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Archie Greenshields was born in 1920 and brought up in Chichester, West Sussex.
My maternal grandfather, Henry Hall, was a builder's labourer. He married Sarah Ann Murrant on the 20 October, 1895. He must have been using Sarah Ann's parents address at the time of their marriage as his residence is recorded as Little London as was Sarah's. The wedding was performed at the unearthly hour of 8 o'clock in the morning at St. Andrew's Church, which is now redundant and used as an Arts & Craft Centre and situated behind the shops in East Street, quite close to Marks & Spencers.
After the ceremony, the bridal pair were loaned the pony and trap owned by the brides father, the symbol of his new wealth it seems, and drove his bride to the seaside at Bognor Regis for the day. I possess a tin-plate photograph taken against a bathing machine on this occasion and there is a third person with them, this I suspect might have been Betty, the mother of Eva and Arthur. Their evening was spent enjoying themselves at Sloe Fair.
We children did not see a great deal of my granddad during week days because of him being at work but saw a great deal of Grannie. I possess a large photograph of Granddad and his team of workers all of which I believe were employed by one of the group on the photo who ran the small firm from a yard in The Hornet, Chichester.
The picture shows Granddad to be a typical Victorian artisan with his hod of bricks standing next to the bricklayer who was probably the boss. He was keen on his small garden in which he grew vegetables and by the back door of his cottage had an everlasting sweetpea plant that is rarely seen these days in gardens.
I own one or two small Kodak snapshots taken by Florrie and one portrays him sitting on a stool with my younger sister Joyce clasped between his knees. There are others taken a few of my brothers and sisters in that garden by Florrie, one of which she had positioned us against one of Grandma's sheets hanging on her washing line and weighted down with a flat iron.
There was talk in the family that he could imbibe his pints of beer with the best of them. It is even recorded in a journal of the Chichester History Society Volume 111 No.1, written by a Wally Drew, an old resident of Tower Street, to which he contributed memories of Old Tower Street residents, and I quote:
'Harry (I presume Henry was known as such) worked on the building. He once caught a pheasant at his job. He was offered 2s 6d (22½p) for it by one of his mates at his job but he refused 'I am taking it home' he said. He did, and because he did not have a good oven, he asked the landlady of The Ship (Mrs. McCarthy) to cook it for him and she agreed.
Later on, when there was an odd smell coming from the oven, she went to Harry and said 'Did you take the guts out?' 'No, did I have to?' said Harry. So Harry did not have the pheasant and lost 2s.6d. a fair sum at that time.'
Florrie also remembers when her father became due for the small old age pension paid in those far off days, he had problems obtaining it because by adopting the surname Hall when it had been truly Roberts. My maternal grandfather adopted the name Hall which is believed to be the surname of two of his Aunts, who probably raised him to manhood. It was left to his son, my Uncle Fred the task of straightening out the problem he had caused for himself by changing his surname.
After he should have retired from full time employment, his son, my Uncle George, arranged for his father to help him to deliver coal. Being employed by a coal merchant and general haulier named Sid Steele of Sidlesham, George was then able to help Granddad supplement his small pension he eventually received, by acting as George's mate, who only allowed him to drag the sacks to the side of the lorry however, refusing to allow him to carry any.
After one very wet day though, Henry got soaking wet through and caught a chill which developed into pneumonia. He was admitted to hospital where four days later he died at the age of 73 years. His soldier son Fred had been called to his bedside but arrived too late.
Quite naturally my Mother was dreadfully upset at the passing of her father, but her children had not had any previous experience of death and sadly the occasion did not register any particular loss to us. We were in fact overcome more by Mother's grief who seemed to cry for so long afterwards. This alone produced sorrow rather than the loss of a grand-parent who was hardly ever at home on our often visits to Grannie.
The Ship in Tower Street was barely a few steps from the entrance to Hall's Court. I believe Granddad must have had quite a reputation for his drinking habits, emphasised in a conversation with my mother in her latter years, at a time when she was regressing into her childhood, often asking me to take her home to Tower Street where she thought she still lived as a little girl.
She asked me once where her Dad was, was he at home yet, and was he perhaps in the garden? To satisfy but more to mollify her concern, I said he was not in the garden and received the speedy reply, 'I suppose he is up that pub again!'
I vividly remember too, an occasion as a child at a Christmas gathering in our little back to back cottage in Rose Court and Spring Gardens, when Mother and Father had invited her parents in for drinks. Granddad was offered an effervescent raspberry cordial, a bottle or two mother had purchased especially for us children as a treat.
Gran refused to allow him to drink it under her impression that its garish colour represented a strong and powerful alcoholic drink. 'It will make him fighting drunk, strong drink always does!'
Archie Greenshield, West Sussex, 2001
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