Name : June Margaret Carter

Maiden name: Luck Baker

DOB 19.05.31

Where were you born: It was called Tin Town as the houses were made of Tin (Broomgrove, Hastings).

Where have you lived:  I lived at Broomgrove until I was 5, then moved to Ore – I was at Ore until I married at 22.  I’ve been living in Guestling since 1953 – 60 odd years.  

Work:  Dewhurst’s the Butchers as Cashier/bookkeeper. They had 9 shops in Hastings in those days – they traded under several different names: British and Argentine Company, Eastman’s, Kingston’s and Dewhurst’s. I worked for them for 8 years after I left school at 14.  I stayed with same firm – working at different shops as a relief.  I was at Bohemia Road shop for six months’ training.  He was a strict Manager, but he taught me well.  Then I went to Kingston’s in London Road, then I went to an Eastbourne shop. After I worked on the land I went to the Beefeater for a job for a change!  In Wartime 1945 I worked from 8.30 am to 6.00 pm, but sometimes we were still there at 11.00 at night doing orders.  No overtime in those days and you didn’t question it – just kept going! 

Coronation Memories (George V1): The Mayor was Councillor Blackman (who owned a coal company), he was a bit of a philanthropist.  All schools had a Christmas tree and every child had a present courtesy of him.  At the Coronation, children were all given a silver bracelet with little coloured stones in the shape of a crown and it is still as it was then – not tarnished (not actual silver). This was a gift from him.  We were also given a propelling pencil with a little glass window on the side of it and when you shook it a little gold coach appeared.  I gave it to my granddaughter.  On viewing the Coronation – I was only 6 at the time.  No TV then, so unless you had a TV or you knew someone with a TV you wouldn’t have seen it!!  

Memories of Winter of 1947 and 1963.  !947 – birds froze to the lines overhead.  No ‘buses running – so I walked from Ore to Bohemia Road – I was doing my training then.  I managed to get there at exactly 8.30 down Mount Pleasant and up through the Park. Very pretty – but awful to see birds dead.  My youngest boy was 3 years old in 1963 and we had winter from the end of Nov. to March – an Arctic Winter.  No central heating – everyone crowded around one fireplace.  We had to breathe on window to see out.  When I got married I put the cot by the chimney breast.  One fireplace in the whole house.  Babies wrapped up and we were too.   

Memories about the storms we have experienced 1987.  I worked on the land – packing apples – there was an almighty crash – a high building. One of the apple bins had been picked up and had come down through the roof.  This was at the bottom of White Hart so the hill saved it from the wind.  

Memories of 2nd World War. I was not evacuated. I didn’t go to school for 18 months – roamed in Pett and Fairlight.  I got to know Fairlight very well.  Went to Fairlight cove down the steps – lots of barbed wire on the beach at that time.  The school children, when it all opened up after the War, were sent (not asked – just told!) to all the fields towards Fairlight Church where we had to go gleaning which meant picking up all the seeds from the threshers.  We had little nimble fingers which were just right for gleaning! We had to collect sheeps’ wool on hedgerows and would tease and spin it – then used beetroot skins and carrot peelings to dye the wool – wash it into skeins to make sure lanolin had come out.  This was all part of school training.  Ore Village school was a house attached to the school – we would go there and be taught how to clean lampshades and dusting on tops of doors!  Also how to clean the grate, bathrooms and bedrooms and the kitchen. 3 girls a week would cook dinner for the teachers and you would go to the shops to buy provisions to do so – what you would need.  We also went to Mount Pleasant laundry to learn how to wash and boil clothes, starch clothes, pillowcases everything was starched! This was all part of our education. I learnt to cook meat puddings and pies, stews – wholesome food.  After I got married I was glad I had the training.  Even now I observe the rules the teacher told me.  Scripture was taught – Headmistress explained in everyday language.  Maths, History, Geography, PE, games, Art, Music. Greek Mythology and Shakespeare -all the Classics were taught.  Glad I was taught these things – this was all in Senior education.  My sister in law was a sports’ fanatic.  We went to the Pilot Field every year – all schools competed there – long jump, high jump, relay and hurdles.  I won the long jump and was 3rd in the 50 yards.  Football was played there as well.  Money was tight and I couldn’t stay on for further education.  I earned a pound a week out of which I gave mum 10 shillings.  Mum didn’t buy our clothes when we started work.  We managed our own money and didn’t expect a lot.  Potato and hop picking was done for extra money.  

