Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Andre Bevan memories of Bevendean continued
I can remember some of the neighbours in Heath Hill Avenue. There was a
Shoesmith, Springate, Chessle and Huggett. One of the neighbours always
wore a white vest, he was one of these chaps winter and summer who
would be out flexing his muscles with one of these boxers vest on, his
name was Heath and he had a son called Michael who was my age.
My Adopted Father
There were 2 boys and my mother and father in the house. My adopted father had a very good job; he was a wholesale buyer in the fruit and vegetable business. He used to go up to Covent Garden every day choose the best produce available and purchase it on behalf of restaurants, hotels and shops in the Brighton and Hove area.
I can’t really remember what the garden was like but I think it was just lawn. My adopted father Wally was not interested in anything like that. We had an existence, my brother and I, we were just accepted. You see that was the condition under which my mother married Wally that he would take her 2 boys and he did. He didn’t actually lay rules down but he would feed us clothe us and house us and that was how it was. That was okay by me but my brother really couldn’t accept it, he wanted more than that, he didn’t have a good childhood, he was always ill and had problems with his health and all those things that went with an introverted being.
The Summer Holidays
I remember changes in the seasons; I think that the summers were always great because I would be out over the Downs as soon as the summer holidays came. Mum would pack up sandwiches in greaseproof paper in an old camp bag. I had a pair of plimsolls and a pair of shorts, a bottle of orange squash and I went over the Downs enjoying myself on my own all day coming back about 5 o’clock ravenous. My mother would ask, “Where have you been son”? My reply was, “I’ve had a wonderful time I trod in a wasps nest, look”.
People say were the summers better then, they might have been, it was a pattern of thought that everybody had. You wanted it to be like that, even if it was overcast, it was good because it was a break for 6 weeks with no school. You made it idyllic no matter what as long as you could get out. Also my stepfather Wally used to like sunshine so when he was not working he liked to be in the sun, sunning himself and he used to like going down to the beach. We used to spend a lot of weekends at Black Rock swimming pool, we loved going there. I used to go off early with a friend and make my own way over there. We walked up Jacob’s ladder to Bevendean Road, where the isolation hospital was, called Bevendean Sanatorium. I walked all the way up there over to Bear Road and then down Wilsons Avenue or down Manor Road to the swimming baths and wait for my parents to come down in the car with my brother. I would have one of those tyres round me, one of those blow-up tyres. There used to be a beach attached to the Black Rock swimming pool and there were lots of children who had a rubber tyre. You’d put your canvas bag on top and swim around the Groyne onto the Black Rock Beach and the swimming pool without paying. I had seen other people doing it so; I thought I’ll try it. It saved you 6d or a shilling or whatever it was, and that was just enterprise wasn’t it.
So in the summer holidays the weather was always good, whether it was raining or just normal summer weather, the summers were seasonal. You had the odd showers but you did have cold winters a fairly good spring and a fairly normal summer and the autumn was usually fine. Today because of the Ozone it is all jumbled up.
Winter Weather
I wouldn’t say there was a lot of snow in the winter, there were periods of time when there was a lot of snow, but I can’t particularly remember. We used to go up the hillside near us if there was snow around and we went out in it, we didn’t think anything of it but when we got home my brother would be crying because his hands was so cold with the wet snow. As I can remember there was snow, but not particularly anything where we were cut off.
People who lived at the end of Norwich Drive sometimes got a lot of snow because it was more open, you wouldn’t have got that in Heath Hill Avenue, also being on a main road there were buses and delivery vehicles and they soon broke the snow down.
I vaguely remember the farm at the end of Heath Hill Avenue because I know it was there, but I didn’t venture up there I was always down my end because the friends I knew and played with were all down at that end. I remember walking past it to go to the school but I think it was walled off or something and I didn’t take a lot of interest in it, but I remember it was there but I never went inside it.
I remember there were allotments at the back of Manton Road, we used to go up there scrumping and also getting raspberries or something and I remember a bloke chasing us and I ran through stinging nettles, very high ones.
As far as I can remember the bottom of Norwich Drive, Hornby Road and Auckland Drive were already built because Heath Hill Avenue went round with Auckland Drive off to the right and Heath Hill Avenue carried on until you got to the start of Norwich Drive which ran round to join Heath Hill Avenue at the far end of the estate. I think it was mostly built by that time; the only building going on was up at Plymouth Avenue.
What I call the Council houses were already built on the top part of Plymouth Avenue. [The houses that look a bit like Council houses were built by 20 ex-servicemen built in a style similar to some of the Council houses.]
Shops in Lower Bevendean
The only shops I remember would be the ones at the junction of Upper and Lower Bevendean Avenues. There was a crescent shaped parade with a hairdresser’s, a haberdashery, a greengrocer, a grocer, a newsagent’s whose name was Mr Smith. I was a paperboy in the mornings and on Sundays. There was a hardware shop, a fish and chip shop and bakers. I’m not sure if they are in the right order, at the rear there was a delivery alleyway, which was unusual.
