Railway 200 projects continue and although it is the holiday season education team have been busy and community work continues. Read more here
We were lucky at SCRP to be put in touch with Danny Coope, who helped us put together the information for 200 Blue plaques. He also designed and produced many of the materials. Danny played a huge role in making Rail Fair 200 a success.
Danny thinks of himself as an accidental historian. Back in 2011 he was working as a picture editor on a magazine, commissioning photo shoots by day but researching his family tree by night. He casually used the address search to discover who had lived in his house before him. It wasn’t long before this fascination extended to his neighbours, and then the whole street and a spreadsheet was born of who’d lived in each house, and their occupation, recorded in each census dating back in some cases to 1851.
Jobs included tea taster, water works foreman, mangler, whip socket maker, sanitary inspector, marine artist, goldsmith and railway ticket printer!
Danny really wanted to share what he was finding out and hit upon the blue plaque idea for an up-coming local Art Trail, part installation/part history lesson. Anti-celebrity blue plaques if you like, remembering the ordinary, the forgotten.
He designed them himself and had them printed on card, and cut them out by hand, and went up and down the street meeting neighbours he’d never met before, and convinced many to sellotape the plaques in their front windows for the three weeks of the town-wide arts event. Over 60 were displayed and it quickly became a highlight of the trail. Many of the houses were so proud of their history they kept the plaques up for months, even years.
It spawned a community commission for blue plaques remembering former shopkeepers on a High Street in Edmonton, and then some self-imposed collections on a theme such as TV & Film and Food & Drink. (where he got to celebrate a poultry trusser, soldified soup maker, offal clerk and fancy pickle filler)
But he’s had a steady trickle of private commissions ever since for individual houses around the country. He’s particularly fond of ostrich feather curler, saggar maker’s bottom knocker and Xylonite factory boy.
In 2025 SCRP commissioned Danny to create 200 blue plaques on a railway theme. With nominations from Line managers and local history groups, he’s compiled another collection of wildly different occupations and individuals with a railway connection such as navvy, signalman and luggage labeller to railway station architect, suffragette, wild west performer, botanical artist and even a fox terrier! He also helped create 100 current roles in the railway to demonstrate the opportunities available in todays railway industry.
SWR and GTR provided most of the development grants for this project, but all the TOCS and Network Rail helped us with suggestions and advice. It was a great team effort and the result was very gratifying indeed. Watch out for more news on how we will use this project to connect more people with their railway.
Photo: Danny Coope image from Silvertip Films
A total of 200 ‘blue plaques’ have been displayed for the first time to mark two centuries of railway history in the South East.
The unveiling took place during community celebrations at Lewes town hall on Friday 1 August.
The ‘blue plaques’ highlight people, places and even animals who have a connection to the development of the railways – 100 plaques show past links to train lines and a further 100 illustrate modern jobs to help recruit the next generation of railway staff.
Among the more famous names to feature are: Queen Victoria, railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, crime writer Dame Agatha Christie, Vietnam’s first president Ho Chi Minh, Winne-the-Pooh author A.A. Milne and Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb.
There are also plenty of stories of lesser-known people from station staff and signallers to a wild west performer and WH Smith bookstall assistant.
The date of the Rail Fair 200 event – 1.8.25 – was chosen to acknowledge 200 years of the modern railways since the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in 1825.
Research and design was led by Danny Coope from Street of Blue Plaques.
CHARLES ‘MONTE CARLO’ WELLS
1841-1922
FRAUDSTER AND GAMBLER
THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BANK AT MONTE CARLO IN 1891
Had to leave the London & Paris Hotel at Newhaven Harbour Station because of his riotous parties
Born in Broxbourne, Herts. Charles grew up in Marseille, became a shipyard engineer in 1860s. Invented a device to regulate the
speed of a ship’s propeller and moved to Paris where he sought investors in a fraudulent scheme to build a railway but fled with
the proceeds, convicted in his absence. Turning up in England he started several other investment frauds and pocketed the money.
In July and November 1891 Charles played the casino gaming tables in Monte Carlo. According to Flaneur in the Sporting Times
Charles devised systems for roulette and the card game ‘Trente et Quarante’ and over about a week he steadily won far more than
the day before. Winning £9000 one day, £12,000 the next, and £16,000 the day after that (between £1.7m and £2.7m in today’s
money?!*). If this was more than the table’s bank reserves at that point in the day a player was said to have ‘broken the bank’
while supplementary funds were brought. A black cloth was ceremonially placed over the table while play was paused.
Before long he was bankrupt and in 1893 spent 8 years in penal servitude for obtaining money by false pretences. He was released
in 1899 and published two books on his winning Monte Carlo ‘system’.
Charles had other dubious business affairs in France, including a huge investment fraud operation in 1910 (copied by Charles
Ponzi in the USA), and he must have been a regular guest at the London & Paris Hotel at Newhaven Harbour Station on the way.
It is said that he held so many riotous parties at the hotel that he was asked to seek alternative accommodation. He would rent the
house at 86 Fort Road in Newhaven instead.
