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

Copyright Valerie Martin 2000

Originally published in the Findon News in December 2001.

Just out of living memory, the trusty weather-beaten Findon postman would give a hearty long drawn-out note on his horn to announce his approach to the isolated farmsteads on the Findon Downs. The well-disposed and charitable would then have time to prepare a tipple of cider or lemonade in readiness for his arrival on hot summer days. When the Christmas mail was delivered he was more likely to be greeted during the season of goodwill with a hot cup of cocoa. Many times he had to travel through drifts of virgin snow in an unrecognisable landscape.

The custom of sending Christmas cards started in Britain in 1840 when the first Penny Post deliveries began. (Helped by the new railway system, the public postal service was the 19th century's communication revolution, a bit like e-mail is today).   Traditionally, the Christmas cards from Findon showed religious pictures — Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or depicting other scenes from the Christmas story. As printing methods improved, Christmas cards were produced in large numbers from about 1860. They became even more popular in Britain when a card could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one half-penny — half the price of an ordinary letter.

By January in the year 1881, the main road between Findon and Worthing was so choked by continuous drifting snowfalls that all coach and horse traffic between the two communities ceased. Villagers awoke to a picturesque landscape. Most were not pleased with the frozen state of the roads and loudly echoed their feelings about the weather preventing them from going about their duties. Findon was snowed in. It was out on a limb, isolated from humanity in the frost-bound landscape.

The school treat for the village pupils on School Hill had most fortunately taken place on the day before the snow started.  On following morning, to become known as Black Tuesday, two determined little girls made heroic efforts to reach their place of learning in the appalling freezing weather. Perhaps they had thoughts of Miss Elizabeth Bull the schoolmistress waiting for them. They valiantly waded through the deep soft snow and completely missed the road when they were close to the old blacksmith's forge (now John Henry's Brasserie) in Nepcote Lane. They were utterly swamped and finally tumbled over into a deep snowdrift and were stuck fast. The story could have had an unhappy ending for the families but the lassies were eventually rescued. They were pulled clear by a kindly gentleman who happened to see them as he was passing by.

Blinding drifts of fine snow with a north-east wind drove into every crevice at the rate of sixty miles an hour with hard frost in the village.     Drifts eight to ten feet deep blocked all roads running from north to south, stopping trains for three days.

The snow lay so deep that it tickled the tops of the very hedgerows beside the highway from Washington to Findon and onwards again to Worthing. After some eight days when the meagre supplies of flour, coal and other basic necessities for the winter months were growing short in the village, the farmers finally sent forth their agricultural labourers to tackle the snow and open up the road. Perhaps they were by now encouraged to do so by the Findon womenfolk who were tired of the shortages and wore the brunt of their moaning hungry families.

One large patch of frozen snow lingered on the northern slopes leading to Chanctonbury Ring in that year of 1881. This area of ice and snow persisted and did not melt until nine weeks later.

Continue if you would like to read  Christmas Remembered.

THIS IS FINDON — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.