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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
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NEPCOTE'S NETTLEDOWN NOVELS
Copyright Valerie Martin 2007
First published in the Findon Valley and Village Directory in October 2007
Kathleen May Ockenden was born on Boxing Day at the beginning of the 1900s. She grew up in a cottage in Nepcote called Montana, not far from where I live in Findon Village. Her parents were John and Margaret who had moved to the property on Monday, 15th August, 1898.
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The cottage named Montana in Nepcote in the twentieth century — where Kathleen Ockenden lived. |
Their previous home had been at the Toll House at the bottom of Bost Hill between Findon Valley and Findon Village. Kathleen May had five sisters, Margaret Flora, Violet Ruth, Ivy Muriel, Eva Chrissie and Gwendolen Iris.
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The Toll House at the foot of Bost Hill early in the twentieth century. |
As she grew up she became friendly with an author who lived in Nepcote. His name was Arthur John Rees and he had been born in Australia and in all probability left that continent in the early 1900s. He ended up in Sussex in 1917 and became a journalist for the Times newspaper. I do not know at what date he moved to Findon. There is also a bit of confusion over his date of birth and various dates have gone down in history but his death certificate states he was aged 67 which means he was born in 1874/5.
In 1925, much to Kathleen's delight, he gave her a book because the heroine in his latest novel had been modelled around her and the Findon countryside.
Arthur lived with his wife in a bungalow named Nettledown on the lane leading to the north side of Cissbury Ring. His property was not far from Kathleen’s family home and was situated to the east of Thistledown where Charles Fibbens lived at the top of Nepcote Green. (Charles Fibbens was in the publishing business and started the Worthing Gazette).
Nettledown was of rudimentary construction, being of wooden fabrication with a corrugated iron roof. When rain pelted on the corrugated iron in a downpour the noise was horrendous — especially when Arthur was trying to concentrate and write.
Otherwise, Nettledown was homely and snug. On the opposite side of the lane the artist Frederick James Aldridge the marine artist had his studio at the property called Rookwood (now renamed Bramling). In all, it could be said that it was indeed a creative corner of Nepcote.
Arthur had given his earlier novels the typical eye-catching titles of the romances of the twenties. Such as Island of Destiny, Moon Rock, and the somewhat chilling, The Hand in the Dark. For anyone who was not nervous there was an especially intriguing one entitled The Shrieking Pit.
His latest work had a more subdued cover and was called Cup of Silence ― and this is the one in which Kathleen bore such a resemblance to the heroine. Chanctonbury Ring featured in the novel, plus the soaring ramparts of Cissbury Ring, Blackpatch and not forgetting Stump Bottom — where Arthur often went for his evening constitutional walk over the downland.
Cup of Silence was accepted for publication and initially appeared in serial form in the Westminster Magazine in 1924. Thereafter, Dodd, Mead & Company published it in New York in 1925 where it sold for two dollars. It seems rather strange to think that in those far off days American ladies were reading all about a young Nepcote girl and our familiar Findon Downs and countryside.
A sign of the times shows in an extract from his text referring to the building work being carried out in the meadows of Findon Valley —
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From the top of Cissbury you cannot help seeing all the new red bungalows climbing up the slopes on that side, and the golf links. |
In the preface of the book dated 1924, Arthur had the foresight to predict —
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Perhaps the day is not far distant when the changeful conditions of modern England will finally invade and destroy the inviolateness of the downs around Cissbury and Chanctonbury. |
Time has marched on since those words were written. Looking at the views today from Blackpatch, Cissbury and Chanctonbury, I do not think we have done so very badly — even if there are many more dwellings marching along the valley than in 1924.
Arthur died during the war years in 1942. His timber and corrugated iron bungalow has long been demolished and forgotten except by a few. His plot is now amalgamated into the garden of the property known as Thistledown, which has been much extended since the 1920s.
Kathleen's cottage, Montana, in Nepcote is now incorporated within the larger property renamed The White Cottage.
Continue if you would like to read about The Train Takes the Strain.
This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com |
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