THIS IS FINDON
VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com
created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West
Sussex, U.K.
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The girls at Findon's school
recreate the forties in April 2000 — Rhian Barber,
Zara Nassiri and Naomi Hendy.
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PREPARATION IN
FINDON FOR THE SECOND WORLD WAR — 1939
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Re-run of the war years by the boys at
Findon's School in April 2000 — Craig Lambourne, Tom
Lee, Jack Metters, James Scott and Louis Parker.
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Copyright Valerie
Martin 2000
First published in Along the Furlong in August
2001.
The spirit of the tortuous Second World
War
years was
recreated at
St. John the Baptist School in Findon in April 2000 when the pupils took part in a
special tea party. The children dressed in typical 1940s costumes and
entertained their families, villagers and residents at Nightingales sheltered
accommodation with a sing-song.
With the help of their grandparents, they also prepared cakes
following wartime recipes, which they served to their
appreciative audience recreating the war days in Findon.
As long ago as 1936 the nearby town of Worthing, four miles to
the south of Findon, had a parking problem. An answer was sought.
One of the proposals for solving the problem was the construction of a
reinforced concrete platform on the front between the Pier Pavilion and the
Bandstand (the present Lido). Plans were drawn up. The
architect in charge of the design inserted a little pertinent footnote to his
original drawing —
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Such a
structure could also serve as an air raid shelter.
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What foresight the wary architect had for the years to come.
1937 was the year
that the Worthing and district glasshouse growers produced the earliest
strawberries and peaches of the season. These were not just the
earliest in Worthing. Oh no, they were the earliest anywhere in
Great Britain. The strawberries and peaches were sold in the markets
in London.... not like today when you can buy strawberries and peaches all the
year round.
A year later, in 1938, the war with German was
imminent. Worthing appointed an Air Precaution Officer and he
was Captain G.
R. Bailey. He had rather a peculiar job. It was to go around the town to make a list of
properties where household basements could shelter people in relative safety
during any expected Luftwaffe bombing.
During the same year many local people
flocked to the nearby Odeon cinema in Worthing and sat through Walt Disney's first full-length
animation production of the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Were you one of those
who remember this?
After nine cases of polio around the Worthing
area in 1938, the town's medical officer denied there was an epidemic.
The polio scare failed to stop the cancellation of Findon's impending Flower Show
that year. The Sunday School classes in Findon and Findon Valley
also kept going amid fears that the
disease could be spread by close contact with any unknown carriers.
Germany invaded
Czechoslovakia on 14th March 1939.
Not much of consequence happened during those early wartime months in 1939 that
Findon was lulled into a state of false security.
By the summer of 1939, few
Findonians realized the outbreak of World War Two was only a few weeks off.
At this time in nearby Worthing, a Town Hall official revealed
the shattering news that a survey of 228 basements beneath properties in the
town, showed that only one would be of any use during an air raid.
By July
1939, searchlights lit up the sky on
dark nights.
On 11th August 1939 the Home Office
mounted a trial of the blackout in London. It attracted thousands of sightseers,
who treated the event as if it was an entertainment rather than a preparation
for war.
This Air Raid Warning Signals notice was issued by the
Chanctonbury Rural District Council (Sussex Coast) in 1939. The
signals were given, together with what to do in the case of an air raid.
The notice is dated 1st September 1939 (two days
before the Second World War was declared).
Germany went on to invade Poland on
1st September 1939 and
the dreaded blackout was introduced
in Findon which meant lighting was extinguished for the duration of the
hostilities of the Second World War. This was to stop
lights on the ground showing enemy aircraft where to drop their bombs.
Special Air Raid Wardens patrolled the streets after dark to make sure that no
lights were visible from the windows of houses and if there was a chink....
there was a loud banging on the front door. In the end, blackout curtains
were made to stop light escaping from windows in houses. Villagers took a long
time getting used to the Blackout.
This next bit always makes me smile. When men
went out in the evening they were advised to leave their shirt-tails hanging out
so that they could be seen by cars with dimmed headlights!
Vehicles had headlights
reduced to a top-shaded slit that barely let light shine further than the car's
bonnet. It was not enemy bombs that brought the
first causalities. Road casualties had more than doubled and by the New
Year more than 20% of the population had come to grief in one way or another in
the blackout. People fell into ditches, tripped up kerbs or stumbled into the
path of an oncoming car. Supplies of torches became scarce and stocks of
batteries ran out.
