Ron Levett's childhood memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex

I was born in 1926, the year of the General Strike (nothing to do with me!). My mother Emily was the oldest daughter of my grandparents, Fred and Polly Brownell. My father was the second son of the Levett family.

I can't remember any details about my paternal grandparents, but I have a family tree showing the record of the Levett family having lived in Alfriston since 1613, with the male line having lived in or near Alfriston ever since.

Alfriston is a medium size village lying at the head of the Cuckmere valley. I was born in a small cottage, which is now a restaurant called 'Moonrakers'.

My father was working at the brickyard at Berwick Station. Bricks at this time were only made during the summer months because of the problem of drying the bricks during the winter. This meant that most of the men were laid off for the winter. However, a number were kept on digging clay and piling it up to 'weather', ready for the next summer's brick making. Luckily, my father was one of them.

While I was still very young, my father bought a piece of land opposite the end of The Furlongs on which to build. He then purchased a kit to build a bungalow. Anyone who has assembled an MFI cabinet can probably imagine what it was like erecting this kit. Fortunately my grandfather on my mother's side was in the building trade, and he supplied a lot of the know-how.

My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Brownell, lived at No.9 The Furlongs, which was only about one hundred yards from my parents' bungalow. Our home was named Mile End. Gran and granddad had a large family, my mother being the oldest daughter, followed by four more sisters, named Connie, Dinah, Florence and Kate.

There were also four sons. Albert, who was always known as Bert, Arthur, Bill and Pat. Pat was actually born ten days after me, so I was older than my uncle, which made me feel very superior. Since my Aunt Kate was only six years older than I, she was more like an older sister, and we spent a lot of time playing together.

My grandmother suffered from ill health, and since a lot of the older children had already left home, my parents and I moved into No.9, so that my mother could help her mother. My sister Elizabeth, who was always known as Betty, was born, and my Aunt Kate found that she had a job as nursemaid.

In the early thirties my mother wanted to run a guesthouse, so the family looked around and found a Georgian house called Brook Furlong, which had four double bedrooms on the first floor and two large attics in the roof space. On the ground floor, there were two large rooms at the front of the house, with a very large room which, when we moved in was the kitchen.

There was a black 'Range' cooker in the centre of the outside wall. There was another room at the rear of the house, this had a large brick copper in one corner and was probably used as a washhouse. There were also two large cellars under the house, with stairs leading down from the washhouse.

Across the yard from the back door, was a barn large enough to hold a trap, as a small carriage was known. The house was surrounded by a garden of about one eighth of an acre, and after a lot of work by the whole family the front and the side of the house had four large lawns. At the back of the house, my grandfather grew a full range of vegetables, for both the family's and guest's meals

At the front of the house there was an old millstone forming the front step. Just in front of this was a very large holly tree. Later on I heard that the local builder had offered twenty pounds for the tree and he would cut it and carry it away. In those days this was quite a large sum, when average wages were around two pounds per week.

There was a great deal of work to be done on the house, since it had been unoccupied for many years. All the family helped with the restoration, sometimes after they had finished their normal job, in the evening.

My uncle Bert, who was a bit of a comedian, decided to explore the cellar for the first time. When he emerged from the cobwebs he was carrying a large earthenware demijohn, which he proceeded to uncork. He pretended to drink some, and then collapsed on the floor, groaning. It was a few minutes before it was realised that he was fooling about.

Whenever my mother thought of a new idea, all she had to do was just mention it and Freddie, as granddad was always known, was ready to start work immediately. When she said that she thought that French doors would be convenient in what was the old kitchen and was soon to become the new dining room, he picked up his hammer and chisel and said, 'Where would you like it, my gal?'

There were no flush toilets in the village at that time. We had a small outhouse, with doors on either side, with two earth closets, probably designed for the master of the house and family and for the servants, respectively.

A man called Mr. Bristow had the job of emptying the village's earth closets twice a week, using a tank on wheels, pulled by a horse called Captain, who, when he was not working, spent his days in the field opposite Alfriston Motors garage. Billie Bristow was reputed to grow the best vegetables in the village!

My grandfather had to give up work in the mid Thirties because of severe arthritis in his hip joints but he found part-time work at The George Inn, as a washer-up in their restaurant, both mid-day and evenings. He also carried on working in the garden and doing Mum's alterations.

Around this time first main water and then electricity were installed in the village. Houses were wired and paid for by a sort of Hire Purchase system, where people paid so much a quarter for the installation.

Electricity cost 6d per unit for lighting, and 1d per unit for power. The use of standard lamps was understandably very popular. Up to this time my mother had done all the cooking for both guests and family on a pair of Primus stoves and a 'Beatrice' oven, but we now acquired an electric cooker.

Kate was by now a teenager (in those days, of course she was not known as one), and was acting as waitress, as well as looking after my sister Betty. She had no pay for looking after my sister; I suppose it was a question of all the family pulling together

Since we now had electricity and water, it was soon decided to make a bathroom out of the small room directly opposite the top of the stairs. Kate was a bit put out by this because up until this time, it had been her bedroom.

We now had a bath, a washbasin but still no inside toilet. Because we were now taking in paying guests, an 'Elsan' chemical toilet was placed in the bathroom (But only for the use of guests).

Ron Levett, 2001