Family memories
Paternal grandparents
My paternal grandparents, Fred and Ivy Hyde, lived at 40 Port Hall Street in the 1940s and 1950s. They then moved into number 20 and lived there from the 1960s to the 1990s. They had a son, my father, Terence b1943 who contributes to this site too, and two older children, Vera and Brian.
Fond memories
I have fond memories of this area of Brighton, and can see on Google street view that number 20, which is on the corner of Port Hall Avenue, has been drastically remodelled from the flat over the garage as it was when I was small; I was born in 1964.
Deacon’s sweet shop
I think the garage had previously been an ice cream parlour. I remember Deacon’s the sweet shop at the top of Port Hall Street, and loved going in there with my nan & grandad for a quarter of something or a jamboree bag. Mr Deacon was lovely. These photos were taken on one or other of these 3 streets.
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People in this photo from top to bottom: Gordon White, David White, Jackie Rice, Derick White, Jennifer Goddard, (partly hidden) Dickie Rice, Kenny Goddard and Terry hyde. 1953 or 54.
Kieth Valleir, Ken Tate, Terry Hyde at 20 Port Hall St.
I went to Stanford Road school and lived in Dyke Rd Drive, so Port Hall was on my route to and from school. Deacons had a private lending library back in the 1950s-60s at the rear behind the sweet shop area, which had loads of penny sweets and even Black Jacks and Fruit Salads at 4 for 1d, plus penny snakes and Flying saucers [2 for1d]. On the corner of Port Hall Place there was another sweet shop, Kirby’s; I was at school with the daughter. Almost opposite Deacon’s was the Eves Dairy on the corner of Coventry St and across the road was Page’s Garage. I think Colin Page Bookshop in Duke St today is run by the son. Halfway along Coventry St was a sweetshop at the entrance to the school playground. At the end of the street on the corner of Upper Hamilton Rd was Perrys bakers, we had a ‘bun monitor’ who was allowed to go down there at lunchtime to collect penny buns. Round in Upper Hamilton Rd there was a double parade of shops and a second hand shop, Mrs Hollis, where I bought my first chess set, one rook missing, replaced by a wood block!
Fred and Ivy Hyde lived at 41 Port Hall St. and moved to 20 in 1958.
I’m sorry to hear that you were a rook short of a chess set in those days Geoffrey. Before moving on to Brighton Hove & Sussex Grammar School in 1961, I went to the Downs School in Rugby Road, Brighton. There were two nearby sweet shops in Ditchling Road. One was on the corner of Upper Hollingdean Road and the other was close to Florence Place. I, too, remember the Black Jacks and Fruit Salads, plus of course the Sherbert Fountains and also the Gobstoppers, though I used to steer clear of those as I was worried one might get stuck in my throat and choke me!
Correction: Jeanette and Campbell were Lammie not Luff when this was taken in about 1963. Jeanette is a Luff now she’s married.
I have looked everywhere for a copy of this photograph, it was in 1954 as I had joined the Navy and was home on leave from boys training. Living in Plymouth now having spent most of my life at sea.
Is there any way I can get in touch with Nickie Preston to get a copy of photo please?
Editor’s note: Leave a message with your email address in the body of the message.
Hi, I can mail a copy if you mail me at nickie.preston@hotmail.co.uk
I lived in Port Hall Road until 1958. The garage cum ice cream parlour was named Daily Ice Cream [very original]. The photo of the giant snowball brought back some distance memories. The Rice family, the Whites and a few others. I now live in N. Essex, very flat. I still miss Brighton with it’s hills and seafront.
Nice photo looking down Porthall Ave towards the railway bridge.
