This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 25th February 1993

This week's column begins an intiguing story revealing how an enterprising Edwardian publican in Tarring ran several other businesses simultaneously, yet entirely through his philanthropic generosity to those less fortunate, he himself ended up in financial ruin.

This fascinating tale came to light when Tarring reader Alfred 'Curly' Norris responded to a request to name players in a 1923 Tarring football team photograph (WSG 3/9/92). Amazingly, 91 year old 'Curly', who was one of them, possesses a memory so clear he managed to name all the other players. (Anyone wanting the list of names can obtain them from me but do enclose a stamped addressed envelope please).
Born in Broadwater, 'Curly' was just a babe in arms when the family moved to the Castle Inn at Tarring High Street in the year 1901, when his father, Alfred C Norris, became publican there, taking over from his father who had been the last Victorian landlord at the pub.

Tamplins the brewers who owned the Castle asked Alfred if he would also take over the tenancy of the George & Dragon at the southern end of the High Street when it fell vacant, an opportunity he was keen to exploit.

At about the same time, expanding Tamplins wanted to build a hotel called the Thomas A Becket, and approached Mr Gaisford, the owner of the Offington Estate.

'But he was dead against drink so he wouldn't sell any land for that purpose,' explained 'Curly', 'However, father, who was a Worthing borough councillor (returned unopposed 17 times) went to see Gaisford but he still wouldn't have it. They were both as headstrong as each other, and so he tried again, and that time persuaded him to sell.'

So the Thomas A Becket was built, the Castle Inn on the east side of High Street closed (today it is a private dwelling) and the licence was transferred to the Becket. So then Alfred was left with just the George & Dragon to run, having been running two pubs up until then.

'There were no cellars at either of the High Street pubs and so the barrels were kept in the bar,' 'Curly' informed me. In those days, spirits were supplied in bulk and bottled at the pub. 'Twelve shillings and sixpence for a bottle of whisky then, but the landlord only got sixpence of it.'

As well as running the pub (aided by his daughter Rose and her husband), 'Curly's enterprising father Alfred owned three other businesses at the same time: a market garden/small farm; a newspaper shop; and passenger transport, hiring out a landeau, several carriages and a braugham, all of which he kept in a yard at the stables of Norfolk House near the fig garden. (Now a private house named Flintstones)

He also owned a horse bus at one stage. It came from family concern who owed him money and forfeited the bus in settlement of their debt. According to 'Curly' it was the last horse bus in use in Worthing, and he should know because he was conductor on it. Norris's bus service was bought out by Southdown.

Alfred owned a paper shop on the south side of Montague Street near Crescent Road, where he installed Tarring man Fred Parsons as manager. The shop is still there today and still named A C Norris, but now owned and run by Denis Stanford, whose family go back a long way in Tarring. Stanford Brothers had a nursery by the North Star off the Littlehampton Road.

Despite or perhaps because of his upbringing, 'Curly', who had one brother and four sisters, never drank alcohol. 'I'm a rank tee-totaller, even though I was brought up in a pub! I detested the pub. When I saw men drinking, I used to think: who is going short?'

When the time came to take over from his father, he went over to Tamplins at Kemp Town to sign the transfer document. 'But when I really thought about it I told my sister to take over instead of me.'

However, faithful 'Curly' still worked evenings at the pub, serving behind the bar until he was 38 years old. Very fit and agile, good at sports and an excellent horseman, he started work in 1913 as a market gardener, working with his enterprising hard-working father on his market garden cum small farm, which was an expanse of land behind two cottages on the north side of Littlehampton Road (the two cottages are still there opposite Ringmer Road).

The things he got up to! 'I was in the army and out again before I was 18. I lied about my age.'

On another occasion he was pulled up for speeding --- on horseback would you believe! An excellent horseman with a love for the sturdy steeds, 'Curly' exclaimed, 'You can have motors, just give me horses.'

The nostalgic Norris story continued the following week with anecdotes of the family farm, the transition from horse-drawn passenger transport to motorised omnibuses and concluded with more intrigueing tales of Tarring.