Introduction Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Before the war, we never travelled much. Dad used to have one day off a year,
during our summer holidays. Mr Robinson from the shop used to take us down to
Eastbourne for the day. We had no conveyance to get there, see, only a horse and
cart - and that would be rather a long journey! Mr Robinson had a car. Mum was a
very good customer, with nine children, and he was kind enough to offer to take
us down there and then come and fetch us later on. That was our day on the
beach, and we had sixpence to spend. The first thing on my shopping list the
night before was a penknife. I always seemed to lose my penknife! Christmas Day,
we had off after we had done the necessary work on the farm.
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I can remember the first time I went to Brighton. I couldn't get over the
funny little streets and shops you came to. There was no big stores then, of
course. It was quite a thing to see all the crowds of people. But of course I
was used to it to an extent; when I was married we lived at Cross in Hand first,
and we used to go to Tunbridge Wells. That was a town you had to be young in.
All hills, Tunbridge Wells!
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Free time? It was all about money, see. The maids of Hilders Court, their
money was eight shillings [40p] a month. And they wouldn't have a lot of time
off. The same with a lot of the youth. You'd be working at least five and a half
days a week, and mostly six in your regular job. If you weren't working on that,
you'd be trying to earn money elsewhere, or you'd be playing football Saturday
afternoon. Sunday was more or less a free day. Everybody met and talked. Church;
Sunday was treated as a Sunday! Only the essential people on a farm, naturally,
had to work. But for others, it would be a day of relaxation, a day of rest.
Nobody would ever think of doing building on a Sunday or anything like that.
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Looking back from today, we feel proud and very lucky to have lived those
years between the wars. Think of all the wonderful things you could do. Sunday
evenings you could go out for a walk, boys could go out with the girls. This
Village Hall, three nights a week was a men's club, two billiard tables. And the
other nights, apart from Sundays, there were whist drives, dancing. Saturday
nights was the threepenny hop. They were wonderful years. Although we didn't
have the television, or the clothes or the money.
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Before the war, there used to be dances in nearly every village hall on
Saturday night. They were called the sixpenny hops. We nearly always went to
Upper Dicker, they had a dance there every Saturday night. They had a little
band, drums, trumpet. Piano Accordions mostly. Sixpence to go in, and that was
your evening. And that was where most people met their future husbands and
wives.
In those days, we used to wear long dresses. Always wore an evening dress to a dance.
I can remember going to Upper Dicker after my sister got married in 1937. I was bridesmaid, and of course I thought I was quite "it", you know! The sixpenny hop in my long dress!
We used to have dances here in Chiddingly, and little dances at Golden Cross - the policeman used to run them. That's where I learnt to dance. He taught us ballroom dancing. Of course you'd do the Velita and all that sort of thing. Waltzes, foxtrots, quicksteps, all those. Better than all those dances they have today. Just shuffling, isn't it?
Chiddingly had their own little dance band before the war. On Saturdays we had sixpenny hops. Cecil Vine and his wife, and another one from Golden Cross used to come in to help, and played dance music. Tangos, foxtrots, all that sort of thing. In the pubs you got your singsongs on a Saturday night. "Home Sweet Home", "Annie Laurie", "Irish Eyes".
At the Village Hall, there was a generator for the electricity outside. It
used to be wonderful when it broke down, of an evening, when we were dancing!
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Weddings were always something spectacular. Everyone in their best clothes.
For my wedding we had MacGregor, the vicar. We had the wedding breakfast at the
village hall. There was 82 sat down! We had ham, and salad with it, there was
quite a variety of things. You had a nine gallon beer barrel. Beer was only
fourpence [2p] a pint.
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There used to be a vicar here called McGregor. He drank a lot. He used to run
the most superb pantomimes in the village school. A myth arose around him which
was quite pleasant; that he could say the blessing and be at the bar at the Six
Bells quicker than anybody else! There became a theory that there was an
underground passage from the church to the Six Bells! There isn't an underground
passage to the Six Bells and certainly there is nowhere where there has ever
been one. I think he ran. He was a lovely man, very good to the children.
Regarding the underground passage, William Chives in "The Church of Chiddingly", 1941, writes...
"The 'subway' from Place to Church has been the subject of much discussion.
