THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — created by
Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.|
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The castellated Toll House on the A280 Long Furlong Road in 1970 after receiving a fresh coat of Crown paint on its façade. I have been told by Harry Potts Dawson (one time member of the Findon Parish Council) that this property straddles the Findon Parish boundary...... and some of the rooms are not actually in Findon! |
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GEORGE?
Copyright Valerie Martin 2000
Originally published in the West Sussex Gazette in February 2000
In the early 1860s I have found that a farm labourer, Henry Carn, lived with his wife Mary (nee Kitchener) in Findon's main street. He was considerably older than his wife, being 67 years old and she only 37 years old. They had a son, William, who was 16 at the time and he was also a farm labourer. I was not surprised to learn that Henry died first and the family subsequently moved to Fittleworth.
At the beginning of the 1870s, I believe that Findon had a population of around only 680 and was a self-contained community. There was a
windmill on the hill busy grinding grain, William Goater was mine host at the Gun Inn, Doctor Robert Cholmeley was the vicar and there were assorted professions of farmers, blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, bootmakers, grocers and bakers — in fact there were more trades in the village than today.|
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The many shops in the High Street early in the twentieth century. |
I picked up the story of Mary Carn again when she returned to Findon in 1871 when she was 46-years-old and still a widow. She was employed as a laundress and brought with her three children, Elizabeth age 14, Thomas age 11 (employed as a farm cart boy), and Harry who was still at school.
The previous year her eldest son, William, now 27 years old, had married 21 year old Emma Richards at
St. John the Baptist Church in Findon. The Carn family now all lived together at the crenulated Toll House half way along Long Furlong (now the A280). The façade of this structure became familiar nationwide when it featured in an advertisement for Crown Stronghold white and mushroom weatherproof paint in the Spring of 1970. The colour picture was seen by almost every household in the land when it was in the Radio Times on the 21st May 1970.|
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1996 — Long Furlong A280. |
William was a shepherd and Emma was the Toll House Keeper at their battlemented home. The couple had ten children but, unfortunately, only five survived. These were William Junior, Annie, Nellie, Mary-Ann known as Pip, and last but not least Georgina (born 1881) who was rather a reckless character and liked to be called "George".
By the time she was sixteen years old, George Carn was an excellent horsewoman and a somewhat unusual young lady for Victorian times. In 1897 she was dared to drive a carriage and four horses through Findon at break-neck speed. George immediately accepted the challenge. She can be imagined setting off hell for leather with a clatter of hooves through the village. It is presumed that she whipped up her horses and careered up the main street where her Grandmother, Mary, had previously lived (now the High Street).
 High Street, pre 1927 |
Everyone jumped out of the way, chickens and dogs scattered and toddlers clung to their mother's skirts in terror as the dangerously fast carriage passed by. George won her dare. Soon after this memorable drive, George mysteriously disappeared from the village scene and was not heard of again for sixty years. In time, the daredevil driver was forgotten.
 The Toll House in 1973 |
 Looking east. This photograph is also dated 1973 — but some of the paint appears to have worn off — perhaps it's later in the year! |
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The battlemented Toll House on Long Furlong in March 2000. |
Her sister, Annie, set tongues wagging at the turn of the century when a certain Harry Mosely passed through Findon. Annie's father, William came across him one day in the Gun Inn. Apparently Harry had deserted from the army (in the days of the Boer War) and was on the run. William took pity on the lad and invited him home to the Toll House where he set his cap at Annie. Harry and Annie were subsequently married at St. John the Baptist Church in 1900.
An unfortunate episode in the mid 1930s brought the Toll House at Long Furlong into the news again. It was lived in by a Mr and Mrs Lewes at the time and part of the garden to the property continued on the opposite side of the road. It was a sad day in May 1936 when a car killed their ten-year-old son, Peter, as he ran across the road to the garden.
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The Lewes children playing in the garden of the Toll House with Long Furlong wending its way westwards in the background. |
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It was in the late 1950s that surprisingly George turned up again. Characteristically, she would not reveal where she had been, with whom, or what kind of life she had led. It caused much speculation and whispered rumours. In the first place, her sister, Annie, claimed not to recognise her and doubted her identity. Annie considered that the so-called prodigal, now in her seventies, was deceiving the family and labelled her a fraud and not the real George.
The mystery remains — whatever happened to George Carn during the "lost" years? Could the "impostor" truly have once been the girl who had accepted the dare to drive so recklessly through Findon?
Continue if you would like to read about Miss Schroeter's Findon.
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE —
www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.|
E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com |
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