Le Weekend

Posted on Sunday 28th July 2013

New research published by the [South Downs National Park] Authority shows that a fifth of Sussex parents travelling by car have felt their blood pressure rise and one in ten has been reduced to tears. And a third of drivers have pulled over suddenly because of fighting and more than a third have had their plans ruined by traffic. .. Nick Stewart, from SDNPA, said: “We all know that travelling by car can be a demanding experience, with tantrums and traffic jams often causing stress levels to rise.”

More bus propaganda here. Those who prefer bribery to moral exhortation should note that bus passengers can “get discounts at the Shepherd and Dog Pub in Fulking and the Hiker’s Rest at Saddlescombe”.

Updated 31st July 2013.

Take a bucket to the spring

Posted on Thursday 25th July 2013

The Argus reports:

Customers in the areas of Hurstpierpoint, Hassocks, Pyecombe, Poynings, Fulking and Saddlescombe and surrounding areas are experiencing low pressure or no water supplies. .. Around 100 customers have already called reporting no water.

Party at Saddlescombe

Posted on Tuesday 16th July 2013

The Argus reports:

Up to 400 revellers partied at an all-night rave at the weekend. The secret party started just before midnight on Saturday and was still going on Sunday afternoon. Entry was forced to fields adjacent to Saddlescombe Farm, near Devil’s Dyke. The National Trust asked party goers to respect nocturnal animals in managed areas. .. An organiser behind Fraktal, one of four soundsystems onsite, said: “The landowner was briefly on site on Sunday and said he had no issues with the event as long as all rubbish is cleaned up afterwards.”

Memories of WWII at Saddlescombe

Posted on Wednesday 19th June 2013

Memories of the Second World War at Saddlescombe farm - YouTube

Click the image to watch the video at YouTube.

The Dyke Railway 1887-1938

Posted on Wednesday 30th January 2013

Dyke Station viewed from the south around 1905. Note the goods wagons to the right of the platform and the fenced lane leading up the hill. The farmhouse at top right was destroyed during WWII.

Plans for a railway to link Brighton to the Dyke were first mooted in the early 1870s but did not receive parliamentary approval until 1877. It took another decade before the railway was finally opened. In addition to the usual legal and property issues that attend the creation of a railway line, the overall gradient of 1 in 40 posed a significant technical challenge as did the hard chalk rock found at the end of the route. Indeed, the terminus of the line fell short of the Dyke by several hundred yards because the gradient at that point made further extension impractical.

Over the first year of operation, some 160,000 passengers were carried. The only intermediate stop at that time was at West Brighton (now Hove) Station. The total distance was 5.5 miles of which 3.5 were on the slope of the Downs. The trip took twenty minutes (just as the 77 bus from Brighton Station does today). The first additional intermediate stop to be added to the line was Golf Club Halt in 1891. This was a private platform built on what was then the property of Brighton & Hove Golf Club and provided for the use of its members. Two further intermediate stops opened in 1905, both on the main Brighton-Portsmouth line: Dyke Junction Halt (later renamed Aldrington Halt) and Holland Road Halt. The fourth, and final, addition was Rowan Halt built in 1933 to serve the new Aldrington Manor Estate that was then being developed to the north of the Old Shoreham Road.

The railway remained in operation for half a century with the exception of a closure of three and a half years at the end of WWI. When the line first opened in September 1887, there were eight trains a day (five on Sundays) between Brighton and the Dyke (and conversely). In June 1912, there were eleven trains a day (one fewer on Sundays). In November 1938, the penultimate month of operation, there were sixteen trains a day (half as many on Sundays). Conventional locomotives were used for most of the line’s life although a prototype steam railbus (essentially a large bus mounted on two bogies) was employed on the line in the mid-1930s and proved to be very popular with customers.

