Worthing children bring history to life, dressing in costume for cemetery tour

Following the success of a similar, previous tour, the Friends of Broadwater Cemetery held the Children Bringing More History Alive tour on Saturday.

Carole Manning, publicity officer, said: “We had eight children, four boys and four girls, who dressed as the character, stood next to that person’s grave and told their story.

“This is such a fantastic opportunity for local children to be hands on and truly get involved with Worthing’s history and the people who were part of that history.”

Glen and Buster Cooper told the stories of George Pacy and William Suter.

George was landlord of the New Street Brewery, often referred to as Pacy’s Bloodhole but now Liming restaurant.

William Suter, after a long service in the Merchant Navy, ended up at East Preston Workhouse and hit the headlines when he dared to complain about the quality of the food served to the inmates.

Amy Hack and Emily Lemon talked about Molly Corbett and Mary Hughes.

Molly was 16 when she died and it is said she was buried in a glass coffin. She died in Switzerland, where she was a pupil at a finishing school.

Emily, appropriately, had her toy lamb at the grave of Mary Hughes who, it is said, is the Mary from the well-known nursery rhyme Mary had a Little Lamb.

Ellis Marchant recounted the interesting life of Jacob Long, from his early days as a police constable in 1874 rising through the ranks to become the deputy chief constable for West Sussex, including some of his encounters along the way.

Oscar Messingham was dressed as Dr Augustus Collett, who joined the staff of Worthing Hospital in 1871 and later became not only senior medical officer for the hospital but also held the longest service record, having worked there for more than 37 years.

Lucie Pandit told of Lucy Mason, who, in 1890, owned and ran The Wool Shop , on the corner of Montague Street and South Street. Lucy sold everything to do with sewing, embroidery, knitting and dressmaking, plus all kinds of fancy goods, writing materials and toys. Upstairs, she ran a lending library, where books could be borrowed for a small subscription.

Kalila Levins told of the relatively short life of Annie Baker, a kitchen maid to the Ralli family in Heene Terrace. Sadly, Annie died aged 19 in the typhoid epidemic which hit Worthing in the summer of 1893, due to a contaminated water supply.

Visit www.fbwc.co.uk for more information about the group and future tours.