Newsletter No.5

By Vic Lander

East Brighton Bygones Local History Society

"Newsletter"
 
Issue No 5 November 2008

Introduction
This issue of the Newsletter begins with some good news from our esteemed Chairman Bob Cristofoli:-

I am pleased to announce that the Sussex Community Foundation has awarded us a grant, to cover our running costs for the current year.

This certainly is good news and was obtained by Bob's efforts.  In making this grant it is obvious that our activities are recognised as essential and worthwhile by the authorities.

News of members
It is very sad to report that Vic's brother John Lander lost his brave fight for life following heart surgery and died on the 26th of October.

Fred Netley has been very poorly recently but has started to make an improvement.  All members wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him at our meetings in the near future.

Flora has been unwell and we wish her a return to good health.

Hazel Bradley has been incapacitated and spent a short spell in hospital.  She is now recovering and hopes to be with us at our November meeting.

New members

We had no new members join us in October.

General news
Keith is, as usual, doing a great job in up dating our website and reorganising information that we have.

Keith, Tricia and Vic are about to undertake a review of stored material in an attempt to identify material that is not relevant to us.

Recent activities
As you will remember, Tricia brought to our attention at the last meeting information concerning a wonderful Brighton initiative called "White Night".  This was to take place on the night that the clocks went back.  One of the exciting events was the projection of documents onto buildings within the city.  Some of the documents were those lovely sweetheart letters sent between Tricia's dad and Ernie Baker's sister Violet.

As Tricia was so heavily involved in the project she volunteered to write a few words on the outcome.  The following is her report:-

The White Night evening was well attended, and luckily it was a surprisingly mild night.  After a few problems with projectors not working - they have a habit of doing that at the wrong moment - the images went up on The Post Office Wall.  It was a very fitting location for these sweet letters between my Father, George Horrobin and Violet Baker, both about 10 at the time (1935/6)

It was a pity that the Post Office wall has so many windows, but it still looked lovely and I explained the story to a few onlookers.

Violet wrote to me recently and said my father was the second 'George' she had been out with, and she married the third 'George'!

I am so glad my Grandparents saved these letters as well as others I am transcribing for you all to see later.  Some sad ones, notifying of woundings and death in the war as well as other, more upbeat stories.

On Wednesday the 24th September eight members attended the latest afternoon gathering.  It was decided that because the editor had trouble spelling "déjà vu"  correctly, to change the name of these informal meetings to something simpler.  In a democratic vote the new name was agreed as "Char and Chat".

All who attended thoroughly enjoyed the occasion and it was good to see that the numbers attending had increased.  It was also good that Beryl Tucknot could join the group, as originally the idea for such an activity was hers.

The discussions were wide ranging and were entered into with gusto by all.

The speaker at the October meeting was Clive Hamblin who spoke on the subject of crime in the Victorian age and the murders of Jack the Ripper.  Clive's style of delivery, very reminiscent of Valentine Dyall, "The man in black", made the talk an outstanding success.  Most agreed that it was fortunate that the light evenings were still with us for had it been dark many of the ladies would have been scared to venture outside

External contacts
As reported in the last issue, Pam Piercey and Vic Lander visited St Mary's Hall and met with Sue Corcoran, the school archivist.  The aim of the visit was to try and identify a building that appears in several old photographs taken at the school in the late 1890's.  With some of the old photos in hand, Pam, Sue and Vic walked the perimeter of the area covered by the school, to try and identify the building.

It was found that the building no longer exists but they feel strongly that they have located the area that the building stood in.

Both Pam and Vic thoroughly enjoyed the visit and it is to be hoped that our good relationship with the school will continue.

On Friday the 7th November twelve of our members attended the annual Whitehawk Primary School Act of Remembrance.

This beautifully simple and moving event was attended by a record number of persons including many local dignitaries.  The highlight of the day was the attendance of Henry Allingham, Europe's oldest surviving man.  Henry is 112 years old but retains his faculties.  He served in the Royal Naval Air Service during the 1914-18 war.  He is currently a resident of St Dunstan's at Ovingdean.  It was pure magic to see Henry surrounded by awestruck youngsters and to hear him address them.

The Resource Centre A.G.M. was held on Wednesday 15 October.  Four members attended to see Beryl Tucknot voted in once again to represent us.

Forthcoming events
The next "Char and Chat" get together will be on 26th November commencing at 2.00 p.m.

At our November meeting Marion Brooks will be expecting everyone wishing to attend the Christmas Lunch to provide her with their payment and booking form.

Requests for information

We have had a request from Hawaii for photographs of Brighton seafront in the 1890's.  The request has come from a man researching the visit to Brighton of a Polynesian princess.

Members' Stories

Items from the Daily Express dated April 24th 1900.

Rosemary Deacon sent these two items that she found in the newspaper still in her possession.  Firstly, some of the adverts with the amazing prices:-

Eiffel Tower Lemonade, 2 Gallons 4½d.
Ronuk Polish, tins priced 3d. 6d and 1s.
Silver Queen Cycles, from 10s.
1 week in lovely Lucerne, 5 Guineas, bedroom suites £2-17s-6d.

The second item concerns a report from the newspaper's Berlin correspondent.  This makes interesting reading when you consider what happened in the following century!:-

The German Emperor, through our Berlin correspondent, sends a gracefully conciliatory message to the British people.  His first hope is the preservation of international peace, his second the permanent consolidation of good relations between Germany and Great Britain

Bob Cristofoli has provided this next snippet:-

Recently, Sheila (Coverdale), Beryl (Tucknot) and I have discovered that we all lived within yards of each other in the 1930's without ever meeting.  Sheila lived in Coleman Street, Beryl in Ashton Street and me in Belgrave Street. As Max Miller would have said "Now that's a funny thing ".

( I bet the girls didn't realise how lucky they were!! Ed)

Subject and date of next meeting.

The next monthly meeting will be held on 10th December when the subject will be "School day Memories".  The speakers will be the members of the society.

And finally

Another rhyme from Beryl Tucknot:-

One night I dreamt to heaven I did go
"Where did you come from ?" they wanted to know,
When I said "Brighton" well did'nt they stare
"Hurry up," they said
"You're the first one from there".