! ! ! ! !

Eastbourne
Local Historian
Eastbourne Local History Society Issue 159 Spring 2011

www.eastbournehistory.org.uk £1.50
Contents
Secretary’s Report 3
From the Chairman 4
Research Enquiries 5
The Society’s Email Research Group 6
Additions to our Archive 7
The Society’s Open Meeting 8
The Stream That Gave Eastbourne its Name 9
The Browne Families of Eastbourne 10
Book Reviews 15
Overdue Subscriptions Reminder 16
More about Eastbourne’s AA Defences 17
More Norfolk Connections 19
Eastbourne welcomes Australian Prisoners of War 21
Vic Salvage 22
Eastbourne Aviation Company 100th Anniversary 23
Antonia Beckett, A Lovely Lady 24
Operation Sussex Study Day 25
The Moorings 26
The Society’s Publications inside back cover
Winter Programme 2011 back cover

Eastbourne Local History Society

Chairman of the Society: Tom Hollobone, OBE
8 Hardwick Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4NY ☎ 01323-417164
Hon Secretary: jay Dixon
131 Royal Parade, Eastbourne BN22 7LH ☎ 01323-639033
Hon Treasurer: Wendy Bishop
Flat 2, 42 St. John’s Road, Eastbourne, BN20 7NB ☎ 01323-731607
Membership: Jack Putland
11 Ringwood Court, Seaside, Eastbourne BN22 7RB ☎ 01323-649506
Editors: Michael Partridge
2a Staveley Road, Eastbourne BN20 7LH, ✉ mjpartridge2a@btinternet.com
Tony Crooks
53 Mendip Avenue, Eastbourne BN23 8HP, ✉ tcrooks@gmail.com

The Society may be contacted at: www.eastbournehistory.org.uk or

info@eastbournehistory.org.uk
Cover Picture: Edwin Browne (‘ELB’) in 1913 (see page 10)
Secretary’s Report
This is my last Secretary’s Report, as I
will be standing down as secretary at
the AGM in April. As no one has, as
yet, volunteered to take over from me,
this page in the next issue of the
Journal may well be blank!
It has been an eventful few years since
I took over from Frances Muncey in
2007. I see in my first Report I said:
‘How a town can have a cultural centre
without a history gallery, remains a
mystery to me, but that, perhaps, is a
matter for another time!’ Five years on,
we are still no further forward in regard
to a history gallery or museum or,
indeed, any space at all that we as a
Society, can refer to as a base for our
archives and research. We have been
approached recently about t he
possibility of the Society receiving a
bequest of a scrapbook of architect’s
drawings and photographs of a fine
house, now demolished, in Meads.
Naturally the person involved wanted
an address; all I could say was that the
Library would have our membership
application forms, which would have a
current address. As I have said in many
of my reports, and on numerous other
occasions, it is ridiculous that a town
the size of Eastbourne has not got a
history museum.
Another subject that seems to have
been a constant theme in my previous
reports has been the not unrelated
topic of the Heritage Centre. As many
of you will know, this has received a
face lift this year, and I do urge you to
visit it, and the Redoubt (which has
also been refurbished), as the more
people who do so, both from the town
and from other areas of the country,
the more ammunition there is for
arguing that Eastbourne needs a
history museum to sit with the Towner
art gallery. Besides which, aren’t you
just a little bit curious to see what new
ideas the Heritage Centre committee
has come up with?
I am happy to remain as events
secretary, if elected, so will still be
around at meetings if anyone would
like to talk to me about the duties of
secretary with a view to volunteering
for the post. I will also be bringing to
meetings binders for the Journal, so
come prepared with your £5 if you
want to buy one!
I would like to end by thanking all
those members of the committee,
especially the two chairmen I have
served under, John Surtees and Tom
Hollobone, for all the help and
support they have given me over the
last five years. It has been a sometimes
frustrating but always worthwhile job,
and I am sorry that circumstances have
forced me to resign.
So, to use a medieval phrase, I wish
you and the Society long life and well-
enduring!
jay Dixon
Honorary Secretary
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From the Chairman
We were recently reminded that the
Eastbourne Central Library holds a
collection of agendas and minutes of
the Borough Council from 1883 to
1963, which belong to the Society. jay
and I have been to see them in a
strong room in the bowels of the
building. There are a few omissions but
they are otherwise all beautifully
bound and occupy about seven metres
of shelving. The library staff are happy
for them to stay where they are but
when the Society finds a home for its
archive they can be moved. The library
has its own copies and these can be
consulted by arrangement with the
staff in the reference library.
This leads me nicely on to our search
for a suitable home for our archive. We
are still making enquiries and recently
wrote to a number of churches to see
whether they might have a suitable
room, or even somewhere to store the
archive as an interim measure but so
far, without success.
My article in the last copy of our
Journal was headed ‘Wanted’ and made
a plea for volunteers for four jobs –
Auditor, Hon. Secretary, Proof Reader
and Publicity & Web Site manager.
One lives in hope but, so far, we
haven’t been bowled over by the
response.
This copy for the spring issue of the
Journal has to be with the editors by
mid February, so too early to comment
on the open meeting for members on
the 22nd. I know that the committee
4
join me in hoping that we have a
constructive discussion, with useful
ideas being put forward for the future
of the Society. Otherwise, by the AGM
on 26 April, we shall have had our
Christmas lunch on 25 January at the
Langham Hotel, and what a good
lunch it was too – thank you jay for
organising it; and will have learned
about Liz Moloney’s research on The
Moorings in Meads, ‘The Gages and
Firle – the rise of a Tudor courtier’,
‘Pevensey Village’ and ‘William de
Warenne and Lewes Castle’.
I have been doing some research on
the great George Ambrose Wallis, the
first mayor of Eastbourne, who died in
December 1895 at the young age of 55.
Articles and obituaries about him in
the local papers make interesting
reading but, as an aside, I noticed that
the longest was published in The
Eastbourne Gazette & Fashionable
Visitors List, dated, believe it or not,
Wednesday 25 December 1895 – yes,
Christmas Day! In the 21st century,
when the Christmas holiday seems, for
some, to spread over two weeks, I
thought that I would share with those
of you that didn’t know, or had
forgotten, the fact that over a hundred
years ago, newspapers were published
on Christmas Day. How times have
changed!
Tom Hollobone OBE
Research Enquiries
1. From: Mike Smith rmhsmith@talktalk.net
Subject: Temple Grove School
I live in East Sheen in one of the houses on the site of the original Temple Grove
School about which I know a fair bit. However I know nothing abut the school's
tenure in Eastbourne beyond the fact that it moved there in 1907 and moved to
Uckfield in 1935.
I would be grateful for some information like address, map and pics and where to
find more. [Note: the Research Team has already been able to provide Mr Smith
with information about the Eastbourne years, but would welcome more input
from members. An article will appear in a future edition of our journal.]
2. From: A Melson a.melson20@googlemail.com
Subject: Devonshire Place
I am trying to find out what number 4 Devonshire Place Eastbourne was during
the latter part of World War One as my great grandmother was there whilst serving
in the WAAC.
If there is any information that you can give me I would be much obliged.
3. From: Nicola Sowter
Subject: Westbrook, Meads, Eastbourne
I am a mature student currently studying for an MA in Fashion  Curation at
London College of Fashion.
 Do you have any information or photos of a house called Westbrook in Meads or
of its owners, Lord and Lady Foley, in your archives?
I am doing research into a collection of couture garments worn by Lady Foley,
who lived at Westbrook from the late 1920s to the 1960s.
This collection was the subject of an export licence ban in 2009 and was bought
for the nation by the V & A, Bath Fashion Museum and the Bowes Museum.
I would be very grateful if you could let me know whether you have any archives
about the family or the events they attended.
4. From: Barry Edwards b.p.edwards1@googlemail.com
Subject: Charles Pearson
 I am currently researching the life of Charles Pearson (1793-1862) with a view to
getting an article or maybe even a book published about this extraordinary man.
He is best known as the driving force behind the world's first underground railway
but his long career as an MP and as a City of London solicitor was characterized
by an unswerving determination to right perceived wrongs in a whole number of
social fields.