He is said to have died penniless in 1922, he was 81.
NOTES/LINKS
* using This Is Money and the Bank of England’s inflation calcuator
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
A series of ‘blue plaques’ has been displayed to recognise the wide range of people who have contributed to the development of the Marshlink rail route.
Each of the 10 plaques summarises the historic links to the line between Hastings and Ashford International.
The list of names was revealed on Tuesday (1 July) by Marshlink community rail partnership to mark the 118th anniversary of the opening of Three Oaks and Doleham stations. The first trains to stop at the two locations were on 1 July 1907.
The partnership worked with researchers, historians, rail enthusiasts, archivists and community representatives to find people from all walks of life suitable for a ‘blue plaque’.
Marshlink community rail partnership line chair Kevin Boorman said: “We wanted to acknowledge the contribution made by the community to their railways. We have unearthed some wonderful stories of people who have helped to develop railways not just locally but globally.
“It is great that the hidden histories and unsung heroes and heroines are now being revealed alongside some of the better-known people with links to the Marshlink line.”
The 10 plaques recognise:
:: Sarah Ashenden, level crossing gatekeeper at Rye station in the 1910s and 1920s
:: George and George Austin, father and son from Ore who helped build the railways as labourers in the 1850s
:: Maud Bassington, an artist and floral painter who put her drawing skills to technical use as a tracer at the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR) Loco drawing office at Ashford in the 1910s and 1920s
:: Robin Gibb, the Bee Gees singer who was on board the Hastings to London train with his girlfriend when it derailed at Hither Green in 1967
:: Verena Holmes, the pioneering railway engineer from Ashford who was the first female member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and Society of Locomotion Engineers in 1944
:: John Impett, Southeastern Railway engineer from Ashford who built railways in the difficult terrain of Brazil and Peru in the 1880s and 1890s
:: Suzy Eddie Izzard, the comedian and actor whose family’s model railway is on display at Bexhill Museum
:: Lynda and Elsie King, sisters who took the train from Rye to the railway works in Ashford in the 1920s where they were both shorthand typists for South Eastern and Chatham Railway
:: Marianne North, Victorian botanical artist from Hastings whose drawings are on display at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew
:: Googie Withers, film star and actress who fell in love on a film set at Lydd Town railway station in 1947
A banner with the 10 ‘blue plaques’ was unveiled at Three Oaks village hall following a well-attended talk by author Keith Swallow. His book ‘A Different Kind of Brotherhood: Guesting and Three Oaks, Then and Now’ includes a chapter on the coming of the railways and the impact of transport on the area.
Kevin Boorman commented: “It is an important role of the community rail partnership to host talks and events of this kind to acknowledge how railways affected communities. We were delighted to arrange and organise this fascinating and detailed look at the development of the small but important Three Oaks and Doleham stations.”
The ‘blue plaque’ project by Southeast Communities Rail Partnership (SCRP) is part of the Railway 200 celebrations to mark 200 years of the modern railways since the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in 1825.
In total, SCRP will unveil 200 ‘blue plaques’ this year: 100 for people with historic links to the railways and 100 detailing modern jobs on the railways to encourage people to consider future careers.
TONBRIDGE-REIGATE – RAILWAY 200 BLUE PLAQUES
by Danny Coope
* * * * * *
1
JOHN TOWES
1872-1970
ENGINE TIMEKEEPER
John Charles Towes, was the son of Martha and William Towes, a railway fireman and later engine driver.
John was one of seven children born to them at 15 Garlands Road not far from Redhill Junction as it was
called in 1871. In 1891, nine people living at No 15. John’s brothers William and Frederick worked as a
stoker and engine shed labourer. John was 19 and was a railway engine timekeeper – arrivals and departure
times, hours worked, rest periods fulfilled, and generally making sure an engine crew were available to
work. A complicated task at a busy junction.
It’s hard to believe but local times across the country varied slightly from one end to the other. Train arrivals
couldn’t always be predicted accurately, accidents were being caused and passengers might not make their
expected connections. It wasn’t until the countrywide telegraph network made it possible for Greenwich to
transmit a time signal ‘London Time’ for stationmasters to set their station clocks by. This began in 1847 but
it wasn’t until August 1880 that an Act was passed that unified Great Britain’s standard time as GMT.
John’s wife Adelaide Entecott was a timber dealer’s daughter from Deptford who found herself in a poor
school in Sutton before getting work as a parlour maid in Godstone in 1891. They were married in 1896.
* * * * * *
2
ISABEL TARRANT
1905-1986
PLATFORM GIRL
Born in Reigate in 1905, Isabel was one of six children of Amelia née White, a cane chair re-seater and
Sampson Tarrant, a glass and china riveter – repairing and strengthening damaged items using metal staples.
