Rotten landing stage gave me a ducking

The long and quite frail stage reaches land in about the centre of the picture.

It was about two planks wide but with a handrail, which was much appreciated, It had some distance to travel out to deep water, where the end to the T also supported two vertical wooden ladders with hand rails on the shore side.

These two ladders and a few short piles marked the junction of deep and shallow water, as well I remember on one bright and warm day, 'coming ashore' with some empty petrol cans. I dumped them on the two planked floor and with now free hands, could haul myself up using a hand grip and straight away sought the cans.

As I did so, one edge between the two planks happened to suffer from rot.

The edge of my shoe found it and as if in one continuous journey I disappeared under the hand rail with the empties, into the high tide.

Had it not been so, I would have landed on chalk boulders and the amusement I had provided for two onlookers, 'Daddy' Stewart and Arthur 'Ted' Davis, could have been an occasion of deep concern, unlike the banter which had been taking place.

However, it was a short swim back to the dinghy, collect the cans and scull back to the motor boat, put on the bathing trunks and hang the wet togs to dry, repeating the intention later and with more respect for dodgy woodwork!

The little chalk track in the foreground is still Hillcrest Road and joins Geneva Road part way down.

Note the Coastguard Cottages. The houses on the left are in Fort Road, the end one being once the home of Charles Wells, the man who actually did break the bank at Monte Carlo about whom the song was written.

As with so many gamblers, he died a pauper.

Above the roof is the after end of the steamer Dieppe on to which I was taken as a lad by her then mate, later Captain Ernest Biles, when we both lived in Meeching Road.

This is probably the occasion involved, for as can be seen, the East Pier is in the process of reconstruction from wood to reinforced concrete piles, which was taking place around 1928 ( the probable date of this photo).

And to cap it all, the channel steamer entering in the picture is the famous Paris IV, which was Captain Bile's hospital ship when she was attacked twice about nine miles short of the Dunkirk beaches on one of her several runs to try to recover the injured soldiers.

Despite her Red Cross markings she was bombed and machine gunned and began to sink.

Two crew were killed and some nurses injured. The ship was abandoned and the survivors rescued by a tug.

The Worthing, which was on the same mission, was ordered home.

Note the small dredger Hinton alongside the large dredger Newey, beyond abandoned old barges and at the far extreme of the Hole, the rotting hull of R R Collard's ex-Hastings beach boat, which he brought here to engage in the blue boulder business, at low tide towards Friars Bay.

Note the road up to the Fort, hospital on left, with master gunner's house beyond (later the first yacht club for Cresta Marine).

On the right, note the massive Army drill hall, demolished in the 1970s, and excavated sites for the foundations of the numerous military huts which had arisen there during that dreadful war of 1914-18.

A last little snippet from this very interesting view; climb the chimney stack of the nearest coastguard house and there is the famous Ark House, a semi-detached wooden cottage, slate roof, built on an old barge positioned there about 1813. It was demolished after damage by the blast from a barge of explosives which blew up on the west beach in 1944. Thank heavens for the cliffs!

PETER BAILEY

Peter Bailey is curator of the Newhaven Local and Maritime Museum based in its own fascinating premises in the grounds of Paradise Park in Avis Road, Newhaven. Winter opening hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 2-5pm or by arrangement. Admission 1 (accompanied children free). Contact the curator on 01273 514760. Log on to the website at www.newhavenmuseum.co.uk