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Amberley
Amberley maps
Historic maps of Amberley and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Amberley maps
Amberley area books
Displaying 1 of 19 books about Amberley and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Amberley
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West Sussex memories
The Ayling House
I know this house is where my great-great-grandfather Harvey Ayling was born (in 1834). The Aylings were in this house for many generations. I have a picture of this same house from the late 1800s with 2 horse wagons parked out front. Still, even today, the same house has the same Ayling family decendents living there. I even have a record of my g-g-g-g-grandpa John Ayling being a resident in Houghton dated from 1778. It could go back even more years than that.
Bury Church And Ferry
On this picture you can see the steps used by the ferry man from the 1920s to the 1940s. He used a pole to steer the punt from the Bury bank to the Amberley bank. The punt was attached to a chain which stretched across the river lying on the bottom. The fare in the late 1940s was a theepenny piece. The ferry man was my 'Uncle' Bob Dudden, who took up the duties of ferryman when he left the Navy after the first World War. Bob was not really my uncle, but he and my grandfather ran away to join the navy together in about 1912. Sadly, my grandfather was severely wounded in the war, but Uncle Bob came through, having had the job on board of barber!
Uncle Bob also took care of the grassy area behind the steps.
He and his wife 'Aunt Min' lived in the house you can see on the left of the picture. Aunt Min was quite eccentric, she kept hens, which... Read more
My Father Worked at This Shop
My father Ron Burchell worked at the shop seen in this photograph. The Burchell family had lived in the village for generations. The owner of the shop was Edward Grinstead and his wife Millie who was my godmother. We lived at the thatched Old Cottage behind the hedge on the left. My dad had been a shop boy here before he joined the RAF in the 1920s. When he left the RAF in 1946 he worked there again. The stores sold a wide range of food and hardware, and was also a Post Office. Sugar and rice etc would be weighed out and wrapped up in 'sugar paper' often in a deep pink or purple colour. Just after the war we had to take our coupons to the shop and the amount needed were cut out of our ration book with a big pair of scissors kept on a string by the till and the fearsome bacon slicer.
The shop was the hub of the various social groups of the... Read more
Life in Bury For A Little Boy.
Millie Grinsted nee Cheeseman was my great aunt. She was the sister of my paternal grandfather William Edward Cheeseman. I remember staying with her and Edward at times during and after the war. I remember on one occasion grinding coffee beans up in the attic and putting the grounds in packages for sale in the store. I remember on one occasion opening the cage and letting all her budgies and canaries out. I was in much trouble over that. I went with Edward a few times as he delivered food and other things to people in the neighbourhood. We often went to church together on Sunday mornings. Millie was my godmother. We last saw them in 1977 when my wife and I visited England. Edward was a great storyteller and we could sit for hours listening to him. I remember my father, Millie's nephew, talking about playing tennis across the road from the store, back in the 1930's with... Read more
Coldwaltham Cottage
I used to live at the neighboring house...The white house.. owned by a Miss Charman. She also owned the above cottage and rented it to the Charly Williams family. he was the local green grocer. There was Joe, Mrs. Harris and old lady Williams ...Mrs Harris was her daughter and she was the cook at the local school which I attended.
More detals on email request.
Hardham
Hardham was a place to bicycle to from Pulborough, and visit St. Botolph's Church. One of the many very very old churches in West Sussex. The drawings on the walls go back hundreds of years depicting the tortures of the early Christians, and the church preserves them with the lighting being restricted. I got locked in this church once - scary because of the lighting, but a beautiful place, surrounded by floods in the Spring, but has survived all that.
A shame there isn't much else there!
My Grandfather
This is my Grandfather Joseph Smith and my two Great Aunts, Kathleen and Josephine. He was about 12 in this picture. They lived yards from where this was taken in the lodge at Arundel Park gates. My great Grandfather, William, was a groom to the then Duke of Norfolk (Henry) and Great Granmother, Kate, was a domestic. I have spent many happy times in Arundel and continue to visit.