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You may know that the wikipedia article about Pearson - http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Charles_Pearson - states unequivocally that, though born in London, he was
educated in Eastbourne but I have been unable to ascertain precisely when or
where. Do any of your members know about this? If not, is there a list of schools
that existed as far back as about 1805? Whereas there is a huge amount written
about Pearson's public life, I'm finding it very hard to track down much about his
private life. He was trained as a solicitor, for example, but I have not come across
any document that even hints where that might have been.
[Information about Pearson’s education in Eastbourne would be most welcome].
Please respond directly to the enquirer (with a copy to the editor,
mjpartridge2a@btinternet.com, so that we can share positive responses in a future
issue of the Journal with all members who may equally be fascinated by the
enquiry) or to Maureen Copping - maureencopping@yahoo.co.uk

The Society’s Email Research Group

The Email Research Group is made up of volunteers from the membership of the
Society who try to answer enquiries sent to the Society by email on local history
topics. Most of these enquiries will be published in the journal and, whenever
possible, one of the group will consolidate their findings and write an article
which will be published in the journal. Any reader of the journal is of course able
to compile a reply to the enquirer.
To keep the project simple and costless, all transactions are made by email.
Maureen Copping acts as co-ordinator, sends all enquiries to all members of the
group who send their responses to the enquirer, to her and to one another.
Members who are email users are welcome to join the group; please address
applications and suggestions to Maureen Copping and drop an email to Maureen
at maureencopping@yahoo.co.uk
The project has been running for only a few months, but in recent weeks, we have
generated information on Temple Grove school, Holywell, Stephen Bindon & Co
(the family and offspring), The Hoo, Aleister Crowley, Major Douglas Macrae-
Brown and Rupert Brooke, the Moorings and the Bobby family, Eastbourne’s
WW2 Ack Ack guns, Granville House school and Warren Hill school. Two or three
of these projects have led to articles in this edition of our journal (with more to
follow), at least one new member has been recruited, and two cash donations (one
of £30) and various artefacts for our archive have been received. The Warren Hill
school research, stimulated by an American resident, Sam Williams, which focuses
on a teacher called George Mills, has resulted in his creation of an extraordinary
website which gives our Society some excellent publicity. If you are connected to

6
the web or know someone who is, do have a look at: www.whoisgeorgemills.com/
search/label/eastbourne 
Please do not be deterred from joining the e-mail research group just because you
are a newcomer to the Society or if you feel you do not have sufficient local
knowledge to contribute. If you are prepared to look up information in street
directories or check the occasional detail from a local newspaper at the public
library, this would be immensely helpful. On the other hand, if you have been a
member for some years, you may have back numbers of the ELHS quarterly
journal. Would you be prepared to supply information if given an issue number
and page reference? The queries which we receive from all over the world are varied
and interesting; you will surely learn much about the history of Eastbourne from
reading the e-mail exchanges between the members of the group.

Michael Partridge/Michael Ockenden

Additions to the Archive

Three prints of Litlington and Litlington Place drawn by its one time owner
Edward T Wood, donated by Mrs Linda Sheraton-Davis of Twickenham.
Album of photographs from Warren Hill School 1928-31, donated by Mrs Sue
Stevens of Teddington, Middlesex.
Research files on Clovelly-Kepplestone School, donated by Michael Ockenden.
Book: The Rev. E.L.Browne, M.A. by the Revd FBR Browne (EL Browne was
headmaster of St Andrew’s school from 1890 – 1933). Facsimile copy.
Book: St Bede’s School – A History (1895 – 1995). Facsimile copy.
Peter Young writes to say that he has assembled a certain amount of information
(copies of the architect’s original drawings, photographs, etc) relating to one of the
houses (Highcombe, 1 Baslow Road, Meads) in which he lived between 1958 and
1971. It was a particularly fine house, and very sad that it ended up being sold for
demolition and the site redeveloped with the block of flats (bearing the same
name)  and houses that now occupy the site. The material is all contained in a
single hard-backed scrap book, and there is one particularly fine black and white
aerial photograph showing the house and garden in immaculate condition - a
snapshot of historical Eastbourne in the 1930s.
He has volunteered to send the book to our society ‘following his demise -
whenever that may be’. We have gladly accepted.

7
The Society’s Open Meeting - 22 February 2011
The meeting was attended by about 30 members and gave the opportunity for
discussion on a wide range of topics relating to the Society. It had not been done
before, so was an experiment, but by the positive response and atmosphere, should
be repeated at some point in the not too distant future. A full report will be
published in a future edition of this Journal but the society's committee will
consider the interesting suggestions that were put forward and keep members
informed.
Among other topics we talked about: publicity for the Society, what is its purpose
and should we do more, or less of it?; and the possible advantages and
disadvantages of some form of closer co-operation with another local Society, or
Societies.
We considered our excellent Journal, its purpose and as to whether there might be
benefit in publishing a longer annual Journal supported by quarterly newsletters. It
was recognised that any change could have cost implications, which would have to
be considered but that there is no need for precipitate action. We also talked about
our publications and wondered whether there might be benefit in publishing
slimmer booklets (along the lines of the recent Bourne Stream one), rather than
more conventional books but the conclusion seemed to be that each should be
considered on its own merits, bearing in mind costs and potential sales.
During the discussion it was noted that about 55% of those members present use
the internet and email, or put another way, that about 45% don't. These figures
may, or may not, be representative of the total membership of the Society. The
work of the email research group was considered and the number of enquiries
received was noted. It was stressed that any member of the Society, who uses email,
may join the group and that all they need do is send an email to Maureen
Copping but that results of email research enquiries and answers to them, will be
published in the Journal for the edification of all members.
Members were briefed on the current situation with our archive of books and
papers and noted the large number of possible 'homes' that had been approached -
so far without success. There is a glimmer of light for the future, which may have
become brighter by the time of our AGM.
Finally, our chairman made a plea for more volunteers to do, in particular, the
various unpaid jobs that need to be done - and stressed that this is one of the
most important issues facing the Society now.

