Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
John Funnell remembers Bevendean part 3
Retirement
After 5 months on the jobseekers allowance I actually got 3 jobs in one week, one was at Morrisons, one was at Partridge House which of course is at Bevendean. I stayed at Morrisons for about 3 months very good, very nice people. Partridge house offered me a job on bank staff. I said no but if you can give me a permanent position with about 20 hours per week I would be interested. Within about 3 months they said “did you still want the job”, so I went along to Partridge House as a carer and it was wonderful. I really loved the job, when I was there it was a wonderful establishment everybody was so friendly, it was nice, it was a good place to be and I am really sad to say I got more job satisfaction in that last 18 months caring for people with Alzheimer's than I did for 40 odd years making tin boxes. But that's the way it goes, sadly I would probably still be working there but arthritis kicked in and it was not the policy that the residents helped you, you are supposed to be helping them, so I felt it was time to retire.
RetirementAfter 5 months on the jobseekers allowance I actually got 3 jobs in one week, one was at Morrisons, one was at Partridge House which of course is at Bevendean. I stayed at Morrisons for about 3 months very good, very nice people. Partridge house offered me a job on bank staff. I said no but if you can give me a permanent position with about 20 hours per week I would be interested. Within about 3 months they said “did you still want the job”, so I went along to Partridge House as a carer and it was wonderful. I really loved the job, when I was there it was a wonderful establishment everybody was so friendly, it was nice, it was a good place to be and I am really sad to say I got more job satisfaction in that last 18 months caring for people with Alzheimer's than I did for 40 odd years making tin boxes. But that's the way it goes, sadly I would probably still be working there but arthritis kicked in and it was not the policy that the residents helped you, you are supposed to be helping them, so I felt it was time to retire.
But Brighton Sheet Metal has got a history in its own right. I used to
do the factory plans and you could see they were always changing it. It
was a very nebulous sort of environment it was always under change it's
very high-tech now. It's still there so I suppose they must be doing
the right things and adapting to the climate and what have you.
Living in Coldean
When I got married we moved to our first flat which was at Chatham Place at the top of New England Hill. Then we moved from there down to Park Crescent. We had a big flat there which was incredible, the front room was 18 ft.² and it was 14 feet high, it was a massive front room, we never decorated because we couldn't afford it, we never had a big enough carpet to cover the whole room and we also had the upstairs which must have been the servants quarters when the house was originally occupied. Again there was no central heating, so it was freezing cold but we managed to get on the Brighton housing scheme. You could actually buy your house for £10 deposit and we actually put our name down on it but then we then managed to buy a house in Ewart Street in Brighton just off the Islingword Road. That was £10 deposit and I think it was £2700, it was an old house 2 up 2 down, but I did the plans for the alterations and we changed it into a 3 bedroomed house. It was nice we were there for about 5 or 6 years, but then our neighbours moved to Patcham and we thought we would have a look round and we looked all over the place, Bevendean, Woodingdean and then the estate agent said there's a house in Coldean. He said the sale has just fallen through, if we were interested, so we went and had a look, we never even knew that Coldean existed, we used to drive past it. We came up and got into the house we just looked out of the window and we had got beautiful views over to Stanmer Woods and that was it we just fell in love with it. We went back and did the calculations about the bills and we worked out that at the end of the month from my salary and the outlay and the new mortgage we would have a pound spare. We thought we would take the risk, we moved in August and we got our rise in October so we thought that would give us a little bit of breathing space, but then they put the bank rate up in November.
What was frightening and people today don't realise it, the bank rate then was about 12 or 13%. It is about 0.5% now, but we never regretted coming here. Before we had lived in town and there was not all the recreation so I used to take my sons who were about 10 or 11 over to Happy Valley to play football in the evening. Or we used to take them down the town to the beach. But at Coldean there was a lot more open space and areas to get out and explore. We had only been there about 2 or 3 years when the children become teenagers and the whole emphasis moved back to the town and the children asked what have you move out here for? But it is lovely you certainly know the seasons here it's very much a village temperament I think and we've enjoyed it here we've been lucky and had brilliant neighbours. So I think Bevendean and Coldean from what I can remember of it have been happy times perhaps it is rose tinted glasses I don't know.
