Boy, does this bring back memories! I used to live right about the centre of this picture, just off Mackie Ave. Hopefully there will be more images posted on this site.
By John Hutchings (12/04/2003)
My memories of 50 years ago. We lived in Braeside Avenue, backing on to the Downs. The field behind our home used to be planted with wheat and all the local children would ‘help’ at harvest time. The corn was stacked up in stooks, and we used to be allowed to knock them down while the farm staff picked them up and put them on the trailer. Then we rushed back to the top of the hill behind the loaded trailer and caught the next one down the hill, sitting amongst the earwigs. Happy days!
By Janice Hosking (24/05/2003)
I’ve been there!
By Sophie (16/01/2004)
Our family lived in Braeside Avenue from 1950 until my mother died in 1997. Many happy memories of walking out of the back garden and up onto the Downs. It was very sad when they ploughed up the fields higher up and the natural grassland with its spotted orchids and blue scabious disappeared. However, you could then find masses of Romano-British pottery just lying on the surface, especially north of Eastwick Barn. Even that has gone now with the by-pass.
By Brian Richards (22/01/2004)
This picture brings great waves of childhood nostalgia! We moved to Mackie Avenue in 1947 when I was 10, and my mother lived there until she died in 2002. I left the UK on my marriage in 1970, but visited regularly. This scene will always be ‘home’ to me, even though the house has been sold, and I don’t go to Mackie Avenue anymore. This is how I always remember the Estate – surrounded by the beautiful Downs and, somehow in my memory, the sun really was always shining!
By Diane (15/10/2005)
After living in Surrey for many years, I now live in Patcham. In 1966 they built a state-of-the-art comprehensive school for boys, which I attended. The school was demolished 10 years ago and is now the Windmill housing estate. Some of the playing fields and cricket pitch markings remain – happy days.
By John Tulloch (29/05/2006)
I remember this scene so well. I used to walk our dog up over the beatiful downs, we lived in The Deeside opposite a large green and a semi circle of shops. The number five buses used to turn here before returning to town. We moved to Patcham about 1954 (when I was 7yrs old) at first living in in Vale Avenue, then Ladies Mile. I went to Patcham School, and attended Brownies, Guides and sunday school in Mackie Hall.
By Jill (08/04/2007)
Wonderful memories of growing up in Ladies Mile Road where I was born in “Four Winds”. There were far less houses around then, it was straight out onto the Downs to play. Lots of wild flowers, butterflies etc. The Ladies Mile NR is drab now compared to those days.
By PipPip (17/02/2009)
I lived in Ladies Mile Road from 1970-80. I loved the downs, a great place to play as a kid. I went back in 2004 for a nostalgic look and not a lot had changed.
By Mandi (14/03/2009)
Does anybody have information or better pictures that were published in the Argus of the small group of citizens who live in the Patcham area who spent their day helping Sussex police clean up Mackie park, Mackie Woods and Ladies Mile nature reserve?
By Charles C (05/01/2011)
Oh yes, how I moarn the loss of my childhood days. They always seemed sunny and packed with many happy hours spent wondering through the corn fields and playing on the chalk pit. We should count ourselves lucky to have been born in an era when there was such freedom. The children of today will never experience the kind of childhood we did. How I miss you Patcham.
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Boy, does this bring back memories! I used to live right about the centre of this picture, just off Mackie Ave. Hopefully there will be more images posted on this site.
My memories of 50 years ago. We lived in Braeside Avenue, backing on to the Downs. The field behind our home used to be planted with wheat and all the local children would ‘help’ at harvest time. The corn was stacked up in stooks, and we used to be allowed to knock them down while the farm staff picked them up and put them on the trailer. Then we rushed back to the top of the hill behind the loaded trailer and caught the next one down the hill, sitting amongst the earwigs. Happy days!
I’ve been there!
Our family lived in Braeside Avenue from 1950 until my mother died in 1997. Many happy memories of walking out of the back garden and up onto the Downs. It was very sad when they ploughed up the fields higher up and the natural grassland with its spotted orchids and blue scabious disappeared. However, you could then find masses of Romano-British pottery just lying on the surface, especially north of Eastwick Barn. Even that has gone now with the by-pass.
This picture brings great waves of childhood nostalgia! We moved to Mackie Avenue in 1947 when I was 10, and my mother lived there until she died in 2002. I left the UK on my marriage in 1970, but visited regularly. This scene will always be ‘home’ to me, even though the house has been sold, and I don’t go to Mackie Avenue anymore. This is how I always remember the Estate – surrounded by the beautiful Downs and, somehow in my memory, the sun really was always shining!
After living in Surrey for many years, I now live in Patcham. In 1966 they built a state-of-the-art comprehensive school for boys, which I attended. The school was demolished 10 years ago and is now the Windmill housing estate. Some of the playing fields and cricket pitch markings remain – happy days.
I remember this scene so well. I used to walk our dog up over the beatiful downs, we lived in The Deeside opposite a large green and a semi circle of shops. The number five buses used to turn here before returning to town. We moved to Patcham about 1954 (when I was 7yrs old) at first living in in Vale Avenue, then Ladies Mile. I went to Patcham School, and attended Brownies, Guides and sunday school in Mackie Hall.
Wonderful memories of growing up in Ladies Mile Road where I was born in “Four Winds”. There were far less houses around then, it was straight out onto the Downs to play. Lots of wild flowers, butterflies etc. The Ladies Mile NR is drab now compared to those days.
I lived in Ladies Mile Road from 1970-80. I loved the downs, a great place to play as a kid. I went back in 2004 for a nostalgic look and not a lot had changed.
Does anybody have information or better pictures that were published in the Argus of the small group of citizens who live in the Patcham area who spent their day helping Sussex police clean up Mackie park, Mackie Woods and Ladies Mile nature reserve?
Oh yes, how I moarn the loss of my childhood days. They always seemed sunny and packed with many happy hours spent wondering through the corn fields and playing on the chalk pit. We should count ourselves lucky to have been born in an era when there was such freedom. The children of today will never experience the kind of childhood we did. How I miss you Patcham.
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