John Boxell is right, the ice cream unit was at number 20 Port Hall Street. It was run in the late forties early fifties by a Mr Woolley, who lived in the flat above with his wife and two daughters. He left to take a ice cream shop on Littlehampton sea front about 1953. After him, it was run by Ted Elms till 1958, then he left to run the café in Stammer Village, when we moved in from across the road at no 41 when my mum ran it with Ted Elms. The firm that owned it were Stoddard & Hansford, who were based in London, they also made Viota cake mix that was popular at the time. As a boy I used to help Ted Elms deliver daily ice cream all over Sussex. Some of the places we delivered to were the café in Dyke Road Park, Ovingdean Gap café – where we parked at the top of the cliff and walked down the steps to the beach- Noah’s Ark café at Cowfold, the shop in Cuckfield Road, Hurstpierpoint that is now a house. I wonder if John remembers other people around the Port Hall area at that time, like the lady that lived at 39 Port Hall Road on the corner of Port Hall St who kept goats and other animals in the house; the floors were covered in straw. After she moved, a boy named Squeaker Pain lived there, or the Mirfields, Jack and Silvia whose dad had a builders yard in Centurian Rd. Other names were Murrells, Bradford, Goddard and Beefer Johnson who was in the Navy but died in the early fifties.
I remember the lady who kept goats and I remember Squeaker Pain (where did he get that nickname?). The Midfield’s lived two doors from me at 15 Porthall Road. They had a daughter named Sylvia, as I seem to remember. At the end of the road opposite Pages Garage at 51 was Roy Francis. Does Terry remember Mr Page who ran the garage? He had a Vincent 1000cc twin motorbike; an awesome machine. He once told my father that he had had 108 out of it across Pevensey marshes. Not bad for the roads of the early fifties. Where did the Murrells live? In the early fifties I used to help Alfie Eves with his milk round on Sundays.
I am sure that my mum worked in Port Hall Street sometime in the ’60s for a firm called Agar’s. She was a homeworker for them making necklaces, then when my dead passed on she went to work there full time.
To Mick Peirson: Agars were in Port Hall Road, in the mews behind Port Hall house in Dyke Road – what was the stables to the house. At one time in the 1800s, a windmill stood there. There were windmills all along Dyke Road, for Dyke Road is a ridge and the ground slopes away on either side. There were windmills at West Hill Rd, Belmont, Port Hall, & Highcroft Villas. My sister-in-law Netta Smith worked at Agars all her working life,so your Mum must have known her.
John Boxell: I do remember Roy Francis, I last saw him in a pub in Burgess Hill, where we both now live, about 15 years ago. We talked about Port Hall and all the people we knew. Mr Page bought the premises of Daily ice cream, 20 Port Hall St, and became my parents’ landlord. When we lived at 41 Port Hall, I remember taking our accumulator to his garage every week to be charged, all the surrounding area was on DC current. I don’t recall his Vincent, the only vehicles I recall are Hilders small blue fiat car, a Hillman parked near your house – I think was owned by a Mr Sayers who was a travelling salesman and a black Austin Atlantis, parked near Port Hall Mews. I knew Mr Eaves and the Preslands who lived above his shop and the Murrels who lived at the bottom of Stafford Rd. Jack Mirfield and Jimmy Murrel were friends of my older brother Brian.
For Geoffrey Hyde. The Hillman car was my father’s who was a travelling saleman. They were called commercial travellers in those days. Now they’ve morphed into ‘reps’. So nice to go down memory lane. My father’s car was garaged at lock-up no 5 in Porthall Mews. 1-3 was a garage run by Ron Evans; I used to spend hours there. Happy days.
I am sure that the 19th century house on the corner of Dyke Rd, opposite The Twitten was Port Hall. It was lived in at some time by the then well known BBC actor Lockwood West. He was the father of Timothy West (whose wife is Prunella Scales) and the grandfather of the actor Samuel West. Mrs West senior rang me one day to ask something about the history of her house and the relevance of the carved knight in the front of the building.
I am fairly sure we lived on Dyke Road Drive (early 1970s at a guess) – possibly used as a B&B of sorts. Anyone remember the Owens family (Dave and Ruth – kids, Lynne and Sarah)?
Hello Nickie, hopefully you read this as it was a while ago you originally posted these original photos. I am about to move in to 20 Port Hall Street and find the history of the place fascinating. Wondered if you had any other memories of it, and any other info. I have copies of the original plans from 1891 if you are interested? Hope to hear from you.
I am Nicola Preston’s father. I lived at 20, Port Hall St from ’58 to ’64. Before that I lived opposite at no 41. I know all the people who lived in the street in the ’50s.
Lisa, please contact us, we have lots of pictures to show you and history to share. preston.nickie@gmail.com
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