Around 1921 Isabel was working at Redhill railway station as a platform girl. Not unlike a cinema usherette,
this involved selling refreshments to passengers waiting for trains. The refreshment rooms would’ve been
run by catering firm Spiers and Pond, who had 200 branches at their peak – as well as 12 hotels including
Brighton’s Grand Hotel and the Gaiety and Criterion Theatre restaurants in London. Spiers and Pond started
in Australia in 1851, funding the England cricket team visit and play matches in Australia in 1861 (losing all
but one match apparently). When they arrived in Britain in the 1860s, taking over station refreshment rooms,
rather than paying rent they shared the profits with the railway companies. Their food was good quality at a
fair price and so a great success.
Isabel married stonemason William Green in 1926 and she would’ve given up her job. They moved to 56
Colesmead Road, Redhill overlooking the playing field and had two children, William Jnr. and Robert.
During WWII William worked as an ARP gravedigger when called upon. Isabella lived until 1986.
* * * * * *
3
FREDERICK HILL
b 1898
STEAM ENGINE FIREMAN
Frederick’s family was dominated by the railways in Redhill. Frederick Albert Hill was born in 1898, to
Agnes née Nye and Albert Hill, a shunter.
By 1921 Frederick was a railway engine fireman. Overseen by the driver this was an often strenuous job of
cleaning the firebox, starting and maintaining the fire, shovelling in coal and ensuring ample water supplies.
He’d be expected to anticipate any approaching inclines as the engine would require extra steam power.
At the same time Frederick’s father Albert was now a railway goods guard for South Eastern, his brother
Nelson was a carriage examiner (inspecting train wheels, couplings, brakes etc for faults), brother Rowland
a parcels clerk and little brother Albert was a book stall boy for WH Smith & Son. So it’s likely that at least
one of these young men would’ve known Isabel Tarrant!
In 1924 Frederick had married Jessie Clara Risbridger and they had a son Frederick Jnr. in 1927. By 1939
now aged 41, Frederick was still working as a locomotive fireman. The family were living at 1 Victoria
Road, Redhill, just 150m from the tracks.
* * * * * *
4
SIR MYLES FENTON
1830-1918
OFFICE BOY & GENERAL MANAGER
Born in the Lake District town of Kendal in 1830. His mother Elizabeth was a postmistress.
Myles began his career, aged 15, on the Kendal and Windermere railway in 1845, criss-crossing the
country for various Railway Companies in various capacities. In 1863 he became General Manager of the
Metropolitan and in 1880 the Great Eastern Railway. His CV lists many high powered roles on boards and
trusts. He was knighted by Queen Victoria and made a Justice of the Peace, and Lieut. Col. of the Engineer
and Railway Volunteer Staff Corps.
It wasn’t until the age of 53 that he married. In 1883 the widow Charlotte Jane Collins became his wife and
they moved to a country estate in South Nutfield, Surrey. He announced in the press that Nutfield’s new
station would be opened for traffic on 1 January 1884. They eventually moved back into town, to Redstone
Hall, overlooking an engine shed at Redhill junction.
He retired in 1906 aged 76, and died in 1918, aged 87. Redstone Hall was demolished in the 1930s and
became Fenton Road.
* * * * * *
5
MOSES W. STANBROOK
b 1817
INSPECTOR OF WORKS DURING MARKBEECH NAVVY RIOTS
Born in Coleshill near Swindon in 1817, to Sarah and Stephen Stanbrook, a mason. Moses joined the
Coldstream Guards at 18 but was invalided four years later with ‘diseased lungs’. He returned to Coleshill
and began working as a stone mason like his father. Twenty years on he’s widowed and working again as a
mason in London. In his late 40s he lands the role of Inspector of Works at the railway building project at
Tunbridge.
In 1866 railway building contractors Messrs. Waring Brothers, running short of men on its Surrey and
Sussex line at Cowden, began to bring in 500 extra navvies from France, Luxemburg and Belgium. There
was growing disquiet that this foreign workforce were undercutting the English, potentially replacing them
entirely – a fact publicly denied by the contractors. Conflicting evidence in the newspaper Court reports state
on August 5 there was an altercation at a beershop, where the animosity drove a couple of Frenchmen to
start a fight, windows were broken with bats, and two Englishmen were concussed. This prompted a group to
ransack a farm housing French navvies, their wives and children. Fighting continued through Saturday night,
all day Sunday and into Monday morning when, brandishing bludgeons the English herded the French to
Edenbridge station where police were waiting. A further nighttime riot occurred where “the nightwatchman
aroused The Inspector of Works Mr. Stanbrook” who discovered 40 or 50 men heading to the shanties from
Markbeech. Stanbrook offered them “3 gallons of beer if you will go away quietly and not interfere with the
foreigners” but to no avail. Collaring one of the men he was struck on the neck. Two French navvies were
charged with unlawfully assembling and making “a great noise, riot, and tumultuous disturbance, to the
terror of Her Majesty’s subjects”. Passing sentence of a month’s imprisonment on the English perpetrators,
the Judge cautioned that: “any attempt to prevent aliens from honestly gaining their livelihood in this free
country would be severely punished”. He concluded there was insufficient evidence to sustain a charge of
rioting against the French men accused. But he complimented Mr Stanbrook “on the courage and sagacity he
displayed in attempting to stop the riot.”