8
Book Review
The Stream That Gave Eastbourne
Its Name
by Harold Spears, revised and updated
by Peter Allen & Lou McMahon.
The Society must warmly welcome a third
edition of Harold Spears' classic booklet on the
Bourne Stream.
The presentation and illustrations (printing by
Town Hall Printing Services) are excellent and
there is valuable updating against the current
road layout of the town. Like all good research,
the booklet also raises interesting questions:
here are just a few for the next edition.
We have known for a long time that the
Stream emerges at Motcombe where it was the
source of water for the medieval settlement.
Has anyone identified which part of the
Downs is the catchment area for it and shown
why it emerges there rather than anywhere else?
We know it now runs under Ocklynge Road The later history is complicated by
(where it can still be heard at street level) and diversions and culverting, so the provision of a
down the back gardens of houses on the north current street map in a brave attempt to
side of the Goffs where at one time there was identify its present whereabouts. Not long ago
a dairy at Upperton Farm. The early history of the Seaside area was subject to flooding at
the Stream in relation to the Goffs (then part times of heavy rain: was this our old friend the
of High Street) and Southfields Road (once Bourne and why does it no longer seem to
called Watery Lane) is fascinating but happen?
extremely complicated. A future edition would We now have, for drinking water, pumping
benefit from a larger scale plan of this small stations and reservoirs. Their history alone and
area, showing the whereabouts of the that of Eastbourne Waterworks Company
millpond and the course of the millstream (a might be a suitable subject for a future History
diversion from the Bourne). and an appropriate supplement to this
The early functions of the Bourne, both as a excellent booklet. 
source of fresh water and as a drain probably Hugh Riddick
overlapped and remain confused. Once so Pub. by Eastbourne Local History Society
much of it was culverted, did the drainage 2010. £3 plus 50p p&p. See inside back cover
function become predominant as the years for purchasing information.
passed?

9
The Browne Families of Eastbourne
Academic Entrepreneurs – and much else
Part 1: St Andrew’s, Aldro and St Christopher’s
By Michael Partridge

Between the 1890s and the 1930s there were no fewer than six private schools in
the Meads area of Eastbourne that were opened and run by proprietors named
Browne. In fact, the Brownes were of two separate families although the two main
protagonists were both, in their different ways, exceptional school principals and
astute business people. With them came a number of their relatives: brothers, a
sister, sons and a daughter. This narrative, rather than being a history of their
schools, is rather a series of vignettes which attempt to bring to life some of these
remarkable people and the schools that they created and ran.
This, the first of two articles, will deal with the Brownes of St Andrew’s, Aldro and
St Christopher’s schools in Meads.

Front: ELB, Laura, Rear: Charlie, Arthur, Lionel Browne

The Revd Edwin Leece Browne (known as ELB) in 1890 purchased St Andrew’s
School, the former Colstocks Farm, (then with just 15 boys) and remained

10
headmaster there for 43 years until his retirement in 1933. Born in 1856, ELB was
one of seven brothers and two sisters, the children of the Revd Thomas Brierly
Browne, rector of Acklam in Yorkshire. ELB was educated at Rossall and Hereford
Cathedral School and was an exhibitioner of St John’s College, Cambridge, where
he graduated BA (3rd class honours in Classics) in 1878, MA in 1881. He was
ordained in 1880. He was followed to Eastbourne by three of his brothers, Harold
Ross, Charles Hotham and Lionel Ravald, all ordained priests, and a sister, Laura.
Laura ran the housekeeping at St Andrew’s and ‘looked after’ ELB. After his death
she looked after Lionel and Charles and in their retirement the three lived in a
house which they called Acklam (after their father’s parish) in Darley Road. Laura
died in Eastbourne in 1957, aged 94. A fourth brother, the Revd Arthur Briarly
Browne, worked as a priest in Yorkshire and raised nine children. ELB, over his 43
year reign, embarked on a programme of building and growth at St Andrew’s and,
as Paul Spillane’s history of the school says, ‘The St Andrew’s of the 20th century
was ELB’s vision and creation’. A benevolent despot, ELB was the traditional old-
fashioned headmaster who cherished cricket, Latin and the cane.

St. Andrew’s School c1910

Following ELB’s death in 1933, his nephew the Revd Francis Browne published a
small book (in essence a eulogy) which records ELB’s life and achievements.
Reading this book, there can be little doubt that ELB, who never married, was an
outstanding teacher and headmaster, loved by generations of boys and respected
and feared by public school headmasters. He made St Andrew’s one of, if not the,
leading prep school of its day. As Paul Spillane says: ‘ELB was a Victorian.

11
Although the headmaster of a prep school and not a public school, he embodied
more than a few of these qualities, which found themselves paradoxically
juxtaposed. Distant and frequently unapproachable, he nevertheless had a
magnetism which inspired loyalty and trust. In many ways a narrow dogmatist, he
was still a man of vision. Although he could be tyrannical and, in the eyes of
some, sadistic, he was and is remembered by many with gratitude for his great
generosity.’ As a disciplinarian, he was unpredictable: he could display gentleness
and kindness and yet indulge in what might be deemed excessive brutality. He was:
‘An elephantine figure, with a white mane of hair, rosy weatherbeaten face, vast
moustache, twinkling eyes and genial smile.’ He was a prodigious correspondent
and each old boy would receive a card from him on their birthday. The boys, and
the tradesmen of Meads Street, loved him.
The Revd Harold Ross Browne had joined his brother ELB at St Andrew’s and in
1898 founded Aldro prep school, just across Darley Road from St Andrew’s, with
just 36 boys. It was at first an overflow outpost of the larger school. Here Harold
became headmaster and remained so until his death on 13 September 1922.
Brother Charles then took over for two terms but in the summer of 1923 it was
sold to Frederick Hill who, with his wife Audrey, remained headmaster until 1952.
Aldro continued to flourish in Darley Road and gained brief notoriety in 1963
when Kim Philby, the spy and double agent, admitted that he had been a boy
there. In fact he was head boy in 1924. On 16 August 1940 the first German
aircraft to be shot down over Eastbourne fell in the grounds of the school.