An 1890s map showing the route of the Dyke Railway

Although useful to members of the various golf clubs situated between Brighton and the Dyke, the primary passenger function of the railway was to take day trippers up to the Dyke in the morning and bring them back in the evening. Demand was thus seasonal and weather-dependent. Many of these visitors would use the Dyke as the basis for a day’s walking. Teashops sprang up in the villages at the foot of the Dyke to cater for their needs. Fulking and Saddlescombe each had one and Poynings had four at one stage. For those unwilling to stray off the Dyke itself, refreshments were also to be had at the Dyke Hotel and at Dennett’s Corner which was only a few yards from the station. A secondary passenger function was to take residents of Edburton, Fulking, Poynings, Saddlescombe and the various local farms into Brighton. The roads were poor and buses did not reach the Dyke until the 1930s. If you were not wealthy enough to have the use of a horse or, later, a car, then access to Brighton was difficult before the railway was built. Locals used the service to shop in Brighton and others commuted to work there.

Passengers were the main focus of the railway. But it also offered a goods service and this was economically important to the local villages. A goods siding was built at the Dyke Station in 1892. Coal, coke, cattle fodder and parcels were transported to the Dyke and collected from the station by horse and cart or by the local coal merchant. The latter then delivered both coal and parcels in the villages (and was paid a penny for each parcel by the railway company). On the return journey, goods wagons would take straw, hay, grain and local produce from the farms and market gardens into Brighton. Goods traffic was discontinued in January 1933.

Dyke Station viewed from the north around 1911. Note the signal box, the goods siding to the left of the platform, and the fenced lane, complete with ‘Suttons Seeds’ billboard, leading from the station to the roads to the Dyke Hotel and to Saddlescombe. The old carriage, with attached sheds, in the foreground was used as a refreshment room. In a very similar contemporary photo, a horse and wagon can be seen drawn up besides goods trucks in the siding (Harding 2000, page 10).

Golf Club Halt was a request stop rather than a real station. It never appeared in the rail timetables. However, the wishes of club members were reflected in the details of those timetables. There was a platform but that was all. You couldn’t buy a ticket for it — you had to purchase a ticket for the Dyke Station. If there were golfers on board, then the train would stop there to let them off. On the return journey, the train would stop to pick up golfers if they were visible on the platform (after dark, they struck matches). The platform was (and is) some fifty yards north of the clubhouse, perhaps because the gradient adjacent to the clubhouse made a more convenient location infeasible. However, from 1895 on, when a train was about to leave the Dyke Station, a bell would ring in the clubhouse alerting departing members to the need to make their way to the platform immediately. Although club members had mostly taken to using motor cars in the 1930s, the halt remained in use (especially when the weather was poor) until the railway itself was closed.

Golf Club Halt — the edge of the platform in 2012

What remains of the railway today? South of the bypass, Brighton’s urban sprawl has eradicated almost every trace of it. Aldrington Halt remains in use, albeit unmanned. North of the bypass, the route is still visible either from the sky or on the ground, but you need to know what to look for. The cuttings and embankments that were needed to make the uphill route possible are there and dense scrub marks the location of the track for several long stretches. A public cycleway (the Dyke Railway Trail) running parallel to, or along, the track extends from the bypass to Brighton & Hove Golf Club. From then on, the line of the track runs through private farmland but a strip of scrub reveals its presence. Much of Golf Club Halt, which was never more than a platform, is still there, hidden in the scrub. At the northern terminus, Devil’s Dyke Farm now stands where Dyke Station once was. All that was left of the station a dozen years ago was a small chunk of the platform.

Nathaniel Paine Blaker

Posted on Wednesday 2nd January 2013

Portrait of Nathaniel Paine Blaker (1835-1920) by A.H. Fry

The Blakers are a Sussex family with a long pedigree. They have been around since at least the end of the thirteenth century and their Portslade branch dates back to the end of the fifteenth century. Although he was born in Selmeston, Nathaniel Paine Blaker (1835-1920) [NPB, henceforth] descended from the Portslade Blakers. NPB’s great grandfather, Nathaniel Blaker, who died in 1815, was “a very prominent citizen of Portslade in the 18th century” according to The History of Portslade: An Interim Report. One of his seven sons, also called Nathaniel Blaker (1772-1863), moved to Selmeston. And he in turn had a son, also called Nathaniel Blaker (1800-1880), a farmer who moved to Perching Manor in Fulking with his wife and son in 1835, shortly after the birth of NPB, who was to remain an only child. It was clearly a prosperous family — the 1841 census records a total of five household servants, more than any other household in the parish of Edburton at that time.

