Village scene virtually unchanged in 100 years

The card shows a view of Bishopstone from Rookery Hill, but I had no idea of the age of the photograph or details of many of the buildings, so I arranged to meet Philip Pople, the author of two local history books. Philip's family have lived in the village for generations and he still lives in a cottage in the centre of the village.

It was a beautiful, warm, quiet afternoon and, as we sipped tea among the flowers of his cottage garden, he explained to me that the view was photographed about 80 years ago in the 1920s. He also told me about the odd numbering system for the houses and cottages which once were all owned by the Chichester Estates. The estate started numbering its cottages at number one (in Stanmer Park) and numbered their property consecutively across the county. All the cottages in Bishopstone are numbered in the 100s; for instance, in the bottom left of the picture are 137 and 138 Field Cottages (one behind the other).

After the church, Field Cottages are the oldest buildings in Bishopstone and for many years housed the Ford family. When the picture was taken it was obviously washing day as white linen is seen flapping in the breeze. One of the people to live here was Hugh Ford (now Professor Sir Hugh Ford) who was the former president of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. Many years ago he could be seen tinkering with and inventing farm machinery but he went on to make his name in engineering, pioneering the concept of 'Total Engineering'. The annual lecture at the institute is named after him and he continued to work into his eighties. He celebrated his 93rd birthday earlier this month.

The large building behind the washing lines is Vines Cottages. This was the farm foreman's house and it had a large parlour in which he could conduct his business. Behind, the Post Office Cottages can be made out with three smoking chimneys. At the time of this photograph the right hand end of the building was the village post office which was run by sub-postmaster Jasper Simmons and his wife Sarah.

In the foreground of the postcard view is a large field called Ladies Meadows and beyond this is the large walled Manor Garden. This was the garden of the Manor House, built for the Pelham family. The wall was made of recycled bricks from a house in Halland and one of the bricks still bears the date 1773. The white squares within the garden are large beehives.

Behind the Manor Garden is the schoolhouse built in 1849 to educate up to 50 children at a time, which today seems rather a lot. When this picture was taken there were two schoolmistresses, Agnes Witt and Agnes Wood. Across the Church Green (recently subject of a number of archaeological excavations) are the Alms Houses built in 1856 by George Catt in memory of his wife Mary-Ann. George was the son of William Catt who developed the Tide Mills.

To the left of the Alms Houses is Summer Cottage and behind this the large house called The Downs. This was the last house to be built in Bishopstone (in 1880) and was the home of Albert Funnell the one time harbourmaster at Newhaven.

The large plot of land behind the village in the centre of the view is Plummers Field and beyond this is New Barn which was built in 1800. If you follow New Barn Lane to the right of the view you will see a white mark which was a small chalk pit and later the village tip.

The village is still dominated by the square tower of the Saxon church of St Andrew on the right of the card. The remarkable thing about this view is that it remains virtually unchanged from over 100 years ago. Trees may have grown around the village and there are certainly more cars, but each of the buildings remains the same.

The church will be subject of a future article.

KEVIN GORDON