Craft Cottage

A Memory of Steyning.

My grandmother Doris Palmer, lived in Craft Cottage which is right next to the pump. We spent all our family holidays there during the 50's and 60's. Granny was a war widow and she worked in Adams tobacconist, which was on the corner of Church Street. She had a whippet called Jimmy and there was a lodger called Mr Herbert, who worked at the butchers in the High Street. A treat was to go and watch him make sausages. Every morning my father would buy his paper from Rawlings the newsagents, next to the White Horse. Other memories include going to Brighton on the top of the Southdown 22 bus, walks on the downs above Steyning and travelling on the "Steyning Flyer" to Horsham. My brother and I took our first flight from Shoreham airport in an Auster. A twenty minute flight over Brighton cost fifteen shillings. In my teens, I spent the whole summer holiday with granny, and I had a holiday job washing cars at Woods garage just down the road. During that time I used to frequent the Norfolk Arms in Chuch Street and had my first (underage) taste of Brickwoods beer (never forgotten for various reasons!). A maiden aunt also lived in Maudlyn Lane, Steyning. She was matron at Southlands hospital. Another uncle and aunt lived at Henfield. When Granny got too old to live alone, Craft Cottage was sold and she moved to stay with my aunt in Leatherhead, Surrey.