The Barn Church
There was an old barn used as a church, it was relatively large, that’s my impression, being a little man everything looks bigger doesn’t it especially when you go inside. It had been renovated but I don’t remember too much about it. I went with my family to attend as a young lad but I don’t think I paid much attention to what was going on, I was there but I wasn’t very attentive. I did attend the actual prayers and got my prayer book so I must have spent some Sundays there.
Community Facilities and the Boys Brigade
Thinking about local community facilities, you have to remember that my adopted father didn’t want to be involved in anything. He wasn’t an outside person, he would just say hello to the neighbours, that would be it he wouldn’t want to swap sugar, and he was independent of everything. We were never invited to go into anything local in the area even the scouts or the cubs that were there. Hence I went down to Lewes Road to join the Boys Brigade which I enjoyed. That was at the Congregational Church on the right-hand side going down the Lewes Road; that has been converted it into flats now. They have left the front and demolished what was behind to build the flats. That was a good time I enjoyed going there and made friends.
There were 4 aspects in my mother’s life regarding me, kindness, respect, practicability and independence. With regard to respect when I joined the 13th boys brigade, she helped and instructed me with my uniform and showed me the proper way to clean my brasses and leather, she instilled in me respect for myself and my attire and that has gone on all my life. Regarding independence she also allowed me to stand on my own two feet at the age of 6 when she allowed me to go to school on the bus on my own and return the same way. At the age of 16 she encouraged me in my wish to go to sea and I joined the Merchant Navy which I did at an early age. She taught me to stand on my own two feet and to have respect for myself and others and be kind and considerate and happy. That was the thoughts I had about my mother.
Originally because of my age I went to the young section of the Boys Brigade which was called the life boys, you might not have heard of them. We wore one of those Guernsey type jumpers with a roll-neck and they itched like anything, as if made of wire! We had a sailor cap which came round and had a lifebuoy on it. I think we had brown shorts and black shoes and socks with something on them; I wasn’t in there long, I think it was only about a year, and then I was old enough to join the boy’s side of it.
My Fathers Car
My adopted father had a car and it was a nice car, it was an American car a shooting brake, they were like a modern day estate car now. It was like the old Morris Minor which had wood on the sides of it.
I think my father might have used the car to bring stuff back from London, but what he normally did, because there was a lot of produce, was to meet a truck there and they would load the produce onto the truck and bring it back to Brighton and distribute it. They had a place in the fruit and vegetable market down in Circus Street Brighton, it’s been demolished now. That is where the person he worked for had his stand or place of work. I don’t know much about the car, it just appeared and the neighbourhood talked about it I should think.
continued
My Adopted Father
There were 2 boys and my mother and father in the house. My adopted father had a very good job; he was a wholesale buyer in the fruit and vegetable business. He used to go up to Covent Garden every day choose the best produce available and purchase it on behalf of restaurants, hotels and shops in the Brighton and Hove area.
I can’t really remember what the garden was like but I think it was just lawn. My adopted father Wally was not interested in anything like that. We had an existence, my brother and I, we were just accepted. You see that was the condition under which my mother married Wally that he would take her 2 boys and he did. He didn’t actually lay rules down but he would feed us clothe us and house us and that was how it was. That was okay by me but my brother really couldn’t accept it, he wanted more than that, he didn’t have a good childhood, he was always ill and had problems with his health and all those things that went with an introverted being.
The Summer Holidays
I remember changes in the seasons; I think that the summers were always great because I would be out over the Downs as soon as the summer holidays came. Mum would pack up sandwiches in greaseproof paper in an old camp bag. I had a pair of plimsolls and a pair of shorts, a bottle of orange squash and I went over the Downs enjoying myself on my own all day coming back about 5 o’clock ravenous. My mother would ask, “Where have you been son”? My reply was, “I’ve had a wonderful time I trod in a wasps nest, look”.
People say were the summers better then, they might have been, it was a pattern of thought that everybody had. You wanted it to be like that, even if it was overcast, it was good because it was a break for 6 weeks with no school. You made it idyllic no matter what as long as you could get out. Also my stepfather Wally used to like sunshine so when he was not working he liked to be in the sun, sunning himself and he used to like going down to the beach. We used to spend a lot of weekends at Black Rock swimming pool, we loved going there. I used to go off early with a friend and make my own way over there. We walked up Jacob’s ladder to Bevendean Road, where the isolation hospital was, called Bevendean Sanatorium. I walked all the way up there over to Bear Road and then down Wilsons Avenue or down Manor Road to the swimming baths and wait for my parents to come down in the car with my brother. I would have one of those tyres round me, one of those blow-up tyres. There used to be a beach attached to the Black Rock swimming pool and there were lots of children who had a rubber tyre. You’d put your canvas bag on top and swim around the Groyne onto the Black Rock Beach and the swimming pool without paying. I had seen other people doing it so; I thought I’ll try it. It saved you 6d or a shilling or whatever it was, and that was just enterprise wasn’t it.
