Tag: Lavant River

We are very grateful to Tony Keating for his contribution to the site. There are several references to him which can be found if you type Keating into the search box. He has kindly provided additional information to his contribution which is published below and you should cross-refer this with the earlier entries

Notes and Memories of Westgate from 1946 – 1960 

(NOTE – Names and details may not be totally accurate due distant memory!)

St Barts Church

St Barts was the centre of much of the social life of many of the young children in Westgate at this time.  St Barts was a very “High” church with lots of genuflecting and signs of the cross.  Father P H Busck was the vicar in the early days until about 1951 and then Father John A Reickart (photo) took over until 1959.  Services were held every Sunday at 8am, 11am and 6.30pm plus a Sunday School in the afternoon

The organist was Mary Bernand and many local children were in the choir and several of us were confirmed by Bishop Bell. I was in the choir and then started serving at the altar first as a “boat boy” and then as acolyte and thurifer.  Eventually I became the organist although not very proficient!  The main person serving in the church throughout this time was Leslie Holden.

Local children used to play in the vicarage garden on the north side of Westgate (now demolished) on a regular basis.

St Barts had a church hall in Orchard Street (near the Squittery bridge) which was, until recently, the Chichester Food Bank.  Mrs Gardener ran a social club here for the local teenagers with regular shows, dancing, table tennis etc.  This was very popular.

My parents also ran occasional concerts there and continued helping the elderly and disabled in Chichester for which they received the freedom of the city and also my mother was received the British Empire Medal from the Queen..

The children regularly played in the grave yard area of the church in Mount Lane which was very overgrown.

Westgate Fields

The other main playground for teenagers at the time was the Westgate Fields.  There were masses of buttercups in the summer with many trees to climb and birds nests to find – always leaving at least three eggs!  We learnt a lot about nature.  

Cattle were often kept in the fields ready for the Chichester market.  Ted Gobey (Gobi?) was the well known character that looked after the cattle and took them to market.  All the children were frightened of him as he had a black dog and a stick would would chase anyone he found trespassing in the fields.  He lived in Parchment Street but was often in a small shed at Bartholomew’s Grain Store at the north end of Orchard St.

I lived at 81 Westgate and, like many of the houses, we had a stile from our garden directly into the Westgate Fields.  The permanent noise for many houses in Westgate at the time was the shunting of the wagons in the huge goods yard across the Westgate Fields.  We would spend hours watching the tank engines shunting and I got to know the railway men who, one day, asked if I would like to drive a steam engine.  They let me through the fence just under the long footbridge and the engine driver let me drive the engine about 20 yards down and back.  I think the engine number was number 348 and as this was before the new British Rail numbering I must have been about 12 years old.

The 1875 OS map shows a road or track running south from Westgate just to the west of the river Lavant.  This must have run almost directly through the plot of where our house was built and ran down near to the railway where there was a building of some sort – possibly a barn for the animals.  This had totally disappeared by our time.

We would regularly walk over the fields to Dell Quay and Fishbourne on Chichester Harbour.  This meant crossing over the railway bridge and also the by-pass which was then a single track of concreted road. 

I remember one year of very heavy snow when we made huge snow forts in the Westgate fields near Mount Lane and played snowballs for hours,  I think it might have been 1947.

River Lavant

The River Lavant was another large part of our lives.  We were always in trouble for falling in or getting our shoes wet.  At many places you would find fuel tanks dropped by aircraft.  They were mainly of two types but both would made excellent rafts for using on the river.

Many years ago the river was re routed along the north edge of the Westgate fields but the original course had been along Chichester walls by Orchard St and then back through the Brewery and Tannery.  This old route still existed underground and the two rivers then joined a few yards from our house (photo).  I spent many hours with friends on the small concrete junction and paddling in the stream.

We would have explorations along the “tunnel” of the original route of the river with a lantern walking as far as we dared before getting scared and turning back!

There was a flint stone wall over this route and behind it was an orchard where we regularly “scrumpted” apples.  I think it might have belonged to the Tannery which was some distance to the east.

