This website was created by Valerie Martin and contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

THE 1960s AT THE FORGE

The Forge in the 60s era.

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

On the 23rd March 1999 there was a special open/public meeting of the Findon Parish Council to discuss Charles Costello's John Henry's Café Bar now operating at the site of Findon's celebrated old forge. It was not the first time that the forge area had been discussed.

Dennis Goddard working outside the forge in 1964.

 

Much earlier, in 1963 I have discovered that there was another such meeting in Findon to discuss the forge, which was at that time owned by Mrs. K. M. Riddel of Storrington who had submitted an application for development. Villagers then, as in recent years, feared that the forge would be altered out of all recognition. At the Annual Parish Meeting in 1963, held at the school, the question was put forward for discussion —

"Could the people of Findon band together and buy the old forge to preserve it as a village attraction and prevent it from being converted into two shops?"

Fred Goddard working in the forge in 1964. Original photograph by John Pelling.

 

Dennis Goddard, 1964. Original photograph by John Pelling.

 

A busy forge in Nepcote Lane in 1969.

 

It appears that the question remained unanswered in 1963. Instead, the meeting approved a rather pointless motion. It was proposed by Miss M. Brown of Waverley in Findon's High Street, and stated that —

"The people of Findon as represented at the annual parish assembly desire all possible steps to be taken to keep the building and the business — known as the Forge, Nepcote Lane, in being".

Miss Brown pointed out to the meeting that —

"Future generations will not forgive the people of Findon if they miss the opportunity of preserving something from the past".

 

Dennis Goddard and Fred Goddard at work outside their Forge in 1973.

How true her words were to ring but nothing was done in the 1960s and Mrs. K. M. Riddel of Storrington sold the Forge complex to Mrs. Beautrice Costello of Findon. The forge was rented from the Costello family by the Goddard blacksmiths and the business continued to limp on through the seventies, eighties and nineties.

The site of the forge in June 1980 — Findon Hardware.  That's Charlie Costello's white van outside .... and all the lawn mowers are lined up on the roadside.

In March 1989, the village blacksmith, Fred Goddard, then aged 86, was attacked in his home by two masked raiders.   He was watching television when two hooded men (one with a stick) entered his Nepcote Lane home.   One of them placed a towel over the blacksmith's head, made him kneel down and leaned on his back, while his accomplice made a thorough search of the cottage.

They ripped out the telephone and the pair ran off without stealing anything.

Fred, who had been shoeing horses at the Findon Forge (site of John Henry's bar) for over seventy years, was unhurt after his ordeal and was back at work the following day.

Fred Goddard died on 11th November 1995.

 

 

   

This picture goes back to 1989 and shows The Green Wellie run by Mary Foden on the site of John Henry's Brasserie in Nepcote Lane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photograph was taken at the same time and shows the Findon Forge Hardware and Mowers on the left hand side of the forge.

 

Where is this?  It is a building site in Findon — but where exactly?   No prizes.....

 

 

It is the area to the right of Charlie Costello's Brasserie at John Henry's in Nepcote Lane before the offices were built.

 

The site of the old forge by 1990.

 

Continue to read how John Henry's Bar and Brasserie obtained it's name in John Henry!  Who Was He?

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E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com