Victoria Road School

Junior School (built as The Victoria Upper Council School in 1915)

Victoria Road school has a curious history. Following the Education Act 1870, a school board for New Shoreham was established in 1872, taking over the National Schools and replacing them with a new school in Ham Road in 1875.

In 1915 older children went to the newly built Victoria Upper Council School on the site of the derelict and overgrown Swiss Gardens.

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Truleigh Hill Then and Now

Truleigh Hill Then and Now

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 is recounted 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.
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100 years ago – the White Horse Cup Final

Programme from Bartlett Collection

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.

The iconic image. Public Domain
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White & Co.

In 1952, I started an Apprenticeship at White and Co. The trade I was to learn was that of Wood machining, It meant, travel to Brighton Technical College twice weekly for two evening classes, and one all day class, which combined with one of the evening classes. It was a long day leaving Shoreham at 8am and returning at 10:30, all for £1 10/- weekly, no assistance with train fares. The Hourly week was 44 hours. Of course the evening classes from 7 until 9 pm were extra. 

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Shoreham Power Stations

Brighton A Power Station

Brighton B and Brighton A: Photo from Syd Bunker Facebook.

The construction on the first Shoreham power station located in Southwick commenced in in 1902 and the new station named Southwick opened in 1906. There were three M.V. turbo-alternators, each 1.8 MW running at 1500 r.p.m., 8 kV, 50 Hz with a 1 hour overload capacity cf 33% . The new station was connected by five 8 kV cables to the old North Road site where there were two 1500 kW rotary converters (the largest to that time) and four 500 kW motor generators. These replaced some of the earlier generators – the last of which was removed in 1908. Its site chosen because of its position on the harbour, meaning plentiful supply of water for cooling, and access to coal via the shipping route from NE England. The generating capacity of 5,470 kW. Pulverised coal boilers were installed in 1929 with similar steam conditions to the older one. The burners were located at the corners of the furnace. They were dogged with problems until an explosion in the P.F. bunker sealed the fate of the “Bin and Feeder” arrangement used.

The station was given numerous modifications and extensions, and by 1946 it had a increased capacity. Rapidly changing loads and wide range of fuels used made it impossible for the boilers to keep to steam temperature variations, leading to certain failures. The design was abandoned by the British power supply industry in the 1950s as it could not be used for the larger sizes required. By 1961 the station had an installed capacity of 190 MW.    Seawater was used for condensing and cooling.

Southwick Power Station in 1924. Photo Britain from Above
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A W Wardell Photographer and Postcard Publisher

Bill Wardell

AW Wardell was an accomplished photographer and publisher of postcards from 1907 to around 1960. He was based in Brighton and latterly Worthing. You can find out much more on this excellent website. https://www.sussexpostcards.info/publishers.php?PubID=296
Bill Wardell was one of the first to publish a range of aerial scenes on postcards, pioneering an effective technique of excellent shot framing and high quality imagery from the glass plate camera he carried in the 2nd seat a biplane.

CAF Squadron based at Shoreham from March 1919

His aerial photographs of Shoreham are from 1919. It is noted he was in an Avro 504 based at the airport. Note in the first aerial photo of Shoreham (No.33) there are numerous bell tents in the SE corner of the airport – for the Canadian Air Force No. 81 Squadron stationed there in 1919, and possibly the source of Bill Wardell’s aircraft taxi to get his photographs. You may also note the two hangars of the Royal Navy seaplane base at the southern end of Ferry Road.

Summer 1919 Shoreham looking SE no.33
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