Aldro School

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In 1942 Aldro evacuated from Eastbourne and purchased for £10,000 Hall Place in
Shackleford near Godalming, where it still thrives. During World War Two the
Aldro building was occupied by Canadian troops. Harold had married Mary Fish
in 1888 and they had three children: Cyril Ross Browne, born 1893, and educated
at Osborne, Dartmouth and Emmanuel, Cambridge, served with the Royal Naval
Division at Gallipoli in World War One. He played cricket for Cambridge and
Sussex and was a much respected housemaster, known as CRB, at Harrow School
between 1933 and 1948 when he died, having been a master there for 29 years. His
younger brother Francis (mentioned above), born in 1899 and educated at
Eastbourne College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, gained a cricket Blue in
1922 and played cricket for Sussex as a fast medium bowler with an eccentric
action which earned him the nickname ‘Tishy’. This was the name of a famous
racehorse which crossed its legs as it ran – as he did when bowling. He taught at St
Andrew’s from 1922 and took over from ELB as head of religious life. In the
classroom, with his vivid imagination, he made his lessons colourful and exciting.
He became joint headmaster with JA Fewing and Jack Bryan on ELB’s retirement.
An ordained priest, he was later rural dean at Firle and Beddingham in Sussex and
died in 1970.

St. Christopher’s School

St Christopher’s prep school was built in Gaudick Road in 1892/3 and in 1910 the
Revd Lionel Ravald Browne left St Andrew’s to become headmaster there. Lionel
had been born in 1869, the youngest of ELB’s seven brothers and two sisters.
Scholar and exhibitioner of Brasenose College, Oxford, he graduated BA in 1892,
MA in 1895, and was ordained in 1893. From 1893 until 1896 he was curate at St

13
John’s church, Meads. Lionel did much to modernise St Christopher’s, laying down
tennis courts and hockey pitches and introducing Fathers’ matches, a scout troop,
tennis championships, singing competitions and annual teas on the lawns. An old
boy of the school is recorded as saying: ‘Mr Lionel looked very much like a
younger edition of ELB, and was gentle and well-liked. He was rarely seen to depart
from a state of perfect equanimity. In class he much preferred to encourage rather
than criticise and this endeared him to his pupils. He was a talented musician who
played the organ and ran the school orchestra.’ After leaving St Christopher’s in
1925, Lionel returned to teach at St Andrew’s until 1933, and then returned to St
Christopher’s to teach scripture to the younger boys on a part-time basis. He died
in 1943 at Eastbourne.
Another brother, the Revd Charles Hotham Browne, also a graduate of Brasenose,
taught at St Andrew’s, where he was known as ‘Mr Charlie’, for 43 years. He had in
1891 been curate at St Saviour’s, Eastbourne. He was, as Paul Spillane says, ‘the
most colourful but also the most difficult’. He came to St Andrew’s with ELB in
1890 and stayed, with some breaks, until ELB died in 1933.Thin, bald, and with a
beaky nose and a small moustache, he had a waspish way with boys. A man of
some intellect, he was idle and would punish boys for their idleness.’ His desk
contained a curious array of weapons which were not used with venom: a long-
handled hairbrush, a stalk of seaweed, a stout ruler and a length of wire-cored pram
tyre. He might provide a Saturday evening’s entertainment with his collection of
oriental lantern slides; he was a fine baritone and, no great cricketer, could surprise
boys in the nets with the ferocity and accuracy of his bowling. And he was a loyal
patron of the Pilot Inn. He died in 1952, aged 85.
The buildings of Aldro and St Christopher’s are now a part of the Eastbourne
campus of Brighton University. The charity that owns St Andrew’s was in 2010
amalgamated with that of Eastbourne College, so creating one over-arching charity
in control of the two schools.
Sources
Aldro Past, Nick Swan and Freddy Hill (eds), 2006
St Andrew’s School 1877-1977, Paul Spillane, 1977
The Harrovian, May 1948
The Intriguing Story of Saint Christopher’s, Eastbourne, Peter Wickens and José
Stimpson, 2006
The Rev. E.L.Browne, M.A., the Revd FBR Browne, 1933
And invaluable genealogical research by Bill Bowden

14
Book Reviews
By Bob Elliston

The seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain has been marked by the
publication of three books that will be of interest to local historians.
Return from Dunkirk - The Railways to the Rescue by Trevor Tatlow.
This book details the complex arrangements for the reception and transport away
from the home ports to camps all over England. The Southern Railway made most
of the arrangements with additional rolling stock from the other three main line
companies.
As well as Ramsgate, Dover, Margate and Folkestone, Brighton, Eastbourne and
Hastings were designated as ports to disembark evacuated troops. The piers at all
three towns had functioning landing stages and would have received men from
Calais, Boulogne and St Valery. The speed of the German advance meant that
many had to surrender and Eastbourne pier was no longer needed. The book in
addition to the railway details lists some of the war material abandoned in France,
rifles, machine guns, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. The RAF lost 900 aircraft in
the battle for France. The sheer magnitude of the task can be judged by the
provision of over 1000 special trains needed to move the troops to their reception
camps. All this in a well presented book of 170 pages with copious photographs,
many published for the first time.
Priced at £13. 95 from the Oakwood Press, PO Box 13, Usk, N15 1YS.
ISBN 978-085361697-9978
Don’t Panic - Britain prepares for Invasion by Mark Rowe
This book captures faithfully in 192 pages of text and illustrations the fears and
hopes of 1940 It deals with all aspects of the formation of the Home Guard, the
duties and camaraderie of so many public spirited members, most of whom were
ex-service men of the Great War, and the shortages of uniforms and weapons, with
armbands sufficing for uniform. A few rounds of ammunition passed between
members when a guard was changed. The book uses a variety of sources to tell a
story of improvisation and muddle which in the end produced a force capable of
being an effective first line of defence, so freeing up troops for active service
overseas. An account is given of the Battle of Bewdley when rumours of a German
invasion precipitated a full turnout of the army. In a book that covers the whole of
the country, Eastbourne and Battle get mentioned as does The Sussex Express. A little
known fact is the arrival of Australian reinforcements at Gourock.
Priced at £14.99 published by The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe, Port
Stroud, Gloucester, G15 2BG. ISBN 978-0-7524-5609-6

15
Defending Sussex Beaches 1940-1942 by John Goodwin, Middleton Press. 108 pages
of text and pictures bring home the massive effort to defend the most likely
landing areas for a German invasion. Eastbourne and Birling Gap feature with
many other places close to Eastbourne, Newhaven Fort, Pevensey Bay and others
in East Sussex. A comprehensive list of sources is given. These represent invaluable
points of reference for researchers. It also indicates that much valuable material
survived post-war culling. The book is priced at £16.95 from bookshops or from
Middleton Press, Eastbourne Lane, Midhurst, West Sussex, GU2 9AZ. ISBN
978-1-906008-79-6
East of Eastbourne, West of Waterloo is the latest title offered by Ballykelly books.
Edited by Anthony Vent, these memoirs detail the career of Brian Groome, a
lifetime railwayman who began as a station trainee at Pevensey Bay and ended
thirty-nine years later as a Travelling Ticket Inspector (TTI) based at Brighton.
Un-social hours and poor pay were the lot of mid-century railwaymen. As a young
lad he had the onerous challenge of keeping accurate records of ticket issues,
meeting and despatching trains booked for just 30 seconds for a station stop. In
his early days he had often to challenge travellers who tried to avoid paying the
correct fares.
In his later career as a TTI he was frequently involved in Court attendances as a
witness to fare evasion cases. Quite a lot of the scams and the railway’s methods
for dealing with them are disclosed. Some presumably remain cloaked, in the
interest of protecting revenue. Whenever a group of TTIs were operating overtly,
income on that section of the line increased.
The book runs to 100 pages, is copiously illustrated in colour and black and white,
and contains contributions from other railwaymen. This is a book for transport
enthusiasts and social historians alike and costs £10.95 from 22 Glassenbury Drive,
Bexhill on Sea, TN40 2NY.