There were not many houses in Fairlight in those days.  All gorse and grass. The Lover’s Seat has disappeared and the land is different now.   

Interviewee: Alison Renee Pont                                        DOB: 2.10.1933

Maiden Name: Moore                                                         Place of birth: Eastbourne, East Sussex

Family moved to Hastings before Alison was 5. Lived in Parker Road.

Went to Mount Pleasant School, then Hollington Juniors and Tower Road Senior School.

Camped in Ecclesbourne Glen around 1935.

During a slump in work in Hastings, the family moved to Ashford, Kent.

During the war, she was evacuated to Eastbourne to stay with her Grandma but went back to Hastings when Grandma died of leukaemia.

Watched all the V2 rockets and doodlebugs going over. Had an Anderson shelter in the garden at her Grandma’s but had a Morrison shelter at her home in Hastings.

Her dad was a carpenter and had a DIY wood shop in Ore. The first houses that were built in Fairlight Cove didn’t have cupboards so Alison’s dad came down and advised on what wood to use etc.

He was a founder of Fairlight Bowls Club although he still lived in Hastings. Alison and her mother used to help raise funds for the Bowls Club by helping at Jumble sales in the Village Hall.

Alison left school at 14 and became a hairdresser in Hastings. She did three years training and then two fully qualified. She then started working from home and did that for 40 years.

In 1954 Alison married Robert Edgar Pont. He was from Hastings and they met over a love of sport. He was a keen footballer.

They had Wendy in 1955 and her brother four years later. Alison had bad arthritis in her hips so decided not to have any more children. However when she went to work in a Children’s home, she met and fostered two girls (sisters??) who became and still are part of their family. The girls’ grandmother asked Alison and her husband not to let them call them Mum and Dad but instead Auntie and Uncle as that means more. They carried this on all their lives but now it tends to be Nanny! One of the girls has seven children! Lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

In 2005 Robert died and Wendy asked Alison to move in with her family in Fairlight but Alison wanted to give it five years to see how she managed. She was already a member of Fairlight Floral Club.

In 2010 Alison moved in with Wendy. Ken, Wendy’s husband, was born in Scotland but grew up in Fairlight. His family house was called Sealands.

Dave and Sally came to Fairlight  44 years ago.  When they first came here they had a shared telephone line and it was very good serve as the telephone exchange was sited at the end of Waites Lane!  

He remembers lying in bed one night in the early days and their house shook!! This was when a massive cliff fall took most of Sea Road!! – and there was talk of maybe having to build a road from Briar Close across the field to Pett Level Road!  

Storms:  Dave remembers the storm of 1987.  He slept through the night, but the next day no-one was getting out of Fairlight Cove.  Maid-stone lost half its roof, but Dave’s only lost two tiles!  He was involved with the clearance work – chain-saw work.  He also remembered three/four separate occasions when Fairlight was cut off due to snowfall.  He remembers going out with snow chains and getting as far as the Church at top of Battery Hill and being met with a wall of snow!  

Dave worked as a lift engineer and in the winter of 1963 as it was so cold in lift shafts – working with metal and draughty areas, he used to go to public baths where he and his workmates would have an actual bath with Radox ( not many people had bathrooms at home in those days). But he said there didn’t seem too much of a problem getting around as the councils kept road clear in those days much more than today!  

Scotty who was the man who attempted the first sea defence at Fairlight used scaffolding poles plunged into the beach onto which he piled rubber car tyres, but after the first big storm hit them – the tyres disappeared!!  He also bought a barge which he sailed from Pett Level on which was a welder; he also drive an old bulldozer from Pett Level to Cliff End, put the bulldozer on the barge and floated it along to Fairlight.  After another big storm the barge sank!!  The bulldozer is still there in the undergrowth!    He also built a scaffold frame and pushed it over the top around the Rockmead Road area so that this could be worked from, but it bent in half!!!  Fred Cook raised the first amount of money for the Berms.  

