This is the history of a local Shoreham painting with its backstory. The painting is of Toon Ghose flying his De Havilland Chipmunk “Lillibet” over Shoreham Airport in the late 1970’s. This painting has for some time been present on the shorehambysea.com “Paintings” section, numbered B63. It was written with the aim of providing a provenance for the painting:
I remember seeing Toon at Shoreham Airport during the late 1970’s, just before my teenage years, where I was introduced to him by my cousin, Ashley (Ash) Roote. Ash learnt to fly at Shoreham and was a member of Toon’s flying club, where Toon also flew as an instructor. The Flying Club was called Toon Ghose Aviation, or TGA, and I well remember the TGA window stickers that were a ‘must have’ for ‘anybody who was anybody’ at the airport at the time!
The first part of Shoreham Garden City at Greenways Crescent
From Garden Close to Downside
Alan Lambourne has kindly allowed us to publish his memoirs of growing up in Shoreham in the 40’s 50’s and 60’s. He recounts the stories of his family running Lambourne’s Butchers in Upper Shoreham Road, and of his early years at Garden Close (Kingston by Sea) and Downside. A witty and lively style of writing illuminates the stories during an idyllic time when family came first and only the best sausages were on the table.
Mr. Clarke lived in Church Street during the 1930’s, he used to help pump the bellows at the Burtenshaw blacksmith family’s forge in Middle Street behind their houses. His father was Head Chef at Lancing College and number 22 across the road was the College Laundry where linen from the college was dropped off by a van each day.
During the last war when the beaches were closed Cuckoo’s Corner became a bathing lido. Something of a surprise perhaps bearing in mind the not inconsiderable number of drownings there during the early 1900’s through to fairly recent years.
One Shoreham doctor would tell mothers (that had children) suffering from muscular fever to strip the patient off and lay them in the river mud at low tide to let the iodine from rotting seaweed effect a cure.
Middle Street with most of the Church Street garden walls still intact and horse droppings indicating the last few years of use even then (c. 1952) of horse drawn carts. A sign advertises Burtenshaw’s smithy and anoth
There was a doctor’s surgery on the churchyard (possibly the surgery in East Street) where a Dr. Hall carried out ‘boyhood operations’ on the kitchen table, set broken limbs and made up his own medicines.
Snellings butcher shop is mentioned at the south side of the gap (before it was all demolished) – at Christmas time he would always display a very large whole pig with a lemon in its mouth on a trestle table.
The annual regatta was held on both sides of the footbridge and included in the ‘games’ was the greasy pole, suspended beneath the footbridge which Bill Peters usually won; builder’s races where participants rowed with shovels and fights between the millers and the sweeps using bags of flour and soot as ammunition. At half-tide football was played on the mud and the two fishing families Lakers and Pages would race against each other running and rowing across the river and back.
Even in those days there was still work on boats being carried out (Suters Yard for example) and on a quiet day the sounds of the adze and caulking mallet could be heard as far away as Slonk Hill.
Nelson writes: New discoveries are still turning up. This partly forgotten snapshot from the Winton family album turns out to be the Maple fishing family’s shack, later rebuilt to become Sea View on the beach near the church. Most of those in the photo are friends or relations including the Winton and Hedgecock (East Street shoemakers) families. Of particular interest is 1 Arthur Maple who built a number of bungalows on the beach and later became Superintendant for the Sea Defence Commissioners at Shoreham. Arthur and his brother Alfred 2 played football for Shoreham during the club’s most successful years and Arthur excelled at rowing, just like his father Samuel 3 who had been a champion national sculler in his earlier years. As part of the fishing business the Maples also fished oysters in the years when they were plentiful and sold them from their shop next to the Kings Head in the High Street.
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.
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!
The Aylings were family grocers, drapers and furnishers at 54 and 56 High Street on the western corner with John Street. Henry Ayling born 1838, a master grocer from Midhurst and his wife Fanny arrived in Shoreham during the mid/late 1860’s after acquiring the premises.
In the south east corner of Mill Lane Cemetery, overlooking The Meads and backing onto a spur of Greenacres, is the grave of a French sailor formerly of the SS Lutetia, who died in 1919. There are no other gravestones near to this isolated stone cross marker, giving it rather a sad and lonely appearance, perhaps reflecting the nature of this sailor’s death, a young man from another country who lost his life under tragic circumstances.
Written by Nick Redgrave Plumb for his father’s funeral ceremony in 2012
Paul Plumb
Paul was born on November 22nd 1924 to Daisy Ellen Plumb (formerly Barnes) and Ernest Redgrave Plumb at 27, Queens Place in Shoreham. He had an older brother Allen and sister Doris.
When he came into the world Doris immediately sent brother Allen to the Post Office (just over the road) where his Dad worked to tell him the good news. Allen ran all the way, so when he arrived he was completely out of puff and could hardly speak, but through the panting managed to say ….”It’s here!”. Paul had a thick mop of golden curls until the age of about 3. He remembered having a huge pram with big wheels & canopy and being pushed along by his sister Doris.
