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I remember in the 1930's going on holiday to Selsey Bill. We lived in Fernhust, writes George Larbey. In my mind it would seem we were always going there, in truth perhaps we went 2 or maybe 3 times.
The last time we went would have been in 1937 or 1938. At that time we were living at Hurtmore in Surrey, dad was working as a cowman for the well-known farming family, 'Stovolds.'
We had moved up from Fernhurst a year or so earlier. I mention this because I have a feeling we went to Selsey for the first time from Fernhurst.
I don't know why I think this but I remember that the 37-38 holiday was the last and believe it or believe it not although I was only about 6 years old in 1938 I remember that holiday and I also remember Selsey was familiar to me even after all this time.
I also remember being taken down to Selsey that last time, in a van owned by a Mr Blackburn of Godalming. He had a removal business, and I think there's still a Blackburn Removals in Godalming to this day.
I see their lorries about from time to time. Perhaps that's why I remember that trip so well.
Mind you Selsey was a little different in those days. It had its campsite though, just a huge open field. No café's. No restaurants. The accommodation we had was a double-decker bus; there were no such things as static caravans in those days.
The nearest grocer was in the village; not much else there though. We would get our milk from the farm as you went into the campsite, it would be in a carton, we had never seen milk in a carton before and it would be a long time before we would see it again. Well after the war I would think.
In the farmyard was a huge windmill, I think still working. Mum, Dad and us 3 kids would spend most of the time on the beach; that didn't cost anything.
I think as a treat on one of the days we would get on a bus and go all the way into Chichester. I found this boring, looking round the shops. Mind you I could usual persuade mother to part with her well earned money to buy me some old rubbish which I would soon get bored with before getting on the bus and returning to the seaside.
There we would get on with the important things in life, e g digging holes in the sand and making sand castles. After all that's what we came for. Sometimes dad would discard his tie, roll up his trouser legs and help me.
He would go to great lengths explaining how the Lifeboat would get into the sea when called out, and why it didn't topple over as it went down that ramp. Don't know how he knew, for it never got called out while we were there.
Pat, my eldest sister, she would have been 14 or 15 years old and always seemed to go on long walks along the beach. Did I imagine it or was there more sand there then?
Not too many years ago I said to my wife, Jennifer, 'Let's go to Selsey.' After all it's only just down the road as one might say. So we went. It was not the first time we had been there since we had been married, we had been there and walked round the village.
I think we had taken the kids to the beach on one occasion. Got the car we had hired stuck on the pebbles in the so-called car park. But this time we were going with a purpose. To see if the campsite was still there.
We had seen on the telly about the floods they have there from time to time, in fact I had made what was called 'Selsey Bunts' when I worked at Rowlands Castle in the late 1950's early 1960's; they were used as sea defences. Little did I know they were made to keep the sea from flooding our Double Decker Bus field.
I have to report they have shattered my dreams, the only thing that has not changed is the windmill, the road in has been put on the other side of it, but it is still there. The field is full to bursting point with Mobile Homes and Fish and Chip restaurants.
The beach has been hidden by a huge bank of earth in an attempt to keep the sea back. Does the lifeboat still go down that ramp? If it does is there any one out there who can explain why it doesn't topple over? I've forgotten. And Dads long gone, so I can't ask him.
George Larbey, 2001
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