Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Andre Bevan memories of Bevendean continued
The White Admiral
I remember going to the White Admiral as a teenager, I have spoken to my friend who was the landlord there but he was only there for a short period. He said there’s nothing really he could add to the story, his name is Percy Anscombe, a very Sussex name he was actually born and grew up in Stanmer village and they had a farm there. He didn’t go to Bevendean School he went to Moulsecoomb School. He lived in Bevendean but I can’t remember where, he was a landlord in various pubs and he took over the White Admiral in about 1977 or 78 but he was only there for a short period about 6 to 8 months or something.
I used to meet some pals there. I had a friend who lived in the prefabs. His mother and father’s name was Pullen and his father’s name was Frank he was a sailor but I can’t remember his mother. My friend’s name was David Pullen he was the same age and we got on very well, so we used to go around together a lot. When I came home from the sea aged about 18 we would meet up at the White Admiral. We had a drink in our local pub and then hopped on the bus into Brighton and finish off by getting the bus back or walking back. Many many times we’ve walked back from Brighton to Lower Bevendean and think nothing of it.
The Bevendean Hotel
Thinking about the Bevendean Hotel, which is now the Bevy Community Pub, my niece was the landlord there, her name was Stella Bevan and some of the people at the place now would know her, she is 35 or a bit older and must been have been there about 12 years ago. They used to live in Mile Oak and she started off being friendly with the daughter of the landlord of the Mile Oak Inn and they used to help behind the bar, doing the glasses and everything else then it graduated to help out a bit further. The owner eventually managed to get her a licence at the age of 18 to manage a pub because he had about 6 pubs he managed, one of the pubs was in Worthing I think it was the Dolphin. I remember us all going over there on her opening day, it was quite a thing my father and mother and brother and her sister. Then I think they took over the Bevendean, this group the Sullivan group I think it was, took over the Bevendean Hotel and she ran it for quite a while and built up quite a good repartee with the staff. I think she had an Alsatian dog because she used to live on the premises and she had the dog for company. She would be the one to talk to for information about the Bevendean Hotel; all the people at the Bevy would probably know her anyway.
Other Memories of my Childhood
Lower Bevendean Avenue is the road that goes down, I remember some people called the Jaspers, Geoffrey Jasper and Wiggins his father was a policeman who lived in the last bit of the road that went round and joined up with Manton road, he lived there and further along towards the path was Alan Baldy, he lived on the pathway that went right up to Plymouth Avenue and 3 doors down was the Whittington family, Tony Whittington and somebody else, they were all on that side. I remember them building the block of flats on the bit of waste ground on the corner between Upper and Lower Bevendean Avenue. I remember that being built because we used to play among the building work when I was a kid. On the other side there is a big substation parallel to it. I had a good friend who lived there called Willy Simmons and Peter May lived in that part of the road.
I remember this chap, he stood out, he was a road sweeper who had a cart that he used to drag along with brushes in one end, he would sweep a little bit, shovel it up put it in the bin and then move along a bit further and put it down. We used to call him birds nest, because he had this very thick hair which went round in a ring always very wiry but the bit in the middle was bald like a nest. Other children called him rubber legs. We used to say “here he comes” and he would say “go on clear off”, he was a miserable old sole. I think he lived in Moulsecoomb somewhere up in that bit around Colbourne or Hillside but his route was down the Avenue and backup the other side because that was all he used to do. We used to play football down on the green, cricket and all those sorts of things and we used to see him. Yes, birds nest I remember him.
I also remember there used to be a horse and cart which came up in the early days with vegetables and under the back part they used to hang things, potatoes and cauliflowers and they used to swing backwards and forwards as the horse went along and there was a bloke sitting on the horse plying his wares. The greengrocer, who had the shop at the top of the Avenue, didn’t want him coming around, but it was enterprise wasn’t it.
Also there were all the other delivery people and a rag and bone man coming around. I remember a chap who used to have a big barrow, he would load it up and because it had only one wheel and because he was small he would have to jump up to get hold of the handles and pull it down to make it level. A little short bloke he was, I think he was Scottish and he used to scream his wares.
Another thing I used to do when we were at the prefabs, if I wanted any extra pocket money, was to do odd jobs. People would say “can you go down and get this, or can you deliver that” and you would say “yes” and then they would give you 3d or 6d or whatever. One of the things we used to do was collect empty bottles and take them back to the off-licence. We would take the lemonade bottles back and get the money back, which was good fun because that wasn’t too much hard work.
