Memories of a wartime childhood in Worthing

Memories of a wartime childhood in Worthing

People in story : Barbara East (nee Hodge) — (story teller).
Sheila Herringshaw (nee Hodge) — my sister.

Staff at “The Fold”
Mrs Marshall (Mimi) Headmistress
Miss Beth Marshall (Mrs Marshall’s daughter)-Housekeeper
Robin Marshall (son of Mrs Marshall)
Lovely ( that is all she was ever called) — teacher and music teacher.

Children at “The Fold”
Beryl Paul, June Fox, Godfrey Bashford (Bobo), Margaret Rose Jones, Sally Preston.

Location of story
“The Fold”, 171 Brighton Road, Worthing. (small school).

Background to story — Civilian

My sisters ,Sheila, Monica and I lost our mother in 1938 from tuberculosis, and had gone to live with our grandparents and 3 aunts in Grange Park, London , N21. One of our aunts was on holiday in Worthing and whilst on the beach came across a few children dressed in white blouses and fawn check skirts, who were from a school called “The Fold”, 171 Brighton Road, Worthing, which is now part of The Windsor Hotel , Windsor Road, Worthing. The outcome of this was that Sheila and I were sent to school there, it was probably about 1937 and I was about 7 or 8 years old.

We were attending 11 am service at St Georges Church on 3rd September 1939 when the vicar gave out that war had been declared. The verger took the Vicar’s gas mask to him in the pulpit . When we arrived back at the fold we all stuck strips of brown paper criss — crossed across the windows to stop the glass shattering and injuring people, should there be a bomb explosion.

Every night the sirens would go off as the Luftwaffe flew across Sussex to bomb London. The children would spend the time until the “all clear” sounded in a long cupboard under the stairs, together with “Lovey”. Mrs Marshall (the headmistress) and her daughter Beth went into a Morison shelter which was a large metal cage with a hard metal top and bottom and metal wiring on all sides.
Mrs Marshall (Mimi) was rather on the large side and had difficulty in crawling into the shelter, much to the amusement of us children.

One year when the bombing of London was at its worst — the blitz — we stayed at The Fold during the summer holidays. We spent many hours on the beach, walking amongst rock pools, playing games, bathing and reading when the tide was in. Each morning we attended the Beach Service at Splash Point, where we sang hymns accompanied by a lady on a harmonium. I think these were run by The Crusaders and I can remember sports day being arranged by them.

At the end of the summer holidays a spectacular Lantern service was held at Splash Point at night, with children including my sister and I parading along the sea-front carrying coloured Chinese paper lanterns with candles inside.

This was before concrete blocks and barbed wire were erected on the beach, together with gun emplacements

Before sweets were rationed there was a promotion in the local Worthing newspaper. A photo of a man (the Cadburys chocolate man) was printed in the newspaper and on the following Saturday he walked about Worthing town and the first person to recognise and challenge him received two tables full of various Cadburys chocolates. June Fox from our school found him and won all the chocolates.
Another little anecdote about sweets, was when my grandmother died, my aunts sent Sheila and I to spend her sweet ration straight away.

Just before the invasion, soldiers were billeted in the house next to The Fold, there were tanks bumper to bumper down the side roads including Windsor Road. One morning we awoke to find all the soldiers and tanks gone, then we heard about the invasion of France.
Towards the end of the war Russian soldiers were billeted next door to The Fold and were invited to spend an evening with us now and again. They did not want to go back to Russia as they were frightened what would happen to them. I heard later that many Russian soldiers returning to Russia committed suicide on the boats going home.

The occupants of The Fold

Mrs Marshall (headmistress) was always called “Mimi” — I have no idea why. Her husband was a solicitor in London and only came to Worthing on Bank Holiday weekends.
She had a son Norman who was sports editor of the Evening News.
A daughter Barbara who married Dr Heathcote and lived at Newport in The Isle of Wight.
A daughter — Beth — housekeeper.
A son Robin who was adopted, he was older than us and we admired him as he was very sporty, good looking and went out to sea with the fishermen. He was conscripted into The Royal Artillery and was mentioned in dispatches several times for bravery when he carried out operations behind enemy lines in Burma, we all wrote to him .
Incidentally I named my son after him.

Lovey — school teacher and music teacher. I have no idea why she was called Lovey. I never knew her first or surname. She was a brilliant pianist and was an L.R.A.N. ( Licenciate of the Royal Academy of Music)

The house at 171 Brighton Road is now an annexe of the Windsor Horel, Windsor Road. I have a friend who lives in Worthing and we visited The Windsor Hotel and talked to a receptionist about The Fold and that I was a pupil there , but she would not accept that it had been a school and even after telling the layout of the house and even it’s telephone number (Worthing 370) she said I must have the wrong house. I don’t think so, I lived there for 10 years. I had hoped to go over the house.

The summer school holiday we stayed in Worthing because of the bombing of London, I remember as carefree and happy with freedom to do as we wished. We had no radio read no newspapers and of course no television, so we only heard what we were told about the war.

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