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

MYSTERY OF THE MURALS

Copyright Valerie Martin 1999.

I immediately recognised the reclaimed artwork, amidst a sea of red poppies, as 1914-18 scenes. Excitement buzzed around the public house and to the customers. There were two mysteries — who had painted the murals and when? Enthusiasm spilled out into the village Square. Many were excited and fired with imagination and immediately assumed the paintings of artillery had been actually executed during the years of the 1914-18 conflict. They believed that the art had remained undiscovered for many decades. As a result there were to be a few red faces in Findon in September 1999.

I discovered that the murals were, in fact, only some thirty-eight years old, having been painted in April 1961 on the walls of the then restaurant during Alan Wyatt's tenancy. The artist was Trevor Best from Ferring who undertook the unpaid commission during his spare time. Trevor's full time employment was as a representative for a jewellery company but art was his real love, closely followed by amateur dramatics.

I found that Alan Wyatt the licensee, was a former Royal Artillery major in the Second World War and the battle scenes were the result of his inspiration. No one knows why he chose images of the First World War to decorate the walls of the inn.

I then discovered Trevor Best's wartime career had been as a Spitfire pilot with the Royal Air Force. He took on the Flanders design work at the Gun Inn with enthusiasm. It took him twenty-six hours, spread over a fortnight, working at the inn to complete the work. On many occasions he was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, and nine year old daughter Jane. He applied a final coat of varnish on Saturday 15th April 1961 and they both stood back to look at his handiwork. The restaurant with its war scenes was from then on nicknamed "the gun-pit".

I thought it was rather apt that one of the first organisations to reserve the "gun-pit" for a function was the Worthing Gunners Club when they booked the room for Remembrance Day in November 1961.

Alan Wyatt, who died in 1992, is I think perhaps best remembered as a well known figure in Findon because his daughter, Jane, kept a pet heifer. This was housed in the stables at the back of the and the ten-year old was a familiar sight with her father in those days as they took the animal for walks around the village streets.

Alan Wyatt left the Gun Inn 7½ years later, during the autumn of 1968. He moved to Cheshire but later returned to live at Nutley Drive in Goring. He was the penultimate owner of the Gun Inn also to act as licensee — after this era the owners played no part in the day to day running of the public house, this was left to tenanted landlords.

Trevor Best, the artist died in October 1983, age 62. His wife, Elizabeth, now living in Rustington, has been in contact with me following all the publicity on the discovery of Trevor's art work. She has told me that she vividly remembers the murals being painted all those years ago but did not recall all of the details.

I am wondering if perhaps the horror and utter devastation of the battle scenes did not go down with the diners at the Gun Inn because when the restaurant was wallpapered in the 1970s, the murals were covered over and forgotten.

The 1999 landlord of the Gun Inn, Nick Haji-Georgiou, said the discovered murals would not blend in with the proposed decorations he had planned for the new restaurant area. He compromised by adding that the pictures were to be sealed before re-papering the wall so as to preserve and not damage them. Perhaps they will be rediscovered in years to come and once more excitement will buzz through the village and add a little more history to the Gun Inn.