On the evening of 9th October 1912, Countess Sztaray left her house at 6, South Cliffe Avenue near the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne for a dinner appointment in town. As the Countess got into her carriage, the coachman, David Potter noticed a man on the ivy-clad balcony above the front door. The Countess returned to her house and…
Category: East Sussex
Spending a Penny in Eastbourne
There are complaints on social media today that Eastbourne toilets now cost £1. Local loos however have always been an issue …. Despite our idea of Victorians being genteel and prudish they would have got used to seeing people going to the toilet in public. If you stayed at a hotel or inn you would have…
An Incorrigible Thief
One morning in September 1888, Mrs Mary Torry left her bedroom at the Diplocks Hotel in Eastbourne and went downstairs for breakfast. She left her bedroom door unlocked and when she returned she noticed that money and jewellery were missing from her handbag. Suspicion fell on the young, well-dressed chap in the adjacent room. He…
Known to millions but now forgotten
When the Reverend Power died in Eastbourne in 1899 the press said that his name was ‘a household word’ and he was ‘known in millions of homes around the world’, but today he is virtually unknown. Philip Bennett Power was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1822. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he…
Lullington & Lost Keys
A few years ago my wife and I were on holiday in Italy and spent a wonderful day at the beautiful walled town of Lucca a few miles north of Pisa. Enjoying my history, I just had to take in the Cathedral and a few of the churches (but only after we had stopped for a…
The Sussex Man who never was.
The graveyard attached to St John Sub-Castro (under the castle) Church in Lewes is full of interesting gravestones. Yesterday I visited the sloping grounds with two old schoolfriends and pointed out some graves of interest. Many years ago, when we lived in Lewes, my wife and I ‘adopted’ three graves to look after, but much of…
A Sussex Sailor who fought with Nelson
In the churchyard to the north of St. Leonards church Seaford is a large box tomb decorated with anchors. This is the last resting place of Admiral James Walker who had an adventurous life on the high seas. Walker was born in Scotland in 1764 and joined the Navy at the tender age of twelve….
Did My Parents see White 4?
Although I was born 12 years after the end of the Second World War, it was fresh in many people’s minds and there was still physical evidence to be seen in the form ‘bomb-sites’; I particularly remember the gaps, like missing teeth, in the smart terraces of The Avenue in Eastbourne and also old Home…
A Cricketing Copper
An old police friend, ex Inspector Bill Tee of the BTP from Crewe, has sent me a photo of his great-great uncle, former Sussex policeman George Berry. As I enjoy my local history, I said I would try to find out more. George was born at Woolbeeding, West Sussex on 17th January 1840. His parents were…
Crypt-ic clues to Lost Names
Family Roots (The Eastbourne Family History Society) have published the Monumental Inscriptions (MI) for many locations but I am particularly interested in those for St Mary’s Church, Eastbourne as I live close by. Over the years many of the memorials have eroded and are now impossible to read. One of these is a cream-coloured marble ledger…
Quirky Sussex History by Kevin Gordon 