LocalHistory

By Allen Misselbrook, Yapton & Ford local history group

Village Hall c. 1985

The first Yapton and Ford Village Hall, now the Co-op in the centre of the village, came into being in 1932 when the dis-used Foundry and Fitting Shop of Sparks Engineering was bought for £904 8s 4d (s = shillings, d = pence). Architect’s fees were £41 2s 0d and £54 1s 6d was spent on equipping the building fit for use as a village hall. With on-going overheads including 2s 7d spent on a Tobacco Licence, the total out goings for the first year was £1018 9s 10d. This initial funding for the hall was achieved by donations and subscriptions which included a loan of £255 from the West Sussex Community Council, donations including £150 from the Flower Show Committee, £100 from W. A. Hounsom Esq. JP, £25 from Lady Russell of Liverpool plus sums from many well-known village Traders. Villagers themselves helped towards the costs with over one hundred and fifty households subscribing to the fund. Other sources of revenue were the proceeds of Concerts, Dances and Whist Drives which made the venture a truly village enterprise.

Partying in the Village Hall c. 1954

During World War 2 the hall took on a new role. I have already written in a recent article about the Rifle Range in the attic but that was only part of the story. Fred Osbourne, the Signalman and Railway Crossing operator, was secretary of the village hall and describes the hall’s new role in his memoirs. The hall was commandeered by the army soon after Dunkirk but it was agreed that Fred could still hold his fund-raising events. According to Fred Osbourne the first unit to take up residence was the R.A.M.C (Royal Army Medical Corp), the troops sleeping on the floor and the officers using the ‘ladies’ as the Offic- Dance programe, 1951 ers Mess. The R.A.M.C. were followed by the Argyles who also commandeered a neighbouring house and as well as the rooms above Hall Stores (Merry Meats) for billeting. To feed the troops they required a Field Kitchen, which they duly built on the car-park. Eventually, the Argyles left making way for the Home Guard who were there until the end of the war, after which it reverted to its original purpose. During the war it was also used as an ARP station and as a Red Cross training post. In the ensuing years the hall became the centre once again for village activities. As with all other village halls throughout the land it became the venue for dances, concerts and fundraising events from jumble sales to Race Evenings, from Barn Dances to Bingo Nights. Perhaps one of the most exciting uses was as the ‘nerve centre’ for actors and crews on two occasions when the BBC twice filmed episodes of their comedy ‘Ever Decreasing Circles’ starring Richard Briers and Paul Egan, on the playing field. Yapton’s many sports clubs also used the hall for their activities. Badminton and snooker clubs regularly played there. The football, cricket and stoolball clubs also used the hall as changing rooms and refreshments but the facilities were not very satisfactory and it was this that partly led to the building of a new village hall in 1988, on the King George V playing field. To contact Allen Misselbrook on a local history matter please email: allen@yaptonhistory.org.uk

By Mark Phillips

Browsing through my library of old Arundel-related documents and newspaper clippings, I recently came across one from a local evening paper dated 29 January, 1975. The headline was, 66 Schoolchildren in Crash Drama. Along with the article was a photo of a large group of children standing on a pavement and just to the right of centre, I was looking into the face of a 14-year-old me my thoughts instantly flashed back to that day when Lady Luck was most certainly with us. I woke up to a rainy morning. A couple of friends and I walked the ten minutes to the bus stop and boarded the school bus for Littlehampton School. The double decker traversed the large pools of water that had gathered on areas along the A284 near Lyminster without a problem. Then, as we were about to drive around a left-hand curve, ‘a notorious accident blackspot’, the bus skidded to the left. It straightened itself but immediately skidded more sharply to the left, then came an ear-splitting bang followed by several smaller bangs in quick succession as we ploughed along the line of a hedgerow. Finally, a two-metre length of wooden fencing smashed through the front windscreen, only just missing the driver, and the bus came to a halt in a grass field. There was screaming, crying, shouting from the passengers, the screams increased as the bus sank into the waterlogged field on its left side and appeared to be toppling over, but at the last second, it partially righted itself. The whole incident must have taken less than ten seconds. We all filed off through the emergency exits and waited by the side of the road, not knowing what to do next. After five minutes or so, the shock had turned into relief for most and the usual childish laughing and joking returned. We had all been so lucky that day, only one child was injured and they were, ‘…taken by a doctor in his car for treatment at his surgery in Arundel.’ According to the article, the bus driver was, ‘… Joseph Pressnall from Sompting who was wearing

his Southdown medal awarded for a 35-year accident-free driving record. After rounding the bend, the bus apparently hit the soft verge of the road and plunged down a 12-inch bank into a pool of floodwater and thick oozing mud before tilting over about ten degrees.’ It didn’t take long for the local Similar to the school bus that crashed press to find out about the accident and soon we were joined by a reporter and his photographer. One walked around taking photos of us and the bus while the other ran around in a bit of a frenzy gathering quotes from various children from 1117 years of age. Robin Marchant (14) was sitting next to his girlfriend Debbie Lee. “The bus was not going fast and we went round a corner,” said Robin. ”The next thing I knew I was sitting on the floor and the bus was tilting over. Some of the children were crying and others ran to the far side of the bus to see what had happened but were quickly told to get back on the other side in case the shift of weight made the bus topple over. Many motorists stopped to ask if we were all ok and if anyone needed a lift to hospital. After a long wait, another bus turned up and the children were taken to school where they were informed that anyone feeling shocked or unwell could go home. About ten children remained while the rest were driven back to Arundel. As the bus was hauled out of the field by a heavy towing lorry, Mr Pressnall, the driver, refused to discuss the accident with the reporter. The article reported that after a while, ‘…most of the youngsters were joking and treating the accident as though it was just part of the normal excitement of the day.’ And me? Well, after ten minutes and no-one really knowing what we should do, a local Arundel man we knew stopped his car next to two friends and I. He asked if there was anything he could do to help. I looked at my two friends with a conspiratorial smile and said, “Yes, we wouldn’t mind a lift back to Arundel if that’s ok, we are still feeling a little shocked.”

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