THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — the Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain great stories from her home village of FINDON, West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday tales about real people...... in fact, a potted history of the village.

FRIESLAND FARM AND THE AIRSTRIP

click to enlarge

Location map of 1960s vintage showing Friesland Farm....(bottom centre).   
I assume this was in the days when it was a successful viable arable farm.

Copyright Valerie Martin 2011

A walk from Washington to the north of Findon...... and up to Chanctonbury Ring in June 2011 lead to discovering another long gone farmstead although at the time I did not know it had ever existed.

An airfield showed up plainly in a dip of the hillside, complete with windsock and accompanying sheep.     It seemed hardly the best place for a landing-strip...... with its topography...... and taking into account any inclement weather blowing up.     Beside it stood the remnants of a fascinating ancient chimney and crumbling walls of a building.

The whole airfield complex appeared rather derelict with some of the roofs vanished from the dilapidated hangers that had witnessed better days. 

On the left stood a Piper PA-28 Cherokee.

Next to it stands a Britten Norman Fieldmaster rescued from Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight and is awaiting restoration.

I wondered what the tumbledown building on the right of the complex could have been?    A house?  

I discovered that the airstrip had been in existence since about 2001 and the following is a story of a comparatively recent accident.  On 17th July 2005, a 69 year-old father and son escaped serious injuries after the 1946 vintage light aircraft...Piper J3C-65 (Modified) Cub, G-BPVH they were flying crashed while they were trying to land at the Friesland Farm Airstrip to the north of Findon.   The time was 2.30 p.m.   

The pilot was carrying out his second flight that Sunday......a sightseeing trip.  Weather conditions were said to be clear.  On returning to the airstrip he made an approach to the 650 metres long grass runway.... this has a pronounced upslope along its length but the pilot was familiar with this airstrip.   In view of the tailwind he allowed himself an extra margin of speed for the approach.

On the final approach the aircraft started to drop so he applied full throttle in an attempt to correct it, but the main wheels caught in a standing crop short of the threshold.  The aircraft pitched nose down and flipped over before coming to rest some 12 metres along the runway.  The pilot and his passenger were rather surprisingly both able to miraculously escape from the aircraft unassisted and with only minor injuries.

Nature of Damage to Piper....quite understandably substantial.

An observant car driver travelling along the A24 called the emergency services at 3.40 p.m. after he saw the aircraft go nose down beyond the crest of the hill in front of him and as he passed the spot noticed its wheels poking up over the crops.  

A police helicopter, two fire engines (from the good old and now long gone Findon Station) and Worthing Station were sent to the private landing strip but the passengers had escaped with only slight injuries.

Over the past decade I have occasionally noticed aircraft drop out of the sky to land on the grass airstrip at Friesland Farm but I was not quite sure what was going on.     All a bit of a mystery..... although I had an idea that aircraft refurbishment was, in fact, being carried out in the hangers..... but the place looked very run down in 2011.   

I discovered from helpful surfer, John Greves that the chimney was all that remained of Friesland Farm where the Streeter family had lived during the 1960s with their sons, John, George and Peter.    The Adjoining Sussex Barn had since been demolished to make way for asbestos sheds under the so-called Farm Improvement Scheme.    John elaborated that Friesland Farm was ...."Originally traditional Sussex farmstead with "drive-through" barn and adjoining fold-yard .... probably enough to service 50 to 60 acres.

  Returning to the chimney, John (an architect by trade) said.... "The Friesland chimney photos look like 3 circular brick flues joined together with a "cannon" top not unlike Hampton Court Palace or the Lovelace Estate in E. Horsley ... very difficult finding bricklayers capable of doing that sort of work these days".

Another visit to the Friesland Farm area seemed overdue to capture a bit more atmosphere and a feeling for the long gone farm.....

"Lets get going" say the girls.

Katie says ...."This is the end of the lonely track....we can't get any further.....we can't get down to the old farm..... we will have to do a bit more scouting and scrambling around ....."

The ruined farmhouse looked equally spooky from our vantage point .... the roof line could be detected .... and also a Kestrel neatly sitting on the chimney.

Side view of the farmhouse..... doesn't look very inviting!

I hoped at this point that I would be able to find an old photograph of Friesland Farm and buildings when it was a going agricultural concern.   Interesting point:  is an airstrip still technically part of an "Agricultural Holding" ... or something else?