* * * * * *
6
ERNEST MARTIN
1905 – 1972
LENGTHMAN
Born in Lewisham in 1905, Ernest Arthur George Martin’s father Arthur was from Chiddingstone, and was
a platelayer and permanentway ganger on the Godstone Length for SE&C Railway. His mother Annie née
Boakes was the daughter of a gunpowder factory carter in Leigh. They lived at 21 Lagham Road, Godstone
(1921, 1939) overlooking the railway line beside Godstone station. As a teenager, Ernest worked as a
labourer at the local Terra Cotta brickworks before becoming a lengthman for South Eastern railways.
As a lengthman, or trackwalker, Ernest would regularly inspect his designated length of railway track,
to deal with minor problems and report more serious ones. He’d look out for any perishing of joints or
loosening ‘keys’ he would tap back in, or signs of subsidence and clearing litter, weeds and obstructions. In
the worst cases he’d get trains stopped until the problem was solved. Occasionally a lengthman would be
injured or killed by passing trains.
To give you some idea of the distances a lengthman might walk: a retiring lengthman in Scotland in 1950
calculated that he’d walked 36,305 miles of track in a 17 year career!
Ernest died in Horsham, in 1972, he was 67.
* * * * * *
7
EMMA HARRIS
1855-1933
MILK TRAIN DAIRY FARMER
The Roser family dairy farm was in Dry Hill, Tonbridge. It was run by Thomas and his third wife Hester.
Daughter Emma was born in 1855, one of four surviving children. When Thomas died in the 1870s Hester,
now in her 60s, took on the farm herself – which in the 1880s totalled 70 acres, employing two men and
three boys. They were living at 15 Shipbourne Road, Tonbridge (beside the George & Dragon pub). A
solicitor’s clerk called Ernest Harris – the son of a grocer on Tonbridge High Street – was lodging just a few
doors away from the Rosers at No 4, and he and Emma were married. When Hester died in 1885, the farm’s
value was to be divided equally between the children, so Emma and Ernest bought it themselves (which was
contested in court!) By 1901 they had six children, who seem to have been given the middle name Roser.
The sons became bank clerks and the youngest, daughter Ruby assisted her mother on the farm. In the 1920s
milk from Emma’s dairy herds over in Ashurst were being transported on morning trains to Tonbridge, 17
gallons (136 pints) of it daily, and distributed by motor van. According to one source 282 million gallons of
milk was moved by rail in 1923, and this was gradually shifting to road.
Ernest died in 1924. Emma in 1933.
LINKS
History of Milk Freight Operations
https://web.archive.org/web/20130101222919/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/7-fops/fo-milk.htm
* * * * * *
8
FANNY CHEESEMAN
1818-1893
EXPLOSIVE POWDER MAKER
It’s rumoured that Guy Fawkes’s explosives came from an unauthorised maker in Battle. It wasn’t until
the late 1600s that official powdermaking licenses were issued, the first to what is now Powdermill Lane,
near Battle, with Tunbridge (as it was spelt then) following in 1813, in conjunction with Humphrey Davy
and the Children family. Ingredients were a moistened mixture of saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur. This
was then ground or ‘milled’ between large round, flat stones rather like a flour mill, powered by water,
then compressed under heavy weights before processing into fine grained powder. Inevitably accidental
explosions occurred on site, killing workers, so it was a dangerous place to work. The powder was put
into barrels and transported by road and river barges. Rail transport would, however in 1847 for example,
the GWR concerned over safety ordered that special ‘machines’ be used for transporting ‘gunpowder and
combustible materials’ by rail.
Fanny was born in Tonbridge in 1818 to Jane Morgan, a japaner (imitation black laquerwork) and Henry, a
carpenter and millwright at the local powder mill. Fanny married Lancashire-born John Cheeseman in 1835
and by 1851 they were living next door to Fanny’s mum and dad. Fanny, John and the three eldest of their
eight children (aged 11, 12 and 13!) worked as powder makers for Burton’s gunpowder company. Their
advertisements read: “confidentally recommended to all sportsmen as unrivalled, possessing great strength,
cleanness, and promptness of ignition, and requires but a trial to prove its superiority.” These explosives
were also very useful for railway building, for blasting chunks of rock and earth to form cuttings and
tunnels.
After the death of Mr Burton, the Company and mill was sold. By 1861 the Cheeseman family had upped
sticks to Kendal in the Lake District, where Fanny’s husband was foreman of the gunpowder works in
Helsington, until the 1890s. They had made new lives in Kendal, both dying there towards the end of 1893.
Fanny was 75, John was 83.
LINKS
Gunpowdermaking in the Battle area
https://historymap.info/Gunpowder_Mills#How_gunpowder_was_manufactured.5B1.5D
* * * * * *
9
HORACE HORSCROFT
1844-1928
LUGGAGE LABELLER
Horace was born at 5 Rock Cottages in Tonbridge in 1844. His father being a carman, a deliveryman. By the
age of 17 Horace had worked briefly as a butcher but had taken to portering. On New Year’s Day in 1865 he
married Constance Munn Burr. They move to Hastings quite soon afterwards and have at least six children,
including twins William and Ann. They’ve settle into 114 Stonefield Road, Hastings and in 1891 and 1901
Horace is describing himself as a railway luggage labeller. In 1910 however it ‘leaked out’ that Horace was
being forced to retire, pensioned off. The local Observer newspaper described him as “one of the best known
employees at Hastings Station” and a “faithful railway servant, labelling luggage for 45 years”. He was 67
by now but “has never had any illness” and “judging by his present appearance he looks good for another
twenty years.” A few months later, in the station waiting room, Horace was being presented with a marble
clock engraved with ‘From a few old friends’. He lost his wife Constance in 1918. He lived until 1928, to
84, almost the 20 years he’d been ‘good for.’
* * * * * *
10
HENRY WEST
1829-1880s
RAILWAY CARRIER & MESSENGER
Henry West, son of Henry West, was born in Speldhurst west of Tonbridge in 1829 and as a boy, certainly of
12 and into his 20s Henry was labouring on nearby Rusthall Farm. By 1861 Henry had found less strenuous
employment as the railway messenger and was living at Station Cottage at Chiddingstone Causeway by
Penshurst station with Harriet and their four children. Like an ad hoc postman he would’ve charged a small
fee per item, be it a note or package, usually within distance limits of the station. Perhaps to alert someone
that a parcel, or even a visitor, had arrived at the station.
In the 1870s-80s the family had moved to The Square in Penshurst and had taken in lodgers, a saddler and
two bricklayers. It was on the 1881 census that Henry, now 52, was described as having an infirmity, in his
case ‘deaf’. We’ll never know if this was recent or lifelong, caused by an accident or infection. It’s possible
that being a messenger was a safer occupation to someone with hearing impairment, as opposed to working
on railway lines or powdermills for example where danger calls needed to be heard.
Henry died in 1880s and his widow Harriet, now in her 60s, continued Henry’s messenger and carrier
services. She eventually moved to Beckenham to live with her widowed daughter Emily, where she died in
1908.
* *
The Sussex Coast Blue Plaque project commemorates people past and present that have worked along the line. The blue plaques are installed at some of the stations between Hove and Littlehampton. In Lancing and Littlehampton the plaques have been used to create town trails. Here are some of the stories of the ordinary men and women that worked on the railways and that did extraordinary things during their lifetimes. We thank all those that helped identify these people for their hard work and dedication.
Angmering Station – Horace Hayward, Station Manager
All change!
When the railway first came to our villages
by Graham Lewis, with acknowledgements to Richard Standing
The opening of Angmering Station on 16th March 1846 altered the face of travel in Rustington, East Preston and Angmering, bringing about significant social and economic changes to this largely agricultural area. Many more people were able to explore the world beyond their rural village, and in an era when roads were notoriously bad, the faster journeys achieved by train enabled the coastal strip to develop a successful market gardening industry, with produce travelling to London and beyond. Tomatoes and flowers were the principal crops.
The construction of Britain’s railways began in the 1830s in the hands of a large number of independent companies, authorised by parliament, but with no overall plan or co-ordination. The London & Brighton Railway Company was responsible for the scheme to link these two centres of population, but it seems a line westward along the coast from Brighton had always been an essential part of the scheme. In 1837 the company was given permission to build a line from Brighton to Shoreham, as well as its main line from London. As a port, Shoreham was a potentially profitable destination, but it was clearly foreseen that a line westwards from there was desirable.
A few years later, the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway was formed from several smaller companies and it was the LBSCR which built the line we know today, reaching Worthing in 1845, followed by Angmering and then Chichester in 1846. Leaving Shoreham, the first station on the new line was Lancing, followed by Worthing, Goring and Angmering. The original station at Angmering appears to have been an attractive flint-faced building with twin gables. After Angmering, the next station was called Littlehampton, though this was situated near the level crossing in Lyminster, two miles north of the town. The next station was Arundel (now Ford station) and the spurs to the town centre stations in Bognor and Littlehampton were added in 1864. Barnham Station was built in that same year.
The 1853 passenger timetable shows that there were four daily trains from Angmering to Brighton and four trains a day to Portsmouth. To travel to London, a change at Brighton was essential, as the loop between Hove and Preston Park wasn’t built until 1879.
In 1854, Angmering Station was provided with a goods yard on a large piece of land to the north of the line, donated to the LBSCR by the Squire of Ham Manor, William Gratwicke. The goods yard is now the station car park but the old engine shed still stands today and is used by a tool hire business. The second (and present) station building, dating from the 1860s, included a house for the station master or other key staff. A signal box was constructed in 1877 on the south side of the station adjacent to the level crossing, but this was removed in the 1990s when the signalling system was centralised. In its earlier days, Angmering station wasn’t just a railway station, as the station master (sometimes designated simply as a “clerk”) also served as the local postmaster. From here, mail for Angmering, East Preston, Kingston and Rustington was sorted and distributed. The opening of Angmering Station didn’t just transform the local economy and people’s way of life. It also resulted in the name of the road leading from Rustington to East Preston being changed from East Street to Station Road, and the latter name continues right through Angmering to Water Lane.