Some say it never existed, but firstly, the majority of the oldest parishioners
in my younger days scorned the idea of such a statement. Secondly, the late Rev
J Scales told several visitors in my hearing that the late Jefferay emerged
inside the church from the said subway. Thirdly, it has been said by many that
the place of entry to the church from the subway is a few yards outside the
western door. Fourthly, I am one of those who would be greatly surprised if that
subway never existed, having heard several folks state that the entrance to it
is to be found bricked up in the cellar or cellars at the Place. Fifth, now,
come with me my friend, see it is a very dry summer, but see that green strip in
a straight line across yon field, toward the church from Place. You may agree
with one or may not, but be that e'er which way it will, that strip of grass is
green there still."
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I remember going to the Harvest Suppers at Stream Farm, at the big farmhouse.
That was a real thing to look forward to. We never had too much to eat, and when
we went there to this Supper, we did tuck in! The farmer laid it on, for all the
farm workers.
We had a Harvest Supper at Place Farm. There'd be a dozen, fifteen people. Home brewed cider. If you had two pints of that you wouldn't go far! One local chap, he'd come to help us do a bit of haying, so I said to him, "When we've finished up, come and have a glass of beer or cider." He said, "I'll have cider if it's good, I don't want any of that rough stuff."
So I said, "Well, I think it's all right. You just try it." So I gave him a glass, with just an eggcup-full in the bottom, just to taste.
He said, "This isn't cider." I said, "Yes it is." Anyhow, I poured him out about a third of a pint. I hadn't filled the glass, and he looked at me, but I didn't take any notice. It wasn't too many seconds before he'd drank it. I said, "Look, you can have another if you want it, but if I were you, I'd call that enough."
"Don't you think I can take my cider?" he said. So I said,
"Well, you tell me when to stop then." I filled his glass up. He was
still there at half-past one in the morning. He couldn't get up!
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You used to have gas lamps on your bicycles, and oil lamps, carbide. I can
smell it now - horrible!
We used to go to the cinema in Hailsham, and then walk home - we hadn't got
enough money! In those days that Boship road wasn't there, we had to come round
the other way.
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Everybody used the pub. It used to be a full house, see. Everyone from this
area, because you had your pub at Golden Cross, so all those from Golden Cross
went to their pub. Where you'd meet one another was at a darts match. Each pubs
had their darts matches.
Women didn't use the pub as much as they do now, they used to have to wait
outside. After the war they used the pub more. But before... you'd be scorned on
for using the pub. Coming up towards the end of the war it was creeping in. And
then afterwards it come in.
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I remember the old Gun in days gone by, when they had the rack with the big
barrels on and they had chicken in the bar as well. You'd walk in, and the
chicken would fly out the door. And the only food you could get there was a hunk
of bread and cheese.
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If you were out for the walk you used to go in for a glass of cider and a
lump of bread and cheese, and if you were lucky you got an onion!
Cheese and pickled onions. And we used to get those big arrowroot biscuits in
the pubs.
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We used the pub as soon as we could! How old were we? That depended on who'd
you'd got inside who'd bring one out for you! And who the landlord was. We've
always been blessed with good landlords. There was Smith, who went from here
down to the Golden Cross. Burt Antrum played football with us. Then Charlie
Kirkby took it over during the war, he had been a local farmer, at Willetts
Farm.
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We used to use the pub. A few of us women, even before the war. All the
village people were there, for a drink and a dance of an evening. If your
friends weren't there, you'd want to know where they were! Some people would
come from Eastbourne.
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Wm Chives, writing in 1955 ...
"A few days ago, while talking over the days of my younger years with an
elderly man, Mr Jesse Durrant, (chimney sweep visiting Chiddingly in those days
to fulfil orders). At Horam, speaking of Chiddingly, he told me that when he was
five years (or thereabout) he remembers that a man got as far as "Holmes
Hill Farm" (Mr Durrant's home) in the neighbourhood of Cross in Hand,
Heathfield, carrying a new Weather Vane on a long rod.
Being that the Vane was somewhat glittering, it attracted his attention. The bearer of the Vane told them that he was taking it to Chiddingly for the Church. It being dusk, Mr Durrant's parents gave the man supper and he slept afterwards in the Barn, getting on the road, walking, again at daybreak. Now Mr Durrant's age at the present is 89 or 88 and when the above incident happened would appear to have been 83-84 years ago. Note - the said man had walked from Rotherfield (beyond Mayfield)."