Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Amelia Scopes memories of Bevendean continued
Doctor for Bevendean
I came home one day from taking my son to school and someone said there's a doctor coming down here and she wants some help and I called in on the way. I saw this little woman going into the house she had tiny boots on. She looked at me and I looked at her and I said, excuse me is Doctor Roberts here?, and she said, I'm Doctor Roberts. So I said, I hear you need some help. Oh yes she said, come in, would you like a cup of tea? She was fiddling about so I said, would you like me to make the tea and she said, yes please, that was the first time I saw her and I was making her tea. The pay obviously would not be much money, as she was just starting out and I asked her, when she would like me to start work. I’d had a job at Plumber Roddis which I had to give it up because my son was taken very ill. I didn't want to go out to work but wanted something to occupy my mind and be near the school. She said, come from 9 until 12 and she gave me 5 shillings now and again. She would come to my home at dinner time and I would feed her and look after her little boy called Malcolm. He must be 60 or 65 or something like that by now. Doctor Roberts asked me to keep an eye on some of her elderly patients. This involved me visiting the patients in their homes and checking that they were all right and if they need anything.
Dr Roberts had a car but she didn't like driving so I said I would sit in it with her although I can't drive, we just used to go around the estate but I think in the end she got a driving instructor or somebody to take her out so gradually she became more confident. Everything was new to her; she had only just come over from Ireland. She had a new baby he was only 11 months old, he was born over here. She was not young I can't remember how old she was, but she was like a 16 or 17-year-old and she wanted to practice her driving. She had a friend a Doctor Waters who had a house at Coldean and started a practice over there. We helped, my husband made little things for her to keep all her paraphernalia in. We were good friends.
Picking Potatoes
When we were in Norwich Drive somebody knocked on the door and said, “do you want some potatoes?” The farm was at the top of a great big hill over near Woodingdean and we were right at the end of Norwich Drive and we could see right over to the Warren Road. “The farmer says we can pick his potatoes”, we were all young then, we went over with bags and got all these potatoes. We had 132 steps or more to get down and up and then walk up this hill; I don't know how we did it. We had all these sacks of potatoes and then someone said you've got to take them all back. The farmer said he wanted someone to dig them up but not take them home. By that time we had got a couple of sacks full of potatoes and that was the end of that. That was a laugh that night. Jan was laughing about it the other day she said, “do you remember we went over and picked up all those potatoes”. But everyone down the road was doing it all down Bodiam Avenue and up Norwich Drive.
I do remember there were allotments in the middle of the Avenue, but they didn't do anything for me we never went up and down the Avenue at the time we were always at the bottom. I think there were allotments over the hill as well when you look up from the bottom of the Avenue, my friend's husband had one there. I remember seeing them but everything gradually went after the war.
I believe there was a building halfway up the Avenue, but as I say if you didn't use these things we didn't take any notice of them. There was something halfway up the Avenue somewhere by the bottom of the steps. We didn't go out much when we were up there because it was 9d on the bus to get to the town. 9d was a lot of money and my husband had a hernia and had to have an operation and had a stitch abscess and instead of being in hospital a couple weeks, he went in at the beginning of June and didn't get to go back to work until the beginning of December. People said, “why don't you go to the parish and they will allow you so much money as we were not getting much money because he wasn't working?” I tried and I tried and someone came up to see me, she said you've got a carpet on the floor and a television. I said we've worked and saved for that because my husband would never have anything on the never never. She asked have you got any bank books and I showed her but we had only got Post Office book, she said how about the children, the children had a couple of Post Office books but didn't have much in them. They only had £2 or £3 in them, when people had given them money we always made them save. She said well we'll see what we can do but she never did anything, I applied again and in the end they sent me of pension book for 6d a week. So I sent it back, I said it would cost me 9 pence to go to the bottom of the Avenue to get that 6 pence. I will never forget that, I thought a lot of people around us are getting money, and because we had worked and saved, we would not get any money.
We often used to walk over the hill to where the big round of trees was. [Newmarket Copse]. The scouts used to go over. We used to have a little 3 wheeler and we used get as many as we could in it and take them over there. Some of them would walk there and we would meet them with tea and cakes. We used to go over the fields right over the other side of the Falmer Road, we used to go over there a lot.
I used to do jumble sales and that for the scouts, Jan used to do more than me, but when they had jumble sales I used to go down there and help them and go round and collect things.
Coach Trips
Last week I went to Dungeness, you'd never believe it. We went in the community bus, a friend rang up and said, “the community bus is going to Dungeness do you want to go?” I said yes, we only had to walk down the stairs and get in the car. We were going so far on the coach and then going on the train to Dungeness and then back to New Romney. When we got there the next train was an hour so the driver said I'll drive you to Dungeness and you can come back on the train. We got out of the coach walked into the train and then into the restaurant. So it was a long day we must have done about 180 miles.
