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Hollands’s Corner
This photograph is very unusual in that it shows Ovingdean village pond from a strange angle. I lived in Ovingdean for twenty years, I left in 1997, and this is not a view I have seen before. It shows what the locals called ‘Hollands’s Corner’; this referred to the family who lived in the end house in the row of small houses named Peartree Cottages. Their front door can be seen on the far right of the shot. Greenways runs on the right of the photograph, and Ovingdean Road shows straight through the shot.
The Village Hall
I do not have a definite date for it, but it must be post-1932 as the long building in the background is the village hall, which was built in 1932. Further up Ovingdean Road you can see what was known as ‘the church rooms’. This very small building was a general meeting place for the village.
£300 loan from the corporation
Conscious that the church rooms was much too small for the growing population of Ovingdean, it was decided that a new village hall should be built. A number of residents formed a trustee group and the building was financed with a £300 loan and local fundraising. In 1932, on land leased from Brighton Corporation the predecessor to the present village hall, was built by a local man, Bill Davis.
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A beautiful photo of a lost age : thanks for sharing it with us. The pond looks busy, but happy.
I have fond memories of the village and the pond from my childhood in the 40s and 50s. Often my family would spend time in Rottingdean by the windmill, and then walk through a very peaceful Ovingdean on a sunny Sunday giving the ducks some bread and just wandering off along the cliff top to Black Rock then home to Bennett Road.
We all used to do those things Mick. We must have been there at the same time. As a treat sometimes we would do the journey one way or the other on the open topped bus. Out to Ovingdean through the bomb craters on the Downs beyond the golf club where Gerry had missed the Gas Works and have our picnic, then back home on the bus for supper.
Hello Tim, I remember playing soldiers in those bomb craters on the golf course. They were quite deep and years later when walking with my kids I noticed that the bottom 15 or so feet had been filled in. Don’t know if that was for safety reasons or maybe fat golfers struggling to get out if they had bunkered.
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