Do you remember Corona? When that first came on the scene it was the first delivery of fizzy drinks to your door in Bevendean. A van or lorry used to come round with lemonade, limeade, orangeade, cream soda and a cola which was just called cola. You could buy a case of 6 and then they would come round the next week and take the empty case back and give you another one. The bottles had those stoppers which you had to shut down to keep the fizzing in. Obviously you had the bread man with his little van and all these others, and we used to get the odd Indian in his turban coming round with his suitcase of ties and bits and pieces, knocking on the door and frightening you to death when you open the door. Marvellous this strange man at the door.
I told you I had a paper round, my paper round was coming out of the shop going down the Avenue from the corner of Manton Road to the end, I didn’t do the Highway, then I would come back up the other side right up to the shops again. I used to have a bag which gave me a permanent scar on my shoulder because the bag was so thick and heavy especially on a Sunday, I was only a little chap. I remember carrying this bag and thinking I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it, because there were so many papers on a Sunday when you think about it. Papers you would never think about now the News Chronicle, the Reynolds something.
The first buses to Lower Bevendean were single decker, when they stopped, the double decker buses turned up they were in Southdown colours then they because Brighton and Hove District buses which were red and cream I think. Brighton transport, which had its depot in Lewes road had blue buses, Southdown buses were green. So there were 3 types of buses. The 110 and 111 buses came to Lower Bevendean, I think they used to branch off at the farm with one going up Auckland drive and all-round the back and down that way back to Heath Hill Avenue. The other would go up Norwich drive and down Bodiam Avenue to come back to Heath Hill Avenue.
I remember the teachers and the school, the headmaster was Mr Webb and his wife worked there, my teacher was Mr Maskell and there was a lady teacher who was very attractive. I don’t know what made me think about that in those days, probably because she had such bright lipstick that it stood out because when she was speaking her lips were all shiny, she was heavily made up her name was Miss Barnes and she ended up as Mrs Maskell.
I remember being told about an accident that happened in 1955 when a concrete disc thing rolled down the Hill and smashed into a prefab but I did not see it.
A Broken Arm
At the end of Heath Hill Avenue, where they built the doctors surgery in 1959, there was a bit of waste ground, we used to play just up from there where the ground rose and there used to be some big trees. They have squeezed a few houses in front of them now haven’t they, we used to play there and collect there on a Sunday loads of groups of children. We had one of those games where you had a great big rope over the bough of the tree and you pulled it down and everyone held it down and you got on and then they let go and you went up in the air like a bungee.
I remember one time on a Sunday afternoon I was at home, I’d had a large Sunday lunch and finished about 2 o’clock and then I went out to play and was on this rope and I was just doing the lace up or something and they let go and I went up in the air on one hand and came down and broke my wrist. I went home crying and my adopted father wasn’t very happy because he liked to have a sleep in the afternoon and my mother was asleep as well. Anyway she said “I’ve got to take him up to the hospital” and we went on the bus and I was in absolute agony I can remember that. When we got up there I think it was 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and I was sitting there and they said “I’m sorry we can’t do anything for your son because he has just had a great big lunch, we’ve got to wait until his digestive system gets rid of it”. It was 9 o’clock at night, I had been sitting there for 6 hours in agony when they eventually set it, they gave me gas and the doctor made a right job of it. He put the plaster on right up to the fingertips and he built a loop out of plaster and told my mother to tell her husband to put a hook in the ceiling so I could hang my arm up all night, which they did. I couldn’t sleep all night and in the morning my fingers were nearly black as there was no circulation. So my mother rushed me back up the hospital again and the person I saw said, “Who did that, he’s done a terrible job”. So they took it all off and put on another one which was much shorter and had no hook on it, because I didn’t need to hang my arm up. I had that plaster all through the summer holidays, and I don’t know if you have had a plaster but it drives you mad with itching, I was putting rulers down there or pencils and knitting needles to have a scratch.
I played football on a Sunday for Bevendean Rovers later on, at the top pitch up by the back of Hornby Road. The manager was Mr Roger Brooks, who lived in Hornby Road or Auckland Drive I think. I went to school with him he ended up as a post office manager or something like that.