Overdue Subscriptions Reminder

The annual subscription fell due in January 2011 at the new rate of £10, £7 per
person for two people at the same address with only one copy of the quarterly
journal, the Eastbourne Local Historian, and £5 for just the journal sent by post
anywhere in the UK. If you have overlooked renewing your subscription, forms
are available from the Membership Secretary (contact details on inside front
cover).

16
More about Eastbourne’s AA Defences
By Michael Ockenden
The articles ‘Where were Eastbourne’s Ack Ack Guns’ (Journal 131, Spring 2004)
and ‘Eastbourne’s Ack Ack Guns’ (Journal number 132, Autumn 2004) have
produced an interesting letter from John K Smith, who lived in Old Town from
1935 to 1951. He lists six locations, some of which are already mentioned in the
above articles. His recollections are given below, with additional information from
Heather French, who lived above the ‘Snappy Snacks’ café in Albert Parade during
the war.
Bofors Guns
There was a Bofors situated
approximately 125 yards below the Old
Town dewpond (above the present
Green Street Farm Estate). It is not
known how long it was there but John
remembers it opening fire early one
evening and his surprise at how loud it
sounded.
He remembers another Bofors at the
southerly side of the Royal Eastbourne
Golf Links, diagonally opposite the
junction with Link Road and behind
the wall of the last house on the right
hand side of Paradise Drive. He
believes that this position may have
been attacked by a FW 190 with one of
its gunners killed or wounded. John’s
father had an allotment in what was
known as ‘The Warren’, the site of the
present houses around Cranbourne
Avenue at the end of Salisbury and
Upper Carlisle Roads, and he recalls Bofors gun on Eastbourne Pier
giving the gunners some strawberries
which he had picked there.
He also reports two or three Bofors situated below the middle promenade opposite
All Saints’ Hospital. (A Canadian veteran mentioned guns in about this position
sunk into pits in the bank.) On one occasion John saw them firing at (but not
hitting) a yellow drogue on a long line towed by a small plane which may have
been a Miles Magister.

17
The guns defending Beachy Head Radar Station have a special place in John’s
memory: ‘There used to be a wall set into the cliff face overlooking the lighthouse.
My friend and I were looking over the wall at a seagull’s nest containing eggs some
30 or 40 feet below. A group of gunners came over and said they could let me
down on a rope to collect the eggs. A gull’s egg was considered to be a good
addition to an egg collection so I readily agreed. I managed to retrieve an egg but
was most relieved when they hauled me back to the top, dirty and bruised but
clutching an egg in my hand. But just supposing there had been an air raid while I
was suspended on the rope!’
Light Machine Guns
There were several of these positioned on rooftops around Eastbourne. The article
in Issue 131 asks whether the machine gun remembered by a WAAF, Eileen Street,
on leave from RAF Kenley, could have been in Albert Parade. John confirms this
location and is supported by David Jeffery, whose father was a wartime member of
the National Fire Service. Helen French (née Swadling) helped at the Snappy
Snacks café run by her parents at 3 Albert Parade. The business continued after her
father was called up in May 1942. She writes: ‘One day one of the anti-aircraft
soldiers came and asked my mother if they could put a machine gun on our roof.
She agreed but when Bill came home he went mad. Not only did the gunners have
to come through our bedroom, but they would also have had to come through
the shop. I don’t know whether Dad was more worried about our virtue or his
money, but he went on the roof and threw the machine gun off the top! It turned
out that it had not been authorised by an officer and was just a try-on by the
soldiers. The gunners’ CO said they had no right to expect to go through private
living quarters as they could have got on the roof from the Co-op, which had
outside stairs all the way up. I think it was finally put above an empty shop further
along Albert Parade, most probably above the Maypole Dairy at number 13.’
John remembers a Lewis gun at the Old Town recreation ground and that he was
playing nearby on the evening of 18 June 1944 when he saw his first V1: ‘The
Lewis gun opened fire and I saw tracer rounds flashing around the propulsion
engine. Seconds later, its engine stopped and it fell almost vertically to the ground.
The explosion destroyed a number of houses in Charleston and Mountney Roads.’
In the book Wartime Eastbourne by George Humphrey it is reported that the
doodlebug had been damaged by anti-aircraft fire. However, from what he saw, the
VI was shot down by the Lewis gunner.
John K Smith concludes: ‘It may seem strange in this age of Health and Safety that
we were allowed to get so close to the guns. Although we never touched the guns,
the crews were always friendly towards us – maybe too friendly in the Beachy Head
episode.’

18
More Norfolk Connections
By Liz Moloney
Searching through old copies of the Local Historian in the library recently I
suddenly saw a mention of the Neville Rolfe family of Norfolk in an article
entitled Norfolk Connections by Andrew Murray (no 125, Autumn 2002). In a
very unexpected way this connects with research I have been doing on the
owners of the Meads house called The Moorings, on the corner of St John’s,
Milnthorpe and Meads Roads, called Gwernaffel until 1904.
Andrew Murray draws attention to a plaque in St Mary’s Parish Church to the
memory of Anne Colden Neville, who died aged 33 in 1798. She was the wife
of Major Charles Neville of the Royal Artillery, who was the illegitimate son of
Edmund Rolfe of Heacham, Norfolk, and because there was no legitimate heir
to the Rolfe estate, their son Strickland inherited it in1807. The family home
was Heacham Hall, Norfolk, and as the article states, this remained in the
family for the remainder of the nineteenth century.
One of Strickland’s granddaughters was Harriet Jane Neville Rolfe, who was
the wife of the first owner of Gwernaffel. She led an unconventional early
adult life, training at the new Slade School of Art and alarming her low-church
family by converting to Roman Catholicism in Paris, where she had gone for
further training as an artist .She then went to stay with her brother’s family in
Queensland, Australia for nearly two years and painted many fascinating water-
colours of life on a cattle property, a large number of which are held by the
Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane.
On her return to Norfolk in 1885 she met Dr Clement Mansfield Ingleby, the
Shakespearian scholar, and his wife, who were renting Heacham Hall, although
they owned and normally lived in a mansion in Essex: Valentines, Ilford. The
Hall was let because the estate had been in serious financial difficulties since
the death of Strickland’s son Charles in 1869 and his eldest son, Eustace, was
working as British consul in Naples. Harriet Jane married their son, Holcombe
Ingleby, in 1886, and after some time in Italy and at Valentines, in 1888 they
moved to Eastbourne, to a new house at the St John’s Road end of Milnthorpe
Road, which they called Gwernaffel.
As far as I know, they were unaware of the fact that Mrs Ingleby’s great-
grandmother was buried here. Veronica Berry in The Rolfe Papers brief ly
mentions that the Inglebys were living in Eastbourne in 1891, without further
comment. Their son, Clement Rolfe Ingleby, was born here in 1888, and at
different times Mrs Ingleby’s widowed brother Charles Neville Rolfe and his
children and Eustace Neville Rolfe’s daughters all stayed at Gwernaffel.

