Old Childhood Haunts

[Gerry Glyde]

It was not just in the dinner break. On Priory Rd games afternoons we would register and wait until the boys who were good at football or cricket were selected for the teams then slip to the back of the changing hut. The idea of running about a windswept pitch was not our idea of fun. When everyone had moved to the pitches we would make our way over to the edge and down the cliffs on crumbling paths and sit by the caves and enentually down to the stade and the pier for the afternoon of wasting time playing the machines and generally messing about. This was with Pete, Alan, sometimes Gary or John.

[Shrimper]

Just looked at Hastings 1066 with interest and might be able to add a few interesting points.
I can go back further than the dates mentioned for Churchill Avenue because just coming up to ninety years of age and saw this area being built at about the end of the war. And my Father was in charge of the German prisoners of war who were transported daily from somewhere not far away on the back of a lorry to dig the sewage trench from Churchill Ave to about the Primary school at the Ridge. At that time with no mechanical diggers.
Some of these people were very good at making wooden toys like Butterflies on wheels flapping their wings, Crocs wagging their tails all brightly painted. And cigarette holders in the shape of a Dogs head, Devils head dyed with coffee grouts. Such things exchanged for a few cigarettes.

I know of the Roman Pond but this is the first time I've heard this name. Was it because it resembled a Roman Ampitheater ? I can say that after the end of world war two there was no sine of any gun having been mounted. Pity we didn't see it without water in it. We used to collect Frogspawn and there were very nice Nute's in there.

I'm so pleased that the Cemetery at Winchelsea road was mentioned because this was one of our favourite places. I lived just down the road at Red lake Terrace. There were two distinct gangs at Red Lake and when I say gangs there wasn't any real animosity like there is nowadays, it was just them and us. There was an abandoned Chapple just inside the Cem gate and this had a very large empty water tank in the roof space. So large that it would have been installed before the roof was constructed which has always been a mystery to me. Just imagine the weight of water up there. We used this as one of our camps. We would be in the Cem sometimes on the blackest of nights running around with no fear of the souls resting there. We just accepted each other.
I was very much into amateur radio at the time and would take a home made radio up there on ear phones with my mates carrying the large 90 volt battery and an Acid accumulator.
The other gang had their HQ in the mentioned massive Yew Tree and I must say that this was very impressive. This tree with it's branches falling outwards left a room size space in the middle and they even had a carpet on the floor. We were careful not to be there only on our own.
This tree would be very old. What a pity it's now all gone.
Beyond the graveyard south wall was a very large allotment which stretched from Winchelsea Road to what is now Churchill Avenue.
Along the east road there were quite a few large Pine trees overhanging the road and every year inhabited by a large number of Tee Sparrows just out of reach of boy egg collectors.
This Cemetery must have been very old and I wonder if there are any burial records still kept.

With regard to Ore tunnel. This was originally a double track. And isn't it good that there are safety alcoves set into the walls for rail workers to shelter in when the train came through. And this was where naughty boys loved to be when the old steam train came trundling through breathing fire steam and smoke. Then the whole tunnel would be filled down to about half way and this would gradually leak out at the end. It wasn't too far to walk through to Ore Station. Which reminds me that the whole area from the station up to Priory road was another large allotment area. Some plots even had their own pig or two on them with a trickle of slurry running down the hill.

I have memories of Church Street and used to pass this on my way to Priory Road school when we would stop at Clifton bakery I believe run by the Gurr family. This was next to the shop at the end. When you entered the door the bakery shop would be on the right but there was a steep long staircase looking down into where the baking was done, probably because this was on the side of the valley. The smell of newly baked bread was very nice and we went off to school with a hot bread roll.
My Aunt Iris lived at 32 Grevelle Road and it backed on to about the middle of Church Street. I recall that this was a dumping ground for the then called Dust carts. These lorries would back up and tip their load right over into the steep valley. No plastic of course in those days but not very nice.
The valley was locally called the Oller with a stream in the bottom and footpath up the other side to Sandown school.
Having been out in the sticks for many years I really must return sometime to see if this area is now built on.
Regards Jim.