Hove Station – Ethel Lee, Southern Railway Ship Stewardess
Ethel Lee took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk. She was acting as a stewardess on a cross-channel boat which was making its way to Dunkirk to rescue survivors. The boat was attacked by enemy planes and a bomb hit it amid-ships. For over one and a half hours Mrs Lee was in the water swimming and occasionally floating on her back to rest. Mrs Lee was born in Lewes and lived in Newhaven.
Lancing Town Trail – Harold Dray, Coach Trimmer
Roll of Honour – Sussex – Lancing
Harold Dray was born at Canterbury Kent on 22nd January 1913 to parents Elizabeth and Harold. Harold senior worked in the stores at Southern Railway in Ashford – at 16 years old Harold junior started a 5-year apprenticeship there and at 21 years old became a fully qualified “coach trimmer”.
The carriage-works at Ashford was closed and all railway carriage construction was concentrated at Lancing West Sussex. Approximately 500 men transferred to work at the Lancing carriage-works. Harold in his early 20’s relocated from Ashford to Lancing sometime between 1934 and 1937 going to lodge with family at Shoreham-by-sea.
Harold met local girl Winifred Lilian Mockford and they married at St Michael & All Angels Church in Lancing on Saturday 27th March 1937. Winifred [Wyn] was born in Sussex on 27th August 1916. She had been working “in service” as a housekeeper in Maidstone – perhaps she had met Harold while she was living in Kent. Harold and Wyn began their married life in a property called “Lido Villas” on the sea-front at South Street Lancing. Their first child, Linda Mary was born on 26th March 1941.
In the early morning of Friday 25th April 1941 a German plane, being chased from London by the RAF jettisoned a bomb before flying out to sea. It was a direct hit on Lido Villas and reduced the property to rubble. Wyn was in bed, baby Linda was in the cot and Harold was in the bathroom getting ready to go to work at Lancing carriage-works. Wyn threw herself on top of the cot; she and the baby were rescued uninjured and taken to neighbours at The Three Horseshoes pub next door to keep them safe and warm. Harold was seriously injured and taken to hospital in Worthing.
The German plane was shot down. The pilot survived and was rescued from the sea near Worthing Pier and taken prisoner.
Harold and Wyn were eventually housed in a bungalow in Lancing Park and their second child Sylvia Jean was born on 28th January 1943.
Harold was “called up” to The Royal Army Service Corps [General Transport] and was posted on Thursday 5th March 1942 for training at Beacon Barracks, Bulford Wiltshire.
The Army paid an allowance to Wyn and the children as his dependants.
Harold was part of the Allied Expeditionary Force which landed on the beaches in France in June 1944. He was fatally wounded on DDay by shrapnel to his left side and both legs and he died on 7th June 1944 at a casualty evacuation centre on the French beach. Wyn received confirmation that Harold was “missing in action” but confirmation of his death did not come until October. As soon as that notification was given, the financial allowance paid to her and the children ceased.
In the family archives there are three letters – written in pencil – to Wyn from Private C.H. Bennett who had been a great friend of Harold’s and had tried to find him when he was wounded. Private Bennett’s letters indicate that Harold [Hal to his mates] was very popular and well-liked by his comrades. Private Bennett survived the war and returned to Scotland but he made a trip down to Lancing to visit Wyn and return Harold’s identification dog-tags to her. Private Bennett told Wyn that overnight on 6th June 1944 the casualty evacuation centre had been bombed and all nursing staff and patients had been killed.
Without financial support, Wyn found paid employment making and packing “chaff” which was used as radar counter-measures by British warplanes. Wyn had to send her young daughters to an orphanage. Linda at 3½ years old and Sylvia aged 18 months were placed in the care of The Southern Railways Orphanage at Woking Surrey. The Woking Orphanage accommodated 150 children whose fathers had died during their employment on the railways. The building latterly became part of “Woking Homes” a home for retired railway and transport personnel and their spouses.
In July 1947 Wyn re-married. Reginald James Shorter [Reg] was a locksmith at Lancing carriage-works. He had relocated from the Ashford carriage-works and he had worked alongside Harold. Reg wasn’t able to join the Regular Army due to his poor eyesight but he did serve with the local Home Guard throughout the war. Reg and Wyn immediately brought the girls out of the orphanage and in August 1947 they became a family. Linda aged 6½ years joined the Lancing Junior School and Sylvia joined Lancing Infants School.
Reg worked for Lancing Carriage Works until it closed in the 1960s and he subsequently trained as a carpenter at Beamish on Shoreham Harbour until he retired.
