361 Old Shoreham Road by Gary Cusack 2 AugustThis was a children and baby home I believe run by a Mrs H Mockford Any info would be appreciated as i was adopted from there.RegardsGary12 replies Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Dan O’Shaughnessy 16 AugustMy best friend at school (late 50s) lived at 361 OSR,his name was Julian Mockfort. I visited the house a few times but can’t remember much about it other than it was quite a large house. What I can remember is that they moved to a chicken farm in Bishops Waltham Hampshire, presumably when the house was demolished for road widening , sometime in the 60s they moved to St.Cleer in Cornwall. Unfortunately over the years I have lost contact with Julian, I believe he still lives somewhere in Cornwall. Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Gary Cusack 31 AugustDan. Thank you for your reply. Do you know if his second name was David. As I have found a Julian David Mockford in Penryn, Cornwall. Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Dan O’Shaughnessy 7 SeptemberGary I’m sorry I don’t know his second name or if I did I have forgotten it.Sorry I can’t be of more help, do you know the age of this person as the would be 80 now. Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Gary Cusack 11 SeptemberNo I don’t know his age. I think his mother ran a baby home at this address where I was adopted from and I am trying to find any records about it. The council said they had no records 🤔 Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Dan O’Shaughnessy 26 SeptemberGary I might be barking up the wrong tree but back in the 50s 361 was in Hove completely separate from Brighton and social services or whatever they called themselves then, was probably run by East Sussex County Council at Lewes. Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Gary Cusack 5 OctoberThanks for that info. I will try and contact East Sussex Council and see if they have anything. Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Doreen Young 13 OctoberHi Gary, Me again re above. I have found a photo of 361 Old Shoreham Road it was actually address Hove although in Portslade. It is in The James Gray Collection. Old Shoreham Road. Dated 1973 regency collection.org Image 154 of 156. Image ref JG_16_154.tif I hope you can find it from the above. Good Luck.Doreen Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Doreen Young 13 OctoberHi Gary, I remember the house before it was knocked down. It was a big house at the bottom of Hangleton Road on the North side of the Old Shoreham Road. It was knocked down when the road was widened. It always had the window panes decorated with colourful pictures so I thought it was a children’s nursery.My father had a friend called Mr Godsmark who was crossing the road right outside this house with his baby twins in a pram when tragically he was killed in an accident. It would have been reported in the local papers I would think. The Brighton and Hove Gazette or the Argus. You may be able to obtain some information from this or at least see a photo of the house and maybe find out what it was called. It was a very sad time although luckily the babies survived. He is buried at St Peter’s Church in West Blatchington in Hangleton. I was a child at the time but remember the house vividly. I can’t remember the date this happened but it is on his grave in the churchyard.Maybe this information will help somehow in your search. There must be compulsory purchase orders somewhere of when these houses were bought by the Council to knock down. How about the Keep at Falmer which is full of historical records.The house was actually right on the border of Portslade so the address could be Hove or Portslade. Good Luck.Doreen Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Gill Wales 13 OctoberStreet directories have Mrs Mockford at 361 OSR between 1949-1958 and Charles Ernest Mockford in 1947. In the 1930s the householder was Cooper.The directories don’t identify the property as an establishment. However, the county records office at The Keep have a building control record for 361 OSR in May 1960. It’s described as a “house and kindergarten school”, and was being converted into flats. The owner by then was Mrs R. Conn.Which isn’t shedding much light. But you are entitled to see your own adoption records, which are likely to have details about where you were at the time of your adoption. Eg, perhaps Mrs Mockford fostered children?More info about getting access to your records here https://www.familyconnect.org.uk/obtaining-adoption-records-if-you-were-adopted-before-30th-december-2005/ Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Gill Wales 3 NovemberThis comes with a massive health warning because it may be a red herring, but… Charles Ernest Mockford married Henrietta Lilian Davey in ‘Steyning’ district (which covered Hove) in 1926. The 1939 Register (mini-Census taken at the outbreak of WW2) has Charles E. and Henrietta L. Mockford at 169 Poplar Avenue, Hove. He was a carpenter, she an ‘unpaid domestic servant’ They were both 35 years old. There are six other people in the household, four of whom have ‘closed records’, ie details unavailable because they were children who may still be alive today. Two of the six are named: a two year old boy with two surnames “Mockford (Hodgson)” and an 18 month old boy with the surname Phillips. Birth registrations indicate that Henrietta gave birth to only one child. So it’s not clear what her relationship was to the other five children at 169 Poplar Avenue. But the Register doesn’t identify it as a children’s home. In fact, the address is a mystery – I can’t find it in any street directories. Henrietta Lilian Mockford died in Truro in 1986 at age 82. So the Mockfords at 169 Poplar Avenue may have been the same Charles Ernest Mockford and Mrs H Mockford who were at 361 OSR between 1947 and 1958, and who eventually moved to Cornwall. But please treat this only as a possibility. The above info about births, marriages and deaths comes from the Free BMD website, which is a wonderful resource but couldn’t provide a link between Henrietta Mockford and the Julian Mockford who was Dan’s classmate. Hence it could be a red herring. However, the website below contains a comprehensive list of children’s homes in Sussex. There is nothing listed for either 361 OSR or 169 Poplar Avenue. Which makes me more inclined towards Mrs H. Mockford being a foster parent rather than running a children’s home. If so she was fostering for many years. https://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/list/Sussex.shtml Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Gary Cusack 3 NovemberThank you all for you contributions and I will certainly be following them up as soon as possible but like all things it takes time. Look forward to any info I find. Re: 361 Old Shoreham Road by Alan Phillips 14 NovemberBy 1955, according to the caption, 169 Poplar Avenue, in Hove, was as shown at the right-hand side of this James Gray Collection photograph: https://regencysociety-jamesgray.com/volume37/source/jg_37_083.html At that time these were newly built Hove Council flats. 168 & 169 and are still located today on the northwest corner of Hangleton Road and Poplar Avenue. Add your replyHiddenAdd your title Add your wordsWould you like to add some images (optional)? If so, how many images would you like to add? 1 2 3 4 5 6Your image files will be uploaded when you submit this form. They should be .jpg or .png files. 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