NPB trained as a surgeon. Although his father was a farmer, and probably his grandfather too, such a choice of career was in no way surprising for a Blaker — two cousins and a great uncle also became surgeons. NPB started at Sussex County in 1852 and then went on to Guy’s in 1855, qualifying in 1858. He practiced at convict hospitals in Lewes and Woking before returning to work in Brighton, initially as House Surgeon at the Brighton & Hove Dispensary in 1860 and then in the same role at Sussex County in 1864 with promotion to Assistant Surgeon in 1869, later becoming a Senior Surgeon and subsequently Consulting Surgeon there.

Sussex County Hospital as it was in the mid nineteenth century

Sussex County Hospital in the mid nineteenth century

At some point when NPB was in his 60s, a medical friend suggested that NPB commit his reminiscences to paper. He was, presumably, expecting a record that would concentrate on NPB’s long medical career. But that is not what he got. In 1906, NPB wrote to his friend as follows:

Though medical matters are, of course, what you are most interested in, I trust you will pardon my endeavour to give a sketch of a Sussex village as in childhood I recollect it, before railways, better roads and easier means of communication had done away with the primitive habits and customs of the rural population as I first knew them.
[Letter to Dr. Arthur Newsholme, 30th July 1906]

Sussex in Bygone Days: title and facing page

In the event, NPB’s informative and affectionate portrait of rural Sussex as seen through the eyes of a child and teenager occupies the first 138 pages of the book that he wrote. The long medical career gets a mere 60 pages and he tells us virtually nothing of his life from 1870 onwards. But he got the balance right. Miles of shelves in Hay-on-Wye groan and splinter under the weight of dusty Victorian medical reminiscences that few buy and fewer read. By contrast, various editions of Sussex in Bygone Days, including modern paperback copies, are readily available on Amazon and elsewhere. The original version of the book was printed, “for private circulation only”, in 1906. The version that is most readily available today is the “revised, extended and largely rewritten” book that NPB published in December 1919, the year before his death. In addition to A.H. Fry‘s superb photographic portrait of NPB, the 1919 book contains three historically interesting photographs taken by Dr. Habberton Lulham who also wrote the foreword (one of those photos can be seen facing the title page, above). Sussex in Bygone Days fully deserves its status as a classic of Victorian rural history alongside Maude Robinson’s book about Saddlescombe. NPB’s friend and colleague Sir Arthur Newsholme got his prediction exactly right:

I cannot but think that our successors fifty or a hundred years hence will be glad to read such a vivid account of the rural life of a favoured part of our Old England, as it was lived in bygone days. It is a fragment of local history which has permanent value. [Letter to NPB, 21st May 1918]

2009 04 09 PC Minutes

Posted on Thursday 9th April 2009

Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of Fulking Parish Council held in the Village Hall, Fulking on Thursday 9 April 2009 at 8.00pm

Present: Chairman Mrs Jenny Vaughan, Vice Chairman Mr Tony Brooks, Councillors Mr Richard Corner, Mrs Jennifer Parmar and Clerk to the Council, Mrs Paula Hazard.

Apologies for Absence: Mrs Pamela Rowland

Declarations of Interest by Members (if any) are shown against the relevant items in the minutes.

The Chairman reminded the meeting about the current arrangement regarding publication of the minutes. The trial arrangement of not reading out the minutes but posting draft minutes on the notice board and the website would continue until the next Annual Parish Meeting, at which point public opinion would be re-canvassed.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 January 2009, as previously circulated, were approved, accepted and signed by the Chairman.

