James Gorringe was the third and youngest son of James Gorringe of Upperton Farmhouse, Eastbourne. He was born in May 1866 in Eastbourne and educated at Brighton. James married Alice Maria Spray (1864-1948) from Pevensey and they lived at ‘Kingsley’ 27, Devonshire Place, Eastbourne. They had two children Alfred Edward Kingsley Gorringe born 18th September 1894…
Category: Churches & Churchyards
The Lewes Riots
This story has it all – rioting, nuns, a funeral and a Christmas carol – and it’s all based in Sussex! I suppose the story starts with Edward Bouverie Pusey (1880-1882). He was a theologian who, along with John Henry Newman (later Cardinal Newman) (1801-1890), was one of the founders of the ‘Oxford Movement’. This group…
A Butcher’s Car Discovered
A couple of years ago Sue Jones of The Real Car Limited contacted the Eastbourne Local History Society regarding a Rolls Royce they had acquired. Real Car Limited is based in North Wales and specialise in selling early Rolls-Royce and Bentley Cars. The car in question was a 1928 20-horsepower Rolls Royce registration HC8815. ‘HC’ was…
The Canadian Farmer mentioned on a Sussex Grave
David James McCurdy was born in Winnipeg on 5th December 1886. His father was a farmer and he became a farmer too. His name is recorded on two graves – one in Canada and another thousands of miles away in Sussex On 14th August 1914, soon after war was declared, David enrolled in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at…
Ebenezer’s Bonfire Speech – 1894
The Bonfire Season started a month ago with the Uckfield Bonfire Society hosting its parade and displays on 7th September. Tonight (5th October) it is the turn of the Eastbourne Bonfire Society. I have marched with the bonfire boys and belles on many occasions and wish them all luck and favourable weather! My great-grandfather Ebenezer…
Centenary of a Sussex Tragedy
It is always good to visit Bexhill’s splendid museum but this weekend there are two particularly good reasons, both in connection with the fire-brigade. Firstly this week Bexhill Museum is proud to have on display, for the very first time, a newly restored Merryweather Fire Engine dating from 1895. Secondly this weekend marks the centenary of the…
Honour your eyes and visit West Dean!
Every year tens of thousands of visitors get off the bus at Exceat and head along the river to view Cuckmere Haven and the magnificent Seven Sisters. However if those visitors went in the opposite direction, a short walk up a hill and then down into a fold of the South Downs they would find…
An African slave buried at Brighton
The grave of 12-year-old Tom Highflyer is not easy to find. It is amongst the steep, dark overgrown slopes of the Woodvale extra-mural cemetery at Brighton. I had heard of him and wanted to visit the grave and pay my respects which I did this morning. The headstone reads IN MEMORY OF TOM M.S. HIGHFLYER RESCUED FROM…
Church Vergers for 202 years!
Simeon Hart was born in Old Town, Eastbourne in 1844. He was born in an ‘old-fashioned tumbledown cottage’ that until 1898 stood on the corner of the High Street and Star Lane. (roughly were the front or Waitrose is now) He was the son of George and Mary Hart and his family had a long…
A SUSSEX KIWI REMEMBERED
Today I attended the ANZAC service at the Cross of Sacrifice at Eastbourne’s Ocklynge Cemetery. There was a short but moving service and a Māori hymn was sung. Wreaths were laid at the foot of the soaring Cross-of Sacrifice, which indicates a cemetery has more than forty war-graves – this cemetery has over a hundred. After…
Quirky Sussex History by Kevin Gordon 