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

THE FINDON LOVE STORY - (Frank Kilvert (1840-1879)

Reg Read of Worthing wrote to me in August 2009 and told me about a fascinating 139 year old diary written by a gentleman by the name of Francis (known as Frank) Kilvert. 

This intrigued me and I thought it would be interesting to learn a little about our area all those years ago in mid-Victorian times when guys were supposedly real gentlemen and girls were innocent maidens.        It gave me the idea of dipping into Frank's personal diary and giving you some brief extracts appertaining to Findon — where he fell in love at first sight.    

I took the liberty of putting the extracts into Four Parts in the form of a daily cliff-hanger for the benefit of readers of my Daily Page....  here goes...the first part of Frank's visit to Findon....the beginning of The Love Story.....

PART ONE......Extract from Frank Kilvert's diary for Monday 10th August 1874.   "To-day I went to Worthing to be present at Addie Cholmeley's wedding at Findon tomorrow.   I left Chippenham at 10.15.   At Salisbury I got into the train with a party of people going to South Sea and the Island.   There was an excellent old-fashioned boy in a chocolate jacket with a shiny peaked cap and a white ruffed frill standing out all round his neck like Punch's dog, a very refreshing sight in these degenerate days.

As we journeyed along the fair Sussex shore between the plain and the sea the gleaners were busy in the golden stubbles, the windmills whirled their arms in the fresh sea breeze, the shocks of corn circling changed places swiftly like a dance of fairies, and Chichester steeple rose fair and white far over the meads.

I thought Worthing Station pretty, light and elegant, with its vandyked glass roofs over the platforms.   I drove at once to 11 Church Terrace, Mrs Smallwood's, the lodgings which Adelaide has taken and which she gives up to John Cholmeley and myself while she is at Findon Rectory for 2 days for the wedding.   After tea and mutton chops I went out to the beach to view the town and sea.   I walked westward to the end of the esplanade.   A heavy wrack of dark cloud drove up from the west promising a stormy night and I turned my solitary steps homeward or lodgingward."

...oo000oo...

PART TWO..... Extract from Frank's diary for the morning of Tuesday 11th August, 1874.....  ....with  sweet young bridesmaids waiting at St John the Baptist Church for him........

"Addie Cholmeley's wedding day.   This may be one of the happiest and most important days of my life, for to-day I fell in love at first sight with sweet Kathleen Mavourneen.

At the time appointed Miss Cholmeley came to the door with her brother Waldo and drove me to Findon, John Cholmeley coming afterwards with his sister Clara (Mrs Heanley).   After a pleasant drive of 4 miles the carriage put us down at the Churchyard gate.  

In the Church we found Robert Heanley, the best man.   I took a fancy to him at once for his pleasant frank open face.   After we had been waiting in Church for some time he advised me to go out into the porch to watch the bridesmaids arrive and to be made acquainted with the young lady who was to be my companion for the day, I being one of the five groomsmen.  So I went, little thinking whom I was to meet, and what a difference it would make to me.

The pretty bevy of bridesmaids was seen coming up the path in white and green. 

'There"' said Miss Sarah Cholmeley to me, 'there is your bridesmaid, the tall dark one behind on the right hand side'.

They came up and we were introduced.   She was a tall handsome girl with very dark hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, and beautiful bright grey eyes, a thin high aristocratic nose, a sweet firm rosy moth, beautiful white teeth, a well developed chin, a clear complexion and fresh colour.   That was Kathleen Mavourneen was I first saw her.   I noticed afterwards that she wore pearl earrings."

The ensuing wedding attended by Frank at St. John the Baptist Church in 1874 was conducted by the Reverend Robert Cholmeley who resided at The Rectory in our High Street.  

...oo000oo...

PART THREE... Extract from Frank's diary for the afternoon of Tuesday 11th August, 1874...when Frank visits Chanctonbury Ring following the wedding.   

I guess from his description that his party journeyed by horse and carriage and perhaps took the route passed North End. 

 Sit back and enjoy Chanctonbury Ring in the mid-Victorian times .... portrayed through the eyes of Frank who paints a somewhat unique picture of Findon life in mid-Victorian days....and afterwards he recalls his visit to The Rectory (now the Findon Manor Hotel) in the High Street.

"In the afternoon almost all the wedding party went up to that fine clump and height of the Downs called Chanctonbury Ring.  Part of the way we drove and we walked up the steepest part.  

Kathleen was still my sweet companion.   Under the lee of the clump I spread my coat on the turf and we sat there together on the hillside apart from the rest and looked over the wide and glorious landscape, bright plain and green pasture, blue hill and golden corn and stubble fields, till she could see over rich and variegated plain the white line of the Grand Stand on Epsom Downs some 30 miles away.    And there we sat and talked and looked into each other's eyes and there I fell in love and lost my heart to the sweetest noblest kindest bravest-hearted girl in England, Kathleen Mavourneen.". 