19
But the Eastbourne period of about four years was a brief interlude in their lives.
The Neville Rolfes and their spouses were usually drawn back to Heacham and the
Inglebys spent less and less time in Eastbourne from 1891 – I fear the Royal
Eastbourne Golf Club, who had elected Holcombe as their Secretary at the end of
1889, must have been disappointed by this defection. In 1893 Holcombe decided
to take out a lease on his wife’s family home, Heacham Hall, and subsequently
bought the entire estate in 1899 but could not keep it up: in 1904 the Inglebys
sold Heacham Hall to a rubber planter and moved to Sedgeford Hall, a smaller
house on the estate. Holcombe Ingleby also sold his family house, Valentines,
when he inherited it in 1906. He needed a considerable private income for his
public life, as he was MP for King’s Lynn 1910 -1918, Mayor of King’s Lynn 1909
and 1919-21, and High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1923.
The friend to whom the Inglebys rented Gwernaffel from about 1894 to 1899, the
Australian James Jackson, also ended up with his family in a house on the
Heacham estate. As far as I know, that was the end of this particular Eastbourne –
Norfolk link. Heacham Hall was destroyed in a fire in WW2; the Moorings was
demolished by developers c.1969 and only Valentines, owned by Redbridge council,
remains and is open to the public. The local historian of Valentines has generously
shared information on both the Inglebys and the Neville Rolfes:
It would be fascinating to find that the Inglebys knew about Mary Neville’s
memorial in St Mary’s: at present this remains one of those intriguing
coincidences. Not for the first time, I realise how useful it is for newcomers to the
society like me to read the old newsletters and benefit from other people’s
researches. I hope to deal at more length with the Inglebys in the book I am
researching about The Moorings, when I shall reference these points fully. The
Ingleby-Neville Rolfe connection with Gwernaffel/The Moorings has never been
mentioned since they left in the 1890s, as far as I know, and Eastbourne is often
omitted from their biographies, so I have had to piece the family story together.
My sources are a patchwork of evidence, starting with the Compton estate
agreements with Holcombe Ingleby, street directories, census records, Eastbourne
local newspapers, Times reports and correspondence in the Norfolk archives.
A selective short list of references follows.
Berry, Veronica The Rolfe Papers, 1979, Norwich: Mrs Veronica Berry,.
Herbert, Susan ‘HJ Sketches the Scene’ , Harriet Jane Neville Rolfe in Queensland in
Seear, Lynne and Ewington, Julie, eds, 1998, Brought to Light: Australian Art
1850-1965, Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery
The Valentines Mansion website is http://www.valentines.org
For general information on the Neville Rolfes’ home village of Heacham, see
http://www.norfolk-on-line.co.uk/heacham/pages/walks.php

20
Eastbourne welcomes Australian Prisoners of
War
In the Winter 2010 edition we published an enquiry from a lady, Anne Shipway, in
Australia whose father, a former Australian prisoner of war, was stationed in Eastbourne in
1945 while awaiting shipment home. She asked for information about the experience of these
soldiers in the town. Dr John Surtees has produced a response for Anne which we reproduce
below and which has been sent to her. She has sent her thanks to John and to the society: ‘It
must have been a wonderful time for the returned soldiers and I know it was a special time for
Dad as he kept the post cards and photos from this time.’
In February 1945 the town greeted unreservedly the 10,000 repatriated Australian
prisoners of war flown to Britain from German camps. They were billeted around
the town and were popular – and not just for their unlimited chocolate supply at a
time when the locals were strictly rationed.
A Centre for the POWs was set up in an empty mansion, Chaseley South Cliff,
renamed Gowrie House during the time that it was used by the Aussies. Chaseley
had Commonwealth associations throughout the war; Lady Michaelis, the owner,
had gone to South Africa at the outbreak of hostilities, Canadian troops had used
it as a communications centre in 1942 at the time of the Dieppe raid and now it
hosted the Aussies going home at the end of the war.
Many of the POWs were in a poor state after the turmoil in Germany over the
previous months, one committed suicide, and others needed to be admitted to St
Mary’s Hospital while they waited to board their ships. Mrs Florence Tomsett and
Mrs Doris Pumfrey were Red Cross members who lent a hand. ‘We visited the lads
in hospital, taking toiletries to them and writing letters if they weren’t well enough
themselves.’
There was great excitement in the town when Betty Brown, head girl of the
Eastbourne Girls’ High School, married one of the Australians. To have an assisted
passage to Australia she had to be married. So, on 26 May 1945, all the 6th form
went to the wedding. The new Mrs Preston came back to school to take her
Higher School Certificate complete with wedding ring and to newspaper headlines
of ‘Schoolgirl bride dons school tunic’.
The refreshed Aussies helped to renovate the Saffrons county cricket pitch from
five years of neglect and at least one bomb on the square. After celebrating VE
Day and throwing a Grand Thank You Party for the town on 6 July 1945, they
were soon on their way.
John Surtees

