A marked absence of what we nowadays call hard news was clear on the front page of the Mid Sussex Times edition of Tuesday 26 October 1926.

Headlines gave a clue; Political smoker at Scaynes Hill, Charity Concert at Haywards Heath, Hurst Council, and British and Foreign Bible Society all sound equally unpromising.

The smoker was a smoking concert, popular in the day and impossible in most places now. The Middy reported on the first meeting of the new Men’s Branch of the Lindfield and Scaynes Hill Conservative Unionist Association: “There was an attendance of about 50, including a number of ladies.”

The charity mentioned in headings showed some public spirit. It was held to “assist Mr J Knapp of Mill Green Road (Haywards Heath), who has had more than his fair share of physical disability.” A report running to hundreds of words noted songs included such gems as In My Gondola and I Couldn’t Do That With My Bags On. The latter was a joke about the youth fashion for Oxford baggy trousers and horn-rimmed glasses.

placeholder image — Mid Sussex Times masthead in 1926.

On the council front, an unhappy deputation from the wilds of Sayers Common complained to Hurstpierpoint Parish Council that it got no sewers, pavements, street lighting or refuse collection, despite paying full parish rates. Parish council chairman William Wood pointed out some services were not its responsibility and added that if people lived in a beautiful rural district “they would have to appreciate that such a locality had its drawbacks.”

St John’s Institute (now Park Centre) A team headed the Mid Sussex Billiards League Division 1. It had a B team in the same division.

Rudolph Valentino, or the Latin Lover, was the film attraction at The Palladium in Brighton, in “Monsieur Beaucaire. He had died in August of 1926 at 31 from peritonitis. For no particular reason, the Middy described the cinema’s manager Mr H Hardy as “one of those men who breathe out goodwill.”

Another lengthy front-page piece reported that Miss Latham from Robertsbridge tried to encourage the singing of folk songs in Mid Sussex by giving a talk at King Edward Hall in Lindfield. The Middy commented somewhat patronisingly that the songs revealed “the simple-mindedness and characters of the rural population of a happier England.”

Burgess Hill had a new music society, hoping to perform choral works and charging two shillings and six pence a meeting.

Wivelsfield Home Produce Association axed poultry from its shows to save costs. A special general meeting heard that although its most recent show had been one of its best it had lost money.

Cheeky defendant Norman Carrington failed to appear at court for not producing a driving licence at Handcross. He said he was in Manchester and posted a ten shilling note “for the police poor box.” Magistrates were unimpressed by his initiative and fined him £1 at Haywards Heath Petty Sessions.

Evan Mitchell of Balcombe was fined ten shillings for not having a light on his motorcycle. He told a policeman he had “exhausted his carbide.”

Field Marshall Haig urged readers of the Middy not to fall for artificial poppies from abroad that did not raise money for the Poppy Appeal. Ardingly and Portslade Gas Works were fighting it out for the Mid Sussex Football League title. Ardingly beat them 5-1 the previous Saturday but the gas works stayed top. The whipping boys were Horsted Keynes, with the doubtful distinction of losing all seven of the first games, letting in 52 goals and scoring six. Haywards Heath second team inflicted their latest “miseryfest” by 7-2.