I remember going to the White Admiral as a teenager, I have spoken to my friend who was the landlord there but he was only there for a short period. He said there’s nothing really he could add to the story, his name is Percy Anscombe, a very Sussex name he was actually born and grew up in Stanmer village and they had a farm there. He didn’t go to Bevendean School he went to Moulsecoomb School. He lived in Bevendean but I can’t remember where, he was a landlord in various pubs and he took over the White Admiral in about 1977 or 78 but he was only there for a short period about 6 to 8 months or something.
I used to meet some pals there. I had a friend who lived in the prefabs. His mother and father’s name was Pullen and his father’s name was Frank he was a sailor but I can’t remember his mother. My friend’s name was David Pullen he was the same age and we got on very well, so we used to go around together a lot. When I came home from the sea aged about 18 we would meet up at the White Admiral. We had a drink in our local pub and then hopped on the bus into Brighton and finish off by getting the bus back or walking back. Many many times we’ve walked back from Brighton to Lower Bevendean and think nothing of it.
The Bevendean Hotel
Thinking about the Bevendean Hotel, which is now the Bevy Community Pub, my niece was the landlord there, her name was Stella Bevan and some of the people at the place now would know her, she is 35 or a bit older and must been have been there about 12 years ago. They used to live in Mile Oak and she started off being friendly with the daughter of the landlord of the Mile Oak Inn and they used to help behind the bar, doing the glasses and everything else then it graduated to help out a bit further. The owner eventually managed to get her a licence at the age of 18 to manage a pub because he had about 6 pubs he managed, one of the pubs was in Worthing I think it was the Dolphin. I remember us all going over there on her opening day, it was quite a thing my father and mother and brother and her sister. Then I think they took over the Bevendean, this group the Sullivan group I think it was, took over the Bevendean Hotel and she ran it for quite a while and built up quite a good repartee with the staff. I think she had an Alsatian dog because she used to live on the premises and she had the dog for company. She would be the one to talk to for information about the Bevendean Hotel; all the people at the Bevy would probably know her anyway.
Other Memories of my Childhood
Lower Bevendean Avenue is the road that goes down, I remember some people called the Jaspers, Geoffrey Jasper and Wiggins his father was a policeman who lived in the last bit of the road that went round and joined up with Manton road, he lived there and further along towards the path was Alan Baldy, he lived on the pathway that went right up to Plymouth Avenue and 3 doors down was the Whittington family, Tony Whittington and somebody else, they were all on that side. I remember them building the block of flats on the bit of waste ground on the corner between Upper and Lower Bevendean Avenue. I remember that being built because we used to play among the building work when I was a kid. On the other side there is a big substation parallel to it. I had a good friend who lived there called Willy Simmons and Peter May lived in that part of the road.
I remember this chap, he stood out, he was a road sweeper who had a cart that he used to drag along with brushes in one end, he would sweep a little bit, shovel it up put it in the bin and then move along a bit further and put it down. We used to call him birds nest, because he had this very thick hair which went round in a ring always very wiry but the bit in the middle was bald like a nest. Other children called him rubber legs. We used to say “here he comes” and he would say “go on clear off”, he was a miserable old sole. I think he lived in Moulsecoomb somewhere up in that bit around Colbourne or Hillside but his route was down the Avenue and backup the other side because that was all he used to do. We used to play football down on the green, cricket and all those sorts of things and we used to see him. Yes, birds nest I remember him.
I also remember there used to be a horse and cart which came up in the early days with vegetables and under the back part they used to hang things, potatoes and cauliflowers and they used to swing backwards and forwards as the horse went along and there was a bloke sitting on the horse plying his wares. The greengrocer, who had the shop at the top of the Avenue, didn’t want him coming around, but it was enterprise wasn’t it.
Also there were all the other delivery people and a rag and bone man coming around. I remember a chap who used to have a big barrow, he would load it up and because it had only one wheel and because he was small he would have to jump up to get hold of the handles and pull it down to make it level. A little short bloke he was, I think he was Scottish and he used to scream his wares.
Another thing I used to do when we were at the prefabs, if I wanted any extra pocket money, was to do odd jobs. People would say “can you go down and get this, or can you deliver that” and you would say “yes” and then they would give you 3d or 6d or whatever. One of the things we used to do was collect empty bottles and take them back to the off-licence. We would take the lemonade bottles back and get the money back, which was good fun because that wasn’t too much hard work.
