Bognor Regis memories
Here are memories of Bognor Regis and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Bognor Regis or a Bognor Regis photo.
Happy Holidays
My parents and my grandparents had their holidays on this caravan site from about 1961 to about 1967. I remember my grandfather taking me to the shop on the site to buy sweets. The owner had a green Ford V8 Pilot which we rode in to town once. I also remember the site next door which was bigger and the stream which I was told to keep away from and was covered with green algae. Sadly my wife and I went back recently, and there is now a big retail park. Happy day!
The Pier And Esplanade
I was born in Sudley Road nursing home, Bognor, and we lived in Nyewood Lane, but I used to stay frequently with my grandmother in her flat a couple of hundred yards from the Royal Norfolk Hotel.
One of my earliest memories was of her taking me out of bed one summer dawn for a walk down to the beach in front of the Esplanade Theatre. We both went skinny dipping, for it didn't matter to her that the classy hotels overlooked the shore!
The Bognor pier was on my parents' list of forbidden places, but my grandmother and my old aunts took me there after it had been rebuilt after the war. (The long deck had been cut so that it wouldn't be so easy for Hitler's troops to come ashore.) There was also a miniature train that took adults and children from one end to the other. As a young child, I also learnt that if I put a penny into the slot of one of those... Read more
Railway Carriage Memories
My wife Alma (nee Rodhouse) was evacuated as a child to Middleton on Sea, with her mum and another lady. They were billeted in a railway carriage in the grounds of a large house. The owners lived in London, and Alma's mum and the other lady acted as caretakers. Alma remembers little of that time, but she was told that this was the coach where the 1918 armistice was signed. Can anyone remember one A .Hitler visiting the area after the fall of France? As he was supposed to have signed a similar document in similar circumstances in 1940.
Rainbow's End at Hotham Park
Every year we would stay at my uncle's caravan in Bognor Regis. The highlight of my holiday was the visit to Hotham Park and the magical Rainbow's End. Even now 36 years later I can remember every detail, Mickey Mouse on the green chair with the empty chair next to him where every year I had my photo taken, Humpty Dumpty, The Three Bears' House, the winding paths, the pond, never knowing what was around the next corner. It was the most fantastic place ever. My own garden now has weird and wonderful things in it, I suppose I am trying to recreate my own Rainbow's End. 3 years ago I took my own children to the park. I cried when I saw what had happened to it. I actually climbed over the fencing and looked round, although it was derelict and unloved, for those few minutes I was 6 years old again.
The Sharing of Childhood by Two Very Elderly Persons
I was looking after two elderly residents and well known personage locally when alive, Mr Bert Munday and a "young" lady Mrs Hargreaves chatting away about their holidays when they used to catch shrimp and cockles off the Felpham beach. How it was all spoilt when the preaprations for the 2nd world war made the beach out of bounds , the families evacuated and the Canadians were billetted in the same houses. Another "young" man telling them about the worse bit of world war one at the Somme was not the persons, but the animals carrying the heavy loads of supplies and falling off the duck boards, screaming as they could not get up. On the wall of the flats I now live are plaques to a Dr and Mrs Feagan,who commenced the Fegan homes for Boys. On looking up in the local museum, he was looking out of the window at a homeless boy on the beach and took him in thus started the Boys home. I have a... Read more
Holidays in The 1950s
I can remember as a small boy having a holiday in Bognor and staying in an old railway carriage.
Peter Wilson.
Bognor Briefly!
My parents George and Phyllis Stroud ran the Hotham Club in Waterloo Square - now the HQ of the RAFA Bognor branch. After National Service I worked first for Lec Refrigeration as a welder and then as a porter at the War Memorial Hospital. I had a flat over the hydrotherapy pool and was also in charge of the mortuary. When the bell rang in the middle of the night, up I got, went to the mortuary and got the special trolley we used to transport the deceased from the ward to the mortuary. I was also expected to be present at post-mortems so I learnt a lot about human anatomy this way!
I also met a number of lovely lady patients on the wards, one in particular that comes to mind was a beautiful girl called Angela Scutt - I wonder where she is now?!
I still have contact with Bognor, my brother's family live at North Bersted and they operate the store called The Trading Post... Read more
Military Music on Promenade And in Park
My National Service was spent in The Alamein Band of The Royal Tank Regiment which for 3 seasons, 1949 to 1952 played at Bognor Regis for two months on the promenade bandstand in the afternoons and in Hotham Park in the evenings. On one occasion we played in the theatre as part of a midnight matinee held to raise money for relief work for the Lynmouth Flood disaster. I recall this concert vividly as it was compared by Chesney Allen of Flanagan and Allen and the star of the show was the great comedian Dick Emery whose genius carried the whole show. I was in the Band as a singer of Ballads and Gilbert and Sullivan and other light operatic items but I was disappointed that in this concert I was not billed to sing my usual songs but , instead became the vocalist for our Dance Orchestra where I sang several suitable ballads. I was jealous that Brychan Powell the tenor from the season... Read more
Memories of West Sussex
Can You Help me Please?
I am recently led to believe, that my house in North Bersted, may have a ghost or some sort of spiritual activity. The house was built in 1929 and is close to the "Toad Hall" site where the Esso Petrol Station now stands. Does anyone have any information as to anything that might have happened at this site, prior to the house being built?
Spitfire Crash
Hi, it's not actually my memory but my dad's. He was in the RAF stationed at Ford, a Spitfire crashed in Felpham, I read somewhere it was on the tenth green of the golf course? The strange thing was, when my father was sent to remove the aircraft, they found the remains of the pilot deep down in front of the engine, it puzzled him till the day he died, how this could happen. Does anyone remember this or have knowledge of the crash? I would love to find out more. Thanks, Dave
Can Anyone Help Me?
The origin of my family is in England. Lando Lagnese went in Italy in 1100. I want to know the etymology of Lagness. Can anyone help and contact me? Also in France and in Norway are little towns named Lagness.
Summer at Dark Lane
I remember that we had some wonderful days at Dark Lane on the beach when we should have been at school! And how wonderfully clear the water was, and diving off the pipe there!
Stocker Road And All That.
Growing up by the sea in the 1950s and 1960s was non stop fun and excitement. A fair amount of time was getting into all sorts of mischief, the humble pea shooter was bought out at opportune moments to pepper just about anyone or anything that moved. Being chased along the sea front by a policeman and irate motorist whose car we had targeted was just one example of our mis-spent childhood. My good friend and partner in most of these escapades was Sean Gates, we both lived in Crewkerne, Stocker Road. There used to be a guy that dossed down in one of the shelters on the sea front (opposite Mill House), he was Polish we believe, calling him the `mad polensky`, he was always about the Aldwick Road shops, swearing and cursing and stinking of meths (now would be vodka), anyway he got our attention and suffered a horrendous bombardment of stones onto the roof of the shelter. He crept out shouting "One of you two boys threw stones",... Read more
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