Nelson writes: August 2020. The things we overlook. We often look back on old posts and in particular this one that we were fairly sure was of the Kittiwake bungalow fire. We’ve only just noticed another clue that helps confirm it. The Kittiwake owner had two ships’ figureheads (HMS Pearl and HMS Scylla) in the ‘garden’ but look what’s being rescued in the distance left – can’t be absolutely sure but looks very much like the Pearl figurehead! Subsequent photos of the rebuilt Kittiwake show the Scylla figurehead in the front but no trace of Pearl unless that was round the back – did it go missing that day? Another thought is that those figureheads were solid wood yet seems not to be too heavy for that gentleman!
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.
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!
John Hindes, a Durham born man with a seagoing background, came to know Shoreham as a crewman during frequent visits in the coal-carrying sailing ships from the north east that traded with Sussex ports in the years following the Napoleonic Wars.
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.
It often amazes me that a website for a small town like Shoreham attracts visitors from around the world including particularly Australia, America and Canada. One though was especially surprising coming as it did from Estonia and concerned a rather special Shoreham built ship.
During research looking for old newspaper reports, ship launchings at Shoreham frequently appeared but one in particular took my eye. At 12 noon on Tuesday the 10th May 1853 James Britton Balley’s new 340 ton vessel ‘War Hawk’ first took to the water heralded as ‘a finely modeled, beautiful clipper expected to be the fastest sailer ever built in even this fast port.’
Resident in America for many years now, Shoreham born Mike Holland has gathered an interesting collection of paintings of the town and area of his birth that he has kindly had digitally copied for Shorehambysea.com and can now be seen at the end of our paintings gallery.
One is of Brook Harrison’s view of the town from the south side of the river and was painted in 1873. A large sailing ship stands on the stocks at Dyer & Sons’ yard with another moored at Stow & Sons yard, now the Sussex Yacht Club.
The last three large ships to be built built at Shoreham were the Mizpah 1874, Britannia 1877 and Osman Pasha 1878. As far as is known all three were built at the old shipyard not at Dyer’s new ‘patent’ slipway that seems to have only ever been used for ship repairs.
