Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Marjorie Phillips further memories of Bevendean - continued
Bevendean, we lived in Bevendean in Plymouth Avenue and it was on the
outskirts of the council estate because apart for two story blocks of
flats at the end of the road the rest was housing that was privately
built by the owners. On one side of the road were the Ex-service
men’s houses which were built collectively by the group of people
who lived in them. The foreman was Mr White and he lived in Plymouth
Avenue. And we have got pictures of Mr Lemon who was one of the main
builders. On the other side of Plymouth Avenue where we lived there
were bungalows and they were built on individual plots by the family
who then lived in them. When we moved there ours was two years old and
the man who had built it moved to Canada.
It was exciting living in Bevendean, and it felt strange because we didn’t go upstairs to sleep. We had a lovely garden with lots of flowers and a pathway through the rockery which had been built on the steep slope at the front. There were lizards in the garden and sometimes I managed to catch one in a jar and let it go again because dad said it was ‘cruel ‘to keep them. The cats were better than me at catching lizards and they caught mice. Once we found a mouse in the bed springs it had used the sheet to make a nest!
Opposite us on the hill to the north of Heath Hill Avenue, I went to play with friends. And in the spring there were violets and there were lots of other wild flowers and grasses that we used to pick. Now the hill has been over taken by bushes and the flowers are all overgrown. We walked over the Downs a lot and Dad told me the names of birds, butterflies and flowers and he knew where to pick mushrooms in the autumn, and where blackberries and wild raspberries grew. The wild raspberries grew near the Falmer road. We picked wild raspberries and blackberries and Aunties were always making jam. Once when we were walking near Caburn we found a lot of wild strawberries which we picked for tea. Oh and sometimes Dad would buy fruit in the open market and aunties would bottle it. I don't remember quite what they bottled apart from the apricots, and they were lovely but they gave us food poisoning, and auntie never bottled apricots again. Apparently it was something to do with growth on the skin which obviously wasn't killed by the bottling process.
One walk I did like was when Dad worked some Saturdays, when he finished work we would meet him at the Palace Pier and we would catch a bus either to Seaford or to Exceat. When we went to Seaford it was good because we walked from Seaford Head to where the Cuckmere River flows into the sea and we used to ford it and it was great fun because aunties did not like doing it and they often slipped but I thought it was great fun because it made me laugh. If we walked, if the tide was too high for us to cross the river we used to go to Exceat we still walked the Seven Sisters but we walked right into Eastbourne then. When we walked the Seven Sisters from Seaford we always caught the bus at Beachy Head and there is another walk we used to do which we did quite often and we left home and walked up Juggs Lane past the Dew pond and across the Falmer road to Newmarket Copse and then over Kingston Ridge and down into Southease, and there were pillars or posts by the side of the road when we walked which were there from when they put anti-tank things in, but we crossed the river at Exceat (Southease) and walked up to Firle Beacon. Then from Firle Beacon we walked down the hill and caught the bus which I think was a 25 because in that time two buses went to Eastbourne, one went the country route which was the 25 and one went along the seafront which I think was the 12 as it is still now.
I went to the local school and I made friends but most of my leisure time was spent with my family. My youngest Aunt took over the role of providing for family gatherings after Nan died and they were always at Plymouth Avenue. Sunday was the day we went to the cemetery we always went to put fresh flowers on Nan’s grave and then after we had done that the rest of the family, my married aunts children and grandchildren used to come and we had cake and tea and a chat and Auntie had to buy a big enamel teapot, and I have still got it and occasionally is comes in useful.
These family gatherings were a regular thing and at Christmas the family stayed for several days. Everyone found somewhere to sleep, top to tail in the beds, or in lines on the hall floor and sometimes in the living room. And one Christmas two of my cousins walked over the hill from Higher Bevendean with a cot over their head for the baby to sleep. Our family Christmas involved lots of eating and a walk on Boxing Day usually to Kingston Ridge because Auntie wanted to get everyone out of the bungalow so she could tidy and restock the sweets, nuts and fruit. Before Christmas I remember many visits to the local hardware shop for paraffin, so that we could make sure that the hall was warm for the people who had to sleep there. I took the paraffin back on my scooter which had a very wide footplate which they don't have these days. And for some reason I remember having to buy lots of light bulbs because auntie had a thing about all the light bulbs going and people staying.
And Christmas was always fun and we played party games like pass the parcel and we set treasure hunts and everyone was rushing around the house or outside looking for clues. And as well as a big celebration at Christmas we also marked birthdays by parties.
