‘Dropped out’ of the pub business
My then husband and I moved into Ovingdean village in 1980 – it was pure chance that we ended up there. We had been licensees in the pub and club business mainly in London, and had decided to ‘drop out’ and live somewhere rural. At the time we were running a very large and busy pub in London, and we had both had just enough of the trade, and the city. We made a snap decision to give up the pub and move somewhere to ‘live on a farm’.
‘The Good Life’
I think we had an idea that we could do our impression of Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal in ‘The Good Life’ and be self-sufficient. Looking back it was a rather silly thing to do – give up where you’re living when you have nowhere else to go. But we did it and putting our furniture in store and our dog in kennels, we stayed with friends who had a pub in Brighton and put an advertisement in the Argus saying what we were looking for. Charles Curwin who owned ‘Ovingdean Hall Farm’ as it was then, replied that he had a cottage free – the rest – as they say – is history!”
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I worked at Ovingdean Hall Farm during the 70s collecting the eggs until their farm at Sayers Common, Whiteoaks Farm, went into operation. I left there in 1980 to work in Brighton as I didn’t like travelling on the A23 everyday.
I remember that egg farm. There were lots of sheds where hundreds of battery hens were kept. I worked there for a few weeks collecting the eggs, but hated it. I can still hear the horrible squawking noise when we slid open the doors and the light shone on to them.
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