Reg and Wyn lived in the bungalow at Lancing Park. Reg died in 1986. Wyn sold the bungalow in 1995 and retired to live in Ireland alongside her daughter Linda. Wyn died in Ireland 2009. Linda didn’t have children but Sylvia had two children [Sharon and Joanne]. Sylvia died in 2018. Linda, is now aged 83 and living in Staffordshire. Linda visited Lancing with Sharon during Remembrance in November 2024 to take part in a memorial service at Lancing Station and to lay a wreath in memory of her father Harold whose name is inscribed on the war memorial. Sharon has vowed never to forget the service and sacrifice of the grandfather she never knew – Harold Dray.
Lancing Town Trail – Arthur R.R. Bartlett, Booking Clerk
Private 10497 Artur Reuben Robert Bartlett enlisted on 27th February 1917. He served in the 2nd Battalion Honourable Artillery Company as a stretcher bearer.
Arthur was killed in action on Friday 26th October 1917 aged 20 years. Struggling through waist deep mud and machine gun fire, attempting to rescue wounded men lying in water-filled shell holes, working under very heavy fire. Private Bartlett was killed by a piece of shell, South of Ypres near Vierstraat. He was baptised at St James The Less on 6th June 1897. He lived at 2, North Road Lancing, Sussex. He worked as a Booking Clerk at Lancing Railway Station. Arthur’s Grandfather was Postmaster at Lancing Post Office.
Lancing Town Trail – Ernest Strudwick, Lifter
For more information about Ernest Strudwick please visit: Lancing War Memorial: STRUDWICK Ernest
Gunner 374377 Ernest Strudwick of the 173rd Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery. Ernest was killed in Action on Thursday 21st March 1918 aged 32 years. A casualty of the German Spring Offensive, killed by a shell and buried where he fell, commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the missing. Ernest lived in Penhill Road Lancing. He married Rose Grinyer and they had 4 children. He worked as a garden labourer until outbreak of war, joined the staff at Southern Railway Carriage Works as a Lifter.
Lancing Town Trail – Herbert J Clist
Private Herbert John Clist, (known as Jack), Royal Army Service Corps.
Son of Edward and Emma Louisa Clist,Third Avenue, Lancing, Sussex.
Jack was an apprentice at Southern Railway Carriage Works Lancing Sussex in the upholstery dept. On completion of the apprenticeship, Jack enlisted into the Royal Army Service Corps. After training he was posted to Singapore. On the surrender he was sent to a Prisoner of War Camp, where worked on the Burma Siam Railway, The Death Railway. `After 2 years of internment sadly Jack died of Cholera in camp 30th May 1943, age 26 years.
“In the early 1950’s my mother and Grandfather had a visit from a fellow POW. The Men that survived in the camp had agreed to visit relatives and relay what had happened to their menfolk. This chap stated that after another hard day working on the railway, they returned to camp exhausted. Something happened and their water was not fully boiled. Hence contracting cholera.
Buried at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Myanmar, Japan.
“Golden Memories Silently Kept, We Who Loved Will Never Forget”
The Uncle I never met.
Regards.
Mike King (living relative to Herbert Clist)
For more information visit: C Database
Lancing Town Trail – Evelyn Joan Ford, Upholsterer
Evelyn trained as a Tailor/ dress maker. She worked at Lancing Carriage Works in the upholstery department during WW2 in the Hush Hush shop, working on secret missions for the Army supporting the war effort, she spoke about making floats for the Bailey Bridges and the overlays for the Horsa Gloder planes, which were used to support the Normandy Landings. Evelyn was always very proud of the work they undertook
Evelyn lived at the time in Hove and travelled every day on the Lancing Belle to work at the Lancing Carriage Works, using the train she used to tip a lads hat off who worked at the railway station as he was seeing the train off safely as he worked on the platform, (later she married this chap 20-10-1945) and moved to Ferring and started a family, Evelyn’s husband Horace Alfred Ford known as Henry then moved and worked at Worthing Railway Station as platform guard/ chargeman.
Evelyn died in 2018.
Photos from Eve’s Family
Lancing Town Trail – Sarah Chesterman, Railway Goods Van Driver
Sarah Chesterman is mentioned in a newspaper article from December 1942. This was the Worthing Herald, but the story was repurposed across other titles at the time too. The headline is ‘Women do big jobs on the railways. Mere man’s tribute – We’d be in a mess without them”.
It describes Miss Sarah Chesterman, 33, who worked in a store. This gave a year of birth, that she was unmarried, and possibly a store/shop worker. They even showed a photograph – though very poorly reproduced in the article online.
The 1939 register shows only one possibility for Sarah (born 16 Oct 1908). We can assume that she didn’t marry as she kept her birth name to the last. Her parents and siblings were in Oxfordshire. She was buried back in Kidlington – where her relatives may still be.
