First published in the West Sussex Gazette 8th July 1993

After reading the Remember When feature on Shoreham Grammar published on 21 April, an Alfriston reader, Noreen Bruder, felt compelled to write in with her own tale relating to her 'association for many important years with the school.'

'In 1932, I was appointed assistant matron,' she wrote, 'For obvious reasons I left after a year to become matron at a girls' school at Bexhill.'

Those 'obvious reasons' soon became clear from her next sentence which read: 'However, in 1934 I married Emile Bruder, then an assistant master at Shoreham Grammar. We lived in the Upper Shoreham Road, our garden backing onto the playing fields (now Greenacres development). My husband became Schoolmaster during the time of the evacuation to Milland House, Liphook. When Mr Kirkman retired as headmaster in 1946,
Emile took over, retaining the post until he retired in 1967 owing to ill health.'

It was in 1965 that the school had been forced to move from its Shoreham site, and found a temporary home in the former St Andrew's School in Clifton Road, Worthing, where it stayed for three years until a permanent place was found for the school back at Shoreham in 1968, and was renamed Shoreham College.

Emile Bruder was elected to the school council in 1971, becoming chairman. After suffering from a stroke, he and Noreen moved in with their eldest daughter at Alfriston, who coincidentally had married an old Shorehamer, a former pupil of Shoreham Grammar, the Rev Michael Loughton. Emile survived there until 1985.

Tramocar buff David Kaye wrote from Lincolnshire after reading the Remember When feature of 11 March about those old single decker buses.

'I loved them as a small boy in Worthing before the war. I recall too, August Bank Holiday Monday 1938 at Splash Point when T16 and T17 suddenly made their debut on route 1. I recall how, after the war, one of the older buses was dumped at Shoreham Airport.

'Some nights I dream that I am back along Marine Parade, and there are all the Tramocars once more. The other week I dreamt that one had in fact been restored --- alas! wishful thinking!'

In 1962, David produced a booklet containing a comprehensive section on the Tramocars of Worthing, starting in 1924 with their seafront service, and includes the following excerpts.

'The red and gold Tramocars held the stage for 14 years with their unusual features such as destination boards, differently coloured according to which route they applied to.'

They were often mentioned in local papers such as the long defunct Worthing Journal which carried the following quotation: 'Seen on the Worthing Parade: a Tramocar driver in merry mood on Bonfire Night, piloting his vehicle past the Bandstand, singing 'I cover the Waterfront'.' This was the theme song of a popular film of that period starring Ben Lyon and Claudette Colbert.

The Tramocars were overhauled by the drivers on Sunday mornings, when there was no service, in the garage at 11a Wordsworth Road (now TEC tyre & exhaust centre). This maintenance included greasing the leaf springs and decoking.

Greatly interested in the two articles on the Tilling-Stevens bus company published a little while ago, Findon Valley reader John Nye wrote:

'By a strange coincidence I had been writing about the Tilling-Stevens buses just about the same time as your first article appeared in print. At the request of my son I have been writing up my experiences as a young boy in the period 1923 -- 1931 during part of which my parents and I were living in Camberwell in South-East London. One of my aunts used regularly to take me to Peckham by bus from Camberwell Green in order to visit big stores known as Jones & Higgins.

'If I could persuade her to do so I would ask her to let any General Omnibus Company vehicles go by in order that we could travel on a Tilling-Stevens bus which covered that route, as I had a special liking for those vehicles and the different tickets which were issued by the conductors.

'Causing even greater excitement was the odd occasion when we happened to arrive at the bus stop in time to catch a single-decker bus which ran under the name of the Nil Desperandum Bus Co.'

John concluded, 'I wonder if any other exiles from South-East London have similar memories of those days in the history of London Transport.'