Belton Road

A walk in my memory

By Kenneth Why

If I continued up Round Hill Road going east, I would pass the windows of the former baker’s shop on the left and then reach Belton Road. To the north is a cul-de-sac with garages on the west side and houses on both sides, beyond which gardens completing the last houses. In front of the garages in the middle of the road was the sawn off trunk of the old post windmill which one can see in some of the pictures of early Brighton. 

Fascinating keepsakes
Our interest in it was the “meteorites’ which surrounded it in the gritty road. They were small pieces of what had once been molten iron and I collected many of them in tins. Such were our ‘treasures’ in those days before ipods. They disappeared when I was absent from home! I think they may have been slag from an iron works which had been used to give a foundation surrounding the mill. Are there any pieces left there today, I wonder?  

Fresh tomatoes
Down the hill, towards the Crescent past Eric Jakins’ house and opposite lived Roy Adams who had the most magnificent Bassett Lowke steam locomotive. Further down still came the entrance on the west side to the nursery of Mr. McCullum, who with his mother, cultivated tomatoes in green houses. Before I was eleven, I spent many pleasant hours there, helping him water the plants and nip out unwanted side shoots. My reward? Tomatoes, fresh from the vine, juicy and succulent.  

Fun with catapults
Mr. Mc Cullum was a member of the Preston Nomads Cricket Club together with Mr. Soan, the greengrocer on Ditchling Road. At the bottom end of Belton Road was a house about three storeys high with a wall which was perfect for firing small stones up to the sky with our catapults. The sound of the ricochet was music to our ears; and no-one ever complained!