Littlehampton Town Trail – Ernest H Morley, Signalman
Ernest worked for the railway for over 45 years, 40 of these as a signalman at Lyminster Crossing. For more information about Ernest, visit Littlehampton Museum. Home | Littlehampton Museum
Littlehampton Town Trail – William Betterton
William was born in Reigate in 1880. He lived and worked in Tunbridge Wells, before marrying Mary Ann Hall in Sussex in 1906. He started work for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway that same year, in Littlehampton. He was employed as a ‘carman’ – a carter who would drive a horse-drawn vehicle, collecting and delivering goods to and from the station. He and his wife Mary had six children between 1907 and 1919, living at 12 Gloucester Place and later at 44 Maxwell Road. Tragically William died at work on 14 June 1920, in an accident at the stables at Littlehampton station. For more about William and his family, please read this brief account written by the Railway Work, Life & Death project, who researched William’s life for us.
Thanks to William and Mary’s surviving family who provided a photo and information.
Littlehampton Town Trail – Frederick Parsons
Frederick Parsons was born in Wivelsfield in 1869, to Belinda and Thomas Parsons, a railway labourer/platelayer.
By age 22 (1891) he was already bookstall manager in Oxted where he met Hannah Dilnot, a Kent girl working as domestic staff for an architect. They married in 1893 and in 1901 they were still living in Oxted, and he continued to manage the railway bookstall. By 1911 Frederick was a clerk for a bookseller/newsagents [WHSmith’s] they were living at 54 East Ham Road, Littlehampton with Hannah and their only child George, a newsagents’ assistant.
In 1921 census Frederick was still manager of a railway bookstall and even specified WHSmith’s Littlehampton Railway station. He’d lost Hannah by 1939’s identity card register and was living with the Burt family at Parkside Avenue, Littlehampton.
For more information about Frederick, visit Littlehampton Museum. Home | Littlehampton Museum
Littlehampton Town Trail – Edward Tanner
Awarded an MBE in 1918 for services to the railway, Tanner served over 50 years, the last 20 at Littlehampton. For more information about Edward, visit Littlehampton Museum. Home | Littlehampton Museum
Littlehampton Town Trail – Tony Squires
Tony worked for the railway 1957-1966 and 1974-2001. He was a local Councillor, 1965-1968 and 1978-2015, and Littlehampton Mayor, 1987/88 and 2000/2001. For more information about Tony, visit Littlehampton Museum. Home | Littlehampton Museum
PIONEERING RAILWAY ENGINEER
Born in Ashford in 1889 to Florence and Edmond Holmes who was an Inspector of Schools. In 1891 the family were living at Highworth House in Ashford with five servants.
During the First World War, Verena helped build aircraft propellers, took technical evening classes, and was apprenticed as a draughtsman. In 1919 she was a founding member of the Women in Engineering Society and completed an Engineering degree. In the 1920s she worked for the North British Locomotive Co. becoming the first female member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and Society of Locomotion Engineers in 1944.
Her inventions include the Holmes-Wingfield pneumothorax apparatus for treating patients with tuberculosis, a surgeon’s headlamp, a poppet valve for steam locomotives and rotary valves for internal combustion engines. She advocated for employment opportunities for women in engineering.
Her birthday 23 June is International Women in Engineering Day, where the achievements of women in engineering are celebrated. Verena has a Class 375 Southeastern Railway train and a faculty building at Canterbury Christ Church University named in her honour.
Notes/links:
https://www.imeche.org/careers-education/women-in-engineering/verena-holmes
Verena’s great niece, Caroline Yardley, attended the train-naming event in 2023:
https://www.ashford.gov.uk/your-community/history-and-heritage/ashford-borough-virtual-plaque-scheme
Research and design by:
Danny Coope / Street of Blue Plaques
IZZARD FAMILY MODEL RAILWAY
In the late 1950s and ‘60s John Izzard, an accountant for BP, was working abroad in Aden (now Yemen) with his nurse wife Dorothy. Dorothy was expecting their first child so John began a model railway. Second child Edward was born in 1962 and the family moved first to Ireland and then Wales.
Dorothy became ill with cancer and John and the two children worked on the model to occupy their minds. She died in 1968 aged 41.
It became a loving recreation of Bexhill including John’s old home Laburnum Cottages, an industrial unit and a model garage. It also included Sidley station, where John commuted from, which closed following the 1963 Beeching Report.
The model is 00 gauge or OO scale, 4mm to 1ft on 16.5mm track. Models and components were sold commercially such as from Hornby Dublo.
In 2016 Eddie, now known as Suzy, an internationally renowned actor and performer, donated the model to Bexhill Museum. In 2018, a few months after John Izzard’s death, a second model Suzy had commissioned was unveiled. This time an N gauge layout, 15ft by 7ft, based on wartime Bexhill in the winter snow.
Notes/links:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-36769982
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Izzard
https://www.bexhillmuseum.org.uk/our-patron-eddie-izzard/eddie-izzards-family-railway/
https://www.bexhillmuseum.org.uk/our-patron-eddie-izzard/eddie-izzards-ww2-model-railway/
Research and design by:
Danny Coope / Street of Blue Plaques