I was born in Findon in 1912 when there were three racing stables and estates such as Muntham Court, Cissbury House, Findon Place and Park Farm.  Many men were employed at the stables as jockey lads and grooms, and on the estates as gardeners, gamekeepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, carters and grooms for the farm horses and hunters, and also as chauffeurs and under-chauffeurs.

There was a chimney sweep, and if there were any children in the house involved, they had the job of being outside and giving a shout when they saw the brush come out of the  chimney top.  From the same family came the road or lengthman who was to be seen every working day somewhere in the village with his wheelbarrow, brush and shovel, keepng the ditches clear and the roads swept clean which, remembering that there were many horses and cows about, was no mean feat.  The blacksmith's brother, Alf, did odd jobs, one of which was to fetch water from the well of the Gun Inn, carrying two buckets on a wooden yoke on his shoulders.

Women were employed indoors as cooks, ladies' maids and parlour maids.  On the farms they worked in the dairies, as did Mrs Short and her daughter at Short's Farm, part of which is now our newsagent and post office.  The Shorts' son delivered milk to our doors, using pint and half pint measures which hooked on to the side of the churn.  One woman (known as Old Mother Upton) went stonepicking — that is , clearing the flints from the ploughed fields.

In the Square there were three shops.  The butcher had a slaughter-house at the rear.  My father's grocery and general store, with drapery in a small part of it, adjoined the then post office, which was run by my grandmother and my aunt.  My father was the postmaster, since the ladies at that time were not acceptable in that role.  Opposite the blacksmith's forge there was a bakery where at Christmas time the villagers could take their dinners to be cooked.  It was demolished in the 1950s.  There were three brothers named Brown: Ted the blacksmith, Arthur the greengrocer who grew most of his produce on his small holding adjoining his wooden shop, and Walter who had a cycle shop.

In the High Street a Mr. Tyler was a saddler and harnessmaker, and in his shop he had a life sized wooden horse which was quite a startling sight with its glaring glass eyes.   His wife had a small shop selling among other things dog leads, and baskets which were made by a blind man in Worthing.   Next door was a shoe and repair shop where three young men were employed, and further on was a tailor, Mr. Mills, who made breeches for the jockey lads, and an ironmonger.

There was a coal merchant with his coalyard in Cross Lane, and Ockenden's Timber yard up at Nepcote, where six out of the seven boys in the family worked in the firm;  they were also undertakers, builders and decorators.  Many of the flint walls in the district were built and maintained by this firm.

Other shops were originally the front parlours of houses, as was the post office, and as many were family businesses it was quite usual for a wife to be in the desk and keeping the books, as they did in the grocer's and butcher's.

In 1934 four shops with living accommodation were built opposite The Black Horse public house; a fishmonger and greengrocery, a butcher, a hiardresser and a cafe.  There was a private car hire serice (one car) run from what was part of the stables of the Village House Hotel, and where you could take your wireless accumulators to be recharged — a definite must by the early 1930s!