Winding down at the end of the day, our journalists discuss Shoreham while finishing up their stories.

Adam Tinworth

Gus came into the Agora empty shops with his two sons and one of their friends, just to see what the Brighton Future of News project was all about.

He has lived in Shoreham for three years, having worked in the town at Edwards 10 years ago.

“I thought it was a very sleepy and uninteresting place 10 years ago.

“We ended up coming back here from London and it’s a lot more vibrant, colourful place with people making a go of things.

“I enjoy weekends by the sea and having the hills behind.”

Gus’s father is involved with CAMRA and he rates the town as a real ale fan’s heaven.

“There are great pubs here and a great real ale festival at the Red Lion.”

Sarah Booker

I took my parents down to Coronation Green to talk about their memories of Shoreham and we spotted this redshank on the riverbank.

This took me back to my childhood as a pupil at St Peter’s RC Primary School in Shoreham.

My teacher Mr Len Mayhead was a keen birdwatcher and took my class out with him some weekends.

It was a spring morning one Saturday in 1980 when I saw a redshank on the banks of the Adur by the old tollbridge.

Sarah Booker

It all started so beautifully. Then it rained. Then it stopped. One thing I have noticed about Shoreham is that no matter how heavily it pores, it dries out very quickly.

Last night, the Shoreham Society had a meeting to discuss various local issues. One concern raised was around the amount of traffic on the High Street. In one random minute (above) of our Day In The Life we counted thirty cars (and two buses) in 60 seconds. Is this ‘a lot’ for a fairly quiet Saturday afternoon?

It’s okay, she hasn’t got many teeth.

Tom Coady

Antiques and second-hand goods, from comics at 50p to a desk at £1,000, are on sale at a business run by Derek Goss on the corner of New Road and East Street.

But Derek doesn’t think there is anything from old Shoreham on display. Even the fishing floats have crossed the Atlantic to reach his shop.

He says there are lots of lovely listed buildings in town but very few have their original contents.

“The 60s came in, the old furniture went out,” he said.

Few of the calls he receives relate to house clearances and when he visits there is little he is interested in buying.

“People tell me things belonged to their grandmother but they might just be from the ’70s,” he said.

He reckons you would have to look at the churches to find the best examples of old Shoreham furniture.

The town’s history is rich, he added, particularly with its sea-faring heritage. For example a captain who sailed with Cook lived in a nearby street.

“There was a time when Shoreham had more ships than Portsmouth,” he added.

He’s lived in Shoreham for about 15 years and opened his shop about six months ago but thinks the business might only survive another six months.

The buiding had been empty long-term, with the site awaiting development, and it was damp and in a bad state when he took over but the council rates are crippling at £6,000 a year.

Bank robbery in Shoreham! Or at least, it could be. The alarm at the Alliance & Leicester was ringing for far more than the 12 seconds we could stand to film it. A distinct absence of people rushing to cordon off the road or even turn up to switch it off.

Eight generations of Sue Vincent’s family have lived in Shoreham.

Sue was born on Shoreham Beach and has lived in various areas of the town her entire life.

From West Street to Harbour Way, The Avenue and Upper Shoreham Road.

She went to school at Victoria Road primary and then on to Kings Manor, back when it was all girl in Middle Road.

Her grandfather Alan Pike was church warden at St Mary’s Church and her grandparents lived in Friars Court, so her memories of the town are extremely rich and varied.

She brought in about 200 photographs discovered at her Aunt Jean Pike’s house.

Jean was the first woman bell ringer at St Mary’s and pictures of her up the bell tower were among the images discovered.

The photographs bring back great memories for Sue, as it shows St Mary’s parades through the town centre.

The Agora empty shop project is just around the corner from where many of the pictures were taken.

It was quite exciting for Brighton Future of News group members to see how things had changed.

“St Mary’s Hall was a big part of our lives. We had Sunday school there and family events.”

One from 1968 has a Scottish theme, and shows East Street as it was.

“Everyone used to hang out at the snack bar,” she said.

Some of Sue’s pictures have been published here and more will appear later.

Sarah Booker

The Caledonian Fair held in Shoreham-by-Sea in 1969

Christine Clark, an artist who lives in Shoreham town came into the Agora open shop. “I was born in Shoreham in the hospital. My mother said I was a blue baby because I wasn’t breathing properly - I’ve probably been gasping for air ever since!”

Both Christine and her husband’s roots are in Shoreham, in fact they are related as second cousins.  Although her husband was born in Suffolk, his grandfather was born in the Ferry pub and Christine’s grandfather was born on West Street - both in 1898. [Picture shows Christine outside the house today].

Christine lived with her mother, father and younger sister. She lived in the same house till she was 11, and in 1967 they were the first residents to move into St Giles Close. Christine sold it after her parents died: “It was a wrench to sell it after 42 years.”

She went to Buckingham Road School from 1961 to 1967 and then from 1967 to 1972 at King’s Manor School - originally for girls until her fourth year, until it merged with the Secondary Modern School. Christine and has written about her memories of school (see picture): she found the education system difficult because her dyslexia wasn’t recognised until she was an adult: “I got assessed when I was 43 because my daughter had got it.”

Christine is interested in the use of memory for her artwork, and in how people connect with it and have a memory of their own. “Memory is snapshots of life’s experiences, stored information which have become a huge series of stories,” she says.

“My mother had a lot of memories of the war and told me the same key stories over and over again and gave me a picture in my mind. She made it as if I was there, walking up and down the same road. It was like a social history in a way - the way things were and how things happened because of the war.”

Her artwork is inspired by many different things in Shoreham: she’s fascinated by the platform tickets you need to buy to wave someone off from the station or to get to the other side, and collects and photographs them.   

Christine enjoys soaking up knowledge that doesn’t necessarily come through books: “What I see out there in the world, I call it ‘reading life’. I have a statement on my studio wall: ‘Well read, what’s that? I’m well looking around me’”. She also keeps the slogan ‘well red’ sewn in her coat. 

Adam interviewing Peter

This is Peter. In his 76 years he’s seen a lot of the world. One of his first jobs was as a steward on the legendary Cunard liner, the Queen Mary, and sailed between the UK and New York (and back) 19 times. In 1963, he spent a year working as jazz guitarist in Paris, playing an acoustic pre-war Epiphone Emporer. Since then he’s lived and worked in London, Manchester and as far afield as Denver, Colorado offering relationship therapy and personal counselling.

He moved to Shoreham-by-Sea eight years ago, to be near his wife’s family, and runs a counselling service from his home on Shoreham Road, where he’s also teaching himself to play the piano. Until recently, he swam every day during the Spring, Summer and Autumn - but a bike accident in Buckingham Park last year has put paid to that for the time being.

The secret to a good relationship, says Peter, is the same as the secret of a good life. Don’t get bogged down in negatives, it’s much less work to be happy than it is to be sad.

Shoreham, says Peter, is one of the best places in the world, and he can’t see himself moving again. Everything is here, from the great outdoors to its proximity to London.

He thinks that Shoreham’s charms may have tempted his guitar, which he sold three decades ago in Manchester, to follow him to the coast. A local jazz musician that he plays with regularly has a suspiciously similar looking axe…

Sign of the times III:

More photos from my walk around Shoreham.

Andrew