Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Eileen Ridge memories of Bevendean part 3 
When I was 11, I went to intermediate school and if you were down in the
shelters for 2 hours Mr Austin came along with his flit gun, we used to
hold our hands up and then smell it because it was lovely, we knew
nothing about inhaling things in those days. We used to say hurry up Mr
Austin but the teachers got very upset because we interrupted their
lessons. Teachers changed ends but we sat in the same places when it
came time for the next lesson. Mr Austin would come round with a barley
sugar each, and for most of us, it was the only sweet we had because
the sweet coupons were detachable and you could trade them with
somebody who didn’t want clothes coupons. I suppose that’s
why we’ve all got fairly good teeth now we are approaching 90.
The Co-op baker had a horse called Amy and one hot day we gave Amy a
bucket of water and after that she pulled the cart up on the pavement
for her bucket of water, that was the Co-op baker. The milkman had a
pushcart first of all to deliver milk; he never had a horse, so later
on he must have had a motorised van. The milk came in bottles with
cardboard tops not the tops we know now but a wider top with a
cardboard cover. If you were not very strong you had to have school
milk which was two and a half pence a week.
Every time the doctor came
we were put on the scales and I tried to press down but the doctor said
I was underweight and must have the milk. Mum had to write a note to
say she couldn’t afford the two and a half pence a week, and I
had to take that to Mr Wallace at my junior school Coombe Road, it was
very embarrassing. Then Mr Harland came round with his van of
vegetables and Mrs Fawkes came round with fish, they were local
Brighton fishermen so it was all fresh fish. On a Sunday a man would
come round with a wheel barrow and he would call out
“Winkley”, that was winkles and that was our Sunday tea. By
the time you had finished with the pin you got about 5 winkles out to
put on the bread to make your sandwich. He had an enamel mug as his
measure. The rag and bone man used to come by shouting out “any
rags” and he would give you a penny or tuppence if you had any
rags. But of course everything was made use of sheets were cut up for
pillowcases, prams or cots.
For the doctor we went to Dr Manse who was in Richmond place opposite
The Level but he would come out to you he came out quite often. The
main thing for young people was the church there was something on every
night at St Andrews, like badminton, or table tennis. We went to the
Fellowship, there was junior Fellowship and senior Fellowship, and of
course Mothers Union for the mums. St Andrews was the only church at
first but there was the Roman Catholic Church, St Francis in
Moulsecoomb Way.
My sister worked at Hanningtons and that was bombed. The boy school got
hit and they repaired the roof so the boys went back quite quickly I
think. That was outside Bevendean that was in Brighton proper. The
nearest bombs we had were on the allotments by Jacob’s ladder
where we went up to school, we heard the thud of them and the whistle.
Dad made us get under the table all except Granny. He said if you heard
the whistle of the bombs you had to get under Mum’s table but I
don’t think he ever got under. When I was down the shelters they
bombed Gloucester Road church and when I came up from the shelters I
remember it was like a fog with the dust from the bombing. The nearest
I ever got was when I was coming home from school they bombed the pub
along the Lewes road. Dad had just gone by on his bicycle and knew that
the buses were still coming along and when I got off the bus at the
shops at the top of the Avenue mum and dad were both waiting for me.
I remember the Coronation. We went along to Mr Hoskins. The people in
the Council houses always seem to be richer than us, it was such a
struggle for us to pay the mortgage, and they seemed to have their
children better dressed. Mr Hoskins had a television and he borrowed
chairs from neighbours and we all had to sit in rows to watch. When the
gold coach came out and you suddenly had a close-up of the Queen
sitting in the gold coach we all gasped. There she was sitting in the
coach we hadn’t expected to see anything as close as that, it was
when she went round the statue of Queen Victoria I think and there was
this sudden close-up of her. Mr Hoskins had a television but we
couldn’t afford it. There was always this thing about us and the
Council houses, us in private houses we were the poorer lot because the
people in the Council houses always had money.
I remember when the school was built; we all thought it was dreadful,
all our lovely farm land. The school was built on Mr Allcorn’s
house. By this time I had married a boy called Peter who had moved into
one of the new houses on the same day in 1933 as we moved, we were both
5. When Peter and I were married Peter moved in with me and Mother and
Granny. Then we had Jonathan and he went to the new school, it was a
very good school. Jonathan went at 5 years old, now for some reason
some of the kids went earlier so they went into what was the babies
class which Jonathan didn’t do so his first teacher was Miss Park
and then he went up one and I can’t remember her name and then he
went into the juniors until he did the 11+.
3rd June 2013
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