Living with my grandad
I was born in 1960; at that time, my parents lived with my Mum’s Dad in Whitehawk Road. I cannot remember the exact number, but I remember it was pretty much opposite the junction of Whitehawk Road and Findon Road. I remember that back then, my Grandad’s house had an outside loo; I do not know how long he had lived there. My Dad used to tell us kids that he married our Mum, because he had to pass her house when he went shopping for his mum, who lived at the Danehill Road end of Nuthurst Road, and she and her sister were always pinching things from his shopping bag.
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Living in Whitehawk Avenue
At some point in my early years, we moved to Bexhill Road in Woodingdean, where we lived until I was about seven years old. Mum could never settle in one place for long, and we moved back over to Whitehawk, to number 3 Whitehawk Avenue. Back then, there were two buildings at St David’s Hall, though until reading here, I never realised that one of them was linked to St Cuthman’s Church. I spent about five happy years there with my family, marred only by my brother being hit by a speeding car and nearly being killed.
A model railway
I used to like sitting on the steps of St David’s Hall, late at night and looking up at the stars; street-lights were not so close together, or so bright back then. Us kids used to make go-karts out of planks of wood and pram wheels, with a rope to steer it. I do remember there was a house at the bottom of the steps leading from Whitehawk Road to Manor Hill, on the left as you go up, whose owner had a model railway layout in his garden. It was wonderful and myself and other children from the area used to enjoy watching when he had it working.
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Seeing that photo of St David’s Hall reminded me of the time Dad’s Army filmed an episode inside the Youth club and then some more scenes were filmed in the racecourse grounds. The episode was called ‘We know our onions’
I can see Dougie Greenland’s house at the bottom left of the path and Peter Baker’s house with the old police box above the Boys Club where we had some great discos run by Eddie Witney. Dougie’s mum looked after the Boys Club and there was supposedly a witch living at the bottom of the path behind the club. Great times spent in a great place.
Number 3 was where I lived from the age of 2 to about 14 years of age. My next door neighbours were Mrs Phillips and her Sister, and Mr & Mrs Johnson with their son Tony. The House is directly behind the Bus Stop/Shelter. This was between 1966-1979 when I went to both the Infants and Juniors and then up the hill to Stanley Deason.
Have such great and fond memories of Whitehawk, spending many an evening on the Green in front of St Davids Hall, playing Cricket or Football, and cycling my tricycle around the paths only to crash into the Post Box and being seen by Mrs Naylard :-). Such a community!
My family and I lived at 91 Whitehawk Road in the late 60s early 70s. We were the Johnsons. My mum had 2 sets of twins. Boys and girls. I remember when the toy library opened in Whitehawk Road. I also remember the Dad’s Army cast coming to film in the hall near Whitehawk Avenue.
Does anyone remember Susan Barrow ?
I met Susan in the early 60’s when I was camping.
Susan lived on Whitehawk Road or Crescent.
I lived in London and we stayed in touch for some time.
Bill Barnes.
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