Although young Olive Sharman (nee Hewitt) lived in East Grinstead she went to church at nearby Newchapel. Her furthest recollections go back to beyond the First World War.

'When I was a child, I went to a small village Sunday School and sometimes we had a Social Evening, perhaps some Magic Lantern Slides and afterwards certain children sung or recited.

We took one penny (old coin) each and sat on hard seats at either school or Sunday school. Often the room would be filled with smoke from the lamp, and the slides were mostly missionary ones and often put in upside down causing great laughter and much clapping. Then we would walk home chattering away and delighted if there was a moon, when we would try and catch shadows or see how tall we have grown.

During hard times, the cook at the Manor House was allowed to sell dripping which we loved on toast, or baked potatoes and if you took a large jug or milk can, it was filled with thick very tasty soup which could be diluted quite a lot and helped many families provide for their children in times of unemployment. When it rained or we had snow or hard frosts, many of the men on buildings, etc. could not work and there was no unemployment money as there is today.

If you worked on an estate, as many people near us did, you got your cottage, free milk, wood and rabbits to make a very tasty meal. I don't think all estates did this, but I had cousins, ploughmen, woodmen, keepers, etc. and they were well looked after.

People helped each other and exchanged vegetable seeds, etc. of course. Some people would not mix or join in anything, but we would go to the little local shops, where they sold most things from oil, candles etc. to bacon, butter and biscuits or to the baker's shop. Willets, for bread or sweets when one of us had a copper to spend and share and Mrs. Willet sold sweets, sticky ones and when the jars were getting empty, she used to try and get the sweets out, by jabbing them with a knife, so the sweets would be all broken up.'