Frozen pond downfall of an ice-skating soldier

LIONEL had vivid memories of the Great War 1914-18; one hard winter Blatchington Pond froze hard enough for sliding and the boys and girls had a grand time till a Canadian soldier turned up with real skates, 'who soon carved our little slides to pieces'. However, before long came his come-uppance! One of his skates caught the rim of a bucket just above the surface of the ice and he fell with a great bang, leaving the children in possession again but with a gouged slide.

When on another occasion an enemy mine was washed ashore opposite the Beach Hotel, the local fishermen decided to deal with it themselves. In spite of the row of brass detonators around the top, they attached a rope and were dragging it up the beach when the authorities arrived and sealed off the area.

Never to be forgotten was the great blackberrying day! The children had made special efforts, gathering more fruit than every before, ready to help their mothers make bramble jelly and blackberry jam after school. Sadly, during that hot afternoon the berries in their paper bags had started to 'cook' . The children went along to collect their fruit and found instead a soggy stream and a very nasty mess.

Sometimes word would go round of a delivery of some item in short supply, and a boy or girl would run to the shop before school, hoping to get there in time, make the precious purchase and be back again before the school bell rang.

Lionel could still recall where he was when he decided that the war ended. As he and his chum climbed over one of the gates in Kimberley Road he said 'The war is over.' His chum asked 'How do you know?' He told him to listen to all the noise coming from the steam whistles and sirens in Newhaven Harbour.

Though many thousands of lives were sacrificed in the war, towards the end of that terrible time there was a greater loss of life through a world-wide epidemic of Spanish 'flu. Just after her 14th birthday, Elsie wrote to her father with his regiment in France, 'I have been quite sick but not nearly as bad as Hughie' - her little brother who, however, recovered and lived to over 81.

The Martello Tower presented a challenge to generations of boys, standing deserted and decaying as it did for so long. Risking life and limb, they would climb down into the dry moat, then up the wall and in through a small window. They also enjoyed climbing down the cliff face from the top of Seaford Head to what they called the Smugglers' Cave. One Sunday afternoon, Harry's brother Ben fell 200 feet to his death, 19 years of age, from that place. Another boy was drowned swimming with an old rubber tyre from a spot near the tower.

Young teenage boys in those days wore what they called Norfolk suits (a skirted tweed jacket with two pleats at the front, with matching knickerbockers) and knee-high black wool stockings, hob-nailed boots and always a hat out of doors. Ladies, too, wore boots, though theirs were often a bit more ladylike with button-up sides.

Girls wore dresses about calf-length often protected with white aprons; their hair was usually worn long, in ringlets, plaits or a pigtail. They 'put it up' when they left school and went to work (or 'helped Mother at home with the little ones'.) This generally meant they had less time for play than the boys, but some of them seemed to get into mischief just the same! Young Ivy got into trouble with her Dad for lining up with the 'poor children' who got the left-over stale buns put out by baker Mr Oxley.

Elsie, aged four, wanted piano lessons so her old granny saved up and got her a very battered instrument with stained keys and no pedals. As soon as Elsie could play a tune, off she went to swank at school. But the teacher had a nice new piano with shiny white keys, not a single dirty one to help Elsie see where to start. Se made a guess - it was the wrong note and it sounded awful. She did not swank any more!

Some real ladies and gentlemen lived in Seaford or had holiday homes there; they would do things like presenting the prizes on sports days or crowning the May Queen. Connie once, before she was big enough to jump down from the train by herself, was lifted out by Sir John 'just as if I was a grown-up lady'.

(To be continued)

PAT BERRY