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Rottingdean memories

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Memories of East Sussex

Life as A Young Boy in Saltdean

THE LIFE & TIMES OF DONALD CHARLES WILLIAMS
Personal recollections from Don Williams from Hailsham who lived in Saltdean from 1937 to 1952 - Many thanks for these wonderful stories & photo's of Saltdean in the Past.
Mum had answered an advert for a butcher's bookkeeper at Rottingdean, working for a Mr W.R. Dean who had three shops, Barcombe, Rottingdean and Saltdean.

He apparently required a Manager for the Saltdean branch and suggested to Mum, would Dad be interested. He was, so we duly moved to 14 Westfield Avenue on the Mount Estate at the back of Saltdean Sussex about 7 miles East of Brighton. This was a new estate of small bungalows (still there) originally erected for the purpose of holiday homes. We rented one from Saltdean Estate Agency. They cost about £350 in those days and can still be seen in 2002.

I think it was in the summer of 1937 that we moved here, as I know it was lovely to run... Read more

Shops on Warran Way

Warran Way c1960
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The shops were built in 1959/60 and the Steele family took possession of the first 2 shops as soon as they were finished. The shop, on the corner of Falmer and Warran, opened as a hairdressers and was managed by my then fiance Lesley, the adjoining shop opened as a laundrette, run by Lesley's mother. The family lived in the maisonette above the shops and I have many happy memories of that era.

Brighton Teacher Training College.

Eastern Terrace c1955
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The house on the far right of the terrace was no 9 which together with no 8 formed the premises of Brighton Teacher Training College, which I attended in 1956-58. The road on the left hand side of the picture (just visible) is Paston Place. This eastern area of Brighton is known as Kemp Town.

Teacher Training College

Eastern Terrace c1955
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The building in the corner was Brighton Teacher Training College. The building at right angles in the distance was a hotel.

My mother Florence Starkey was studying in the Teacher Training College top floor and looked out of the window across the angle into the side window of the curved bay hotel window to see a woman hovering strangely in the shadow of the back of the room. Their eyes met.

She looked away and as she did so the woman threw herself from the window and was impaled on the area railings below, directly next to the College's entrance.  All the students were confined to the College for hours whilst the 6 foot section of railing was sawn out. One can still see only the top rail was crudely welded back. This may also explain why the windows are blocked.

One small anonymous tragedy.

Brighton Jazz Club

Used to visit the Brighton Jazz Club - at the Aquarium, at about the time this photograph was taken

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