"She asked me to gather her a bunch of purple heather from the hillside.   As we were driving home down the steep green down the wind blew cold and fresh as it met her, and she looked so sweet and grateful when I wrapped my coat round her to keep her warm.

"We came back from Chanctonbury Ring to Findon Rectory to high tea, after which I had a happy hour with Kathleen in the drawing room.

"When I was talking to Adelaide in her hearing in the drawing room about the Herefordshire wedding to which I was going, Kathleen turned sharply round as if she were pained and did not want me to go.   What conceit.   As if she cared.  But love can live on very slender nourishment."

"When the party broke up and I was returning to Worthing with Mrs. Heanley and Miss Penelope Cholmeley, Kathleen kissed her mother fondly at the door and said to me,

'If you are going in my mother's carriage please not to let her talk, it isn't good for her'.

Then she took me back into the dining room to shew me one of the pretty ornaments of the wedding cake that I had not seen at breakfast.   After which she gave me one of the silver-leaved white orange flowers off the cake, and which I prized more than all she gave me unmasked one precious stephanotis flower out of one of the bridal bouquets, a flower that I will keep till we are married if that should be God's will for us, and in any case until I die."

"We parted with a long close warm clasp of hands that I felt was friendly and hoped might be affectionate.

We had a dark silent drive back to Worthing.   No one spoke.   We were all full of our own thoughts".

...oo000oo...

PART FOUR....this is the last mention I will give you from Frank's fascinting diary dated Wednesday 12th August 1874.  

"In the night there was a torrent of rain but the morning broke clear and beautiful.   I went out early into the town before breakfast and walked along the beach.   Sea and town and everything were sparkling bright and clean after the storm in the clear shining after the rain. 

The bathing machines were running down into the sea, the sailors were busy about their boats and nets, and the sailors' wives sat working in the sunshine by their husbands' boats.  Children were trooping out on to the beach before breakfast and everything looked bright, cheerful, busy and happy.

After breakfast I parted with John Cholmeley and wrote a note to Adelaide telling her of my love for Kathleen.

"I left Worthing at 9.27.    How much has happened since I entered it a few short hours ago, and how entirely everything is changed for me.  Since I have been in love with Kathleen everything seems bright and beautiful, and I feel that I can love God and man better than I ever could before."

And, so my friends this is where I will leave Frank and his diary as far as Findon is concerned.

Oh, yes.... just a couple of brief mentions of some interest to wind up Frank and THE LOVE STORY.  Five years after visiting Findon, our hero married Elizabeth Anne (1846-1911) daughter of John Rowland of Holly Bank, Wootton, near Woodstock on 20th August 1879   He had met her during a visit to Paris.  

They had a honeymoon in Scotland and a month later he was dead.     Frank died of peritonitis and suddenly on the 23rd September 1879. 

In conclusion, I thought it very amusing that he was so taken with his lady love in Findon...... but ended up marrying someone else. What romantics those Victorians were to be sure.
 

ROGER MOULDS IN LLANDRINDOD WELLS, EMAILED IN HIS DEFENCE...."You may be right, but weddings are wonderfully romantic occasions and he would not have been the last man to fall in love with a bridesmaid.

Also, the field was a lot narrower then mainly because of the division by class which existed then, plus he did not have the wider experience of television and the world wide web."
 

JOHN TROTTER IN BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA WROTE......Hi Valerie.... Dear Diary....Thanks for the extract from Frank's diary. I was a bit worried when he took a fancy to the Best Man, but relieved when he fell for Kathleen. Nothing wrong with Frank! What a gentleman too, I'm sure there was no ulterior motive when he wrapped his coat round Kathleens' shoulders.

He was certainly walking on air after their meeting and I'm sure his articulate description of his feelings brings back memories for many of us. I wonder if he kept that flower until his dying day, or was he smitten by another bridesmaid in Herefordshire, the sweet Kathleen forgotten?   John Trotter"

DOUG ATTRELL OF GORING BY SEA'S THOUGHTS......."Hi Valerie....Am I the only one to find your Victorian love story very tragic? Not only did our hero end up marrying another but he died within a few weeks of doing so. Peritonitis seems to have been a common cause of death in those days. Fortunately medicine has progressed a lot since then.

If the date of the entry is correct Frank was 34 years old when he visited Findon & fell in love with Kathleen. He seems to have been very impressionable & naive compared with young men only half his age today.

I've never thought of Worthing railway station being particularly pretty or elegant. I shall now look upon it in a new light."

I think it is a warning to us all...... don't scribble thoughts in diaries!  We could no doubt all write what we feel at the time...... and then meet someone else..... but we don't want just anyone to read about it do we.  

If you would like to read Lost Forevermore go no further.

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