Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Bess Tuppin’s Memories of Coldean
I came to Brighton on 30 December 1944 when I married Alf who was a Brightonian. I was doing domestic work which was the only thing I've been trained for. I was a fourth housemaid in a big house in Essex before I came here, all during the war. Alf was originally a gardener in the cemetery and later on went to the Downs Crematorium.
We moved to Coldean in 1957. The school was built and the church was being converted, but a lot of the estate wasn't yet built. There was no Larchwood just a piece of waste ground.
I have been involved with the church as long as I've been here, we came in the May and in the September when we came back from holiday I was told by Mr Hutchings that the vicar Fr Bess wanted to see me. Much to my surprise the vicar said I hear you were involved with the guides, I said I was a guide, but that was a long time ago. He said well we haven't got a guide leader would you do it, otherwise we won't have any guides, some of the mothers will help you so I got involved with the guides and that was that. 30 guides I didn't know any of them at first. The Commissioner came the first night, but otherwise I was left to it. Still we did some very interesting things. I learnt as I went along it's surprising how much I remembered. I was the Guide Captain for 10 years and another 10 years I went to camp with them as Quarter Master.
I was involved with Mrs Brown who was the school caretaker’s wife and we used to clean the sanctuary and the Lady Chapel the men used to do the church because it had to be stripped every week because it was a dual purpose building being used as a hall during the week.
I was involved in preparing lunches for people with Pam McKenna who used to work in the Post Office and we started when Peter Chapman was here as the vicar and the hall had just been built. We used to do a lunch every Wednesday for elderly people in Coldean.
Carnivals were held in Coldean with a committee of local people who joined several of the organisations together. The first one was lovely, there were floats and I was in the refreshment tent and we did very well. But the second year it poured with rain the whole day, it was a complete washout. We had a tent for the refreshments, but people were coming in there and staying in there, so we didn't really serve very much because people couldn't get to it. I can remember packing up all the food that was left, including rolls and scones. Barbara Wilson came to my help and we packed them up into different bundles. The Butcher we had then put a lot of it in his freezer for us. People brought things home to me and stood them in my sitting room, I couldn't move for the different trays of food. But oh it was funny when you stop to think about it, although at the time it was a nightmare.
Fr Bess was the first priest at Coldean, he organised the church from the start and stayed until 1960. Then we had Derek Payne who was here about 2 years. Then Derek Cordell was here for about 6 years. He was very tall and he wore a cloak which made him look like a monk. I remember once we had a very little person on the estate a Mrs Farmer and he was very tall and at one of our shows on a stage at the back of the church he came and when he opened his cloak little Mrs Farmer was in front of him and it did look so funny.
It was Peter Chapman who decided that we needed a Hall and he did his very best to get it built and did get it built including getting up on the roof the night before the tilers were coming because the roof timbers had collapsed, they spent nearly all night getting this ready. And he also organised the building of the extension to the church with the two committee rooms and the porch. He got a group of the people from the congregation including Ron Mepham who built it themselves. I remember coming over to make tea for them and he was digging in a trench just with a pair of shorts on digging the trench for the foundations. My sister-in-law came with me and she said you never saw the vicar and I said yes you did he was the one digging in the trench. And then of course he left and joined the Navy.
And then of course there was Shay as we called him, I can't pronounce all his long name, who was a Nigerian and that was another a terrific eye-opener his ideas and ours they took a lot of getting used to. Then Glyn Grant came followed by Crowther Aylwin. Then there was Marcus who was another complete change, when we first saw him Len Reid said to his wife put your handbag away there's a couple of scruffs out in the church grounds. His heart was in the right place, he was a lovely man and then there was Fr Paul who persuade me to be churchwarden which I thought was the wrong thing, but luckily it worked out quite well because Ron Brown was the other churchwarden. He liked doing all the front and talking to people and I was the one who was able to sort of stay in the background and be there to let people in and things like that.
Then there was Fr Colin Lawlor who went to become the Chaplin at Brighton University and Vicar of Falmer. Fr Colin is now at St George the Martyr, Waterlooville. Then we had Christopher Woodman who stayed about 3 years, he was a very shy man. He was followed by Rachel who came as a Deacon and was ordained a priest in the church at Coldean. Rachel is now at the church of St Mary & St Laurence, Bolsover.
Rev Betsy Gray-Hammond is now the vicar at Coldean; she was licensed on 14 June 2014 by the Bishop of Lewes.
