Churches - Bevendean History Project
Memories of a Vicars Daughter at Moulsecoomb
Jenny Money remembers.
I was born in Wimbledon in 1949.
My earliest memories of Moulsecoomb were of having my own bedroom for the first time in my life! Ali Barber playing the church organ which I helped to pump up! An old lady fainting in church, which scared the hell out of me and has left me with a phobia of fainting. One of the curates rode a motor bike (I think that his name was Stan?) Someone giving my parents an old car which neither of them were qualified to drive. They both tried and failed to pass their driving test!
As a child I did not play out around the estates, or in the Wild Park or in the local fields. That was strictly forbidden! I was only allowed to play in the Vicarage Garden.
I attended Varndean Grammar School for Girls. I was very insecure and unhappy at school and was frequently teased and ridiculed.
When we moved to Moulsecoomb, I was 13 so my sister would have been 8 and I think she went to Bevendean school and then to Westlain School.
The Vicarage at Moulsecoomb was a lovely house to live in although when we first got there, there was no central heating just an old Aga instead of a cooker.
Fr Jack Money holding Alison Phillips at her baptism on Sunday 15th June 1975, in St Andrews Church at Moulsecoomb.
My father the Rev Jack Money was the Vicar of Moulsecoomb and he was the head of the team ministry covering Bevendean, Coldean and Moulsecoomb from 1963 to 1975. He succeeded the Rev Ronald Newton.
My father and mother, my younger brother Duncan, my little sister Mary and I lived in the Vicarage together.
Moulsecoomb seemed very urban to me!
The family made use of the garden. My mother was a very keen gardener and spent quite a bit of time cultivating the flowerbeds. Dad’s role was to cut the grass! I can remember being with my mother at the shops in the Avenue when someone said to her ‘Is that your son up that tree?’ Effortlessly my brother had climbed to the top of one of the very tall fir trees at the front of the garden and my mother nearly had a fit.
I remember the Telephone boxes in Moulsecoomb, especially the one just up the road in Hillside, where I used to call friends that I didn’t want my parents to know about. And where I used to meet up with a boy called Chalky White!
As far as I can remember my parents used the shops in the Avenue as neither of them drove a car.
Jenny on looking at a photograph of Alison Phillips being christened by Fr Jack Money at St Andrews Church on 6 June 1975 commented “that was my darling dad, he died so young aged 66”.
The church was well attended as far as I can remember. On Christmas Eve, at the Midnight Mass, the local rockers would all turn up after the pubs closed and Dad would welcome them publicly. They always remained standing at the back. And I remember feeling very tearful when Dad and the choir processed around the church. Dad would always look over at me and give me a beaming smile and I was so proud that it reduced me to tears. I also remember Dad being friends with one of the presenters on Radio Sussex, who nicknamed Dad the hippy vicar, as he had a crew cut and wore open sandals! I can also remember him bringing our little Yorkshire Terrier into the church once to illustrate something in one of his sermons. He also started the Jazz Masses which I think, were held, at Coldean Church.
I did not get involved with the church activities, as I recall, I just pumped up the organ from time to time.
I can remember watching my dad when he was up at the altar scrabbling about with a vase of flowers. I said to him afterwards, "what were you doing". He replied "I dropped the cones of incense into the flowers and I had to put them in the thurifer so I was trying to find them and dry them on my Cassock.
The church hall was a lovely place. I went to the youth club there and watched Peter Field and his band playing! I also remember a group called The Motion.
Thinking about community events, I can remember the Gilbert and Sullivan productions which the choir put on, which my mother and Bernard Fennell, the choir master, organised. There were also Barn Dances which took place in the church hall.
I attended the youth club in the church hall and I went to confirmation classes with Tony Pannett again as I fancied a boy called Peter Swaffer who was following them!
We travelled in and out of the estate on the number 49 or 49A bus.
I used to babysit for Derek and Sally Hill who lived near where the premier express shop at the top of the Avenue. This was in the mid-1960s. That is about all I can remember about Bevendean.
I think that the biggest change in Moulsecoomb over the years is that there are many more cars on the estate.
The best thing I remember about Moulsecoomb was the lovely house we lived in and my friends who lived just along the road. I also remember jumping off the bus as it slowed down on the first bend in Hillside.
When my father moved from his post at Moulsecoomb I moved to France, where I lived for 12 years.
I came back to live in Lewes in 1985 with a two-year-old son and went back to work at the University of Sussex; I was offered accommodation by a former colleague in Kingston.
I have many small memories, such as my father having to cycle at night to someone who was apparently dying but who then didn’t do so. By the time Dad got home, the phone would ring again and Dad would have to jump on his bike again in the dark and go back to them! I also remember Dad being called to a home somewhere in Moulsecoomb where he found a child kept in a cage on the landing upstairs. And another time when he came home from conducting the burial of a child – he was in tears as he and the gravediggers were the only ones there.
Peter Field who became the Lord Lieutenant in 2008 was one of my dad’s servers and I remember taking the mickey out of Peter Field when he was first made Lord Lieutenant. I had photographs of him playing on the stage in Moulsecoomb in the Church Hall and when he was in a band and I threatened to publish them. Peter Field retired as the Lord Lieutenant in 2021 and was succeeded by Andrew Blackman.
My mother and Bernard Fennell used to put on Gilbert and Sullivan productions and things like that. Bernard also put on Concerts in the church.
My mother and Bernard ran church choir camps in the 1970s near Hastings or Rye. Len Poulton was so amazing because he sang in the choir but he had only got one lung. Dear old Stan Wilson who did his own thing and was so funny.
Note: Rev Jack Money was a Curate at St Anne Church in Lewes from 1959 to 1963 before moving to become the Vicar of Moulsecoomb from 12 Jun 1963 to 7 Sep 1975.
When he left Moulsecoomb he moved to become the Rector of Heene in Worthing.
I was born in Wimbledon in 1949.
My earliest memories of Moulsecoomb were of having my own bedroom for the first time in my life! Ali Barber playing the church organ which I helped to pump up! An old lady fainting in church, which scared the hell out of me and has left me with a phobia of fainting. One of the curates rode a motor bike (I think that his name was Stan?) Someone giving my parents an old car which neither of them were qualified to drive. They both tried and failed to pass their driving test!
As a child I did not play out around the estates, or in the Wild Park or in the local fields. That was strictly forbidden! I was only allowed to play in the Vicarage Garden.
I attended Varndean Grammar School for Girls. I was very insecure and unhappy at school and was frequently teased and ridiculed.
When we moved to Moulsecoomb, I was 13 so my sister would have been 8 and I think she went to Bevendean school and then to Westlain School.
The Vicarage at Moulsecoomb was a lovely house to live in although when we first got there, there was no central heating just an old Aga instead of a cooker.
Fr Jack Money holding Alison Phillips at her baptism on Sunday 15th June 1975, in St Andrews Church at Moulsecoomb.
My father the Rev Jack Money was the Vicar of Moulsecoomb and he was the head of the team ministry covering Bevendean, Coldean and Moulsecoomb from 1963 to 1975. He succeeded the Rev Ronald Newton.
My father and mother, my younger brother Duncan, my little sister Mary and I lived in the Vicarage together.
Moulsecoomb seemed very urban to me!
The family made use of the garden. My mother was a very keen gardener and spent quite a bit of time cultivating the flowerbeds. Dad’s role was to cut the grass! I can remember being with my mother at the shops in the Avenue when someone said to her ‘Is that your son up that tree?’ Effortlessly my brother had climbed to the top of one of the very tall fir trees at the front of the garden and my mother nearly had a fit.
