The history portal for Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
This blog contains articles and posts taken from the Shorehambysea.com Forum.
Interesting extract on e-bay from the 1908 deeds of Sea View owned by the Maple family. They sold their fish and oysters from their shop at the west end of the High Street – more here http://www.shorehambysea.com/a-fishermans-tale-the-maple-family/
Detailed plans like this of Sea View and surrounding bungalows are invaluable for confirming location and names at a specific time, particularly as the names were often changed. Inset is Louisa Maple, who signed the document, matriarch of the family at the time – husband Samuel had died just a few years earlier.
Found a photo I took of the courtyard at our previous house in Church Street that reminded me of the Winton family next door in the years when the courtyard was shared by both neighbours. Had a quick look through the Winton photos and realised that by putting their courtyard photos together the courtyard as it was in 1900 could virtually be recreated.
Left to right are Pansy Winton, Myrtle Winton, Reg Eley, Stan Winton, Billy Reading and Bobby Hall. The Wintons were a large, happy family of eleven and you can just imagine the laughter and occasional squabbles between brothers and sisters at the family gatherings that took place there (articles on the Winton family are at http://www.shorehambysea.com/william-edward-winton/ and http://www.shorehambysea.com/stanley-howard-winton-1881-1964/
I’m sure we discussed this painting some years ago on the old web site without coming to any real conclusion as to its exact location. Assuming the content is not artistic licence then the view almost fits the history we have of one part of the Shoreham river front area. The windmill could be the one that stood on Mill Green at Ropetackle and behind it rising ground in the distance that may be Mill Hill; the town to the right and the timber work in the foreground is perhaps where the flood arch is now.
There are two question marks of this though.
The Norfolk Suspension Bridge had been well and truly built by the time the artist painted it and (if it is this area) should have featured as the centre piece of the painting so why has he masked the bridge with the boats’ sails?
The Ropetackle mill (we know it was a post mill and the painting confirms this) and the land it was on was sold in 1790 to Daniel Roberts who built a large granary on it. This had burned down by the 1820’s but could it be that the windmill was at a distance from the granary and still standing at the time of the painting – it certainly looks dilapidated with only two sails?
(Fisherfolk on a Tidal Estuary, Shoreham by James Webb 1825 – 1895)
When the suspension bridge was demolished it looks like many of the pillars from it ended up around the gardens of Old Fort Road bungalows – some in these photos were even painted!