I do remember at Coldean when you get the snow unfortunately where we are at Reeves Hill that is the last one to defrost it's always a skid pan right until the last minute. But again I used to have a neighbour at Reeves Hill who was American and he used to go out and get a shovel and grit salt and put it down. He said "John this is what you've got to do you've got to clear" and that was it. So now if we get snow I tend to go down the road but not only me other people go down too. There was certainly one who had a lorry and he used to drive up and put the grit down so the snow melted. And again it is quite a nice quiet atmosphere and of course with the shops we have got great service, Mannish and the family are wonderful. Mannish does a lot for the community he will deliver drugs etc to those who can't make it. Our next door neighbour is Joshi and he is certainly involved with the youth club, there's a youth club and the school and they have a lot of summer events. So there is a lot going on, it is quite a nice environment and we don't seem to have too much crime I am aware of. We've had a couple of cars stolen and things like that but there isn't too much to worry about.
Coldean Archaeology
My interest is archaeology so I'm really interested in the surrounding area and certainly at Coldean we have had a couple of major excavations. At Downsview where there used to be a handicapped children school and another excavation due to the creation of the Brighton Bypass and Varley Halls where just across the road we found 2 Bronze Age settlements so Coldean has certainly got Bronze Age villages. Flint work from the Neolithic period has been found so 5000 years ago we know people were round here and the little plateau which runs down around Nanson road was once an Iron Age and Roman settlement. We actually did some excavations at the bottom of Reeves Hill. A guy was building a house in his garden and we said could we do an excavation and he said you certainly can and we actually found Roman finds there. In Wolsey road, we used to do watching briefs for the Council, and someone was building an extension we didn't find anything there, but when he cut the soakaway he cut right through a Roman ditch so we know there is certainly Roman, Bronze Age, Iron Age stuff around Coldean so there is plenty of archaeology around here.
Bevendean Archaeology
The name I think is of Saxon origin. There is a major settlement at the back of Norwich Drive but sadly it was ploughed away for years. Recently there was a report written in the Sussex Archaeological Collections about Bevendean and the field system there, and certainly, when we used to wander up there we found Iron Age pottery when they ploughed the fields. Where my mother lived at Walmer Crescent my sister said “you were always digging holes even when you were little”, and I was always digging holes and one thing we used to find a lot of in our garden was Oyster shells. If you're digging on a Roman site oyster shells are one thing you always find. And where our house was you can actually look down the valley from our front garden and see Hollingbury hillfort in the distance. So if you had the big settlement on the hill to the right there must be more, it's just a matter of finding them.
Living in Coldean
When I got married we moved to our first flat which was at Chatham Place at the top of New England Hill. Then we moved from there down to Park Crescent. We had a big flat there which was incredible, the front room was 18 ft.² and it was 14 feet high, it was a massive front room, we never decorated because we couldn't afford it, we never had a big enough carpet to cover the whole room and we also had the upstairs which must have been the servants quarters when the house was originally occupied. Again there was no central heating, so it was freezing cold but we managed to get on the Brighton housing scheme. You could actually buy your house for £10 deposit and we actually put our name down on it but then we then managed to buy a house in Ewart Street in Brighton just off the Islingword Road. That was £10 deposit and I think it was £2700, it was an old house 2 up 2 down, but I did the plans for the alterations and we changed it into a 3 bedroomed house. It was nice we were there for about 5 or 6 years, but then our neighbours moved to Patcham and we thought we would have a look round and we looked all over the place, Bevendean, Woodingdean and then the estate agent said there's a house in Coldean. He said the sale has just fallen through, if we were interested, so we went and had a look, we never even knew that Coldean existed, we used to drive past it. We came up and got into the house we just looked out of the window and we had got beautiful views over to Stanmer Woods and that was it we just fell in love with it. We went back and did the calculations about the bills and we worked out that at the end of the month from my salary and the outlay and the new mortgage we would have a pound spare. We thought we would take the risk, we moved in August and we got our rise in October so we thought that would give us a little bit of breathing space, but then they put the bank rate up in November.
