My grandmother, Bessie loved Christmas and I am lucky that I not only have her diaries but paintings, drawings and photographs too. She lived at 8, Annington Road, Eastbourne with her disabled husband Alex, who had lost a leg during the Great War. Christmas was often spent with Alex’s brother Reg and his wife Alice,…
Category: Seaford
John & the Giant Eel
John William Hills was born at the Police House in Glynde, East Sussex on 5th February 1891. His father (also John) was the village policeman. In 1912, John moved to East Dean when his father was transferred there and they lived in the Police House facing the village green near Dennetts Stores. During the Great War, John served…
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…
The Cuckmere Railway
The Cuckmere Railway The Cuckmere River (never the River Cuckmere!) has always decided its own route to the sea. This map shows the various places where the mouth of the river has been since the eighteenth century. The map shows something else of interest, a thin black line at the top marked ‘Tramway’. Cuckmere Haven once had its…
The Forgotten Soldiers of the Great War
Seaford Cemetery contains over 300 Commonwealth War Graves. Although they commemorate many local soldiers, most bear the Canadian maple-leaves. Nineteen graves however are carved with the crest of the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). I have done extensive research and published details of the Canadian soldiers but this year I would like to tell the…
The Eastbourne Chair
The Eastbourne Chair was a style of invalid chair invented by a Sussex doctor, Astley Carrington Roberts and Fanny Sophia Smith. They were both named in the patent which was granted patent number 22,790 in 1899. The chair had wheels but also curved rear brackets which made it easier to get up and down stairs. (Easier but…
The Big Bang Theory that Failed
For hundreds of years, the shifting shingle within it’s bay has caused problems for the town of Seaford. Even today we try to tame this movement with a convoy of massive bulldozers which try to put the beach in its place. The Ouse once entered the sea in Seaford Bay but the shingle constantly blocked…
PC White and the Stolen Safe
I thought you may like to hear about one of the long standing characters of the Sussex Police, Charles White who served in Seaford as both constable and detective for 37 years. (and – after his retirement served a further eight years as a civilian.) Luckily he wrote a brief memoire of his service which…
Reserved for Greater Misery
Henry Lushington is remembered at St Mary’s Parish Church, Eastbourne with a massive memorial which includes his bust. Henry’s life was short but action packed. He was the son of Mary and the Reverend Henry Lushington, the vicar of Eastbourne and resident of the Manor House. In 1754 at the tender age of sixteen, Henry left Sussex ,…
Quirky Sussex History by Kevin Gordon 