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.   The topics today, are history tomorrow.

FINDON RACING UNDER JOSH in the early 1980s .... BY ANGUS MANN

Copyright Valerie Martin

At the beginning of August 2011 I heard from Angus Mann an ex-stable employee of Josh Gifford at the Downs Stables in Findon....

"Hi Valarie.....Have just discovered your website. It brings back so many memories.

I worked for Josh for two seasons back in the early 80’s.

 shared a house with Paul Nicholls and Norman Babbage in Hermit Terrace – this house belonged to Mick Robinson – I rode a few for Josh as an amateur, with little success I might add! Two I remember are Summer Karl for George Sloan and Shane Hill for Val Embericos.

When I started one of my “three to do” was Roman Bistro a great horse who took ages to mature.

A lot of the people you feature on your site I had the privilege to meet and know – especially Snowy Davis, Anton Pearson, Richard Rowe, Gerry Enright, Ray Watson and many others.

It was great fun and I look back with fondness, I no longer have any ties with racing but value the time I spent being involved.

Regards,

Angus Manns"

I told Angus that it was great to hear from him and how glad I was to be able to bring back a few memories for him..... even though I had only lived in Findon for the last 18 years.

I asked him if he could think of any racing stories to jot down for me to add to my narrative on Findon.

Continue if you would like to read about the death of the Findon-based jockey Joe Blanks.

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