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Harold Taylor was born the same year as the making of the epic film 'Ben Hur'. He was born in Arundel but moved with his family to Chichester where he spent his childhood and first part of his working life. Harold gives below an insight into what Chichester was like in the 1920's and 30's.
At the recreation ground near our house (10 Alexandra Road), there was a path which split the park in two, crossing from outside number 8 Alexandra Road, to New Park Road at the junction of Priory Road. This path was removed during 1937/8, when the present Cricket Pavilion was built and the new roadway provided behind it, running from Alexandra Terrace.
At the same time the old burial grounds that bounded on the St. Pancras were turned into the Memorial Gardens. All the old tombstones were lined up around the boundaries and the War Memorial removed from Eastgate Square to the gardens, where it now stands. These burial grounds had been one of our play areas, as was another one on the west side of New Park Road, which lay between the backs of the houses of the St. Pancras and the Central Boy's School. This is now a car park.
Apart from Orchard Street, the only way out of town to the west was West Street, otherwise it meant travelling along West Broyle Road, left along Funtington Road then down Salthill Road to Fishbourne. So the establishment of the Parklands Road was a boon. Similarly on the south side of the town, there was no way out westwards. One had to travel as far as Dell Quay Corner and then down Apuldram Lane to Fishbourne until the bypass was built at the beginning of the war.
At the time that the Parklands Estate was being built, an old boy, whose name I think was Tibbet, was building his own house in a cul-de-sac on the other side of the road. He was decorating the outside walls of the house with broken glass and crockery, or any form of ceramics he could find. It was quite picturesque in its way, but alas is now gone. During the war it was taken over as a nurses' home and I worked on its conversion.
It backed onto the grounds in which the emergency wartime wards were built. After the war there was another conversion on this house, and I became involved in that too. A few years ago it was pulled down. My father had known the fellow well and often during our evening walks at the weekend, we would call in and see how he was getting on with the building.
There had been another school on the corner of New Park Road. I believe it was called the William Johnston School and was closed about 1935. I always thought it was the Central Girls School, because when it closed all the girls I knew went to that school in Chapel Road afterwards. This again is no more, and all the schools within the town have now been moved out, like the shopping areas, which have since followed.
My father incidentally, designed and drew up the plans for the alteration to the Half Moon Pub in the Hornet, which was to become the new British Legion Club. The place is now a motorcycle shop and next door to The Bush.
In Spitafields Lane opposite the Isolation Hospital, is a row of council houses. Before these were built, the site was occupied by some post-First World War prefabs, known as the 'tin huts'. These were dismantled about 1936. They had consisted of two round huts approximately 18 feet in diameter joined by a short passageway. I never entered these buildings, but I believe they were quite roomy.
Many of the unruly families of the town were here, whether by accident or design, I could not say. I went to school with many of the children who lived there.
There was a field behind these houses with a solitary building, which was the slaughterhouse for the Shippams factory and butchers shops. The entrance to this field was just in College Lane.
When St. Richard's Hospital was being built just before the war, this track was the entrance to the site. Some of the families that lived in the huts were the Stranges, Pearces, and I think the Fews and Masons.
The majority of the towns slaughterhouses were in Chapel Street, at a guess I would think there were about seven. The largest was probably the one on the west side of the road at the junction of North Walls. When we came home from school one would see rivers of blood flowing through the open gates, and sometimes carcasses waiting to be skinned lying in the yard. Often one would see the slaughterers drinking from mugs, and it was reputed that they were drinking the blood of slaughtered animals!
There was usually a terrible stink from the yard, which I think was caused by the stored skins that had been thrown down in a heap and saltpetred until they were collected by lorry. When these skins were loaded, the smell was even worse. I think this yard was the only one where the killing was done within sight of the road.
Just up a little way from this yard towards the cathedral on the east side of the road, was an old pub. Its site would be about where the entrance today is to the St. Cyriac car park. When I was a small boy I remember that the sign of the Butcher's Arms still hung on display, but I am not certain if it functioned at the time. The gantry for the sign remained long after the sign was taken down.
The shop of Honeybunn the fruiterers, was on the corner of Baffins Lane and East Street. They later changed their name to plain Bunn, when the son became recognised in the equestrian world. He created Hickstead.
When I worked for Hills I had to go to a premises on the west corner of Church Lane in Westhampnett Road. It is now a private house, but then it was known as the lace factory. Looking at the windows on the top floor, it is a typical weavers type cottage. In those days there were two or three girls there who I discovered I knew. I do not know whether they actually made laces, but were certainly adding the metal tips to bundles of laces, which I presume were possible sold by street vendors.
On the east corner of Church Lane was a large three story house, which was occupied by a blacksmith whose works were in Chapel Road, behind one of the slaughterhouses. The name escapes me for the moment, a name I should know as I visited there regularly, for after my mother ceased to keep chickens we registered with them for eggs.
When I first went to St. Richards School, although disused, the White Horse Inn still stood on the north side of the road at North Gate. The pub was eventually knocked down, but in the pavement the mosaic entrance step remained for many years, proclaiming its name. The space behind was also cleared and became a car park for many years well after the war.
To take a different way home from school sometimes, instead of walking down Franklin Place, we would take a route through Priory Lane, which was the site of the common lodging house. Here a large number of people assembled and lived under the one roof. Through the doorway could be seen this huge kitchen range which always seemed to have a good fire going in it. One passed this dwelling with great trepidation.
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