Part 1 (1956-1966) - A New Home but Further Disasters - 1963

A New Home 

But 

Further Disasters

As a child you have little recollection of some crucial events, and crystal clear recollections of trivia. I have no idea of why or how we moved from Elmer Sands. I have no recollection of being in the new house for the first time. All I do recall is vivid memories of my next house and next home. We called it the Big White House, at the cul-de-sac end of South Road, Felpham - I was 7 years old.  

South Road - Felpham - The Big White House

I will paint the House in words from my childhood memories. To me it was indeed a big house, a ground floor and 1^st floor. It sat surrounded by a garden on all four sides – a considerable garden to the rear with a large vegetable patch, all enclosed by hedges. Behind the hedges – fields with Horses and Donkeys – and one day they strayed through the rear garden gate – pandemonium as my mother attempted to usher them away.  There was a kitchen with a coal fired cooker that also served to provide a limited supply of hot water to the house.  There was a central open plan ornate wooden staircase that wound up through the centre of the house like some scaled down stately home. A large living room with a single coal fire place opened to a conservatory that overlooked the back garden.  Upstairs: bedrooms, and a rudimentary bathroom and toilet. The house I know was rented, my mother fretting over stains on a new carpet and what the landlord would say. 

This was a time when memories multiplied, now becoming complex, detailed, and more connected to  real time events.  I remember going to the local infants school in Felpham. 

I remember learning to read, a book about a “Big Red Lorry” looms large. And then I went to Pennyfields Juniors, a “new” school. I was in the “B” Class – for slow developers – the B Class did woodwork instead of maths which the “A” class did.  And sitting cross legged in a big hall for assembly, singing hymns and learning prayers.  And Sue sitting her Eleven Plus – and goes to a Grammar School in Bognor.  I remember her playing a Fairy in the School Play of a Midsummer Nights Dream, I adored and idolised my Sister Sue.

I remember playing with the farmers sons in the sun soaked Wheat Fields. I remember my bedroom, standing on the bed looking through the window to the South Downs, a storm at night, lighting forking across the hills. 

I remember getting up in the morning, getting dressed in the bed as the room was freezing, frost on the inside of the window.  I remember having baths with just a couple of inches of lukewarm water.  I remember going to the beach with my mother and Sue, and being treated to Cheese and Onion Crisps after an afternoon of splashing in the English Channel.  I remember a tricycle that I loved, and that I road with gusto down South Road. And I remember running away from home, sitting under a tree at the end of the road for half an hour until I was hungry, and returned home sulky and grumpy.  And I remember climbing trees in the woods with my Sister and our friends.

There was a dog, called Coco – a lovely Labrador. He roamed widely, and was found often by my father miles from home. My father, he was away all week in London, coming home only at weekends. I have no idea what he was doing, but he appeared tired and harassed and he was sometimes abrupt and terse in his interactions with his family when he was home.

South Road - The Back Garden - Coco the dog

Me - South Road - Felpham

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2015 - 52 Years Later
Robert - My 25 Year Old Youngest Son visits Felpham
And takes these pictures.... 
The House where I lived - the Beach where I played

And in 2018 I visit Bognor - after an absence of 56 Years

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And then – my Father disappeared. He simply stopped coming home, and my Mother could not contact him. Short of money – my mother, sister and I found ourselves living in a rather run down Static Caravan. I remember - My mother looking hopefully through the Caravan Windows every evening - looking for my father .... He never appeared.