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

DOWNS EDGE... WITH NAPOLEONIC THOUGHTS

Copyright Valerie Martin 2009

The large property known as Downs Edge adjoining the Findon originally came to my notice when I arrived to live in Findon in 1993.    On a number of occasions in the evenings I would see a small helicopter fly over the Gallops and sink below the tree line into the garden of Downs Edge.     I learned that the owner of the house was on his way home for the night.    There were also a notorious German Shepherd from Downs Edge that was taken for walks on the Gallops..... and was best avoided.

Downs Edge seems to have been built in the 1930s and does not appear to have been featured by any other writers on Findon.   In 1947 the house and Soldiers Field was purchased by Leonard and Marjorie (known by everyone as Madge) Chuter, with their two girls, Denise and Diana.   A gentleman named Stan Duke helped Leonard develop the land.     Leonard had retired from BP Persia and now kept a couple of cows peacefully grazing the meadow and always referred to it as his "small holding".    The men installed a line of trees east-west, built a barn and haystacks over the years.    Leonard planted a Atlantic Blue Cedar into the garden which grew to large proportions over the years.

One day in September 1953, Leonard (who was a big man and had always suffered with heart problems) now aged 55,  met an untimely death.  While standing looking out of the bedroom window in the morning he spied a rabbit in the field after his crops.    He promptly picked up his shotgun to shoot it...... but fell down dead from a heart attack.    

Subsequently, the property and land was sold to the boss of Rimmel cosmetics.

This brings me to the question..... why is Soldiers Field so named?     I think there is a Napoleonic connection.  There are numerous old flint walls in the Findon area, originally built to enclose the larger properties, particularly in the High Street. I expect the inhabitants were quick to make use of the naturally occurring flints in the area and the supply of cheap labour in the form of the French captives.

I think it is possible that the prisoners were held at the site now known as Soldiers Field in Nepcote. This very apt name may have originated during the Napoleonic Wars when it was an army base. It is known for certain that Soldiers Field was later under military occupation in the 1920s.   I have spoken to villagers who remember horse-drawn guns rumbling down School Hill, across The Square, and labouring up Nepcote Lane to the Soldiers Field area and summer camp. Further troop movement took them to the other side of Cissbury for their regular rifle practice.

I have one more little story to relate concerning the large Findon property known as Downs Edge adjoining the Findon Gallops... this was at a later much later date. 

In its time Grey Point in The Square was a hotel, and it is here that the proprietor claimed the film actress Joan Collins was one of the guests.  

Derek Bushrod ex-Findonian and now living in Colchester, Essex has told me that Joan Collins was, in fact, the niece of the owner of Downs Edge Farm.    The date of her numerous weekend visits to her Uncle, Mr. Godfrey, was the early 1950s and during her visits she stayed at the Grey Point Hotel in The Square..    Derek Bushrod's father managed Downs Edge Farm for Mr. Godfrey at that time for about three years.

Lawrie May, another ex-Findonian and now living in Antigua in the West Indies, says that he was living at Grey Point in the 1950s as his mother worked there.   He emailed to say he didn't remember anyone like Joan Collins staying as a guest.    He did recall some old ladies who were residents and one in particular who always dressed in trousers and walked her daschunds around the village.     He thought she was French and her name was something like Miss Sherard.   He said she was certainly no Joan Collins.

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