The history portal for Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
This blog contains articles and posts taken from the Shorehambysea.com Forum.
Heading west along the Upper Shoreham Road, just past the radar speed trap coming up to the junction with Downsway on the right and Oxen Avenue on the left with the dip in the road ahead …………………. one hundred years ago.
Looking through the history of Ropetackle – what an eccentric place! As well as the ropemaking and shipbuilding past there were, in Victorian times, ancient buildings still standing, quaint sounding cottages, warehouses, a gas works and, spookily, a mortuary alongside an incinerator! In Little High Street there were houses with strange, shop-like windows and this mysterious looking architectural protrusion.
Is it what was left of a partly demolished house; was it built like that to fit into a small space or did it have a special purpose? The 1872 map also refelects its irregularity as part of the longer building to which it was attached. It all adds to a certain air of mystery and antiquity to the area.
‘Dolphin’ was the name for tent-shaped structures fixed in the river bed and used by sailing ships in the past to get in and out of the harbour when there was little or no wind. Ropes would be taken by rowing boat from the ship, attached to the dolphin then hauled by the ship’s crew, the process, known as ‘warping,’ being repeated to the next dolphin and so on.
One of the dolphins still existed at Kingston by early 1900’s and appears in one or two paintings as well as in this photo and on the 1898 map. Neil De Ville found this 1959 record of the remains of what was thought to be an early 17th century wooden lighthouse at Kingston Beach. Perhaps it was the dolphin but if the slipway they were working on was the one on the map then the dolphin looks too far away from the slipway to have been the piles they discovered.
We know for a fact that a photo of buildings in Shoreham High Street was taken in 1891 – the 31st of March that year to be precise and this enlargement of one of them is a bit puzzling. The house, just beyond the King’s Head, is a low structure compared with the buildings around and is thought to be quite ancient – a very old chamfered queen post in the roof trusses was found during the 1970’s demolition.
What is intriguing is this enlargement that seems to show items outside it. At least three of the items look identical. Was it a shop or perhaps the occupiers moving in/out? The items look almost like inflatable dinghies but it seems those did not appear for a couple of decades or so after?
Over the years we’ve explored cellars and vaults in places such as Church Street, Middle Street, High Street and discovered photos of some that no longer exist. Here’s another lost cellar (below left) from the galleries of Brighton & Hove Stuff – as far as we can make out it shows the final stages of demolishing the old sail loft at the west end of the High Street and the cellars beneath it.
Carolyn Orme has sent us photos of her Belfield predecessors and their bungalow in Bungalow Town asking for more information as to its location. ‘Maelvy’ is readily identifiable on the available photos and records. We’re now trying to date the main photo of her family outside the bungalow that also shows the neighbouring ‘Anchorage’ beside it. It is difficult to see for sure but it does look like the photo was taken before ‘Seaside’ was built (where they are standing/sitting) to obstruct their view of the sea.
‘Seaside’ appears to have been built in 1917 so before then; the Belfields are shown occupying ‘Villa Lido’ in 1911 and 1914 before the well known Melville family start appearing there. One of the Belfield family was attending Lancing College at the time and he was born in 1900. No Belfield’s are shown at ‘Maelvy’ in the directories but they may only have rented it for a short while.
GPO writes in 2020:
I recently came across this first picture of Star Gap. It may be familiar to others, but it’s not one I have seen before. The concrete part of Coronation Green seems to have been recently made up and has new concrete posts supporting chain-link fencing.
As we know that this part of the High Street was widened in the thirties, it must be after this time, although I understand that there had been a wharf in this position even before the buildings were demolished. But this view is obviously later than that.
What I find interesting is that the cottage or house (houses?) is quite different from what we see today. The main difference is that the present house is built right up to the retaining wall, whereas in this photo there is a path in between.
Continue reading “Star Gap mystery”You don’t often see photos as good as this of this side of the High Street that include Rayleigh House (the tall building that became Barclays Bank) and the pre Co-op building, extreme right. Rayleigh House was the earlier home of shipbuilder/Swiss Gardens creator J.W.Britten Balley before he moved to Longcroft.
Victims of the 1930’s High Street widening were these two characterful buildings. Behind them was the old ship building yard that later became Suter’s yacht yard.
