Fun in the sun with the Magpie ice cream man

The sands of Seaford Bay attracted huge crowds of visitors and many of them came by train. Percy Thompson, who lived in Tide Mills village in the 1920s and 30s, remembers the long trains stopping at Tide Mills station (Bishopstone Beach Halt). The platform was quite short and often the train had to pull up a couple of times in order for all the carriages to be accommodated. Percy remembers the hoards of day-trippers, many from London, walking down the village's only street heading for the beach laden with deck-chairs and picnic hampers.

'Was Bishopstone Beach busy?' I asked Percy. 'It was very busy with people lying everywhere,' he said. 'Sometimes you couldn't even put a foot down - it was difficult to move across the beach some days in the summer.'

The crowds passed the front door of the Thompson family house, number 9, Tide Mills. Above the door Percy's father had written 'Shrimps for Sale - Teas' and some of the visitors would call in and order a tray of tea and cakes. Percy and his father caught the shrimps in the bay and the cakes were bought 'thirteen a dozen' from the bakers in Newhaven. Percy's mother and other relatives who stayed during the summer months would take the trays down on to the beach for the hungry day-trippers. One of the relatives was Aunt Gladys who was in service as a cook in London and would often come to stay for the weekend to help out with the cooking and teas.

The train from Brighton would also bring an ice-cream seller who would pedal his three-wheeled ice-cream van along towards the sea. Percy remembers guarding the small van while the man from Magpie Ices took trays of ice-creams down to the beach to sell. For his troubles Percy would be given a free ice which now, 70 years later, Percy thinks was far too cheap a price for all the work. It is surprising that the ices remained frozen from the long trip from the shop in Brighton to Bishopstone Beach.

The Mill once had a cottage garden and although overgrown it would still produce fruits, particularly pears and figs in the summer months for the children of the village.

In the evening the crowds returned to the station and Percy would often give eels which he had caught in the creek to the Londoners returning home, jellied eels, of course being a cockney speciality. I asked Percy if he used to sell them to make pocket-money but he said that there were so many eels in the creek that there was no need.

Some visitors to Tide Mills spent longer than the day and stayed at holiday cottages which had been established in old railway carriages which had been pulled on to the beach. A company called Redmond's of Lewes used to arrange the lettings and a neighbour of Percy, Pop Larkin, earned extra money by using his carpentry skills in maintaining these old huts.

Also in the summer months, the beds of the children at the nearby Chailey Hospital for sick children would be pushed on to the veranda overlooking the bay. Dips in the sea were popular and those that were not able to walk would be put into a net stretcher and dipped into the water. The beds were often left out until late in the evening when the children would have been able to see horses from Dale's stables being exercised in the bay - often with two of the horses being pulled behind a rowing boat to exercise their injured limbs.

Today, when we visit the ruins of the old village and wander along the huge shingle banks, it is difficult to imagine those busy summer days many years ago.

Not only have the buildings all gone but so have most of the day-trippers and tourists, but Percy still remembers those halcyon days with affection.

KEVIN GORDON