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

SHE NEARLY LIVED IN FINDON — DIANA DORS

Copyright Valerie Martin 2004

This is the riveting tale of Mary Fluck who became the blonde-bombshell, Diana Dors (Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe).   She was born on 23rd October 1931.  In later years she lived not far from Findon, at Palmers Farm in Billingshurst.    It is not a detective story but more of a mystery.

It was back in the 1950s that Diana lived near Findon.   She did her shopping in Billingshurst and her big American car was often seen parked in the High Street.   Also she frequented Horsham on shopping sprees.   Does anyone remember seeing her?

I believe there was a children's rhyme based on her with a parody on Little Bo Peep.... it went something like this —

"Diana Dors lost her drawers — in the British Home Stores.

Juke Box Jury was a television show of the day in which a panel of four guests would sit and listen to the latest pop single releases and then judge which were going to be a hit.    One day when Diana was a guest, she took a dislike to one of the singers and the song being played and ended up saying —

"My pig man sings better than that"

Gordon New who came from near Shipley was, in fact, her pig man and worked in the pigsty on her farm and he thought the remark very amusing when he heard it.

It was speculated in Findon that Diana was purchasing Muntham Court when it was put up for sale upon the death of Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne in 1957.  The mansion stood deserted and the grounds became very overgrown and the sale did not go through. 

There were even wild rumours that the mansion and grounds would be purchased and used as an "open prison".

Diana regularly visited Sussex after moving across the pond to California — and then back finally to Berkshire.  She died in Windsor at the age of 52 in May 1982.

Extra stones and age inevitable began to bury her sylph-like figure and matronly proportions took over.  Shortly before the actress died, for some inexplicable reason she handed her eldest son, Mark Dawson, a real teaser in the form of a baffling scrap of paper covered in more than 300 apparently random scribbled letters.

She told him that cracking the code of the pencilled letters would reveal where her £2 million fortune was stashed.  What a strange lady she was!

She also said her husband (the actor Alan Lake) had the key to the conundrum — which would unravel the code as well as explaining what the mysterious message meant.    Just five months after Dors' death, Alan committed suicide by shooting himself.   He had not passed on the code's secrets and the story, therefore, died with him.

Mark struggled for almost two decades attempting to decipher the unfathomable significance but has so far failed to track down the perplexing inheritance that still eludes him.    During this time he has traversed the veiled world of gangsters and code-crackers — and eccentrics.

The incomprehensible message has so far only revealed a list of places such as Brighton, Leeds and Birmingham, with names written next to them.   Do these refer to names and pseudonyms used by Diana to manage her bank accounts .....if so where?  For instance: next to the word Brighton is the unlikely word "Pyewacket".   Mark is flummoxed to say the least.

There is £2 million (plus any interest accrued) up for grabs! 

Maybe the Inland Revenue would be interested too in Diana's money floating somewhere out of reach?

The riddle still rumbles on concerning the actress who nearly resided at the mansion known as Muntham Court in Findon.   Just a thought..... could it be "buried" on the Muntham hillside I wonder?

Continue if you would like to read Exploring the Colonel's Mansion.

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