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Ron Levett, born in Alfriston, East Sussex, enlisted in 1943, and whilst posted to the British Liberation Army, took part in the liberation of Germany. He then returned to England, setting up his own electronics business and developing an interest in the new entertainment of the time - television.
The Chandless family owned Sherrington Manor and the farmland it stood on in Selmeston, for many years. Mr. Cecil Chandless Senior and his wife who was Belgian born, had three children, Marise, the oldest, Cecil Junior and Richard, who when I first met the family, was still of school age.
He was educated at home by a governess. My first wife, Ruth, had met the family through the two Austrian maids, Francesca and Maria, both German speaking. We both became friends of the family and attended dinner in the evening on occasions.
I built an amplifier for Richard for his record player and later on, when he became interested in moths, I constructed an Ultra Violet light system to catch moths on the lawn after dark. He started a firm called British Entomology Supplies, and sold some of the specimens he had caught.
When Frank and I formed Norvett, our electronics firm, being friends with the Chandless family became very useful since they owned most of the village of Selmeston.
Consequently when electrical work was needed, both at the Manor, on the farm and in the cottages in the village we were called in. Work on the farm was not, however risk free.
Frank and I were working in a pen on the farm, wiring new lighting circuits, after being told by the farm labourers, that the bull in the building next door was safely locked away.
We had been working for a few minutes when the adjoining door crashed open. The bull could open it with his horn when it was not latched. We scrambled up the metal rack that was fastened against the wall and remained there out of reach of the bull, until one of the labourers came and persuaded the bull to return to his proper quarters.
On another occasion we were asked to look at the lighting in one of the open barns, which was being used to hold cattle during inclement weather. We found the lighting fuse had been removed from the fuse board in the next barn, which controlled all the lighting in that part of the farm.
When we inserted the fuse and switched on, all the cows that were in the barn went down onto their knees. One of the fluorescent lights in the barn erupted with a shower of sparks. Luckily for us, none of the cows were seriously hurt, and after the lighting fitting was replaced, all was fine.
We did a lot of rewiring in the Manor House, installing new fuse boards and generally tidying up the large room that was used as a mains position and was also used by the maids as an ironing room.
There was a huge kitchen with a large scrubbed table and an Esse cooker, which is similar to an Aga but larger. This supplied all the hot water for the house as well as being used during the winter months, for cooking all the meals.
During the summer there was an electric cooker, otherwise the kitchen became too warm. When Cecil Junior got married to a Belgian girl part of the house was converted into a flat for him and his new wife.
We carried out the wiring for the conversion. Cecil decided to cut a hole through one wall to install a new doorway. Fortunately Ben Walker came along before he got very far and pointed out that it was a load-bearing wall and he could have brought down that part of the house.
Cecil was an eccentric in the old English style. He loved firearms and at one time, wore a six-gun in his belt. He had a Bren Gun Carrier that he used to run around the estate, and at one time, used gun cotton explosive to blow down a row of trees.
Although his mother had had a lot to do with choosing a wife for him, after they were married, she and the wife did not get on very well and eventually Cecil moved to Canada and bought a ranch. I suppose he could carry firearms as much as he liked there.
Marise Chandless, the daughter, had married first a French Air Force Officer then, after a divorce, a chap who I found was rather a layabout, this marriage also ended in divorce.
When Frank met Richard they found a common interest in flying. When Richard married Susie, another French girl, he bought Curls Farm at Ripe which, besides having quite a lot of agricultural land, included an old WW2 airfield.
This had been ploughed up but Richard set about converting it back to an airfield. We carried out a lot of electrical work at Curls Farm, both in the house and on the farm.
One or two other characters put in an appearance at the airfield and it soon became a thriving community of enthusiasts. Frank bought a share in a Jodel aircraft, a French made taildragger with cranked wings, two-seater fitted with an engine of about one hundred horsepower.
A company called Avion Robin in a factory in Dijon built the Jodel. His co-owners were a psychiatric doctor from Chalvington and a farmer from Hellingly who was quite rich.
Between the people at the airfield, money was raised to build a hanger to house the aircraft, including Richard's, which was a Robin DR400-180, a large powerful 4-seater.
I had a ride with Frank in the Jodel, which was my first experience of flying in a light aircraft. I found it rather unusual to think that there was only the thin floor of the plane and a lot of air between the ground and me.
Ron Levett, 2001
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