 Mr. Colin Gotts was born in Primrose Hill and he told Dave there used to be a tea place for walkers up at John’s Seat.

People in Lower Waites Lane area would regularly walk over to Griffins Farm shop down across a bridge over the stream and up field towards Wakehams Farm. In the early days there were no trees around the area and the Egg Man and Colin Gotta would walk to school and walk up the LWL stream.  There were potatoes growing in the fields near John’s Seat in those days and the Mermaid Inn at Rye used to grow veg in Jenny Annetts field when Dave and Sally first came to Fairlight.

 In Clinton Way there was a long wooden house split in half that used to accommodate Canadian soldiers in the War-time.

We actually found the house we are in now, Tombrec, Briar Close 46 years ago.  It needed an awful lot of work doing to it – the garden was a jungle.  I moved in November 1976.  I remember Dave arriving – he was actually still, at that point, working in Orpington.  He would come home for weekends.  The first time he came in with his suitcase and a bag of tools – he put them both down – there was a wall at the front of our house – he got a hammer and a bolster out and he started smashing the plaster off!  He wanted to find out how the house was constructed! We had deliberately bought a house to do it up.  The first two or three years we literally camped out in the house.  The first day Dave bought me a cooker and fridge and someone gave us a ghastly MFI green sofa thing.  We had two single beds delivered as we didn’t think we’d get a double bed up the stairs as it was so narrow.  My dining room table was a camping table and chairs, and a sink on four legs. Gradually we cleared the garden and Dave started work on the house.  

The day I came to look at Tombrec there was one of those old, wooden garages that looked like it would fall over (rare in Fairlight), a little parking space in front of it, with a funny little wire and wood fence and a path that went up round the back of the house and back down again (worn by people viewing the house). We moved in in November 1976 and we have lived here ever since.  Bit by bit the house was done up, we have extended it and the garden was landscaped by Dave.  It was very different when we first came here.

When we first came here the roads were unmade.  I had an MG Midget car and the first day I came to see the house I parked it in a lay-by up the road and walked down as I didn’t think I would get it down here.  The roads were awful, the house wasn’t fenced and if you walked down towards Stream Lane, all those field were open, no fences at all over there.  There wasn’t much Wood.  It wasn’t that long after we moved here, probably a year or so, that we got our first dog so I would walk him all over there, and planted in that first field was barley.   We used to get all sorts of different wildlife then.  We would see red-legged partridges in that field.  One day we had two snipe in the garden here.  We would get fieldfares in the holly tree, we would always hear a cuckoo.  Further up, not sure if this was all the time, the top fields were planted with potatoes which were planted by Griffens Farm shop. 

The other thing I remember quite clearly my mum and dad (who were retired by then), they would come and stay.  My dad and I went for a walk down to the Smugglers. We walked across the cliffs along the path which was in a very different position to what is there now; in fact you’d be walking in mid-air as the original one went a long time ago.  To the right of the existing path further up beyond John’s Seat (which wasn’t called John’s Seat in those days), there was National Trust land.  To the right there was a guy called Jimmy Cook and he was a Rep. for the National Trust and what he used to do was cut tunnels into the Blackthorn up there, so in Spring you could walk through these wonderful tunnels with all the blossom out.  Dad and I followed these tunnels and all of a sudden we came out of these tunnels and our dog was walking along the edge of a precipice which was about 18 inches wide! So dad and I crawled on our hands and knees and this joined up with the path down to Pett Level.  There was an existing path, but we were being a bit adventurous!   There is a bit of a pond down there as well, but not sure it has water in it now.  I think he just did it for a bit of fun. 

It was common in those days to walk over to Pett Level to the Smugglers for lunch, and of course there were four or five cottages (The Haddocks) and we hadn’t lived here very long when the first one (which belonged to a writer) he had been in America – he came home and looked out of his lounge window and was looking straight down onto the beach! This was when they started to demolish them one by one.  None are left now except what was the garage and outbuildings.  For a long time, the last one was there which was open on the path. They had a retriever dog and he would wait for anyone walking along to Pett Level, and the dog would go with them! What amazes me is how much the trees and bushes have grown up from being so very open land.  The other thing that has gone is all the hedges. In the middle of the two big fields there was a hedge right along there but, of course, as soon as they put sheep in there their little hooves damage all the roots and they die.  There were far more bushes on the edge of the first field.

