Happy memories of a Tide Mills childhood

Seaford resident Percy Thompson is a Welshman by birth and when he arrived in Sussex he could not speak a word of English. Percy was the son of a miner and the 1920s where hard times for the people of South Wales. The Thompson family were from Cwmcarn in the Ebbw Vale and the depression and Great Strike of 1926 caused considerable financial difficulties. One chance to escape the uncertain future was provided by a lottery for jobs in far away Newhaven. Local men took part in the lottery for two jobs building the East Pier at the harbour. The Thompson's next door neighbour won one of the jobs but he was reluctant to leave the valleys and offered the place to Percy's father Arthur. The family moved to Sussex when Percy was just five years old.

When they arrived they were offered a small flat in, South Road, Newhaven, and Percy started going to the infant school. After a few months one of Arthur's friends at the harbour offered the family larger accommodation in Tide Mills. The village at this time had lost most of the huge mill buildings but the workers' cottages were still occupied by a couple of dozen people.

The Thompsons lived at number 9 Tide Mills, a terraced cottage in the centre of five which were built for Mill workers. The cottage was basic but cosy; Percy remembers the roof rattling on stormy winter nights but the cottages stood up well to the weather despite their exposed position close to the beach. Percy's father used copious amounts of ship's tar to ensure that the weatherboarding at the back of the house kept out the winds.

The house was decorated with ornaments brought from Wales and a piano which Percy's mother used to provide lessons to neighbours and people from Bishopstone. She had been a concert pianist in Wales and had sung at Eisteddfods and even for BBC Wales. There was also a radio which had been made for the Thompsons by Captain Weller, the master of the Richmere, one of the Newhaven tugs.

Life in the village was not easy. There was no shop, church, school or pub. There was no running water or drainage, no gas and no electricity. The front of the cottages faced the street where the old mill buildings used to be and at the back there was an outside privy (which had to be emptied into the sea at night) and a communal wash-house. A stand-pipe at the rear of the cottages provided water but Percy's father later tapped into it and ran a pipe into the kitchen of the house. Percy thinks that his was probably the only house in the village with an indoor water supply.

The house was lit by oil lamps and heated by a coal fire. The kitchen had a range and Percy fondly recalls the food his mother made. I rather stupidly asked what the main source of food was '“ it was the sea of course! There was 'stacks of fish and seafood' supplemented by the occasional rabbit caught on the Downs. Meat was kept in a small meat-safe which was fixed to the wall in the rear yard. The kitchen range was lit by wood, including some driftwood from the beach but sometimes on a Saturday morning Percy bought some coke from the gas works in Blatchington Road, Seaford. This was bought back to Tide Mills on a little cart. There were shrimps in abundance in the sands and the picture shows Percy (in the cap) his father Arthur (in the white vest) and two relatives holding their shrimping nets at Tide Mills in the early 1930s.

A mobile shop ran by Willets used to visit the village daily with milk and bread from Bannister's bakery in Newhaven. Food could be pre-ordered and was delivered direct to the door as was the post which, remarkably for such a remote location, was delivered twice a day. Tide Mills had a large greenhouse which provided fruit for the old mill workers and Arthur Thompson rented some of the land it was built on and grew vegetables. Another source of food, albeit rather intermittent, were cans of food which were washed ashore. Percy recalls plenty of oranges being washed ashore, their waxy skin keeping the fruit fresh and tasty.

Percy continued to attend school in Newhaven and every weekday trudged along the cinder pathway that led from the village to the harbour. There were other children to play with in the village but they went to school at Bishopstone.

Today, nearly 80 years later, Percy smiles as he remembers his time in Tide Mills. 'There could be no better childhood,' he chuckles.

My thanks go to Percy Thompson for allowing me to interview him and use his photograph.

KEVIN GORDON