West Wittering In The 1940s And 50s

A Memory of West Wittering.

My first memories are of playing on the huge expanse of sand at West Wittering and the bombing tower which used to be there after the war. We stayed on the beach till late and were put to bed in the back of the car. Usually we travelled in convoy with two other families. We loved to paddle in the deep water of East Head. One summer my mother nearly drowned being pulled out by a 'rip.'
We had a sailing dinghy which we pulled across the mud and sea lavender at Roman Landing and sailed across to East Head. My family had a caravan on a farm in (I think) Elm Lane with the same families returning every year. We stayed for 6 weeks and cycled on the quiet roads into the 'Cherries' for provisions. Happy memories of cockeling with the Lee family (from Peaslake) and flying kites, hiding in the straw bales on the farm and the sheer fun and freedom of those days.
I remember when the car park fee went up to 2/6d!! We then had a boat built at Itchenor and used to sail up to East Head, once being marooned on the 'Winner' sandbank overnight! There were 3 very old fishermen, wearing dark guernseys who used to sit on the wall at Roman Landing.
One 29th July we had a terrible storm and were anchored off East Head. We lost our dinghy and many yachts dragged their anchors. We had to motor back in extremely strong gale force winds to Itchenor and wait to be rescued in the evening. On driving back over Goodwood there were many trees felled and lying on the ground. This must have been in the early 60s. Our family name was Pentony by the way.

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