Erosion of the Cliffs: This was quite shocking to us, as we did not have any idea at the time.  I think it was the Daily Mail published a map which had 50 houses shown to be at risk and ours was one of them!  Although we are away from Lower Waites Lane, if this lane had gone, we would have lost our access.  It was really quite frightening.  I would walk the dogs often, up Lower Waites Lane, up Cliff Way, right down the full length of Sea Road and round.  Of course, it was still open then.  At the end of the Alleyway was a piece of land and years ago  Colin Gotts told us there were fields all across there with horses in, and a small Cafe at the top of the cliffs.  Someone I had worked with had bought a piece of land at the end of the Alleyway and she had a caravan on it, and then of course it started to erode. 

The cliff falls were incredible at times.  Lyn Cooke’s dad, Fred Cooke – he heard one of the cliff falls and he threw himself under the table simply because it reminded him of War-time.  At one time they lost 100 feet all at once! George Morris, not sure if he was Parish Council or something, and a few others, set up what has now become the Fairlight Preservation Society and started to raise money and get the ball rolling. We had an afternoon tea in Lyn Cooke’s dad’s back garden to raise money and there were lots of other similar fundraising events. I remember having a horrible dream – I was walking down the Alleyway and I could see the cliff falling.  I had recently done a jigsaw puzzle and you know when you slide a jigsaw back into the box when its finished – well the cliffs were falling over like a jigsaw puzzle!! I’ve never forgotten it, I was terrified.  I thought we would lose our house and everything as I doubted there would be any compensation.  It was fraught and we had not been here that long. 

Now of course we have the berms which was an amazing thing to see.  It was around about the time of Live Aid in the 1980s.  They would work with the tides, bring granite from Norway.  Beautiful rocks – pink and black.  They were brought in on a flatbed and while it was high tide they would just drop the rocks, and as soon as the tide went out, all these massive machines would start moving it. It was like watching Tonka Toys.  There were floodlights up on the cliffs and down on the beach so you could go and watch it.  I remember my friends coming for dinner and we were watching Live Aid and we walked up and watched it on a summer evening and it was like watching a Bond movie! The size and the noise!  The machines picked up the massive rocks and dumped them. Arthur Green of course had started to try to do something to protect the cliffs – putting posts in and tyres over the posts and every time there was a high tide, the tyres were blown away.  I must say the berms have been very successful and amazing how it has filled in and if it gets to 45 degrees which it may be by now, it is a really good defence.  There are obviously still small falls. There has been a massive difference since the berms have been here.  They took advice to plant trees and bushes on the edge as well so as you go up to John’s Seat – all that growth was put there as a further defence.  As you go up Cliff Way, that was why the steps and rope was put in so the men who were working on the sea defence could get up and down to work.

My name is Carol Elizabeth Ardley and my date of birth is 14/8/1947.

I have always liked amateur dramatics. As a child I was star struck. When I came down here there was an am-dram group going so I thought I’d go along. So I did and ended up with the lead role. It was a play called ‘Here we come gathering’ and it was all the oldy people. The old stalwarts such as Burt and Hilda May Moore, Percy Hodgson and the play was produced by Jenny Hatfield. There was Aubrey Sinden and Ann Graham who was one of the real original players. She was in the play as well. From there, I enjoyed myself so went into another play and carried on. Then I went on to the Committee about 1984 /85 and got really involved doing organising and publicity. I directed and produced plays as well. We put on a play, probably only the 3^rd or 4^th play we did called ‘Pardon me Prime Minister’ and on the Friday night, the director came in a little harassed because the playwright (Edward Taylor) was in the audience with his wife so it all went into panic mode – better get this right tonight then! He had a holiday place in Bexhill and he’d seen it advertised so he and his wife came over. They watched the play and then introduced themselves afterwards and we became good friends with them. They are actually honorary life members. We did another of his plays called ‘Rise in the Market’ which I was in and that was also a very good play .He was a very nice chap. He was a BBC producer / director /playwright. He did mainly comedy and actually produced the ‘Men from the Ministry’ which a lot of people won’t remember but was a very popular programme. It was the forerunner of  ‘Yes Minister’. He also produced things like ‘Just a Minute’ and ‘I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue’.

