because all those children and we only had one teacher on each bus!

Sheila – We used to play up at Down Farm before it was built. There was a big house there with a horse and a pond that stood outside and would bite you. Gill – the horse was tied up but you were always very dubious about shall I go past it or shall I not go past it? Sheila – he belonged to Johnny Brown’s grandad didn’t he? Henry Brown. Yes the Whitemans had the farm up there. Johnny Brown was our brother’s friend and it was his grandfather. He had pigs didn’t he? And he used to go around collecting all the pigwash – a bin full of scraps. Johnny’s dead now. Gill – and they used to live at the bottom of Fairlight Road. Sheila – in Providence Row. Gill – and when the horse was out we were all a bit dubious – shall we pass that horse or shall we not? Sheila – and I was in school with their daughter. Gill – there used to be allotments up there and I don’t like to say it but we used to go in there and pick the raspberries.

Sheila – Our Uncle Alf used to belong to the Winkle Club and he got us tickets didn’t he? Gill – and we used to dread it every year! Sheila – Rita, his daughter, was our cousin and I was very friendly with her and she lived opposite us. She said ‘Oh I’ve got tickets for the Winkle Club’. Oh crikey! Mum said ‘You go with Rita you’ll be alright’ but we were frightened to death and we were scared of the boys – they were a bit rough (I know we had a brother but we kept him in place!) They would do all sorts of things; they’d have a big table with wallpaper on it, slapping all this paste on it then putting it all over themselves; these were the fishermen. They thought it was entertainment but it wasn’t quite what we were used to. Gill – we were a bit more refined in Ore!

We used to go out to Pett Level and make a day of it. Bus numbers were no.11, no.22, no.8, no.6. The East Kent Company bus was called the Rye bus – it never had a number -it was the red bus. It was always on time – never ever say the bus was late – 9 o’clock it used to be at The Miller’s Arms which is in Winchelsea Road. We used to have to get off the bus there and go through the alleyway to the back of our house in the pitch dark and running like mad. You could set your clock by that – never ever late the Rye bus. It was a wonderful bus service it was. Sheila – there was a no.35 and a no.51 went over the West Hill; and a no.11 and no.9 went up Clive Vale and a no.3 and no.6 went up Mount Pleasant. Gill – I don’t think many of the buses went over to Fairlight up here. Sheila – that would have been the red one – the East Kent. The other company was the Maidstone and District. Gill – yes Maidstone and District.

Sheila – I remember Montgomery, Field Marshall Montgomery, coming. Gill – I remember seeing Montgomery sitting in an open top car with a beret on coming up through Ore and we all had to go to the bottom of the road to wave to him. Sheila – do you know where ESK is in Cambridge Road? Well that was a cinema, the Ritz cinema, and all the kids had to go in there; just after the war, him and Churchill went all around the country and he was on the stage talking to all the children and we saw him come out and they used the cinema. We used to go too to the ABC – ‘We are the miners’.  Gill – This man – when I used to work at MK Electrical factory, this man said to me one day ‘You’ve been right through my front door (he was a porter or something at the factory). I said ‘I don’t think I have’. ‘Oh yes you have’ he said ‘Everybody in Hastings has been through my front door’. He said when they took it off this door and put it in the skip he retrieved it this great thick glass door from the Ritz and put it on his front door. Everybody must have seen who was coming through the door and that. He said ‘You’ve been through my front door!’