Bess Tuppin
August 2015
I came to Brighton on 30 December 1944 when I married Alf who was a Brightonian. I was doing domestic work which was the only thing I've been trained for. I was a fourth housemaid in a big house in Essex before I came here, all during the war. Alf was originally a gardener in the cemetery and later on went to the Downs Crematorium.
We moved to Coldean in 1957. The school was built and the church was being converted, but a lot of the estate wasn't yet built. There was no Larchwood just a piece of waste ground.
I have been involved with the church as long as I've been here, we came in the May and in the September when we came back from holiday I was told by Mr Hutchings that the vicar Fr Bess wanted to see me. Much to my surprise the vicar said I hear you were involved with the guides, I said I was a guide, but that was a long time ago. He said well we haven't got a guide leader would you do it, otherwise we won't have any guides, some of the mothers will help you so I got involved with the guides and that was that. 30 guides I didn't know any of them at first. The Commissioner came the first night, but otherwise I was left to it. Still we did some very interesting things. I learnt as I went along it's surprising how much I remembered. I was the Guide Captain for 10 years and another 10 years I went to camp with them as Quarter Master.
I was involved with Mrs Brown who was the school caretaker’s wife and we used to clean the sanctuary and the Lady Chapel the men used to do the church because it had to be stripped every week because it was a dual purpose building being used as a hall during the week.
I was involved in preparing lunches for people with Pam McKenna who used to work in the Post Office and we started when Peter Chapman was here as the vicar and the hall had just been built. We used to do a lunch every Wednesday for elderly people in Coldean.
Carnivals were held in Coldean with a committee of local people who joined several of the organisations together. The first one was lovely, there were floats and I was in the refreshment tent and we did very well. But the second year it poured with rain the whole day, it was a complete washout. We had a tent for the refreshments, but people were coming in there and staying in there, so we didn't really serve very much because people couldn't get to it. I can remember packing up all the food that was left, including rolls and scones. Barbara Wilson came to my help and we packed them up into different bundles. The Butcher we had then put a lot of it in his freezer for us. People brought things home to me and stood them in my sitting room, I couldn't move for the different trays of food. But oh it was funny when you stop to think about it, although at the time it was a nightmare.
Fr Bess was the first priest at Coldean, he organised the church from the start and stayed until 1960. Then we had Derek Payne who was here about 2 years. Then Derek Cordell was here for about 6 years. He was very tall and he wore a cloak which made him look like a monk. I remember once we had a very little person on the estate a Mrs Farmer and he was very tall and at one of our shows on a stage at the back of the church he came and when he opened his cloak little Mrs Farmer was in front of him and it did look so funny.
It was Peter Chapman who decided that we needed a Hall and he did his very best to get it built and did get it built including getting up on the roof the night before the tilers were coming because the roof timbers had collapsed, they spent nearly all night getting this ready. And he also organised the building of the extension to the church with the two committee rooms and the porch. He got a group of the people from the congregation including Ron Mepham who built it themselves. I remember coming over to make tea for them and he was digging in a trench just with a pair of shorts on digging the trench for the foundations. My sister-in-law came with me and she said you never saw the vicar and I said yes you did he was the one digging in the trench. And then of course he left and joined the Navy.
And then of course there was Shay as we called him, I can't pronounce all his long name, who was a Nigerian and that was another a terrific eye-opener his ideas and ours they took a lot of getting used to. Then Glyn Grant came followed by Crowther Aylwin. Then there was Marcus who was another complete change, when we first saw him Len Reid said to his wife put your handbag away there's a couple of scruffs out in the church grounds. His heart was in the right place, he was a lovely man and then there was Fr Paul who persuade me to be churchwarden which I thought was the wrong thing, but luckily it worked out quite well because Ron Brown was the other churchwarden. He liked doing all the front and talking to people and I was the one who was able to sort of stay in the background and be there to let people in and things like that.
Then there was Fr Colin Lawlor who went to become the Chaplin at Brighton University and Vicar of Falmer. Fr Colin is now at St George the Martyr, Waterlooville. Then we had Christopher Woodman who stayed about 3 years, he was a very shy man. He was followed by Rachel who came as a Deacon and was ordained a priest in the church at Coldean. Rachel is now at the church of St Mary & St Laurence, Bolsover.
Rev Betsy Gray-Hammond is now the vicar at Coldean; she was licensed on 14 June 2014 by the Bishop of Lewes.
Bess Tuppin
August 2015