And then we had various changes on the Committee because people died or moved away and I had the pleasure of knowing Di Davidson who was a funny, funny lady. She was so talented and Linda Lee. A lot of people will remember them. They directed and acted. The Players at one time were on quite hard times – we didn’t have a lot of money in the bank so we decided we would have fund raising events. Mainly Keith and Marian Pollard got the fund raising events going but our best one was Afternoon Tea with Donald Sinden who was related distantly to Aubrey Sinden who was our President. We organised this with Sir Donald – it was his 88^th birthday so we got a birthday cake for him and we got one of those icing sugar pictures on it. So he arrived but sadly Keith Pollard had been poorly and was in hospital and missed the afternoon and  I was in charge of meeting and greeting. We expected a 45 minute talk and then a couple of questions afterwards but he spoke for an hour and a half. He was fascinating and then he asked ‘What time shall we have tea?’ so we told him that it could be when he was ready. So he came with us and had tea and we brought out the birthday cake and everything and had questions and answers. He had all these photos spread out on the chairs and the questions and answers lasted another hour and a half! He was with us for about 4 hours and he waived his fee because he knew that we were on our uppers. So we got him a gift. So Keith Pollard, Aubrey Sinden and myself went over to his house expecting him to say thank you very much but we were there for 4 hours. He was such a lovely chap. He lived in Tenterden, just before you get to the garden centre.

We did several fund raising evenings when we either had a supper or a talk or a demonstration of something or other. So we got into the position then that we could up our game because the old days of am-dram where you had to make do and mend everything had gone and you can’t get away with that now. You had to pull your socks up! So we got all that things we needed to do our productions which also meant for certain productions, hiring vast quantities of costumes which puts a strain. You’ve got to have enough money in the bank to cover all this in case the production folds. So there have been many people who have passed through the doors.

We spent a fortune on the lights and we upgraded the bar and kept the price of the tickets down but there was always a real local following by people for the Players. We have done all sorts of things – dramas, sad things, funny things, slightly off the wall things. My last play was ‘Cat and Canary’ which was 6 /7 years ago but I left the Players two AGMs ago and passed it on to the new people. My father was one of the set builders for a while before he retired and Esther Devries and her husband and Joy Wren was one of the real stalwarts. She passed away last week. Sue Trueman who lived in the Garage.

I joined Fairlight Tennis Club in the spring of 1994 and there was a grass court then, so everyone had to take turns mowing it and doing the white lines which was bit of a bore. The court was where it is now. The idea was that it would eventually be two courts and it was at a pepper corn rent – something like £5 a year. We did lots of fund raising to build our own hard court. We did several slightly naughty reviews – two day things. The Friday was sitting as an audience but on the Saturday it was dinner and a review. It was all sketches, songs and recitals which went down very well. I visited the first one which was in musical dress. I made huge hats for my mother and I. In those days the paper covered things like this and there was chap called Ted Rayner who lived in Waites Lane, he did a wonderful rendition of ‘Got to Pick a Pocket or Two’ with Linda Lee’s daughter and Jason Jay who was the son of Terry and Maureen Jay – real old tennis club people. It was a really good evening. There was also the magic act that Terry and I did which was supposed to be a mind reading act and nobody knew how we did it…We also had sales and crazy whist drives.

In those days, those involved were Terry and Maureen Jay, David and Ann Lee who lived in the village for many years, John Sewell who moved to Hastings and couple who lived in Farley Way but their name escapes me. There were a lot of members then – Jill Golding, Rachel and Derek Bliss from the Post Office. There were also members from outlying villages. There was always a membership of about 25 or so which for a club that size was enough. You could always get a court. In those days we used to have competitions in the summer – handicap competitions where we were all pitched against each other. It was a thriving club and kept going even in the Covid times. As soon as they were allowed, they were up there. Because of my eyesight I can’t play anymore.

