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

The concrete insitu block defences could be seen striding down the Findon hillside at the end of the war.

THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN FINDON

Copyright Valerie Martin 2000.

There was much repair work to be carried out in the area of Findon after the war. The old cottages at Cobden Farm, used for target practice by soldiers, were finally demolished in 1944.

The black-out in Findon ended on 11TH SEPTEMBER 1944 after five long years of night-time darkness.  Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30th April 1945. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima on 6th October 1945, and Nagasaki on 8th October that year. Japan surrendered.

On 20TH NOVEMBER 1944 after five long years of blackout, the lights are switched on again in Piccadilly, Strand and Fleet Street.

Oh dearie me !  In 1945 it was reported in the press that the Findon W.I. voiced its concern about the welfare of girls aged under 16 who were constantly hanging around dance halls frequented by soldiers..... what about the ones over 16 I wonder !

Mr. A. Francis was Findon's postmaster in 1945 and was bitten on his leg by a fox.    The reason for the attack was..... he was attempting to spear the animal with a pitchfork while it was worrying geese in the village.

The fox was eventually killed and this prompted a commentator to write...

"There being no local hunt nowadays to keep them down, foxes are proving a considerable nuisance to local farmers".

On 30th APRIL 1945 Adolf Hitler shot himself dead in his underground bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin. Eva Braun, whom he had married the previous day, died beside him by taking a cyanide pill.

On 7TH MAY 1945 everyone in Findon had been listening to the 6 o'clock news on the radio when it was reported that the next day would officially be VE-Day. It had been expected. Aeroplanes had been doing "victory rolls" in the sky overhead.

This is a photograph of the long since demolished pillbox outside the  old Town Hall in nearby Worthing.  The attention of the gathered crowd appears to be the loud speaker van.   I would dearly like to know what was being broadcast at the time.  The roundabout on which this pillbox stood, still exists at the southern end of Chapel Road.

 

With the Second World War over, workmen from the Lea Valley Demolition and Excavation Company start work on the removal of the pillbox located in front of the nearby Worthing Town Hall.   The contract for the work was signed in OCTOBER 1945.

 

 

10th September 2004

Dear Valerie

 

Hyam Already

My memory WAS correct! The picture of the pill box outside the Old Town Hall was painted to resemble a newsagents called Hyam Already.  The left hand side still shows the end of the Newsagent's name and the painting of some of his "stock"! The main side facing south seems to have already lost most of the painting.

These wartime pictures really bring back memories. The pier had a section removed to prevent its use as a docking place for small ships but this doesn't show so clearly. But I remember much more barbed wire along the promenade than shows. Perhaps it is just the clarity of the pictures.

Thanks for jogging those grey cells

Regards ............ Mike.

Mike Cooksey, Bristol.

 

The Nuremberg War Crimes trial of Nazis started on 20TH NOVEMBER 1945 including Goering, Hess and Ribbentrop and and continued until for 218 days.

The Findon downland remained under the auspices of the War Department for a while after the conflict for the clearance of bombs and other missiles.  It was to be expected that some were, unfortunately, inevitably missed in the clearing up process.

The cottages at the nearby hamlet of Buddington had received friendly fire but were not rebuilt and the community went out of existence. The Mill Cottages adjoining the Findon Windmill site, received the same friendly gunfire and were demolished. 

While clearing up the debris after the war in 1947, bulldozers turned up some flint axes and other implements from the days of the Neolithic flint mines on Cissbury Ring.  It was thought that Cissbury Ring would never recover but it did and the trenches were filled in at the termination of hostilities.

Chanctonbury Ring pre 1946

 

Chanctonbury Ring from the Gallops, Findon.  Before the Great Storm of October 1987, the number of trees on Chanctonbury was said to total 365. It was also reputed that it was impossible to count the trees, as the Devil moved them during any counting process.

Above Findon, Chanctonbury Ring had been used as an ammunition dump during the Second World War and was surrounded by barbed wire. After the war, some boys made a camp and fire at the area before they returned home. It was discovered the next day that only a gaping hole remained in the ground where they had been playing. They had inadvertently blown up some of the store of wartime bullets, shells or grenades.