I remember the Telephone boxes in Moulsecoomb, especially the one just up the road in Hillside, where I used to call friends that I didn’t want my parents to know about. And where I used to meet up with a boy called Chalky White!
As far as I can remember my parents used the shops in the Avenue as neither of them drove a car.
Jenny on looking at a photograph of Alison Phillips being christened by Fr Jack Money at St Andrews Church on 6 June 1975 commented “that was my darling dad, he died so young aged 66”.
The church was well attended as far as I can remember. On Christmas Eve, at the Midnight Mass, the local rockers would all turn up after the pubs closed and Dad would welcome them publicly. They always remained standing at the back. And I remember feeling very tearful when Dad and the choir processed around the church. Dad would always look over at me and give me a beaming smile and I was so proud that it reduced me to tears. I also remember Dad being friends with one of the presenters on Radio Sussex, who nicknamed Dad the hippy vicar, as he had a crew cut and wore open sandals! I can also remember him bringing our little Yorkshire Terrier into the church once to illustrate something in one of his sermons. He also started the Jazz Masses which I think, were held, at Coldean Church.
I did not get involved with the church activities, as I recall, I just pumped up the organ from time to time.
I can remember watching my dad when he was up at the altar scrabbling about with a vase of flowers. I said to him afterwards, "what were you doing". He replied "I dropped the cones of incense into the flowers and I had to put them in the thurifer so I was trying to find them and dry them on my Cassock.
The church hall was a lovely place. I went to the youth club there and watched Peter Field and his band playing! I also remember a group called The Motion.
Thinking about community events, I can remember the Gilbert and Sullivan productions which the choir put on, which my mother and Bernard Fennell, the choir master, organised. There were also Barn Dances which took place in the church hall.
I attended the youth club in the church hall and I went to confirmation classes with Tony Pannett again as I fancied a boy called Peter Swaffer who was following them!
We travelled in and out of the estate on the number 49 or 49A bus.
I used to babysit for Derek and Sally Hill who lived near where the premier express shop at the top of the Avenue. This was in the mid-1960s. That is about all I can remember about Bevendean.
I think that the biggest change in Moulsecoomb over the years is that there are many more cars on the estate.
The best thing I remember about Moulsecoomb was the lovely house we lived in and my friends who lived just along the road. I also remember jumping off the bus as it slowed down on the first bend in Hillside.
When my father moved from his post at Moulsecoomb I moved to France, where I lived for 12 years.
I came back to live in Lewes in 1985 with a two-year-old son and went back to work at the University of Sussex; I was offered accommodation by a former colleague in Kingston.
I have many small memories, such as my father having to cycle at night to someone who was apparently dying but who then didn’t do so. By the time Dad got home, the phone would ring again and Dad would have to jump on his bike again in the dark and go back to them! I also remember Dad being called to a home somewhere in Moulsecoomb where he found a child kept in a cage on the landing upstairs. And another time when he came home from conducting the burial of a child – he was in tears as he and the gravediggers were the only ones there.
Peter Field who became the Lord Lieutenant in 2008 was one of my dad’s servers and I remember taking the mickey out of Peter Field when he was first made Lord Lieutenant. I had photographs of him playing on the stage in Moulsecoomb in the Church Hall and when he was in a band and I threatened to publish them. Peter Field retired as the Lord Lieutenant in 2021 and was succeeded by Andrew Blackman.
My mother and Bernard Fennell used to put on Gilbert and Sullivan productions and things like that. Bernard also put on Concerts in the church.
My mother and Bernard ran church choir camps in the 1970s near Hastings or Rye. Len Poulton was so amazing because he sang in the choir but he had only got one lung. Dear old Stan Wilson who did his own thing and was so funny.
Note: Rev Jack Money was a Curate at St Anne Church in Lewes from 1959 to 1963 before moving to become the Vicar of Moulsecoomb from 12 Jun 1963 to 7 Sep 1975.
When he left Moulsecoomb he moved to become the Rector of Heene in Worthing.