I organised an outing every month, we went to Romford market, Rye, Hastings and Folkestone just for a day. Sometimes it was an early start, if they wanted to go to Folkestone, Battle, Poole, Portsmouth, Lakeside and Bluewater. We used to go to Windsor and have a ride on the boat and have a meal on the boat. We had tours of Sussex, one tour ended up at Rye, and on the way we went to a place that did wine tasting, it had great big grounds. It was lovely we went there 2 or 3 times, there were black swans on the river wallabies running around and lots of different animals and they were all ever so tame and it was a nice little place. There was wine tasting and you could have a little snack, we stopped there for about an hour and then went on to Rye. I never could remember where it was, but it was very nice. We went to Ashford market and Maidstone market and several other markets, a tour of London and the lights, and Guildford.
We also went to Cheddar Caves, Bournemouth and Southend we must have gone to hundreds of places. People used to say when are you doing another one and I said I'm running out of places to go. They said we will go back to somewhere we have visited before. I used to take sausage rolls and the cheese egg and cress rolls, I mashed the cheese and the egg and the cress together and put in the rolls and gave them that and a sausage roll. They used to say how much is that? But you see in those days the coaches were only about £500 the dearest and if I paid it before the date I got so much off and so with that money I used to buy rolls and sausage and made them up. Sometimes on the way home at Henfield we stopped and had fish and chips. If we hadn't had a long day I would say do you want to stop for fish and chips and most of them would say yes, so we stopped there for fish and chips. But one day we went somewhere, I can't remember where, and we had ordered fish and chips and we got so far home and it snowed and it snowed and how the poor driver got home I don't know. So I had to ring up Henfield and said sorry we can't make it today. They said what are we going to do with 56 pieces of fish we have taken them out of the freezer? I said I'm very sorry if we owe you any money let me know, but she said I'll let you off this time because we used to go there quite often. It was a beautiful day but then we got so far home and it really snowed. I always had a full coach; I would never run it half empty because it wasn't worth it. I used Alpha coaches; they used to be on Preston Road. It started off with a few people who introduced a few more people; the people came from all over.
People from Norwich Drive and Bodiam Avenue used to come, the meeting place was here at Durham Close, then we would stop of the school to pick up people from Plymouth Avenue. Followed by a stop at the bottom of the Avenue and then we would go on to St Peter's church and picked the last lot up outside the church. You can't do that now, you cannot park by St Peter's church today. It was quite good in those days the coaches used to be about £500. It wasn't much if you go on outings now, which I haven't done for a long time, Jan still goes on some trips its £16 or £17 a time it's not just a few pounds. At the end of the day the driver would bring us back here, I even had people from Hollingbury come they would meet us at St Peter's. Some of them had cars and would come over here so they got the best seats, you couldn't save any seats. I used to say I can't save any seats first come first served unfortunately.
The White Admiral public house was lovely when it was first opened it was nice and it had a strict landlord, but he was pleasant, he ran it with his wife and daughter.
I worked at Partridge house and there were a couple of old men there, one in particular who went round to the White Admiral every morning at 10:30 and sat by the fireplace and had a couple of pints and at 12:30 they would bring him home for lunch and they didn't mind him sitting there which was good, it was nice and clean. I have worked all my life, I went to Partridge House and ended up as the cook. I wasn't trained for anything, but you learn how to do these things.
Shops in Lower Bevendean
I remember the shops; we had a post office and a draper. I started to work at Partridge house and we used to run across to the shops. The drapers was very nice they would let you pay so much a week, and then there was the grocers that was a lovely grocers, then we had the butchers which is still there and then we have Mrs Skinner the fish shop, she was very friendly. We used to take some of the old people over there and have cups of tea in the morning. We used the grocers, but I think mainly we went downtown to Evershed's or Sainsbury's. I can remember doing the shopping but I wouldn't say I kept to a particular place but I did use the grocers. There was also a greengrocer, there was quite a nice selection of little shops there then not like it is now. I don't go down there now. We used to use the chemist, some people were scared of Mr Sharp but he was quite harmless really. It's a great shame that they packed up. I don't know how they managed down there now; the Butcher seems to be the only one who does well. The Butcher also sells wholesale meat.