Everything comes to she who waits and a couple of days later if heard from John Stepney of Findon.....

"V....We found these pics of Frieslands which were taken about 20-25 years ago.

They will not help with plane identification but might be of interest. J S".

click all old photographs to enlarge.

The Friesland Farm site c. 1986/90

The photographs show Friesland Farm as at 20-25 years ago with presumably the stock yard still standing but the traditional Sussex Barn has already been demolished.. 

As the attractive chimney stack appeared to be rather special and not run-of-the-mill, I just wondered if the property was built around an even older house?   It is difficult to hazard a guess as to what is underneath all of the gaunt cement rendering.... it might have been a nice property once-upon-a-time.

At the moment, the earliest reference to Friesland Farm is on a 1946 map but I think it must be much older than that. 

DOUG HAS BEEN DOING SOME DIGGING....  (and not in his garden)...."Hi Valerie.... Friesland Farm....It would be interesting to know when the farm was first known as Friesland or Frieslands. I found it marked on an OS map dated 1879 (see above). I can't go further back than that".

 

WHEN DID FRIESLAND FARM FIRST SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY CENSUS RECORDS?.........I continued diligently searching and the name "Friesland" first appeared in 1871 when the homestead was inhabited by 44 year-old George Tagnett (an agricultural labourer) and his 53 year-old wife, Harriet (incidentally ..... she came from Henfield).   They had a 7 year-old daughter and also an 18-year-old agricultural labourer as a lodger.     Could this family be the original inhabitants of a property to be built and named Frieslands? 

The farm continued to be inhabited until the next census in 1881 when the head of the resident family was 53 year-old George Parker listed as a farm labourer.  Rather interestingly he had been born in... yes, you've guessed it..... Findon.  

Ten years later, Friesland was the home of 39 year-old George Knight a general labourer and his wife Elizabeth.   They also had a considerable family by 1891.   Elizabeth Junior was 15 years old  and employed (I guess in Washington) as a domestic servant.   George was 12 years old and at school.  

The following three children had been born in Findon and were 9 year-old Jane, 7 year-old Mark and 5 year old Harriet.    The children all attended school and I can well imagine them trudging up the Washington hillside to the local school each day to attend their classes, summer and winter in all weathers.    

There was also 2 year-old Harry and Thomas of 5 months old.    Quite a tight squeeze housed in the property....(I do not know how many bedrooms it contained) .especially as there was also James a 16 year-old general labourer living in as a lodger...... and also an Irishman, William, another general labourer.

Friesland appears to have had a quick turnover of residents over the years and by 1901, the house was lived in by 49-year old Alfred Osborne and his wife Agnes and their daughter Lily and her husband William Kennett ... plus grandson aged 1 year.

This is as much as I have been able to discover on the inhabitants of Friesland Farm over the centuries.   I still have not found when it was built and by whom...... nor when it was deserted and left to go to ruin.

This is a real little gem of 105 years ago isn't it.    The date is Wednesday 11th July 1906.    Cycling must have been much in vogue in those days for ladies as well as gentlemen.    Here are a group of enthusiastic cyclists outside the Frankland Arms in nearby Washington at "The Start For Home".    I cannot help but wonder if they are heading for Findon perchance?    Could any of the inhabitants of Friesland Farm have been in the gathering to see them off I wonder.

In case you are wondering....the lucky participants have just partaken of a Strawberry Tea at the hostelry.   

Note the not-so-venturesome ladies in attendance atop the horse-drawn carriage behind the bikers.

click to enlarge the three pics.

Some four years later..... still outside the Frankland Arms (and covered in ivy)..... this time there is a motor bus waiting for passengers with the registration A 8 CV.     Could the transport be heading south to Findon..... or northwards to Ashington?

Note the barrels of beer in 1910 waiting to be taken inside...... or they could be empties awaiting collection perhaps?

The above photograph was taken at roughly the same era.    The congregation are witnessed dispersing outside Washington Church.   Could anyone from Friesland Farm be there perchance?

I wouldn't like to guess at the occasion but could it a drenched wedding party?   

Is it a funeral downpour?   

Or just a wet Sunday service?   

No sign of a conveyance going south in the Findon direction .......but a carriage on the right does bear the sign "Ashington" (heading north out of Washington)...

Continue if you would like to read about a A Calf Named Valerie