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

MILITARY CAMPS IN THE AREA

Copyright Valerie Martin 2005

The years leading up to 1914 put the Worthing area on the map as a national centre for the army.  

Literally masses of redcoats arrived in our areas 110 years ago.    This was for their annual camp in 1897.   There were hundreds of them.   They took over fields stretching from South Farm Road (near the railway crossing) to Hill Barn and Cissbury.

The soldiers hailed from the 2nd Dragoon Guards, the 2nd and 4th Somerset Regiment, the 3rd Duke of Cornwall Regiment, the 1st and 2nd Royal Sussex Regiment, the 4th Warwickshires, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers and the Army Service Corps...... I was right when I told you that there were a lot of them.

In 1897, the Hill Barn area (part of the Warren Estate) became a large army camp.    On Queen Victoria's birthday that year, some 380 soldiers from the 1st Royal Sussex Regiment and the 2nd Somerset Regiment marched through the town to the shore.    A great many people were aware of the proposed parade by the town crier on the evening before and they gathered close to the pier to witness the spectacle.   The balconies of the hotels and any private houses commanding a good view, were filled to capacity with sightseers.    Young people were even seen balancing on the wheels of bathing machines on the seafront to gain a better view.   

The bands of both military regiments were positioned on the grass outside the Royal Hotel and they played various airs, plus God Save the Queen.   The behaviour of the soldiers was said to be exemplary on the day.   Not so eight years later, when concern was voiced about the sheer numbers of troops in the town.  It is said that people had stumbled across bathing parties of naked troops taking a dip in the sea.

It was during the year of 1897 that a visitor to nearby Worthing bitterly complained about a disgusting sight.   This was "naked men" swimming in the sea off East Worthing.     She reported —

I am wondering if the naked men were belonging to the above regiments..... or were they the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker?    My guess is that they were the former.

Time marched on and during the First World War, thousands of soldiers were billeted in Worthing before being sent to the killing fields of France and Flanders.     

I thought these photographs of nearby military camps near to Findon prior to the First World War rather fascinating and decided to give them an airing....

At this time Findon's neighbour, Tarring, was just an isolated village in lovely Sussex countryside including thatched cottages, byways and hedgerows.  Tarring was a training ground in the early part of the 1900s for thousands of troops coming from all over England (as were Broadwater, Offington and Findon).   The Sussex downland was a favoured area for the army as an ideal training ground for annual manoeuvres.

... and below are the massed bands of the 6th London Brigade at the Worthing Camp in 1913.....

The scene may look sunny in the above photograph of Shoreham dated 1914 — but it was literally raining cats and dogs by the time thousands of the unlucky heavily laden army recruits swarmed off train after train at the railway station on a miserable Saturday evening in September 1914.   

It was just one month before the First World War broke out.

A writer of the day recorded the view for us....

The inhabitants of Shoreham were a bit put out to say the least at the sight of the large military camp growing on their very door step at the command of Lord Kitchener.   It was situated at the north of the town

Excitement mounted as the men arrived and the locals decided there was nothing to be done about the situation and so they used the new arrivals to their advantage..

The extreme boundaries of the army camp stretched from the site of the Southdown Golf Clubhouse in the east, to the western side of Buckingham Park and from the Old Shoreham Road to the Downs.    The commandeered area extended in meadow-land on the west side of Buckingham Lane, including the Oxen Field, and land close to the railway line and Shoreham Station.   It included so-named canvas towns on Slonk Hill (where our familiar Holmbush Marks & Spencer Store has been built).  

I guess that much pre-planning of the Shoreham Army Camp had been go into as it was within easy reach of the musketry ranges already situated at Mile Oak, Lancing College and Worthing.

At the beginning of the First World War it was almost impossible for all of the soldiers to be issued immediately with their supplies and uniforms for the duration.    When camp reveille was sounded at 5.30 a.m. on the morning after they had arrived, most of them were still looking out of place and wearing their own civilian garb.   They hungrily ate breakfast just before 8 a.m. and were then summoned to their first taste of squad drill.  It was not to be their last though.

It is said that the formidable drill sergeants put their new recruits through the movements and it was quoted by a contemporary reporter.....

The raw recruits had not undertaken any arduous long marches as yet in their new career and it was, therefore, considered that the nearby downland would prove to be a  splendid spot to start learning the hard way.

Each unit at the Shoreham Camp had its own cooking facilities.   Cosy wood fires were usually lit in trenches with four cooking pots neatly arranged around each blaze.

Bathing parade parties soon became the men's most popular leisure pastime each afternoon.   It was quite a sight to see the trainee troops marching through the streets of Shoreham in a somewhat orderly fashion, over the Norfolk Bridge and on to the shore.

The soldiers then partook of their afternoon tea break at 4.45 p.m. and were after that considered to be off-duty until "lights out" at 9.30 p.m.   

During this period, as you can imagine, Shoreham became seething with life.  The men literally appeared like hundreds of ants swarming out of their camp.   There were soon soldiers to be seen squatting on doorsteps in the town, lounging on available walls and loitering everywhere that was possible. 

The people of Shoreham immediately took advantage of the situation given to them and the streets were well prepared and appeared as a fair with stalls selling everything imaginable in the way of edibles for the new customers.  

For any Shoreham-based recruits preferring to stay in the camp during the evenings, there was a canteen and a YMCA facilities for relaxation.

And so was established one of Britain's first and largest Command Depots, largely populated by young volunteers expecting to be sent to .....

"teach the hun a lesson"

and then quite expecting to be ....

"home for Christmas".  

As it was, it didn't quite happen that way as many were to discover at their cost.

Continue if you would like to read about The Outbreak of the First World War Hits Findon

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