When the butcher sold the shop, my friend's husband’s son and his mate went there, but they gave it up after a while because he wanted to buy the best meat and people didn't want to pay the price for it.. The current butcher is doing quite well and has been there for a few years now. John goes there and buys his Christmas turkey and meat, he goes there every week and I buy his mince. He brings me up a couple of packets of mince; I am not a lover of sausages and burgers. If I need any I sometimes make a few sausage rolls for the kids.
continuedI came home one day from taking my son to school and someone said there's a doctor coming down here and she wants some help and I called in on the way. I saw this little woman going into the house she had tiny boots on. She looked at me and I looked at her and I said, excuse me is Doctor Roberts here?, and she said, I'm Doctor Roberts. So I said, I hear you need some help. Oh yes she said, come in, would you like a cup of tea? She was fiddling about so I said, would you like me to make the tea and she said, yes please, that was the first time I saw her and I was making her tea. The pay obviously would not be much money, as she was just starting out and I asked her, when she would like me to start work. I’d had a job at Plumber Roddis which I had to give it up because my son was taken very ill. I didn't want to go out to work but wanted something to occupy my mind and be near the school. She said, come from 9 until 12 and she gave me 5 shillings now and again. She would come to my home at dinner time and I would feed her and look after her little boy called Malcolm. He must be 60 or 65 or something like that by now. Doctor Roberts asked me to keep an eye on some of her elderly patients. This involved me visiting the patients in their homes and checking that they were all right and if they need anything.
Dr Roberts had a car but she didn't like driving so I said I would sit in it with her although I can't drive, we just used to go around the estate but I think in the end she got a driving instructor or somebody to take her out so gradually she became more confident. Everything was new to her; she had only just come over from Ireland. She had a new baby he was only 11 months old, he was born over here. She was not young I can't remember how old she was, but she was like a 16 or 17-year-old and she wanted to practice her driving. She had a friend a Doctor Waters who had a house at Coldean and started a practice over there. We helped, my husband made little things for her to keep all her paraphernalia in. We were good friends.
Picking Potatoes
When we were in Norwich Drive somebody knocked on the door and said, “do you want some potatoes?” The farm was at the top of a great big hill over near Woodingdean and we were right at the end of Norwich Drive and we could see right over to the Warren Road. “The farmer says we can pick his potatoes”, we were all young then, we went over with bags and got all these potatoes. We had 132 steps or more to get down and up and then walk up this hill; I don't know how we did it. We had all these sacks of potatoes and then someone said you've got to take them all back. The farmer said he wanted someone to dig them up but not take them home. By that time we had got a couple of sacks full of potatoes and that was the end of that. That was a laugh that night. Jan was laughing about it the other day she said, “do you remember we went over and picked up all those potatoes”. But everyone down the road was doing it all down Bodiam Avenue and up Norwich Drive.
I do remember there were allotments in the middle of the Avenue, but they didn't do anything for me we never went up and down the Avenue at the time we were always at the bottom. I think there were allotments over the hill as well when you look up from the bottom of the Avenue, my friend's husband had one there. I remember seeing them but everything gradually went after the war.
I believe there was a building halfway up the Avenue, but as I say if you didn't use these things we didn't take any notice of them. There was something halfway up the Avenue somewhere by the bottom of the steps. We didn't go out much when we were up there because it was 9d on the bus to get to the town. 9d was a lot of money and my husband had a hernia and had to have an operation and had a stitch abscess and instead of being in hospital a couple weeks, he went in at the beginning of June and didn't get to go back to work until the beginning of December. People said, “why don't you go to the parish and they will allow you so much money as we were not getting much money because he wasn't working?” I tried and I tried and someone came up to see me, she said you've got a carpet on the floor and a television. I said we've worked and saved for that because my husband would never have anything on the never never. She asked have you got any bank books and I showed her but we had only got Post Office book, she said how about the children, the children had a couple of Post Office books but didn't have much in them. They only had £2 or £3 in them, when people had given them money we always made them save. She said well we'll see what we can do but she never did anything, I applied again and in the end they sent me of pension book for 6d a week. So I sent it back, I said it would cost me 9 pence to go to the bottom of the Avenue to get that 6 pence. I will never forget that, I thought a lot of people around us are getting money, and because we had worked and saved, we would not get any money.
We often used to walk over the hill to where the big round of trees was. [Newmarket Copse]. The scouts used to go over. We used to have a little 3 wheeler and we used get as many as we could in it and take them over there. Some of them would walk there and we would meet them with tea and cakes. We used to go over the fields right over the other side of the Falmer Road, we used to go over there a lot.
I used to do jumble sales and that for the scouts, Jan used to do more than me, but when they had jumble sales I used to go down there and help them and go round and collect things.
Coach Trips
Last week I went to Dungeness, you'd never believe it. We went in the community bus, a friend rang up and said, “the community bus is going to Dungeness do you want to go?” I said yes, we only had to walk down the stairs and get in the car. We were going so far on the coach and then going on the train to Dungeness and then back to New Romney. When we got there the next train was an hour so the driver said I'll drive you to Dungeness and you can come back on the train. We got out of the coach walked into the train and then into the restaurant. So it was a long day we must have done about 180 miles.