What was frightening and people today don't realise it, the bank rate then was about 12 or 13%. It is about 0.5% now, but we never regretted coming here. Before we had lived in town and there was not all the recreation so I used to take my sons who were about 10 or 11 over to Happy Valley to play football in the evening. Or we used to take them down the town to the beach. But at Coldean there was a lot more open space and areas to get out and explore. We had only been there about 2 or 3 years when the children become teenagers and the whole emphasis moved back to the town and the children asked what have you move out here for? But it is lovely you certainly know the seasons here it's very much a village temperament I think and we've enjoyed it here we've been lucky and had brilliant neighbours. So I think Bevendean and Coldean from what I can remember of it have been happy times perhaps it is rose tinted glasses I don't know.
I do remember at Coldean when you get the snow unfortunately where we are at Reeves Hill that is the last one to defrost it's always a skid pan right until the last minute. But again I used to have a neighbour at Reeves Hill who was American and he used to go out and get a shovel and grit salt and put it down. He said "John this is what you've got to do you've got to clear" and that was it. So now if we get snow I tend to go down the road but not only me other people go down too. There was certainly one who had a lorry and he used to drive up and put the grit down so the snow melted. And again it is quite a nice quiet atmosphere and of course with the shops we have got great service, Mannish and the family are wonderful. Mannish does a lot for the community he will deliver drugs etc to those who can't make it. Our next door neighbour is Joshi and he is certainly involved with the youth club, there's a youth club and the school and they have a lot of summer events. So there is a lot going on, it is quite a nice environment and we don't seem to have too much crime I am aware of. We've had a couple of cars stolen and things like that but there isn't too much to worry about.
Coldean Archaeology
My interest is archaeology so I'm really interested in the surrounding area and certainly at Coldean we have had a couple of major excavations. At Downsview where there used to be a handicapped children school and another excavation due to the creation of the Brighton Bypass and Varley Halls where just across the road we found 2 Bronze Age settlements so Coldean has certainly got Bronze Age villages. Flint work from the Neolithic period has been found so 5000 years ago we know people were round here and the little plateau which runs down around Nanson road was once an Iron Age and Roman settlement. We actually did some excavations at the bottom of Reeves Hill. A guy was building a house in his garden and we said could we do an excavation and he said you certainly can and we actually found Roman finds there. In Wolsey road, we used to do watching briefs for the Council, and someone was building an extension we didn't find anything there, but when he cut the soakaway he cut right through a Roman ditch so we know there is certainly Roman, Bronze Age, Iron Age stuff around Coldean so there is plenty of archaeology around here.
Bevendean Archaeology
The name I think is of Saxon origin. There is a major settlement at the back of Norwich Drive but sadly it was ploughed away for years. Recently there was a report written in the Sussex Archaeological Collections about Bevendean and the field system there, and certainly, when we used to wander up there we found Iron Age pottery when they ploughed the fields. Where my mother lived at Walmer Crescent my sister said “you were always digging holes even when you were little”, and I was always digging holes and one thing we used to find a lot of in our garden was Oyster shells. If you're digging on a Roman site oyster shells are one thing you always find. And where our house was you can actually look down the valley from our front garden and see Hollingbury hillfort in the distance. So if you had the big settlement on the hill to the right there must be more, it's just a matter of finding them.
This is an edited transcript of a recording with Mr John Funnell for the History on Your Doorstep Oral History Project recorded on 9 July 2015 and held at the KEEP, © ESRO.
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