21
Vic Salvage
By Frank Plowright
I don’t know if the name Vic Salvage will be at all familiar in Eastbourne these
days, but his story is remarkable, and deserves recording somewhere.
Vic Salvage attended Eastbourne Grammar in the 1930s, where his most
memorable extra-curricular activity involved climbing onto the school roof. When
studying in the top floor library he noticed a skylight and realised he’d be able to
reach it by placing a chair on a table. From there he duly made his way onto the
roof. As the pupils below noticed him and began cheering, he moved up to
straddle the top of the roof. Vic’s reward for his fearlessness was to be caned in
front of the entire school as an example to less agile pupils not to risk their lives in
imitation. Class contemporary Maurice Plowright recalls this as the only occasion
he saw a fellow pupil caned in public.
Vic’s practical skills extended beyond climbing. In an era decades before kits, he
designed and constructed his own small sailboat from scratch, and learned to sail
through experience. Surely his most terrifying voyage was finding himself too far
from the shore in the midst of an increasing storm. He navigated his way to the
Beachy Head lighthouse, intending to access the steps from his boat. He was
fortunate to be spotted by the lighthouse staff, who helped him tie the boat up,
and he spent the next few hours there unable to return home due to the severity
of the storm.
Immediately on leaving Eastbourne Grammar aged 16 in 1936 Vic signed up for
the Air Force, and became an observer on the Bristol Blenheim bombers of 107
Squadron. Shortly after World War II started, the squadron was sent to bomb a
German port, and returned celebrating a successful mission without any return fire
or casualties. Unfortunately, news came through that the Danish government had
protested about RAF bombers devastating facilities and killing people in Esbjerg.
The mission had been obscured by cloud and drifted off target. It’s not known if
Vic was part of this mission or not.
Vic defeated the odds by surviving the shooting down of his plane over Dunkerque
in 1940, but was captured on the ground and dispatched to a prisoner of war camp
in Poland. From there he wrote to his family, and his letter included a sentence
that seemingly made little sense. It was shown to Maurice Plowright, who can no
longer recall the phrasing, but understood it to be a coded request for a compass.
Puzzling on how to supply a compass without it being intercepted by the German
authorities, Maurice recalled stories read about World War I during boyhood. In
them prisoners held in Germany had escaped using items smuggled in food. The
Salvage family ran a grocery store, so a jam firm was contacted and asked if they

22 22
would be willing to seal a compass within a tin of marmalade. A few weeks later
the can arrived at the Salvage house and was forwarded to Vic in Poland.
Maurice only heard the remainder of the story when both he and Vic returned to
Eastbourne after World War II. Vic had studied his surroundings, and calculated
that if he could climb a tree within the camp perimeter and swing on one of the
branches, it should provide him with enough momentum to swing over the fence
and catch the branch of a tree outside. His hunch was correct, and armed with the
compass, he made his escape.
Travelling during the night, and sleeping concealed during the day, Vic worked his
way through Poland into Germany. From there he crossed Germany from east to
west, a journey of several hundred miles, making for neutral Luxembourg. His
intention once there was to make his way to an allied embassy. He eventually
surrendered at the American embassy and told his story, asking to be returned to
the UK. He was asked to wait in a room, and shortly thereafter a US official
arrived in the company of two German soldiers, to whom Vic was handed over. In
the period prior to the US involvement in World War II it was obviously
considered less trouble to hand him back to the Germans than it was to repatriate
him. After that lesson Vic sat out the war in another prison camp.
When he returned home Vic spent some time in Eastbourne before moving to
Slough for a job with Mars. Perhaps commensurate with his adventurous nature,
his post-war life was brief, and he died in a motorcycle accident sometime in the
late 1940s or early 1950s.

Eastbourne Aviation Company

100th Anniversary
Eric Littledike at eric.littledike@googlemail.com
writes to remind us that this year is the 100th
anniversary of the formation of the Eastbourne
Aviation Company.  He is an aviation enthusiast
and wonders if the town is planning to celebrate
this centenary which occurs on 1 December. We
might, he suggests, mark the occasion with a
schools competition, some publicity and perhaps a
stone or bronze plaque. Would members who might
be interested in supporting this initiative please
c o m m u n i c a te w i t h M a u r e e n C o p p i n g a t
maureencopping@yahoo.co.uk or wit h Mr
Littledike.
23
Antonia Beckett, A Lovely Lady
Member Antonia Beckett passed away on 16 December at the age of 93.
Miss Beckett was the granddaughter of TR Beckett, founder of Beckett Newspapers,
and spent the majority of her life in Eastbourne. She died in hospital in December
following a battle with cancer. Educated at Clovelly, the Convent of the Nativity
school in Blackwater Road, during the war she worked as a draughtsman for HMS
Marlborough, based in the Eastbourne College buildings, and carried out top
secret work drawing plans of underwater devices.
In later years, she enjoyed a love of art and was one of the original members of the
Calligraphy group at Community Wise in Old Town. Miss Beckett was also a
member of the Upperton Conservatives and her colleague and life-long friend
Grace Fletcher said: ‘Antonia and I shared a common interest in local history. She
was extremely well versed in the detailed history of houses, roads, schools,
personalities and past and present residents of her beloved town of Eastbourne.’
Antonia was a loyal member of our Society and, until recently, would attend
meetings with her friend, member Margaret Lewis. Her record of the time spent
with HMS Marlborough was published in our journal no 134 in Winter 2004.
Fellow artist Jill Mercer said, ‘Antonia was a clever and very gifted artist specialising
in water colours of local scenery.’
Neighbour and friend Janet Teagut said, ‘She was an enchanting person with magic
in her soul and in her fingers which produced beautiful art work and lettering. She
was loyal and generous and a beautiful teller of stories and history. Antonia was
passionate about the history of Eastbourne and preserving its heritage.’
A Requiem Mass for Miss Beckett took place on 7 January at Our Lady of Ransom
Church in Grange Road and was attended by several ELHS members.
Michael Partridge
We acknowledge with gratitude use of copy from the Eastbourne Herald of Friday 31
December 2010.
Liz Moloney writes:
Last summer I did some research on the founder of the Beckett newspaper
business, Thomas Richard Beckett (1843 – 1915).
Michael Partridge suggested I should meet Miss Beckett, Mr Beckett’s
granddaughter. I was delighted to hear she was alive and in Eastbourne (my
ignorance being due to the fact that compared with many ELHS members, I am a
newcomer). We talked for several hours: I was fascinated to hear of her wartime
experiences as a naval draughtsman in Eastbourne and she was a most open and
entertaining commentator on local life.

24
Miss Beckett invited me to tea a few weeks later to discuss the documents and
articles I had unearthed – including census returns for the family in Yorkshire and
Sussex, obituaries for her grandfather and his chief reporter from the newspaper
and advertisements from the Yorkshire newspaper, the Osset Observer, in which he
had started out as a newspaperman in the late 1860s. What struck me very much
was that she was just as open to an outsider bearing information about her family,
as she was in imparting her own information. ‘Very quarrelsome people, the
Becketts’, she said, but she gave no sign of any such tendency herself.
I had sent her a card before Christmas apologising for not having written up the
material yet, only to realise it had arrived after her death. At least she saw all my
material and had copies of it. I shall write it up now in her memory; she was a
genuinely memorable person, even to someone who had only a brief acquaintance
with her.