I organised an outing every month, we went to Romford market, Rye, Hastings and Folkestone just for a day. Sometimes it was an early start, if they wanted to go to Folkestone, Battle, Poole, Portsmouth, Lakeside and Bluewater. We used to go to Windsor and have a ride on the boat and have a meal on the boat. We had tours of Sussex, one tour ended up at Rye, and on the way we went to a place that did wine tasting, it had great big grounds. It was lovely we went there 2 or 3 times, there were black swans on the river wallabies running around and lots of different animals and they were all ever so tame and it was a nice little place. There was wine tasting and you could have a little snack, we stopped there for about an hour and then went on to Rye. I never could remember where it was, but it was very nice. We went to Ashford market and Maidstone market and several other markets, a tour of London and the lights, and Guildford.
We also went to Cheddar Caves, Bournemouth and Southend we must have gone to hundreds of places. People used to say when are you doing another one and I said I'm running out of places to go. They said we will go back to somewhere we have visited before. I used to take sausage rolls and the cheese egg and cress rolls, I mashed the cheese and the egg and the cress together and put in the rolls and gave them that and a sausage roll. They used to say how much is that? But you see in those days the coaches were only about £500 the dearest and if I paid it before the date I got so much off and so with that money I used to buy rolls and sausage and made them up. Sometimes on the way home at Henfield we stopped and had fish and chips. If we hadn't had a long day I would say do you want to stop for fish and chips and most of them would say yes, so we stopped there for fish and chips. But one day we went somewhere, I can't remember where, and we had ordered fish and chips and we got so far home and it snowed and it snowed and how the poor driver got home I don't know. So I had to ring up Henfield and said sorry we can't make it today. They said what are we going to do with 56 pieces of fish we have taken them out of the freezer? I said I'm very sorry if we owe you any money let me know, but she said I'll let you off this time because we used to go there quite often. It was a beautiful day but then we got so far home and it really snowed. I always had a full coach; I would never run it half empty because it wasn't worth it. I used Alpha coaches; they used to be on Preston Road. It started off with a few people who introduced a few more people; the people came from all over.
People from Norwich Drive and Bodiam Avenue used to come, the meeting place was here at Durham Close, then we would stop of the school to pick up people from Plymouth Avenue. Followed by a stop at the bottom of the Avenue and then we would go on to St Peter's church and picked the last lot up outside the church. You can't do that now, you cannot park by St Peter's church today. It was quite good in those days the coaches used to be about £500. It wasn't much if you go on outings now, which I haven't done for a long time, Jan still goes on some trips its £16 or £17 a time it's not just a few pounds. At the end of the day the driver would bring us back here, I even had people from Hollingbury come they would meet us at St Peter's. Some of them had cars and would come over here so they got the best seats, you couldn't save any seats. I used to say I can't save any seats first come first served unfortunately.
The White Admiral public house was lovely when it was first opened it was nice and it had a strict landlord, but he was pleasant, he ran it with his wife and daughter.
I worked at Partridge house and there were a couple of old men there, one in particular who went round to the White Admiral every morning at 10:30 and sat by the fireplace and had a couple of pints and at 12:30 they would bring him home for lunch and they didn't mind him sitting there which was good, it was nice and clean. I have worked all my life, I went to Partridge House and ended up as the cook. I wasn't trained for anything, but you learn how to do these things.
Shops in Lower Bevendean
I remember the shops; we had a post office and a draper. I started to work at Partridge house and we used to run across to the shops. The drapers was very nice they would let you pay so much a week, and then there was the grocers that was a lovely grocers, then we had the butchers which is still there and then we have Mrs Skinner the fish shop, she was very friendly. We used to take some of the old people over there and have cups of tea in the morning. We used the grocers, but I think mainly we went downtown to Evershed's or Sainsbury's. I can remember doing the shopping but I wouldn't say I kept to a particular place but I did use the grocers. There was also a greengrocer, there was quite a nice selection of little shops there then not like it is now. I don't go down there now. We used to use the chemist, some people were scared of Mr Sharp but he was quite harmless really. It's a great shame that they packed up. I don't know how they managed down there now; the Butcher seems to be the only one who does well. The Butcher also sells wholesale meat.
When the butcher sold the shop, my friend's husband’s son and his mate went there, but they gave it up after a while because he wanted to buy the best meat and people didn't want to pay the price for it.. The current butcher is doing quite well and has been there for a few years now. John goes there and buys his Christmas turkey and meat, he goes there every week and I buy his mince. He brings me up a couple of packets of mince; I am not a lover of sausages and burgers. If I need any I sometimes make a few sausage rolls for the kids.
8 July 2016
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