Do you remember Corona? When that first came on the scene it was the first delivery of fizzy drinks to your door in Bevendean. A van or lorry used to come round with lemonade, limeade, orangeade, cream soda and a cola which was just called cola. You could buy a case of 6 and then they would come round the next week and take the empty case back and give you another one. The bottles had those stoppers which you had to shut down to keep the fizzing in. Obviously you had the bread man with his little van and all these others, and we used to get the odd Indian in his turban coming round with his suitcase of ties and bits and pieces, knocking on the door and frightening you to death when you open the door. Marvellous this strange man at the door.
I told you I had a paper round, my paper round was coming out of the shop going down the Avenue from the corner of Manton Road to the end, I didn’t do the Highway, then I would come back up the other side right up to the shops again. I used to have a bag which gave me a permanent scar on my shoulder because the bag was so thick and heavy especially on a Sunday, I was only a little chap. I remember carrying this bag and thinking I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it, because there were so many papers on a Sunday when you think about it. Papers you would never think about now the News Chronicle, the Reynolds something.
The first buses to Lower Bevendean were single decker, when they stopped, the double decker buses turned up they were in Southdown colours then they because Brighton and Hove District buses which were red and cream I think. Brighton transport, which had its depot in Lewes road had blue buses, Southdown buses were green. So there were 3 types of buses. The 110 and 111 buses came to Lower Bevendean, I think they used to branch off at the farm with one going up Auckland drive and all-round the back and down that way back to Heath Hill Avenue. The other would go up Norwich drive and down Bodiam Avenue to come back to Heath Hill Avenue.
I remember the teachers and the school, the headmaster was Mr Webb and his wife worked there, my teacher was Mr Maskell and there was a lady teacher who was very attractive. I don’t know what made me think about that in those days, probably because she had such bright lipstick that it stood out because when she was speaking her lips were all shiny, she was heavily made up her name was Miss Barnes and she ended up as Mrs Maskell.
I remember being told about an accident that happened in 1955 when a concrete disc thing rolled down the Hill and smashed into a prefab but I did not see it.
A Broken Arm
At the end of Heath Hill Avenue, where they built the doctors surgery in 1959, there was a bit of waste ground, we used to play just up from there where the ground rose and there used to be some big trees. They have squeezed a few houses in front of them now haven’t they, we used to play there and collect there on a Sunday loads of groups of children. We had one of those games where you had a great big rope over the bough of the tree and you pulled it down and everyone held it down and you got on and then they let go and you went up in the air like a bungee.
I remember one time on a Sunday afternoon I was at home, I’d had a large Sunday lunch and finished about 2 o’clock and then I went out to play and was on this rope and I was just doing the lace up or something and they let go and I went up in the air on one hand and came down and broke my wrist. I went home crying and my adopted father wasn’t very happy because he liked to have a sleep in the afternoon and my mother was asleep as well. Anyway she said “I’ve got to take him up to the hospital” and we went on the bus and I was in absolute agony I can remember that. When we got up there I think it was 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and I was sitting there and they said “I’m sorry we can’t do anything for your son because he has just had a great big lunch, we’ve got to wait until his digestive system gets rid of it”. It was 9 o’clock at night, I had been sitting there for 6 hours in agony when they eventually set it, they gave me gas and the doctor made a right job of it. He put the plaster on right up to the fingertips and he built a loop out of plaster and told my mother to tell her husband to put a hook in the ceiling so I could hang my arm up all night, which they did. I couldn’t sleep all night and in the morning my fingers were nearly black as there was no circulation. So my mother rushed me back up the hospital again and the person I saw said, “Who did that, he’s done a terrible job”. So they took it all off and put on another one which was much shorter and had no hook on it, because I didn’t need to hang my arm up. I had that plaster all through the summer holidays, and I don’t know if you have had a plaster but it drives you mad with itching, I was putting rulers down there or pencils and knitting needles to have a scratch.
I played football on a Sunday for Bevendean Rovers later on, at the top pitch up by the back of Hornby Road. The manager was Mr Roger Brooks, who lived in Hornby Road or Auckland Drive I think. I went to school with him he ended up as a post office manager or something like that.
 |
Andre Bevan aged 16 in his Tropical Whites
|
We left the prefab in 1955 and moved to the Bates estate, they rehoused us and we moved to a nice two-bedroom flat which was where we lived until I moved out in September 1959 when I went to sea.
 |
Andre Bevan aged 21 years |
I think I eventually moved out for good in 1964 or 1965 when my mother and father moved to Park Royal in Montpelier Road, and they have lived there until now.
20 July 2016
Story_024c