The fund raising paid for the court plus possibly some grants but I’m not sure about that but I know they have had grants to upgrade it. I think it may have been all due to fund raising. In 1984/5 there wasn’t the Lottery but they have had one from the Lawn Tennis Association but we might not have been big enough to have been registered then.

Table tennis was mostly the same people as the tennis club but when it was dark winter evenings we played table tennis. There was actually a league at one point and there were some really serious players and they had matches but the hall wasn’t really big enough for the matches to go on so the league people moved on and the people who just wanted to play didn’t want to pay the high cost of the league people’s expenses so the league people went and gradually the numbers got less and less and they said it would have to close. The club started probably in the early 1980s and I joined in 1985/6. Terry Jay who is now deceased was big in the club.

When I joined in 1985/6 there was a children’s section. They would go first and I used to stay down there with the kids and they would be pushed out a 8pm and the grown-ups would come on. There’s no children’s section now. The club nearly folded but four of us decided that it wasn’t going to fold (probably 1996/7) so we decided to advertise for new members and they came. Before we knew it we had enough money to buy another new table and then another. In the end we had enough funds for 4 new tables. So they are all good tables and although I don’t play because of my eye sight there are still people there from when I was a member. Sometimes both halls were used. It depended. If we used the other hall then we had to pay for it. So what we did – membership for the year was £5 (initially it was less and money was collected each week) with a weekly sub. We could get 3 tables in the big hall and we played doubles. We got up to about 24 members and of course not everyone goes every week. We advertised for men and women. Usually the tables were full and just sometimes we had a fourth table in the small hall but the floor in there is appalling so it wasn’t particularly safe. And the club is still going. Kath Barron (the previous vicar’s wife) joined and she was a very keen player.

The Art Club was originally part of the WI but for whatever reason which I don’t know, the Art Club came away from the WI. Perhaps they were restricted in what they could do or they could only have WI members and no men and things like that. There were artists in the village who wanted to join. So I joined in about 1986 which was not long after the split and it was Margaret Charrot who lived in the village for many years (her husband was a teacher at William Parker), she was a teacher and the couple were well known in the village, she ran it with Maureen Brody and we had a tutor. We had two halls going. One was for freelance painting and the other was tutored. I stopped going because the boys were off my hands and I had to go back to work but then I started going again in about 2000 when I had time. Both Maureen and Margaret were involved still and there was a tutor. We had some nice tutors – professional artists and there were men there then. There was Norman Dengate and Debbie Morgan’s father. I can’t remember his Christian name. It was Hugh Morgan!! And Jim Duffy was in the club. It was decided that the tutors had become too expensive so we now have one a month whereas it had been weekly before. The class is still weekly. It was either a demonstration or a workshop with landscapes or something like that or just talks. So it has changed. Also we have a satellite group since the end of Covid where a tutor Mark Fisher will come and do 6 weeks of a weekly thing. Although it’s associated with the art club it’s not the art club itself. It’s all under the same umbrella but it’s for people like myself who are prepared to pay extra to have the tutor.

We have exhibitions. To start off with it was just coffee mornings which were very popular. There was always a raffle or a game plus pictures for sale. Then we branched out and we had an evening do – a wine and cheese do which is in May which is a big exhibition and a big charity raffle. The ticket gives you a glass of wine or a soft drink and a cheesy nibble supper. From there we progressed to from the evening do to having the hall the next day with an open gallery. We have as many members as we can cope with because of the space for all the tables. Julie Marshall is the organiser – she’s the Chairperson. It’s a very active group. We had Richard Adams come a couple of times. Once he just gave a talk and another time he gave a workshop. He was really good fun actually. Another artist Mike Funnell comes and there’s a lady who does bugs and bees and owls. Members can bring a guest to the talks. It’s a thriving group. We have also done several pop up exhibitions at the Pett Level Lifeboat in aid of them where they have taken the boat out of the boathouse and we have set up a gallery in there. It depends on the weather – last year it was so hot that people arrived with a towel and swimsuit and off to the beach. They didn’t want to bother. We have also had an exhibition at the church for the flower festival so we had flowers as a theme and pictures as well. There were cream teas of course and that was a 2 day event. That went very well. And also we’ve done a few with the Pett Methodist Church in the chapel there – we’ve done some exhibitions in line with their flower festival. We’re pretty much up to capacity. There’s a waiting list but we can usually squeeze them in. It’s all levels of work. Sometimes we have people who come who have never done a thing. I got Andrew to go because he has a great interest in art so I told him that I’m going to put your name down for the art club and he’s done some nice paintings.