Rights of Way: DMMO 07/01 Perching Drove. A response had been received from the landowner to the PC s request to review whether a Permissive Path agreement could be put in place. The landowner cited the judge’s ruling from the Hearing which stated that the Drove had always been a private road and once the matter had been referred to the Secretary of State, the PC were not in a position to make any separate contracts or agreements. He reassured the PC that he had no intention of revoking his verbal agreement which allowed villagers continued use of the path during daylight hours and he would endeavour to ensure this informal agreement would continue if he were ever to sell his property. The PC therefore intended to let the matter rest.

Highways: The PC had reported a number of issues to WSCC Highways. These were:-

Flooding at Brook House and Hillbrook Nursery — WSCC Highways had responded that a contractor will dig a drainage grip in the west verge leading to the existing pipe running into the new culvert. This should help to clear any standing water from the causeway.

Blocked stream pipe near The Sands — WSCC Highways had responded that a contractor will clean out the sand from the ditch to allow the covered pipe to be cleaned out, which they thought should prevent surface water from flowing across the causeway.

Blocked gullies at Old Wood/Holmbush Lane junction — WSCC Highways had responded that a contractor will dig out the existing grip into the culvert at the junction to improve drainage. The damaged barrier adjacent to the culvert will also be repaired.

The PC had also written to WSCC Highways to chase up its request for a non- skid surface at the northern junction of Clappers Lane. Highways had now responded that the Accident Investigation & Prevention Section at County Hall will investigate the accident pattern at this junction with regard to any remedial measures that may be considered. The problem with the surface of the road at Clappers Lane breaking up in parts had also been reported.

The ‘Unsuitable for HGVs’ sign was in place at the northern end of Clappers Lane. The sign at the village end had not been accepted by nearby residents. These residents no longer lived in the village.

The new fittings for the streetlight at Stammers Hill had now been sourced and fitted. The streetlight outside Fulking Cottage also now had new fittings.

The streetlight in Clappers Lane had been badly damaged by a recycling truck. This had been fixed by EDF and the PC had claimed back the money for the repair from MSDC’s re cycling contractor SERCO.

A problem with tree branches breaking off at the village end of Clappers Lane had been reported. Councillor Brooks had spoken to the main landowner, however not all the land was owned by him. Councillor Brooks said he would speak to the Tree Warden to assess the condition of the trees.

Market Garden: There had been no further developments.

Preston Nomads: Councillor Brooks reported that the Club had a new Chairman. He would follow this up in the future with a view to arranging a meeting together with District Councillor Gina Field.

North Town Field: The issue of ongoing maintenance of the play area was discussed. Councillor Brooks had potentially found someone to carry this out at a reasonable cost. However, he said that it was necessary to define the tasks that needed to be carried out in order to properly assess this.

The work on the entrance to the NTF had now been completed. A grant for half the cost of the work had been received from WSCC. The outstanding amount had been covered by contributions from the Social Committee, the NTF Trust and the precept. The PC thanked the Social Committee and the NTF Trust for their generous contribution.

The PC was looking into the possibility of a permanent soft surface to replace the barkpit surface. This would save money in the long run due to the high cost of replacing the barkpit on an ongoing basis. WSCC were inviting applications for their Playbuilder fund and the PC were going to investigate whether they would qualify for any money which could cover the cost of a permanent play surface. It was thought that the grant may only be available for completely new projects. County Councillor Peter Griffiths suggested that the PC should also consider applying for funding for this from the Community Initiative Fund.

The idea of new play equipment was also discussed. A suggestion had been received from Hollie Trist about the need for new play equipment and using fund-raising (e.g. sponsored walk) for this. The PC was asked whether they would match whatever money was raised by fund-raising. Other issues would be how to choose the equipment and the problem of how it would be maintained given the current problems of on-going maintenance with the existing equipment. It was agreed that a separate meeting should be arranged with interested parties to explore these issues further.

Foster Playscapes were due to inspect the play area in April. It was a concern that they thought that the barkpit levels needed to be topped up again given that it was done recently at a cost 360. This would have been more costly had Councillor Brooks not sourced a cheaper supplier and helped out with the work. It was agreed that a meeting would be arranged to discuss the barkpit levels. Foster Playscapes confirmed that they would continue to do the monthly inspections at the same cost as the previous year.

