Early Memories Of Southwick

A Memory of Southwick.

I was born in Steyning in 1954. My father was a police constable and at only 2/3 months old we moved to the 'police station' in Whiterock Place in Southwick. The station consisted of 2 large semidetached houses with large back gardens and a dog yard with a kennel for any strays. The gardens backed virtually up to the railway embankment and the front of the house looked straight down Colebrooke Road to the old power station. When I was old enough and Dad was working his 6amto 2pm shift I would stand on a dining room chair at the large front bay window and wait for him to come home. It was one such day when I could hear a dreadful roaring noise and my Mum came and dragged me off the chair and back into the hall where there no windows. There was a terrific bang and virtually every window in the house smashed as the house shook. Fortunately the railway embankment protected us from the impact although some debris did end up in our garden. In fact some time later when Dad was cutting a cabbage he did find a thumb underneath it! It was a very long and sad time whilst all the debris was cleared and the investigation took place. I understand the 2 rambling old houses were demolished and replaced with maisonettes. I attended Southwick infant school and my 1st teacher was Miss Cadman my parents remembered her as a kind and gentle person. When I left the school in 1960 as my Dad was transferred to Horsham I was presented with a lovely little book called Little Swiss Miss and she had signed it 'from all my friends at Southwick infant school'.

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