 FULL NAME – ERIC JAMES HOLLINGSWORTH

DATE OF BIRTH – 16 APRIL 1927

PLACE OF BIRTH – ROCK FARM, COTTAGE LANE, WESTFIELD CLOSE TO WESTFIELD PLACE

I first went to school at Clive Vale School, Clive Vale because we moved to Shearbarn Farm when I was 5 or just before so that’s where I started school. Shearbarn Farm was a working farm, a dairy farm more or less, and the man who had the farm had the name Funnell; and the milk he produced on the farm, he took to a dairy in Harold Road, Hastings in Clive Vale then delivered it on a milk round around the town somewhere. The milk was in bottles but I was only 5 so I don’t know if they had his name on them (MS – you had containers). Mr Shearer in Church Farm (you’ve met Alan) -he did the same thing. (MS – They were containers rather than bottles weren’t they? You poured the milk – you had containers.) Some used what they called a hand can which was oval in shape, inside was a rail and hanging on these rails was a half pint, a pint and a pint and a half. If it was bottled it would be a pint, a pint and a half and maybe a quart. The half pint, pint and pint and a half would be glass but the other container would be metal of some sort but I don’t know – it would probably be tinned outside so it didn’t rust; it might have been brass or copper I don’t know. That’s what happened at Shearbarn Farm. There was – about 150/200 yards away from the road – there was an old farmhouse. Mr Funnell didn’t live in the farmhouse but an old lady lived there when we moved in when I was 5 years old. As far as I can recall it was doodle-bugged.

There were three cottages at Fishponds Farm and as far as I know, they went with Place Farm, Fairlight which was Fairlight Place with the Sayer Milwards or Major Sayers; they are to do with the Milwards who owned bits and pieces in Hastings hence Milward Road. Also with the same family is a farm called Platnix Farm between Westfield and Sedlescombe; and who was the famous lady who went there? The flyer – Amy Johnson – and the writer – somebody pretty famous anyway – the sort of people the Sayer Milwards used to entertain.

Fishponds – three cottages – one was occupied by my grandmother and my grandfather who were more or less retainers by the Sayer Milwards family. The middle one I think was rented to Mr Funnell for his cowman; and the end one – the other end one – I can’t be sure.

In 1941 I would have left Fairlight School and it was Clive Vale School that I went to afterwards that had been evacuated. I went to Westfield School when I was 11, took my eleven-plus and failed; father had to move up to Fairlight because of whatever in those days. So Fairlight School was up to 11 so I had to go to Clive Vale School, to the boys school; they were evacuated so I come back, finished my last couple of years’ schooling in Fairlight School – the two rooms. (So when you were there, was there a plaque remembering the soldiers?) Yes in the First World War. Alan Shearer must have remembered it because we sat in the same class together. I can only remember it was made of wood but I can also tell you that whether it was the teachers or whoever – I think it was the Beeching family lived in the bit immediately facing the big school room and there was a little sort of serving hatch that went into, although it was never opened, into the house next door because one side as I understand it was the Verger, Mr Luke Beeching; and the other side, at one time, was the teacher’s residence. He was the man who would go from farm to farm – thatching, ditching, you name it; he was also a grave digger for a lot of the undertakers in Hastings locally.

