THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE —  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FUN AT THE WATTLE HOUSE FOR ONE PENNY

Wattle House in 1996

 

Text first published in Along The Furlong in September 1998

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1998

September is the month in the calendar when the Great Findon Sheep Fair is traditionally held on Nepcote Green. Everyone walks passed the Grade II listed building known as the Wattle House on Sheep Fair Day. Perhaps they do not know what the historic structure is like inside. I have found that it was initially designed and constructed by 1803 for the storage of wattles and comprised living accommodation as well. It is now dark and barn-like with dilapidated floorboards, fractured steps and fragmented partitions but a hundred years ago it was quite different.

The main wattle store as I found it in 1996. This is on the ground floor and has traditional Sussex flooring — rammed chalk, sealed with sour milk. The wattle is a Kentish variety that is longer than its Sussex counterpart.

 

In 1881 a new face appeared in Findon following the death of the vicar, Robert Cholmeley. The arriving vicar was the young, 32 year old Reverend William Dennis Allen, MA, a Lichfield man. He moved into the Vicarage, (now the Findon Manor Hotel), along with his father, Mark; mother, Barbara Sarah, and sister, Gertrude. His father had been the choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral, and being now retired and having spare time, he set about training the village church choir. A new era had begun in Findon. By the turn of the century, the family had moved to Holmbush in the High Street.

Holmbush from Cross Lane with Church Hill in the background in 1904

 

 

In 1910, Miss Elizabeth Allen of Holmbush rented part of the upstairs of the Wattle House for a new venture. The accommodation was described as the Wattle Cottage Room or the Long Room and the rent was £6.6s.0d per annum for the activities of her Girls’ Friendly Society. The G.F.S. Recreation Room, as it now became, was a clubroom for women and girls. Activities were to include Nursing Classes and Mothers’ Meetings in connection with the Mothers’ Union. Elizabeth calculated that rates and insurance would amount to another £2 each year. The anticipated bill for cleaning was £2.12s.6d. per annum, and the annual fuel bill a further £1.10s.0d. She estimated that the total expenditure would be £12.8s.6d. in the first year. This was obviously not a profit making exercise and would rely on the generosity and good will of the parishioners.

All appears to have gone well, although there was a lack of seats and a plea was made for chairs and other items to make the Wattle House more homely and cheerful. The Reverend Allen advanced £5, which had been donated, to him for "parish use" and he kindly commented that "it could not be taken for a better purpose".

Reverend William Dennis Allen, c. 1905

 

An appeal went out for "three pairs of heavy serge or plushette curtains, 7ft. in length (dark blue preferred)". They were very soon forthcoming, as were some framed pictures to adorn the walls. Half a dozen small tables were needed for members to work at, and two standing cupboards to house books and work. Brooms and brushes appeared as if by magic. Also teapots, jugs and small trays.

A further request was made for reading books for the girls. These were to be "carefully picked". It was suggested that some "plain cookery" books could be found, also ones "on home nursing and hygiene, household management, gardening and needlework." Copies of Charles Dickens’s "Tale of Two Cities" and Walter Scott’s "Lady of the Lake" were considered eminently suitable. The Bible was also required and some Tennyson and Longfellow, and "any of Mrs. Gaskell’s, Miss Austen’s, the Brontes’, George Elliot’s and other acknowledged authors’ books."

The venture opened on a chilly winter’s afternoon, Friday, 2nd December 1910. There was a good gathering at the Wattle House and everyone was reported to be busy collecting and arranging the furniture. The area being utilised was the Long Room, some 36ft. by 14ft.6in. on the first floor.

A grand gathering of guests outside the Wattle House following an outing of the C.E.T.S. (St. Barnabas Branch) in 1911.

 

Girls over sixteen years of age paid a penny each week for the privilege of using the facilities, and those under sixteen were expected to contribute only a halfpenny per week. The Clubroom was open on Mondays from 6.30 p.m. until 9 p.m. and on Thursdays from 3.30 p.m. until 6.30 p.m. for "practices, Reading Union circles and rehearsals". There was a list of strict rules for members and these included "No member to move or meddle with the lamps", and "No candles (uncovered) to be used in the room".

The Wattle House when it was occupied by at least two families in 1927. Smoke is coming from the chimney and the inhabitants are outside.

 

No doubt, Elizabeth kept a strict eye on her girls and the proceedings. For young ladies to leave the premises on dark winter evenings at 9 o’clock and walk home across the windswept Green and through the unlit Findon lanes proves that the world was a safer place almost a century ago.

If you pass by the Wattle House with its bleak white-boarded windows on Sheep Fair Day, spare a thought for the young ladies of Findon of nearly a hundred years ago. They were behind the blue serge curtains of the Long Room with their heads bent over a Bronte or a Gaskell and completely absorbed in the books of the day.

The derelict Wattle House c.1960s

Continue if you would like to read The Tom Humphrey's Story.

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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.

 

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com