Happy childhood memories

People stuck together

My parents, Bill and Audrey, moved to no 44 Poynings Drive in 1951 and stayed there for the rest of their lives. Me, my elder sister, Ann, and my younger brother, Howard, grew up there. The area was poor then following WWII and sometimes hard, but it was a place where people stuck together and helped each other out when they could.

Shops before supermarkets

The shops in Burwash Road were very busy, and the main source of shopping for most people – this was before supermarkets. I used to work at Bullen’s, the newsagent and tobacconist; I helped Charlie Bullen to mark up the morning papers for delivery. I also worked for Vi and Jack Higginbotham who owned the greengrocers shop. There were many great folk living in the area and I have some happy memories of those days.

Remember the families

Charlie Bullen’s daughter, Anne, came to live with us when her mother died as Charlie suffered from severe arthritis and could hardly walk. She became part of our family and a second sister to us. She now lives in Hastings with her husband and four children. Other family names I can remember – the Whittingtons, the Oxleys, the Bennets, the Sears, two families of Pettits, the Clarkes, the Prices and probably a few more. Also the Brewsters (who lived in Clayton Way) and the Norrises (in Beeding Avenue); and of course my best mate, Bob Hynam of Burwash Road.