We did not have holidays when I was very young because my paternal no maternal grandfather lived with us so until he went to live with one of his other sons; we had lots of days out. We went to the Isle of Wight a lot but we started early. We walked to what was then the tram depot at the bottom of Bear Road, and then we could get a bus to St. Peter’s Church and walk to the station. We went early because we could then catch the workman’s train to Portsmouth Harbour and then the first ferry to the Island which not only gave us a long day out, but it was the workman’s train and it was cheaper. To me was like an adventure, we always went when the tide would be ‘right’ for a day on the beach and Dad’s married sister and her husband often came with us. They always hired deck chairs and they moved them up and down the sand with the ebb and flow of the tide. My uncle George was full of little sayings and the one I remember best, having spent a day sheltering from the rain in one of the shelters on the seafront, was each heavy shower was followed by, ‘it’s a clearing up shower’. But that day the showers never cleared up.
Another day out was to London and again we got up very early and this time we walked all the way to Brighton station because this workman’s train to Victoria went much earlier than the one to Portsmouth Harbour. I was taken to London Zoo several times and each time Dad and Aunties would get into different ticket queues so that I could have all the rides; the elephant and the camel, and a llama cart and pony and trap. I was taken to London Zoo to see Brumas who was born in 1949. She was the first baby polar bear to be successfully reared in Britain and was so popular that newsreels, books, postcards, toys and other souvenirs celebrated her fame. I even had a ‘Brumas’ soap, I never used it though. I have since learned that she caused such interest that, in 1950, the Zoo’s annual attendance figures reached the 3 million mark which has never been exceeded. Brumas lived until May 1958 and she was always on my list of animals I had to visit when I went to the zoo.
Dad also liked exhibitions and on the occasions we went to one of these we had to walk to Olympia from Victoria Station because having caught the workman’s train to Victoria we were too early for the exhibition to be open. We all went to the Food exhibition and to the Ideal Home exhibition and the greatest treat of the day was getting a taxi from Olympia back to Victoria because we had lots and lots of goodies.
For two or three years Dad took me to the Boat Show which was just after Christmas. We went with someone from Dad’s work at the Path lab and I think we went by car because I don't remember going by train. This friend had a son and as a treat for being good in the exhibition we were taken to the circus at the same venue. There were lions and tigers and they were wonderful and scary and the trapeze artists were magical. And I woke up the other morning having thought about this interview and having just had a dream about circuses.
This is an edited transcript of a recording with Mrs Marjorie Phillips for the History on Your Doorstep Oral History Project recorded on 20 May 2015 and held at the KEEP, © ESRO.
It was exciting living in Bevendean, and it felt strange because we didn’t go upstairs to sleep. We had a lovely garden with lots of flowers and a pathway through the rockery which had been built on the steep slope at the front. There were lizards in the garden and sometimes I managed to catch one in a jar and let it go again because dad said it was ‘cruel ‘to keep them. The cats were better than me at catching lizards and they caught mice. Once we found a mouse in the bed springs it had used the sheet to make a nest!
Opposite us on the hill to the north of Heath Hill Avenue, I went to play with friends. And in the spring there were violets and there were lots of other wild flowers and grasses that we used to pick. Now the hill has been over taken by bushes and the flowers are all overgrown. We walked over the Downs a lot and Dad told me the names of birds, butterflies and flowers and he knew where to pick mushrooms in the autumn, and where blackberries and wild raspberries grew. The wild raspberries grew near the Falmer road. We picked wild raspberries and blackberries and Aunties were always making jam. Once when we were walking near Caburn we found a lot of wild strawberries which we picked for tea. Oh and sometimes Dad would buy fruit in the open market and aunties would bottle it. I don't remember quite what they bottled apart from the apricots, and they were lovely but they gave us food poisoning, and auntie never bottled apricots again. Apparently it was something to do with growth on the skin which obviously wasn't killed by the bottling process.
One walk I did like was when Dad worked some Saturdays, when he finished work we would meet him at the Palace Pier and we would catch a bus either to Seaford or to Exceat. When we went to Seaford it was good because we walked from Seaford Head to where the Cuckmere River flows into the sea and we used to ford it and it was great fun because aunties did not like doing it and they often slipped but I thought it was great fun because it made me laugh. If we walked, if the tide was too high for us to cross the river we used to go to Exceat we still walked the Seven Sisters but we walked right into Eastbourne then. When we walked the Seven Sisters from Seaford we always caught the bus at Beachy Head and there is another walk we used to do which we did quite often and we left home and walked up Juggs Lane past the Dew pond and across the Falmer road to Newmarket Copse and then over Kingston Ridge and down into Southease, and there were pillars or posts by the side of the road when we walked which were there from when they put anti-tank things in, but we crossed the river at Exceat (Southease) and walked up to Firle Beacon. Then from Firle Beacon we walked down the hill and caught the bus which I think was a 25 because in that time two buses went to Eastbourne, one went the country route which was the 25 and one went along the seafront which I think was the 12 as it is still now.
