Childhood memories of my home in Stanmer Park

These are my memories of Falmer High School, formerly Stanmer. I went from Coldean School to Falmer in 1979. Before then I went to Falmer Village little school in the village before they built the dual carriageway that split Falmer in half. That was a tiny school with only 2 classrooms overlooking the pond. They closed it down in 1972, so sad. I then went to Coldean School about 1972-79. They did a scheme where you could do activities during the summer holidays, I was part of the school who helped build the school swimming pool. It was built just as I started middle school.

I married at nineteen

I lived in Stanmer village, from the age of one until I was nineteen and got married. Sadly both my parents have since passed, but I still remember it as my home; number 13. It was originally the village shop until it was rebuilt next to the farm cow sheds. In WWII two houses got knocked down, they never did rebuild, this became our playing area.

The village club closed

When I went to Falmer High I walked the mile and a half walk to school. It was just a normal road one lane either side, my friend Lisa lived in the bottom cottages by the main road. We had a village club until they closed it and built flats. I would walk to school and think about how lucky I was to live in such a nice place.

I was shocked at the change

I visited the village a couple of years ago, I just wanted one last look at where I used to live. I was shocked at what happened to the park. The bushes were overgrown and caravans were dotted in parking areas. My memories when my mum moved out in 2010 was she was leaving a beautiful place, but when I revisited my memories were shattered.

Only memories left

The park didn’t look the same, a tree had been planted on the little hill where I did my rolly polly by the church, again everything was overgrown, even the church where I got married. The village hadn’t changed much except the tree in the island by the barn was gone. I had spent many a year pretending it was an island surrounded by water; again my memories are all that were left.

The place I once called home

The village, the place I once called home, home where I always expected to return, just wasn’t the same. My memories are all I have left now; when you are small you want to grow up, when grown up you wish you were still a child. Songs play and you remember them, I close my eyes and remember the top ten hits in the charts and for that moment in back in the cottage where I grew up, the cottage I called home.