Operation Sussex Study Day

Newhaven Fort - Saturday May 28 2011
Members of the public and military enthusiasts alike are invited to participate in
an absorbing Study Day devised by members of the Lewes based Sussex Military
History Society.
The event is a journey through the centuries examining county defence works
from Medieval times through to the Cold War. Newhaven Fort is opening early
that day to welcome visitors to their School Room casemate. All the illustrated
lectures will be under cover in one unit and guests will have ample time breaks to
explore the numerous facets of the Victorian fort.
Proceeds are for Macmillan Cancer Support. Admission is by £15 advance ticket
only. Seating is restricted to 80 people. Early application is advised from
p l t y r r e l l @ b t i n t e r n e t . c o m ( 013 2 3 - 4 8 717 0 ) o r S t e w a r t A n g e l l
unseen.sussex@googlemail.com (07714923925)

Information for Contributors

All work on Eastbourne Local Historian is voluntary and payment cannot be made
for any published material. All material remains the copyright of the contributor
unless specifically stated otherwise, and may not be reproduced in any form
without the express permission of the copyright holder. All contributions for
possible inclusion should be addressed to the Editors (see inside front cover).
Closing dates for submission of material are 15 February, May, August and
November. Views expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect those of the
Society.

25
The Moorings: A Victorian house and the
people who lived there 1888-1940
On 8 February, Liz Moloney, a resident of The Moorings in Meads, gave an
excellent illustrated talk to the Eastbourne Local History Society, on the original
house on the site where the block of flats now stands.
Many people believe that it was originally built by Frederick Trumble and was
called The Moorings because it was the home of a retired sea captain. Both these
stories have their basis in fact, as Liz discovered in her research, but the house was
in fact a speculative venture by the Eastbourne builder James Cullingford, who
bought the plot in 1884 from the Seventh Duke of Devonshire.
In 1891 Mr and Mrs Holcombe Ingelby took up the lease, and named the house
Gwernaffel. They were a wealthy and sociable couple, and he became the second
Secretary of the Royal Eastbourne Golf Club. According to the Census of
1891they ran the house with the help of six live-in female servants. In 1894 the
Ingelbys let the house to Mr and Mrs James Jackson, close friends of Mrs Ingelby’s
elder brother. Another wealthy couple, James’s father was one of the founding
colonists of Melbourne. They lived at Gwernaffel for five years, after which the
lease was taken over by Mr and Mrs George Holford. He was a retired barrister and
Secretary of the Charities Commission.
After his death the freehold was bought by Frederick Trumble, who renamed the
house The Moorings. He was not, however, a retired sea captain, but a retired
wallpaper manufacturer from Leeds! In the 1911 Census his son is shown as being a
midshipman, who was to die in May 1918 at the Ostend blockade. In 1919 Mr and
Mrs Sidney Galpin moved from Silverdale Road to The Moorings and lived there
until his death in 1939, after which his widow moved away. The house was
subsequently used by the Canadian army, and after the war it was divided into two
flats.
So Frederick Trumble was the first freeholder, but not the first resident, and the
connection to the sea was nebulous, at best.
And if anyone has a picture of the house Liz would love to see it! Because despite
hours of research, she has yet to find one.
jay Dixon

Figg Map in Safe Storage

Members will be pleased to know that the Figg Map is being safely stored in the
Towner Gallery storage system which is both temperature and humidity
controlled. It is possible to view the Map by prior arrangement with the Towner
as it not on public display.

26
The society’s publications
Copies of our publications are available to members at meetings or by post from
Peter Tyrrell at 8 Chiltern Court, Albert Road, Polegate, BN26 6BS, tel 01323
487170, email: pltyrrell@btinternet.com Cheques should be made payable to the
Eastbourne Local History Society.
The 1841 Census for Eastbourne
A meticulous transcription of the
names, ages, employment and addresses
of those living in the Parish of
Eastbourne on the night of 6/7 June
1841. An invaluable reference for
genealogical researchers.
£3 + £1 p&p.
The Redoubt Fortress and Martello
Towers of Eastbourne 1804-2004
Rosemary Milton and Richard Callaghan
An impressive illustrated record of the
origins and use of these defences
against the Napoleonic threat, together
with details of the soldiers and military
units which manned them.
88 pp. £6 + £1 p&p.
Origins of Eastbourne’s Street
Names
John Milton
An illustrated record of the origins of
the names of every one of Eastbourne’s
streets including their historical context
or derivation, together with their dates
of origin. Currently out of print. A
completely new edition shortly.
A History of the Eastbourne
Aviation Company 1911-1924
Lou McMahon and Michael Partridge
A detailed, fully illustrated story of the
men who learned to fly and of the
machines in which they flew; also a
record of the RNAS occupation and
the 250 aircraft that were built here.
174 pp. Hardback £5 + £2 p&p.
Canucks by the Sea
Michael Ockenden
The story of the Canadian Army in
Eastbourne during the Second World
War. Fully illustrated. Extended second
edition
193 pp. £9 + £1 p&p.
Turnpike Territory, the
Glyndebridge Trust and the Lewes
to Eastbourne Turnpikes
Peter Longstaff-Tyrrell
A guide to the old coach road from
Lewes to Eastbourne. Fully illustrated in
colour. Extended second edition.
40 pp. £4.25 + 50p p&p.
Local Historian Index
Issues 1 to 124
Now available on CD-ROM. A
replacement CD will be provided when
the Index is updated to end-2009
£5 + 50p p&p.
The Stream That Gave Eastbourne
Its Name
Harold Spears, revised by Peter Allen and
Lou McMahon
An illustrated history of the Bourne
Stream. Third edition.
28pp £3 + 50p p&p
The society’s programme for 2011
Tuesday 22 Mar 7:30pm Hugh Miller: Pevensey Village

Tuesday 12 Apr 2:45pm Joanna Wilkins: William de Warenne and

Lewes Castle

Tuesday 26 Apr 7:30pm AGM

Wednesday 27 Jul 3pm Hugh Miller: A visit to St Nicholas Church,

Pevensey

Tuesday 27 Sep 7:30pm Derek Legg: RNLI

Tuesday 11 Oct 2:45pm TBA

Tuesday 25 Oct 7:30pm Catherine Pope: Florence Marryat

Tuesday 8 Nov 2:45pm Edward Preston: Blue Plaques of Eastbourne

and Sussex

Tuesday 22 Nov 7:30pm TBA

All welcome. Members free. Please remember to bring your membership card to
show at the door. Visitors and Guests £1. All meetings will be held at St Saviour’s
and St Peter’s Church Hall, South Street, BN21 4UT. Car parking is free at the
church. Doors open 15 minutes before the start of meetings.

Membership subscription of the Society from January 1, 2011 will be £10, £7 per
person for two people at the same address with only one copy of the quarterly
journal, the Eastbourne Local Historian, and £5 for just the journal sent by post
anywhere in the UK. Subscriptions become due from 1 January each year. In the
event of non-payment by the date of the AGM, usually held in April each year,
membership of the Society terminates.
Published by the Eastbourne Local History Society
ISSN:1464-556
Registered Charity no: 283924