(Looking at a aerial photo of Fairlight Church and the quarry) In this piece that’s what we called the factory, with all sorts of machinery in it. It certainly wasn’t opened at the outbreak of the war; it must have been developed while I was working at Westfield and that would have been from 1941-2. There was always someone in there quarrying the sand –  supplying I should think for building but when the war broke out, they could no longer get sand from France and Belgium for glass making so whoever it was fell upon what they were doing in the quarry close to the church with the sand and they decided it was good enough as I understand what they told me when I was working there. The sand was good enough for glass making although it did have too many little specks of iron but anyway, they did the factory; there wasn’t enough sand close to the church so they opened up the one by Warren Cottage and they quarried that bit; took all the overburden off and quarried that bit and excavated it, put it into trucks, then pulled it along next to Warren Cottage and they had endless cable; and then this cable on a 2 foot railway. One could move the trucks that went up the 26 acre field and fairly opposite to the farm they built up a bank the trucks went up; then they built a crusher sort of by the old sand quarry and the wagons were tipped up and it went down through the crusher to be washed and classified; and the machinery in the factory – we had a big pump for sucking the water out of the sand before they put it on a conveyer to be piled up ready to go onto lorries to go to Ore Station. There were three or four five ton lorries; all sorts of electricity motors for compressed air and vacuumed to suck the air, suck the water out the sand; pneumatic drills for drilling holes to blast down the quarry.

When I left the garage at Westfield, I worked there in the fitter’s shop maintaining the three lorries and helping lubricate and maintain the machinery. There was also next door to the fitter’s shop an electrician who used to deal with the electricity for the buildings and everything and rewind some of the smaller electric motors by the name of Frank Pettitt, and he lived in Hollington.

 I was working there from 1942 to 1945 until I was called up. Because I was working there and because I was keen on the army cadets so they didn’t call me in to be a Home Guard but I used to do shifts of fire waters at the factory in case of fire bombs coming down, with another member of the staff; and in 1944 I was on duty with a member of staff when the first doodlebug come over. We heard the noise and we dashed outside to see what was happening and that was it. Had no idea what it was and at the time it was just something making a bloody lot of noise and the flames out the back. It was just something up in the air that made all this noise. You know I told you about the hump where the skips were tipped up into the crusher, during the day if the doodlebugs would come over, the people who would be on top tipping the trucks had to get off that lump a bit bloody quick as they were afraid they were going to be hit! And the farm cottages – well we lived in the one nearest the farm buildings; well one night one of the doodlebugs hit the cliff and blew my bedroom windows in cos they faced out to sea. There was a Messerschmitt or a Fokker Wolf came over and had a little go at the end room of the Coastguard Station which was the Watch Room – fired a few bullets. The Church was an Observation Post for the army. They were just soldiers about – they were in the bungalow next to what is now the (Church Café) Coastguard Café. The café then was just a little shop with a few lunches but after the war it was developed a bit by the two old ladies (MS -Harman) – they lived on the corner of Hill Road and what was then the Coastguard Lane. They used to sell tobacco and sweets – their granddaughter or niece – Nancy – she sort of took it over into the place that is now the Coastguard Café and made a little shop of it then it grew into doing a few lunches. Nancy – she employed a Polish refugee as a chef and in 1950 the Station Officer at the Coastguard Station said to me (cos I’d just got married in 1953 – I got married the Saturday before the Coronation and lived in St.Leonard’s for ten months, still being a member of the cliff rescue team) in 1954 you’re going to have a job getting here as a rescuer. Number 3 cottage he said will be empty before too long so if you want to take some training to be a Watch Keeper, that cottage is yours. So we moved in in April 1954; they were doing a few lunches then, Nancy was, so she asked me if my wife would like to go up and do a bit of waitressing which she enjoyed. That had to finish when we adopted two kids. I got married from Church Farm Cottages in 1953 when I was 26, got married, went to St.Leonard’s for ten months then into the Coastguards Cottages.

You know Warren Cottage and the field that goes down towards the cliff edge – it’s a sort of a wide field and the butts – they used to be fired towards the bank at the Coastguard Station – that was before the war by the Territorials. I can remember the four big iron things that went up and down for the targets – there used to be little places for people to lay from there up towards the cliff edge up to about 600 yards. When the war broke out they used it as a training area – Canadians especially as far as I can remember because Bob Shearer that would be Alan’s next oldest brother, and I, would go down there after they had been and pick up bandoliers of 300 ammunition; ringless cartridges where 303 British with a flange on the end but the American’s 303s got a ring for extracting the cartridge when the bullet had been fired. That narrow field that was used for training purposes because they thought it was dangerous firing towards the Coastguard Station so they did away with the butts there and they built a big bank just this side of Lover’s Seat to fire at so any stray bullets got over to sea.

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.