The history portal for Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
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.
Brook Harrison’s circa 1920’s paintings:-
To see some of Brook Harison’s Shoreham paintings visit here.
In a forum post concerning the Kingston Bridge there was mention of a concrete ship used for storage. I checked back on old posts and photographs and found this that shows a ship shape on the ground alongside the Brighton Road.
We’ve seen the black & white photos of the Kingston 18th century buildings and others at the time of their demolishing but here are a few coloured snaps that despite their dilapidated condition look almost attractive due to the colouring. Some will remember the café, a convenient rendezvous spot for local bikers due to the ample parking in the gap between it and the Kingston Inn.
For me this photo (from the Winton Collection) is a fascinating record of the days when visits were organised for children from Shoreham and elsewhere that involved an exciting journey on the train to Bramber Castle and sometimes included modest fairground-like entertainment, stalls and swings etc.,
About 70 years between these two photos (c.1912 & 1980’s) not a precisely exact match but close enough for it to have been a near miss if both aircraft had been flying at the same time.
A little bit of hidden history in this photo. ‘The Sussex Aero Club’ painted on the roof of the barn next to New Salts farmhouse and the demolition of the original Norfolk Bridge tells us this is 1922 – a year when the airport was not in use and aircraft flew from Easters Field behind the barn.
Lofty adds:
Notice the railway-type signal at the approach to the bridge. This is operated via a chain that runs down the side of the signal and into the pavement.
I have always wondered – was this signal controlled from the nearby office/booth, or from the similar building located at the other (east) end of the bridge, thus allowing one-man operation to control the traffic ?
