SELSEY

The Caravan Shop c1960
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I spent several holidays in a chalet with long verandah which was one of the first on the right just after a burnt out house and just before the caravans started in Mill Lane during the late 1940s and early 1950s. I remember getting off the bus from Chichester with all our luggage and there were an assortment of men with bicycles with various trailers attached and for a small fee cases and bags were loaded on and all the holiday makers followed on foot till each was taken to their holiday 'home'. We were always the first to be offloaded and I remember seeing the man cycling furiously back to the bus stop a bit later to try and catch the next load of holiday makers as they disembarked. In the 1960s when I had children of my own and we all had cars, the walk along Mill Lane was not so enjoyable as cars seemed to dash each way with scant regard to pedestrians. Both bus and caravan shops had long been replaced with proper shops. My aunt by then owned a caravan on the site next to the Windmill where there were three caravans and four little chalets. If only she had bought one of the chalets because they were residential. When the site was sold she bought a brand new caravan at Pagham but my heart was always with Selsey as it had such a lovely sandy beach.