My grandparents had five children, two sons and three daughters and sadly the youngest, Ivy died this year which marked the end of that particular generation.

Grandad took up jobbing gardening and was a well-known figure to be seen around on his bicycle. I remember it as a huge upright bike with a double crossbar and a basket on the front. It was usually full of vegetables or
flowers and he was very proud of his "dell-yers" (dahlias).

He had an allotment at the top of Stable Lane, and a tiny toolshed (which he managed to shelter in if it really rained hard). I remember that on the back of it he rigged up an old water tank and suspended a sack containing dried horse and cow dung. The resulting mixture was then thinned down and used on the plants.

Grandad was also a very good shot with a stone and could easily hit a rabbit. I can recall a family picnic when we were all on Black Patch hill and he went off with a few pebbles in his pocket and returned with a plump rabbit!

He was a real countryman and sometimes he would take me to see the Crawley and Horsham Hunt. We would go on our bikes and he would know exactly which way the fox was most likely to run.

He was used to handling horses and I believe even in his later years he stopped a runaway racehorse in Findon. How he did it I don't really know - I have stopped a bolting pony in one of our narrow lanes many years ago and even that took some holding! A lively racehorse needs real strength and courage to get control of and calm it down.

My grandparents eventually moved up to Homewood where they lived happily in their more comfortable home. Grandad died in 1981, aged 98 having lived in Sussex all his life.