On 25TH JULY  1948 bread rationing ended in Britain after the war.

Nearby Worthing after the Second World War,.   The photograph was taken pre 1948.

 

Worthing in the 1940s.  The seafront, Marine Parade looking west.

In 1951 a wartime German sea mine containing 660 lbs of explosives was washed up on the shore opposite the Marine Gardens in nearby Worthing.  It was safely defused by a bomb disposal squad.   According to the officer in charge of the very risky operation, if the mine had gone off much of West Worthing would have gone also and provided a spectacle for us four miles away in Findon.

click on pic to enlarge

I am not quite sure of the date of the above photograph but it is St. John the Baptist Church in Findon and the solemn occasion is the unveiling of the War Memorial.  

Compensation was received from the Government after the war and the aptly named New Cottages were built in 1953 to replace them on the Muntham second drive entrance.

Sweet rationing did not end until 3RD FEBRUARY 1953.

In 1961, two unexploded hand grenades were discovered by workmen clearing scrub at The Gallops in Findon Valley.   (This area where they had been working had been used during the War as a training ground by the troops during the hostilities).

As late as FEBRUARY 1973, there was a public warning concerning the possible danger from unexploded mortar bombs on a large area of the Findon downland. This was issued by the police and army. The affected area was some 2,500 acres of downs and farmland between Cissbury Ring and Worthing, and Chanctonbury in the north. The warning followed a call to agricultural land near Cissbury when twenty-six mortar bombs were dealt with by the Ammunition Inspectorate from Hounslow.

The residue of tank traps on the track heading up Church Hill from South Lodge in 1999.

 

One of the last air raid shelters in Findon to be demolished in the autumn of 1999 at Grantchester, Nepfield Close. This belonged to Barbara Coleman (one time land girl during the Second World War).

 

A bomb disposal team were called to Muntham Farm in Findon at the end of SEPTEMBER 2000 following the discovery of a Second World War bomb.  This was believed to have belonged to the Canadian Air Force when they were camped there during the war.  

The discovery was made by a metal detectorist enthusiast, Patrick West age 37 of Broadwater Street East in Worthing.  He stumbled upon the unexploded bomb in woods between the farm and the site of Muntham Court (now Worthing Crematorium).  It was 1 ft. long and 4 in. wide and lying in undergrowth and he missed hitting the detonator by an inch.

After conducting tests, the bomb disposal team discovered it was only an anti-tank shell, and therefore, did not pose any threat.   How many more are there around?

Up until this date, Patrick had old come across old solders' buttons and knives and forks with names inscribed on them.

As recent as 1997, a friend of mine, Ron Gardiner of The Well House in Nepcote, discovered the fin from a mortar in the area of Cissbury Ring.  It bore the date 1942 and was found on the track heading east from Canada Barn below the Ring.  It was a reminder that troops were deployed on Cissbury during the Second World War.  Obviously, the mortar fin would have been a small boy's collectors' item back in the 1940s and was one missed by the local village lads.

In June 2002, Tony Hammond told me of escapades in Nepcote —

 

28th June 2002.

Valerie -

Having been lured to Findon by the 25% off plants at the garden centre we took the opportunity to picnic at the Cissbury car park.

As we passed alongside the green I suddenly remembered another little wartime incident which took place nearby. During the war several of the outlying houses were taken over by the Army and when the forces left the village they became a happy hunting ground for several of us.

One day on our way up to Cissbury we came across an empty house on the left hand side of the road just north of the green, in those days the house had an uninterrupted view right across the green. We were soon inside and exploring the rooms, nothing much to hold our interest except a few telephones. Much to our delight we found that they worked  and soon we were dashing from room to room busily chatting away to each other.

By sheer chance I looked out of one of the windows only to see the local bobby slowly peddling his bicycle up the road and was without doubt heading in our direction. At the same time one of the lads heard a strange voice on the line, time to leave.

 
Until today when I saw the house was called Bramblings I had no idea of its importance.
 
Tony.

Tony Hammond, East Preston, West Sussex.

 

 

Continue if you would like to read the tragedy involving Leonard Thomas Sheppard of Findon.

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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.

 

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com