THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE ― These Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and are progressively growing to be the only record of life around Findon, West Sussex, England.  Everyday stories about real people.   In fact, a potted history of the village.

Copyright Valerie Martin 1999

First published in Along the Furlong in November 1999.

Henry John Pull was born not far from Findon, in Arundel in 1899.    The family moved to nearby Worthing in 1910. At some point in his lifetime he changed his name to John Henry Pull. 

He was in the Rifle Brigade during the First World War and was gassed in the trenches and captured by the Germans.

In September 1925 he married Alice Florence Quelch at nearby Broadwater Church in Worthing.

I have found that after serving in the army, he worked in the Post Office and his name became inextricably linked with the downland of Findon because he had an unusual hobby for a guy who was working class and self taught in the world of archaeologists.    

His quest initially involved the antiquities of Blackpatch Hill between 1922 -1932 and it was here that he discovered Neolithic flint mining had been carried out on countryside owned by the Duke of Norfolk.  He went on to excavate clusters of prehistoric flint mines in the area.  The results were published in 1933 in The Flint Miners of Blackpatch Hill. 

Later the amateur archaeologist spent many hours of his spare time toiling on the slopes of Cissbury Ring and Church Hill above Findon.    As he was not a qualified archaeologist or even an antiquarian this made him rather unpopular, to say the least, with the archaeological fraternity of the day.   His work was somewhat laughed about and his "finds" were conveniently lost for ever.

Michael Grand of Findon worked with John Pull at the Post Office has told me that he was a very quiet man..... until anyone got him talking about his favourite subject.... that of archaeology.

The local Findon boys of the 1940s can still recall how they came across John Pull and his friend, Barclay Harry Wills, (1877-1950), the naturalist and writer, hard at work on the downs above St. John the Baptist Church. The older men shared an interest in archaeology on the hillside as they dug deep into the Neolithic mines. The two were well respected in Findon.   Jim Dixon now living in Hayling Island, Hampshire emailed in Oct6ober 2008 to say "Also your mention of the Flint Mine excavation by John Pull bought back some memories. 

My self and friends John Watson and Ian Searle used to go and watch the excavation and occasionally get to talk to the Archeologists.

They even indentified a small piece of pottery we found on the old Rifle Range as of the Roman period."

John Pull eventually became an authority in his field of archaeology and he became the President of the Worthing Archaeology Society in 1952.  When not busy with his favourite pastime, he was by now employed in the responsible position of security guard at the Durrington Branch of Lloyds Bank (near Field Place).   Just weeks after starting this job something terrible happened.

On the 10th November 1960, the young cashier at the Lloyds Bank, Andrew Baker, was preparing to open the doors at 10 o'clock. In the back room, sixty-one year old John Henry Pull, the bank's security guard, was busy making a cup of tea on that fateful day.

Robbers walked casually into the bank and headed towards the safe and the cashier attempted to stop them. There was an immediate scuffle. John Pull heard the commotion and appeared in the doorway, still holding the kettle. He took a step forward and a single-bore shotgun was pulled from under the coat of one of the robbers and it went off. The bank guard died immediately and slumped forward with blood trickling from his face. He crashed to the ground at the feet of his killer.   One of the robbers shouted to the cashier demanding money. Andrew Baker told them where it was and the raiders fled leaving the scene of carnage behind them.

No further excavations of Findon's Neolithic flint mines would be carried out by John Pull who was struck down in the course of his duty.

Continue if you would like to read about  The Late Roger Moulds Reporting from the C.I.D. of the Met.

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THIS IS FINDON — was launched in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon Village and sometimes beyond.