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View from the kitchen window

I lived between the Whitehawk Estate and the Sheepcote valley in the early 1960s.

I can remember walking up the road, possibly Wilson Avenue, to watch the start of a race. I could view the finishes from our kitchen window.

Brighton Race Course:undated
From the private collection of Sue Loveridge

Comments about this page

  • During the First World War, Brighton company Allen West & Co in Lewes Rd, made Mills grenades mks 5 & 23 s and Stokes mortars & thousands of them were stored under the main grandstand at Brighton race course, ready to be shipped out to France, to Flanders fields..

    By Martin Phillips (30/12/2011)
  • We lived in the Twitten halfway up Whitehawk Rd and would go up to see the race severy time they were on.I remember the “tic-tac” men being on the outside of the racecourse facing the flats and at the end of the meeting one in particular would get all the kids to line up behind him then throw a handfull of into the air in front of him. I never managed to find any coins but my brothers often did. I also recall the time a horse had to be destroyed after breaking its leg and I cried for days.

    By Pauline Godden (26/01/2013)
  • We lived in Bennett Road when we were young. My mum loved race days and we would walk from our house to Bristol Street and through a little alleyway to Manor Way then up the hill to the racecourse, laden with smelly egg sandwiches and jam sandwiches and a bottle of some kind of juice or water and usually a large lump of her bread pudding. If we could afford it we would take the 44 trolleybus and walk home afterwards. The trolleybus would cross the main road over the racecourse on a layer of straw which was put down for the horses to run on. I seem to remember that some of the buses terminated on race days at the top of Manor Road as race specials. I would wander around the course fascinated at the way the horses always seemed to have their heads sideways looking at the crowds as they ran on their way up to the start. The thunder of the horses hooves and seeing the turf being flung in the air behind them as they galloped to the finishing post was wonderful to see and hear. I distinctly remember my mum shouting at Gordon Richards one day about him using the whip too much. We were standing very near to where the horsed turned around to go back to the stables so they were just cantering at that point. A long time ago but I remember him shouting at my mum to b****r off. Sometimes when it rained we clambered into the back of one of the numerous open backed lorries parked nearby. As kids we were enthralled by the many tic tac men and their antics and all their shouting the odds. One of my main hobbies on the day was collecting the coloured race cards that were thrown to the ground after the punter’s horse had lost. Many were just torn in half and discarded but many were still intact. After we were grown up mum still had a bet on the horses. She would go to the little betting shop in Arundel Road opposite Wilson’s laundry right up to the end of her days. Very fond memories of race days, and of course my mum. Mike Peirson.

    By Mick Peirson (27/01/2013)

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