I am in contact with a gentleman whose great-grandfather was an artist William Edwin Pimm (1864-1953) who lived for a few years at the Manor House in Alfriston. He came from a distinguished family, his father James Norris Pimm (1837-1903) was a Deputy and Common Councillor of the City of London and was present at…
Category: Police History
The Constable and the Chicken Leg
Luther Constable (1849-1936) was born and died in Barcombe. He was a bricklayer and was my great-great-great Uncle. In June 1893 Luther was a victim of crime when one of his chickens was stolen from the coop at the family home in Hamsey Road, Barcombe. At 2/6d the chicken was quite valuable and Luther suspected the…
The New Police Investigate a Sussex Crime
On Saturday 14th November 1829 William Mockford, the ‘Keeper of the King’s and Parochial Taxes‘ at Eastbourne ran off with a sum of money, leaving his wife and four children behind. 29-year-old William was the Vestry Clerk for St Mary’s Church, Eastbourne and it was reported that £300 of public money (about £22,000 today) had…
The King of Eastbourne
In 1912 hundreds of Eastbourne children were treated to a party by William Washington King. A telegram was sent to George V at Balmoral Castle which read “Six hundred happy little children in meeting assembled, send your Majesty loyal greetings!” the answer was received and read out “His Majesty thanks the children assembled at the…
Railway Jack
Railway Jack was a dog. To be honest Railway Jack was several dogs but this item will be about the original one who was based in Sussex. The Victorians loved their pets and they loved their railways so they were particularly sentimental about railway dogs. Railway Jack was a fox-terrier who entertained and amused passengers…
The Railway Police of Eastbourne
I joined the British Transport Police as a Cadet in 1973 a few days after my 16th birthday. Although I was from Eastbourne I was posted to Brighton but I would regularly visit the Eastbourne office which was manned by an old officer, PC Jack Carter. Jack was a friendly chap who seemed to be…
Rioting that led to the death of a policeman.
100 years ago the Canadian soldiers stationed across England and Wales were not happy. The armistice of November 1918 effectively ended the War and thousands of men returned from the battlefields of Flanders to Britain awaiting repatriation to Canada. This was a slow process. Most of the troopships that had been used to bring the…
The First Sussex Railway Police
On 25th January 1837 a public meeting was held in Brighton to discuss building a railway between London and the South Coast. Several schemes were discussed but the consensus was to use the scheme proposed by Mr John Urpeth Rastrick (1780-1856) for a railway line from Elephant and Castle, London to Church Street, Brighton (much…
Burial at a Cross-roads
I have just been reading about some of the Eastbourne Parish Registers and noted that several people who had committed suicide were buried at St Mary’s Parish Church. An entry in 1624 records the burial in the churchyard of John Crunden ‘who drowned himself’ and another in 1650 relates to 21-year-old John Herriot who ‘hanged…
A Colourful Sussex Lawyer
St Helen’s Church in Hangleton, to the north-west of Brighton, has a remarkable grave. It is covered in brightly coloured stones set into the grave-slab in the form of a mosaic cross. The grave is that of an Irishman, Edward Kenealy. He was a lawyer who was as colourful as his grave. Edward Vaughan Hyde…
Quirky Sussex History by Kevin Gordon 