So in the summer holidays the weather was always good, whether it was raining or just normal summer weather, the summers were seasonal. You had the odd showers but you did have cold winters a fairly good spring and a fairly normal summer and the autumn was usually fine. Today because of the Ozone it is all jumbled up.
Winter Weather
I wouldn’t say there was a lot of snow in the winter, there were periods of time when there was a lot of snow, but I can’t particularly remember. We used to go up the hillside near us if there was snow around and we went out in it, we didn’t think anything of it but when we got home my brother would be crying because his hands was so cold with the wet snow. As I can remember there was snow, but not particularly anything where we were cut off.
People who lived at the end of Norwich Drive sometimes got a lot of snow because it was more open, you wouldn’t have got that in Heath Hill Avenue, also being on a main road there were buses and delivery vehicles and they soon broke the snow down.
I vaguely remember the farm at the end of Heath Hill Avenue because I know it was there, but I didn’t venture up there I was always down my end because the friends I knew and played with were all down at that end. I remember walking past it to go to the school but I think it was walled off or something and I didn’t take a lot of interest in it, but I remember it was there but I never went inside it.
I remember there were allotments at the back of Manton Road, we used to go up there scrumping and also getting raspberries or something and I remember a bloke chasing us and I ran through stinging nettles, very high ones.
As far as I can remember the bottom of Norwich Drive, Hornby Road and Auckland Drive were already built because Heath Hill Avenue went round with Auckland Drive off to the right and Heath Hill Avenue carried on until you got to the start of Norwich Drive which ran round to join Heath Hill Avenue at the far end of the estate. I think it was mostly built by that time; the only building going on was up at Plymouth Avenue.
What I call the Council houses were already built on the top part of Plymouth Avenue. [The houses that look a bit like Council houses were built by 20 ex-servicemen built in a style similar to some of the Council houses.]
Shops in Lower Bevendean
The only shops I remember would be the ones at the junction of Upper and Lower Bevendean Avenues. There was a crescent shaped parade with a hairdresser’s, a haberdashery, a greengrocer, a grocer, a newsagent’s whose name was Mr Smith. I was a paperboy in the mornings and on Sundays. There was a hardware shop, a fish and chip shop and bakers. I’m not sure if they are in the right order, at the rear there was a delivery alleyway, which was unusual.
The Barn Church
There was an old barn used as a church, it was relatively large, that’s my impression, being a little man everything looks bigger doesn’t it especially when you go inside. It had been renovated but I don’t remember too much about it. I went with my family to attend as a young lad but I don’t think I paid much attention to what was going on, I was there but I wasn’t very attentive. I did attend the actual prayers and got my prayer book so I must have spent some Sundays there.
Community Facilities and the Boys Brigade
Thinking about local community facilities, you have to remember that my adopted father didn’t want to be involved in anything. He wasn’t an outside person, he would just say hello to the neighbours, that would be it he wouldn’t want to swap sugar, and he was independent of everything. We were never invited to go into anything local in the area even the scouts or the cubs that were there. Hence I went down to Lewes Road to join the Boys Brigade which I enjoyed. That was at the Congregational Church on the right-hand side going down the Lewes Road; that has been converted it into flats now. They have left the front and demolished what was behind to build the flats. That was a good time I enjoyed going there and made friends.
There were 4 aspects in my mother’s life regarding me, kindness, respect, practicability and independence. With regard to respect when I joined the 13th boys brigade, she helped and instructed me with my uniform and showed me the proper way to clean my brasses and leather, she instilled in me respect for myself and my attire and that has gone on all my life. Regarding independence she also allowed me to stand on my own two feet at the age of 6 when she allowed me to go to school on the bus on my own and return the same way. At the age of 16 she encouraged me in my wish to go to sea and I joined the Merchant Navy which I did at an early age. She taught me to stand on my own two feet and to have respect for myself and others and be kind and considerate and happy. That was the thoughts I had about my mother.
Originally because of my age I went to the young section of the Boys Brigade which was called the life boys, you might not have heard of them. We wore one of those Guernsey type jumpers with a roll-neck and they itched like anything, as if made of wire! We had a sailor cap which came round and had a lifebuoy on it. I think we had brown shorts and black shoes and socks with something on them; I wasn’t in there long, I think it was only about a year, and then I was old enough to join the boy’s side of it.
My Fathers Car
My adopted father had a car and it was a nice car, it was an American car a shooting brake, they were like a modern day estate car now. It was like the old Morris Minor which had wood on the sides of it.
I think my father might have used the car to bring stuff back from London, but what he normally did, because there was a lot of produce, was to meet a truck there and they would load the produce onto the truck and bring it back to Brighton and distribute it. They had a place in the fruit and vegetable market down in Circus Street Brighton, it’s been demolished now. That is where the person he worked for had his stand or place of work. I don’t know much about the car, it just appeared and the neighbourhood talked about it I should think.
continued
20 July 2016
Story_024b