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

THE HUNTSMAN'S SON

Copyright Valerie Martin 2000

First published in Along the Furlong, May 2001.

This is the story of Luke Luther Berrington, the tale of a local Findon lad of the early nineteenth century.

Luke's birth took place in Findon on Saturday, 25th February in 1815, an era when King George III was on the throne.  He was christened on Sunday, 19th March 1815 at St. John the Baptist Church in Findon by the Reverend John Hind. An intriguing glimpse of Findon village life and trades at the beginning of the nineteenth century can be gleaned from a single page from the parish church baptism records for the year 1815 — 

In all Luke was to have some seven brothers and sisters.  The village at this time had less than four hundred inhabitants, mostly employed in agriculture and pitifully poor.  Luke's father, Francis Berrington, was more fortunate than some and was connected with the hunting stables in Findon and it would be nice to think that the boy just may have been born at Huntsman's House on the Long Furlong road.  

The threat of Napoleon's invasion had passed and the village was comparatively peaceful.  There were the smells of fruit and flowers, horse-dung and open sewers.   The village shops were a hive of industry and bustling with the trade of boot-making, tea dealing, grocery, drapery, butchers and bakers and beer retailers.  Chanctonbury Ring, instead of being used as a beacon station, became a venue for picnickers who could sit on sunny days on the southern slopes looking towards Findon in the south west.  

People of meagre means travelled on foot, and by carriage if they were "up in the stirrup".  As a child, Luke often heard the soft mellow tones of a key-bugle playing the pop tune of the day as the coach and horses approached the community. He witnessed the horses arrive and the mail guard give a tuneful signal on a long brass horn, warning of the imminent approach of the coach to the village. When it departed again, the guard was always the last to mount — he would draw his instrument from a basket and "Off she goes" would be heard from the bugle until the coach rounded the bend and vanished out of sight.

Little did the lad who watched the London to the coast coaches as they rattled through the dusty streets of Findon, know that one day he too would be part of such an enterprise.

Young Luke was about six years old when the family departed from Findon in 1821 and his father became the head huntsman to a famous pack of hounds at Annesley, a village between Nottingham and Mansfield. It was not to be goodbye to Sussex for good, as Luke was to return on many occasions yet.

After Annesley, the Berrington family moved to London.  However, after eighteen months it was thought that the change of air, and also of food and water, did not agree with any of them. In particular, Luke was considered to be unwell and the family doctor recommended that the best cure would be to send him to the country. A return to Sussex for the boy seemed to be the best answer.

One of Luke's uncles owned Beeding Court, a large farm on the banks of the River Adur and within a short distance of Bramber Castle and Steyning. The ancient farm buildings still stand and are mostly likely the same ones where young Luke played.  It was not far from Findon as the crow flies, only five miles across the Downs. Luke soon settled down to life in the countryside to recuperate.

His grandfather had been the leader of a lawless gang of local smugglers and Luke lived up to his reputation and had many childhood adventures of his own. Smuggling was nothing to be ashamed of in those days. The rest of his grandfather's gang comprised the village blacksmith, a tailor, a gardener, and several farm labourers, all of whom worked at their various callings and trades throughout the day and were considered respectable people. They were successful men as long as their nocturnal pursuits continued uninterrupted.

His grandfather lived in a solitary cottage called Breachland. The property contained various devious hiding places where kegs of spirits could be concealed behind lath and plaster, or on the side of a short staircase leading up to the bedrooms. Another favoured spot by his grandfather was under the straw in the nearby barn. Scores of barrels had been hidden in former days. Kegs were even squirreled away under the dry leaves in a ditch near the cottage.

Luke's own adventures revolved around Beeding Court where he was staying. These included shooting rooks with his father's gun. This had been kept from his days in the Volunteer Service. It was an old-fashioned type with flint and steel locks and known as a "man stopper". It nearly led to the young boy's demise. On another occasion he nearly drowned in Wiston Pond.

Another pastime for the children of the day was that of catching sparrows by night, this was completely new to Luke who had been brought up in Findon. The sparrow hunt involved a large net attached to two poles or hazel rods, a net and an ordinary horn lantern. The participating boys and girls would approach one of the assortment of barns on the farm. Two would hold the net, one on each side, the net being spread open, while another held the lighted lantern behind the net. A child in front probed the thatch or eaves with a long pole. Being disturbed, the unsuspecting roosting birds would fly out and be dazzled by the lantern-light and caught in the net.

Luke often climbed the nearby downland within sight of the farm — he called it "a lofty mountain", and so it may have looked to a young boy. It was, in fact, known locally as the Ring of Changtonberry (Chanctonbury). From here he could see the far away English Channel to the south where his smuggling grandfather had landed contraband goods. The green hump of Cissbury was silhouetted against the sea. If he tried really hard he could almost glimpse the house where he had been born in Findon, just three miles to the south-west under Church Hill where St. John the Baptist Church and the Manor of Findon nestled beneath the rounded hill. He was but a stone's throw from his roots below the Findon Downs.

Luke left Sussex for the second time in his short life and rejoined his family.  His father then employed one of the best key-bugle players as the boy's tutor and Luke soon made considerable progress.  He conscientiously practised for five or six hours each day and the playing of the bugle set him in good stead for following in his father's footsteps and becoming a coach guard in Luke Berrington's Coaching Days.  He had a foothold on the ladder and was soon ready to send the soft mellow tones of the key-bugle ringing over the countryside.

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This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.