I went to the local school and I made friends but most of my leisure time was spent with my family. My youngest Aunt took over the role of providing for family gatherings after Nan died and they were always at Plymouth Avenue. Sunday was the day we went to the cemetery we always went to put fresh flowers on Nan’s grave and then after we had done that the rest of the family, my married aunts children and grandchildren used to come and we had cake and tea and a chat and Auntie had to buy a big enamel teapot, and I have still got it and occasionally is comes in useful.
These family gatherings were a regular thing and at Christmas the family stayed for several days. Everyone found somewhere to sleep, top to tail in the beds, or in lines on the hall floor and sometimes in the living room. And one Christmas two of my cousins walked over the hill from Higher Bevendean with a cot over their head for the baby to sleep. Our family Christmas involved lots of eating and a walk on Boxing Day usually to Kingston Ridge because Auntie wanted to get everyone out of the bungalow so she could tidy and restock the sweets, nuts and fruit. Before Christmas I remember many visits to the local hardware shop for paraffin, so that we could make sure that the hall was warm for the people who had to sleep there. I took the paraffin back on my scooter which had a very wide footplate which they don't have these days. And for some reason I remember having to buy lots of light bulbs because auntie had a thing about all the light bulbs going and people staying.
And Christmas was always fun and we played party games like pass the parcel and we set treasure hunts and everyone was rushing around the house or outside looking for clues. And as well as a big celebration at Christmas we also marked birthdays by parties.
We did not have holidays when I was very young because my paternal no maternal grandfather lived with us so until he went to live with one of his other sons; we had lots of days out. We went to the Isle of Wight a lot but we started early. We walked to what was then the tram depot at the bottom of Bear Road, and then we could get a bus to St. Peter’s Church and walk to the station. We went early because we could then catch the workman’s train to Portsmouth Harbour and then the first ferry to the Island which not only gave us a long day out, but it was the workman’s train and it was cheaper. To me was like an adventure, we always went when the tide would be ‘right’ for a day on the beach and Dad’s married sister and her husband often came with us. They always hired deck chairs and they moved them up and down the sand with the ebb and flow of the tide. My uncle George was full of little sayings and the one I remember best, having spent a day sheltering from the rain in one of the shelters on the seafront, was each heavy shower was followed by, ‘it’s a clearing up shower’. But that day the showers never cleared up.
Another day out was to London and again we got up very early and this time we walked all the way to Brighton station because this workman’s train to Victoria went much earlier than the one to Portsmouth Harbour. I was taken to London Zoo several times and each time Dad and Aunties would get into different ticket queues so that I could have all the rides; the elephant and the camel, and a llama cart and pony and trap. I was taken to London Zoo to see Brumas who was born in 1949. She was the first baby polar bear to be successfully reared in Britain and was so popular that newsreels, books, postcards, toys and other souvenirs celebrated her fame. I even had a ‘Brumas’ soap, I never used it though. I have since learned that she caused such interest that, in 1950, the Zoo’s annual attendance figures reached the 3 million mark which has never been exceeded. Brumas lived until May 1958 and she was always on my list of animals I had to visit when I went to the zoo.
Dad also liked exhibitions and on the occasions we went to one of these we had to walk to Olympia from Victoria Station because having caught the workman’s train to Victoria we were too early for the exhibition to be open. We all went to the Food exhibition and to the Ideal Home exhibition and the greatest treat of the day was getting a taxi from Olympia back to Victoria because we had lots and lots of goodies.
For two or three years Dad took me to the Boat Show which was just after Christmas. We went with someone from Dad’s work at the Path lab and I think we went by car because I don't remember going by train. This friend had a son and as a treat for being good in the exhibition we were taken to the circus at the same venue. There were lions and tigers and they were wonderful and scary and the trapeze artists were magical. And I woke up the other morning having thought about this interview and having just had a dream about circuses.
This is an edited transcript of a recording with Mrs Marjorie Phillips for the History on Your Doorstep Oral History Project recorded on 20 May 2015 and held at the KEEP, © ESRO.
Story_007c