The mowing of the North Town Field would continue to be carried out by Danny Flynn. He had confirmed that this would be at the same cost as the previous year.

Both the PC and the NTF Trust had agreed on the proposal for a legal agreement in order to avoid the cost of taking out two Public Liability Insurance policies. However, the savings could be outweighed by any legal costs. The NTF Trust had asked the PC if they knew of anyone that could help draft up a legal agreement. A possible suggestion was made and this person would be contacted.

Affordable Housing: No further information directly affecting Fulking had been received. It was noted that Fulking would fall within the South Downs National Park and that there would be stringent criteria for new development.

Community Transport: An informal poll on whether there would be enough support to reroute no 17 bus through Fulking to Brighton/Horsham had been conducted by Chris Gildersleeve. This had been done via Pigeon Post and the Website. The PC was interested in the outcome of this. Clerk to contact Chris to find out response and to offer survey to be posted on the noticeboard.

Beachdown Festival: The PC was asked to support the idea of having independent noise level monitoring of the festival. Clive Goodridge had proposed to do this and had asked for the formal and financial support of the Parish Council. The details of how this could be achieved were discussed in terms of the purpose, the location and the cost. The main purpose of the monitoring was to define a more representative Background Noise Level than the one currently being used. The Clerk would contact Susanna Kemp to find out more details about Background Noise Level . The PC agreed that the whole issue needed further investigation and discussion before deciding whether it should spend funds from the precept on this.

Councillor Corner updated the meeting about the 2009 Licensing Hearing, highlighting the commitment from the festival organisers to re-measure the Background Noise Level.

Fly-Tipping at the Bostal: Councillor Brooks advised that one of the issues surrounding installing a gate as a solution to fly-tipping had been establishing which land at the entrance area to the Bostal was public and which was private. He was currently discussing this with the landowner of the surrounding private land.

Village Plan: The PC was looking into defining a village plan. Once drafted this would be published in Pigeon Post and posted to the website for feedback from villagers.

APM: The date of the Annual Parish Meeting was 7 May. Two speakers had been arranged, one speaker from Henfield Area Response Team to talk about the defibrillator and one speaker from the National Trust.

District County Councillor Mr Peter Griffiths addressed the meeting about Education and Council Schools, Community Transport and the forthcoming County Local Committee Update meeting. He also advised that if a bridle gate were to be installed at the Bostal it must meet the legal condition of being kept unlocked.

Financial Matters: The Chairman signed off the interim audit, cheque list and cheque stubs.

AOB: The meeting was opened up for local residents to raise any issues.

The problem of overhanging tree branches particularly near the Market Garden site was raised. Councillor Brooks said he would speak to the Tree Warden to look at this area. Also the problem was raised of big tree trunks on the bank of the east side of Clappers Lane near the village end. The landowner explained that constant traffic driving up the bank was eroding the bank and exposing more of the tree trunks.

The problem of the external lighting at the Market Garden site being on all night was raised. The PC reiterated the point made at the previous meeting that if photographic evidence could be provided to the PC then this should make a more powerful case so the PC could pursue the issue again.

Two issues concerning the support of the police were raised. One was that an illegal rave had been held at Saddlescombe the previous weekend and it was queried about how the police could deal with these situations more effectively. The other issue was that a car had been broken into and the owner had not received an effective response from the police. It was suggested that these matters could be directly addressed to the Community Police Officer who would be attending the Annual Parish Meeting.

It was requested whether a more detailed financial breakdown than the Annual Return could be published. The Clerk confirmed that a more detailed financial summary that was produced as part of the Audit Commission process was available. Clerk to ask for this to be posted to the village website.

The planning decision concerning a house that had recently been extended was queried in terms of how such an extension could be passed particularly in a AONB. The planning application had been made a couple of years back and the PC advised that that they did not consider that there had been any planning criteria that could constitute grounds for objection, which was borne out by the Local Planning Authority’s decision to grant planning consent. There was also discussion about cases where final building works changed from the original plans granted consent.

Date of Next Meeting: 9 July, 8 October 2009.

The meeting closed at 9.10

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