Blackout procedures were subsequently modified. Council workers
were out in force, painting white bands around all lamp posts and other
obstacles along important streets, and picking out kerbs and crossways with
white markings. All traffic lights were now fitted with blackout shields, which
allowed only a small cross of light to be seen instead of the usual full circle.
Even though steps were taken to make the streets
safe, without proper lighting thousands of people were victims of road accidents
before the bombing even started.
The ensuing difficulties
encountered by this brought a permanent road change in Findon as elsewhere — the
painting of the now familiar white guidelines down the centre of roads.
Many years ago there was a custom at Horsham
railway station... just before midnight on New Year's Eve, fog signals would be
placed on the rails near the signal box in the yard.
They were placed about twenty-five yards apart and it is said that there were
lots of them. As the magic hour of midnight approached, a driver
would take an engine and speed towards the road bridge, exploding each of the
fog signals as he went. The noise could be heard all over Horsham
and each year there were complaints from residents. Like many
annual customs, this one ceased during the hostilities of the Second World
War...... otherwise the residents would have thought the Germans had arrived in
Horsham.
The news on the radio reported on 1st September
1939 that London school children would be evacuated to the country and
nearby Worthing had over 10,000 evacuees billeted on the town.
Two days later, on 3rd
September 1939, Britain and France retaliated and declared war on Germany
and, together with the rest of their countrymen, the villagers of Findon found
themselves at war.
By this time, sufficient trenches had been dug in the nearby
Worthing parks to accommodate some 3,000 inhabitants should they be caught out
in the streets if the area's five air raid sirens ever yowled out their warning
that an enemy attack was imminent.
In 1939 the agricultural wage was only
35/- a week for the Findon labourer on the land. By the following year it had
risen to 48/-.
Brian Chappell was a young lad living in Findon at the time
and he remembers the day that war broke out. It was a fine summer day
with the sun shining. After listening to the Prime Minister's speech
he went to The Square where he was rather surprised to already see an ARP Warden
in full yellow oilskin jacket and trousers, complete with gas mask and
a newly painted steel helmet.
(Brian was to later
become a messenger for the ARP, but that job did not last for very long
—
as there were no messages to deliver in Findon).
I have discovered that
preparations began for Findon to become part of the country's
important frontline defence. It has to be remembered that only a few dozen
miles of sea separated us from the grey hordes of German Panzers and squadrons
of German bombers waiting to pounce from occupied French soil. The news grew more threatening and villagers reported to collect their gas masks. Strong Boxes, more usually known as Pill Boxes
were constructed. Their builders were given six weeks to build them at a
cost of £200 each.
Machine-gun posts, trenches, rifle posts,
anti-tank devices reinforced by scaffolding, mines and barbed wire all played a
part. All road signposts were taken down and the church bells ceased to be rung.
The military forbid access to the Downs by the public. Large areas of
Findon were commandeered for training and defence. Wildlife suffered too and in
particular the pheasants and partridges were shot without a thought for whether
it was in season or out.
Above is a poster with details of National
Registration & National Rationing, issued by Chanctonbury Rural District Council
(Sussex Coast) and dated Storrington 29th September 1939.
Also shown are details of notification of People moving and
National Identity Cards — a sore point with many of us nowadays, but essential
then.
On 16th
October 1939 Britain suffered the first dreaded horrendous air-raid.
Every part of Findon was affected by the war.
Peter Trounce from Ontario in Canada (an ex-Brit
from nearby Worthing 55 years ago) tells me that while at High School he helped dig trenches
in Findon Valley to catch German gliders landing (that was before he migrated
across the pond in 1948).
New tank roads were laid on the Downs. Army camps, (tented or more permanent),
sprang up in fields and estates. Army exercises with their "friendly fire"
destroyed farms and small hamlets. The Square in Findon boasted a sandbagged
rifle post. Worthing lads were bussed to Findon Valley to dig ditches across
open ground to trap German troop-carrying gliders in the event of invasion.
The Findon Manor Hotel became the Regimental headquarters
controlling the Territorials, and later, units of the 2nd Canadian Division,
both mounting defences which included barbed wire, mines and 391 - 5 ft. x
5 ft. concrete blocks.
It
was at this time that the number 5 (205) bus started. This service ran on gas
and would conveniently stop at any point to pick up passengers and the charge to
Worthing was 9d return.
Continue if you would like to read....An
Evacuee Remembers
Back
to Wartime Index
Back
to Main Index
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched
by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
