October 2021. Quietly disappearing without a murmur recently was what must have been the last survivor of the once many buildings associated with Shoreham’s ship building industry. Originally workshops and offices for Dyer & Son’s yard from the 1860’s and later taken over by yachtbuilders Stow and Sons the building and moorings were eventually acquired by the Sussex Yacht Club. Pedestrian access on that side of the Brighton Road will now be enabled but another piece of Shoreham history is lost.
Henry Roberts, John Butler, Elizabeth Hawkins, John Roberts Hawkins
Nelson writes:
Images of 18th century Shoreham residents are few and far between but we do have these four:- Henry Roberts, hydrographer who sailed with Captain Cook and mapped the Australian oceans. Henry lived initially in Church Street before moving to St.Mary’s House. John Butler, another Church Street resident – he captained ‘The Hound’ customs cutter and his exploits are recorded in ‘Memories of a Shoreham Seafaring Family’ on this web site. Elizabeth Hawkins, John Butler’s sister who married John Roberts Hawkins John Roberts Hawkins, an earlier captain of ‘The Hound’ under whom John Butler initially served as first mate. Hawkins and his wife lived at Chantry House in East Street.
HMS Resolution
Lofty adds to the story: Apparently, Henry Roberts was a bit of an artist himself. The image below is of a 4 x 3inch (10 x 7cm) drawing with watercolour highlights which has been attributed to him and was sold recently at auction. The drawing is of HMS Resolution at anchor, probably sketched off the coast of Tahiti between August 16th – 24th in 1773. At the auction (April 2022) it realised £32,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £10,000 – 20,000.
Shorehambysea.com is featured in the upcoming Heritage Open Days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday 14th-16th. A few of our videos will be featured as a celebration of the historical assets of the town.
The featured videos can be seen below:
A River Runs Through Our Town (1962) click to play
The RAF Truleigh Hill Radar base has seen an immense amount of change in the short time it has been hidden from public view. The World War 2 radar base was a sprawling overground site with scattered buildings and technical structures. Within a few years of the end of the war the threat and technology had moved on and Truleigh Hill was one of a number of sites chosen for the top secret expansion and upgrade of radar early warning capability. A huge civil engineering project of unparalled size was undertaken and in less than a year an underground, blast proof facility was dug, built and covered. The detail of the scale of similar cold war construction projects is told here. The detail of RAF Truleigh Hill’s history isrecounted here.
Post war RAF site layout with facilities at that time, pre-ROTOR bunker construction. Image RCHME
The location of the 1952 underground facility and access tunnel overlayed the 2023 aerial view.
A 1940’s/50’s childhood in Connaught Avenue and West Street by Gerry White
I was born in Connaught Avenue, Old Shoreham parish in 1938 and apart from the war years, lived and grew up in Old Shoreham. In 1946 the front gardens were still planted with vegetables. The big air raid shelter was in position on the green that separated the even number houses on the north side of the road from the odds on the south side. Orchard Close had not been built and the land was owned by the Worley family.
A Connaught Avenue winter in the 1950’s (photo Bartlett Collection)
I am sure that so long as people continue to live in Shoreham there will always be characters around. Some memorable and maybe a few that are perhaps best forgotten. In the past I have just written the odd story about one or two individuals but I have now been asked to collate them into a story and this is it…….wish me luck!
Hidden amongst the Bartlett Collection in the Photo Galleries is a copy of the FA Cup Final Programme cover from 1923. This FA Cup Final, 100 years ago today, was famous for the crowd invasion where 300,000 fans got into Wembley stadium. The crowds swarmed onto the pitch and the game was delayed significantly. Police attempted to control the crowds and the iconic image of a white police horse surrounded by the crowd became the iconic image of the event.