There were some holes in the steep bank of the river a few yards from there where I believe sand martins nested.  Then another few yards down the river there was a small brick arched bridge which allowed the cattle to cross the river from the adjacent field.  A small pool formed in front of the bridge where we would spot small fish that we called “Bulls Heads”.

The river meandered across the field with many curves toward the railway (see photos of approx 1950 including that of my sister) but judging by its current course it must have been straightened considerably when the college buildings were built.

The fields by the river regularly flooded during winter and, in old maps, there are various pools and tributaries of the river in adjacent fields which I assume were either natural springs or dug to provide water for the grazing animals. 

One favourite place for us to play was the final bend in the river before the railway where there was a large old oak tree which we regularly climbed (photo).  This is almost exactly where the current modern bridge crosses from the car park into the college.

Bus and Train

Westgate was then the main A27 road from Chichester to Portsmouth and ran directly into Fishboune over the large level crossing. As a result there was much more direct contact at the time between the children in Westgate and children living along the Fishbourne Road and also Apuldram Road. 

The level crossing gates were especially large partly as there were three tracks and also because the road was at an angle to the railway lines.  It was reputed to have the second largest gates in the south of England.  There was a large signal box that controlled the trains entering and leaving the Chichester section plus the branch line to Lavant and Midhurst.  Although passenger trains to Midhurst had stopped in the 1930s there were still freight trains until the accident near Cocking in 1952 after which the trains only ran as far as Lavant.

I got to know the signal man (I think called Jack Grant) in the signal box who showed me how to signal the trains to the next box with the bells and buzzers and also handle the signals and wind the gate. I even learned how to pass the”staff” to the driver of the train on the Midhurst branch.  One day, early in the morning, I was allowed in the cab of the new 20003 diesel electric engine and drove it a few yards over the crossing.  Great fun for a young boy like me!

The main bus along Westgate was the 31 Southdown service which ran every 15 minutes between Portsmouth and Brighton.  We used it to get into Chichester and also school in wet weather.   The 56 bus to Bosham also used this route.   The 64 bus served Parklands (photo) which linked into St Paul’s Road.

Sherborne Estate

The Sherborne estate had not been built and there were fields and farmland all the way from Beech Avenue and Cedar Drive to the Midhurst railway.

There was a small grass track from Westgate at the location of the current entrance of Sherborne Road for about 50 yards into the farmland.  We used to walk most Sunday afternoons across the farm fields where there was a large mulberry tree that we used to climb and eat the berries.  Eventually we reached the farm where a friendly farm worker would chat to us and dare us for sixpence to run through the large dung heap – which was impossible!  Each time he also told us that we were just to late to see the bull being milked – which we naively believed!

Street Businesses

The two main industries were Henty & Constable’s brewery and the Tannery both of which smelt very strongly!  A young employee of the Tannery would take us in there at the weekend when it was closed and show us the large acid tanks and equipment which we found very scary.

The main shop in Westgate was Deerings which served papers, Walls and Lyons ice cream, tobacco and sweets.  They delivered papers throughout the local area. I had a paper round starting by the level crossing gages and going along Fishbourne Road, including part of Apuldram Road, through to Creek End in Fishbourne.

The other confectionary shop was Charlie Hooker by the old city walls near the West Gate.

There was an electrician on the north side of the road, I think called Hancocks, where we got acid to top up our radio batteries.

The Swan pub was on the corner of Orchard Street and there was a garage opposite Henry’s Brewery which had a large thermometer right by the street.  I remember always hoping it would reach 100 degrees and one day it did! 

At the junction of the Fishbourne Road and the By Pass there was a garage called “Boys Garage” where most locals would get their cars serviced – if they had one!

Connection to Fishbourne

Because of the direct connecting road there was a good deal of contact between Westgate and Fishbourne.  Many of the Westgate children would walk to the mill at Fishbourne to swim.  The mill had not been converted into flats at that time and the old wooden planks crossing the streams along the path through the reeds were very rotten.  They were called the Three Bridges.  We used to creep through the reeds to the grassy banks at high tide to swim and we called the area the Bathing Banks.

Residents

Some of the people and children I remember living in or near Westgate at the time were: