Sussex Style April 2015 by Sussex Style

SUSSEXst yle APR 2O15

decadence

1920s - A BRIEF ENCOUNTER + SILENT MOVIES AUCTIONEERS + GRAND HOUSES

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contents

On the cover

Dress: Silk Cow Halter Neck £3500 by Halfpennylondon.com. Location: The Town Hall Hotel townhallhotel.com Photographer: Phil Dunlop phil-dunlop.com

8 Editor’s letter

fashion & beauty

10 To the manor born

26 Edina Ronay

Life in Sussex’s great houses in the 1920s

15 Silent Sussex

How filmmakers flocked to Sussex in the 1920s

Interview with former actress and knitwear guru

30 A brief encounter A movie themed fashion shoot at Worthing Dome Cinema

18 Daniel Raven How different were the

38 The roaring 20s

20 Sussex Gentlemen

40 Beauty notebook

1920s to today?

Cricketer Matt Prior

22 Paul Burston

Shenanigans in Hastings in the 1920s

Style icon Inger Moss on 20s fashion

Top 1920s products

42 Health and fitness How 1920s muscle men influenced today’s workouts

45 Dream weddings Inspiration for your perfect day

food & drink 58 Food news

Sussex’s finest food and drink

60 Domestic goddess TV series Back in Time for Dinner

62 Roast lamb

Delicious roast lamb with dill and lemon

home & garden 66 Sussex’s finest

Exploring some of the UK’s richest villages

74 Upstairs downstairs

History of servants in Sussex

80 Fabric Lady

Celebrating Saltdean Lido

life & style 84 Auctioneers: behind the scenes

The inside story of two leading auction houses

91 Mum on the run

Laura Jandac’s home alone. Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

92 Schoolgate drama

The perils of kids’ birthday parties

95 Brighton mums The joys of coffee

96 Book Club

1920s inspired reads

98 Minxy

Kitchen disaster throws our columnist back in time

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inside

To the manor born

The 1920s were an exciting time in the grand houses of Sussex. We explore the life of the glamorous Loelia Ponsonby at Stansted Park and find out exactly what Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant and the rest of the Bloomsbury set got up to at the idyllic Charleston.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Edina Ronay

As an actress and a model Edina Ronay was one of the iconic faces of the 1960s. But it was as a fashion designer that she would take the world by storm. We find out what drives and inspires her.

Every great house needs a team of devoted staff to keep it running. But what was it really like to be a servant in some of Sussex’s finest homes and how has this changed over the decades? David Bennun uncovers the fascinating history of servants.

In this issue...

Sussex’s silents

Forget Hollywood and travel back in time to Shoreham-bySea, which in the late teens and early 1920s was at the centre of the British film industry. Find out how movie makers and beautiful starlets flocked to the small town and inspired the world.

Dream weddings

Keeper of the county

Matt Prior is one of the UK’s most celebrated cricketers and has represented Sussex for over 10 years. What are the highlights of his amazing, international career and why is he always happy to return to Sussex? We catch him off the pitch as he tells us all.

Spring is the time of the year when you start planning what should be the most memorable day of your life: the wedding to your loved one. Walk down the aisle with Sussex Style and let us help make your dream a reality with our perfect wedding ideas.

SUSSEXstyle EDITOR IN CHIEF

Get in touch! We’d love to hear your comments, views and suggestions: alex@sussexstyle. co.uk

ALEX HOPKINS

DEPUTY EDITOR DAVID BENNUN

CREATIVE DIRECTOR BETH DONSON

FOOD & DRINK EDITOR SAM BILTON

HEALTH & FITNESS EDITOR BEN MARSHALL

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER STEF KERSWELL

COMMERCIAL MANAGER JACQUELINE NICHOLSON

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT MANAGERS

MICHELLE DE LA MOTTE-RICE LOUISE CANTWELL WHITAKER

CONTRIBUTORS

PAUL BURSTON JULIE CHALK HANNAH DE FRATESCHI LAURA JANDAC CLAIRE JONES HUGHES LAURA LOCKINGTON SARAH MANN YEAGER INGER MOSS DANIEL RAVEN SIMON WEBSTER

PUBLISHED BY

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All rights reserved. except for normal review purposes, no part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. No artwork or editorial content may be used in any other form or publication without the publisher’s consent. Every care is taken in the preparation of this magazine, but the contents are only meant as a guide to the readers. The proprietors of this publication ARE publishers, not agents or sub agents of those who advertise therein. They cannot be held liable for any loss suffered as a result of information gained from the publication. Copyright 2015 Green Duck Media Ltd - Sussex StyleTM

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They were very fond of The family made some major changes. in 1927, by the stable block. amateur dramatics and built the theatre by family members, local Three productions each year were performed The theatre was based on the amateurs, and visiting professionals. West End; sadly, it burned design of the Duchess Theatre in London’s by the Home Guard. But this down during the war when being used (Frederick), the 10th Earl, who theatrical legacy was maintained by Eric Festival Theatre, and was also later became a founder of Chichester London. in Globe new the of rebuilding the involved in time exist, the striking Loelia Although no visitors’ books from the have spent time at the estate. The Ponsonby, born in 1902, would certainly (later 1st Baron Sysonby), daughter of the courtier Sir Frederick Ponsonby scale and had been brought up at she was accustomed to living on a grand and Birkhall. St James’s Palace, Park House at Sandringham, part of the Bright Young “In the 1920s Loelia became an integral

sussex gentlemen

KEEPER OF

“This is the last gasp of the traditional country house, where they entertained on a grand scale, politically and socially”

STANSTED PARK The last of the great houses

slightly to her left, meaning that The woman in the portrait is looking cheekbones is caught almost in her beautiful face, with its proud, high bobbed in the style of the day and profile. Her dark hair is immaculately in diamonds and fur. In her she wears a shimmering white gown, draped right hand she holds a single pink rose. in front of this oil painting, Visitors to Stansted Park always pause strangely aloof woman is. Her wondering who this elegant, yet from the way she holds herself expression is inscrutable, yet it is clear tell. to story a has that she cousin of the 9th Earl of This woman is Loelia Ponsonby, a spent time at Stansted Park in Bessborough. She, of all the women who heady decade the best. this of glamour the 1920s, sums up the bought the Stansted It was in 1923 that the 9th Earl of Bessborough had lived in Ireland where their Park estate, near Chichester. The family destoyed by arson in the Troubles. home, Bessborough House, had been step of moving their priceless Fortunately, they’d already taken the wise London home. But they were collection of art and antiques to their store their treasure. They found still looking for the perfect location to advertisement in Country Life this when they came across a property magazine – for Stansted Park. last gasp of the traditional “With the Bessboroughs, you have the of Stansted Park. “They moved country house,” says Janet Sinclair, curator and socially. The Countess in to entertain on a grand scale, both politically aristocrat and brought European of Bessborough, Roberte, was a French you’ll find a French enamel stove, influences to the house. In the kitchen in the dining room. French cookery books and black candles almost brand new because it “They restyled the entire house. It was 1901 and 1903, so although had burned down and been rebuilt between actual fabric of the building was the house has 800 years of history, the in.” pretty new when the Bessboroughs moved

quite an unhappy person.” Loelia reigned supreme But in London and Sussex, in the 1920s, and antics were legendary among this hedonistic set. The parties treasure hunts, alleged use of and included fancy dress, night-time But, says Sinclair, Loelia was drugs and, of course, endless alcohol. somewhat of an outsider in this set. have a huge income. She “Despite her background she didn’t after her marriage. This led didn’t have money in her own right until we still have today, where to her inventing the ‘Bottle Party’, which people bring their own alcohol to parties.” artists of the time. Noel Loelia’s life inspired the writers and Grace and Favour, autobiography Coward wrote the preface to her mark on a British born and more fascinating still, she left an indelible spy called James Bond. the wife of Bond author “One of Loelia’s friend was Ann Fleming, was used Ian,” explains Sinclair. “Loelia’s name James in the early novels. Originally, she was Love, Bond’s secretary in From Russia With asked but later, when Loelia remarried, she was Fleming to write her out, so her name in the changed to Mary Goodnight – but then, and films, the relationship is between James think Miss Moneypenny, so you can actually of Loelia as the origin of Moneypenny.” In her later years, Loelia would become Garden a writer and editor for House and skilled magazine. She was also a highly on show needlewoman, and her embroidery is Park. at Stansted the Bertie Wooster novels, “She was part of a time when, like in in just a few hours. This was so you could travel down to Sussex by car Sinclair. says coach,” stage a in different from having to spend all day of entertaining. She was “Loelia helped define this last great age part of the high society that a larger than life figure – and an integral still intrigues us so today.”

Scenes from the magnificent life of Stansted Park as the last of the great houses of Sussex, including a fulllength portrait of society beauty Loelia Ponsonby; and the house as it stands today.

MATT PRIOR BECAME SUSSEX COUNTY CRICKET CLUB’S FIRSTCHOICE WICKET-KEEPER IN 2005 AND HAS REPRESENTED ENGLAND FOR OVER A DECADE. STEVE HILL MEETS HIM.

Sussex County Cricket Club has played a huge role in your career. What is so special about the club and how have you seen it change over the years?

THE COUNTY

I think first and foremost the thing that’s special about Sussex is that it’s a small club, in essence, and it’s a family club, and there’s a huge amount put on that family environment and team environment. We certainly had a period where we won a lot of trophies and actually outperformed for the size of our club – we were beating Surrey, Lancashire, etc, and that was based on this real strong team ethic and team ethos, which pulled us across the line on many occasions, and that’s a thing that I think is very special about it.

Matt, you’ve obviously had an illustrious career for England. What are your top highlights and most memorable experiences with England?

You were born in South Africa, but moved to Sussex aged 11, where you attended Brighon College. What does the county mean to you?

I have three that really stand out. The first one is winning a test series in India. Anyone that’s played over there knows how hard it is to win. I think it was 28 years since the last England cricket team won out there, so that was a real standout victory for us. The Australia Ashes series 2010/11, winning over there, that was a real special time for English cricket, all those guys that were involved in that, it was amazing. And the final one is when we became the best team in the world. To be known as the number one in the world is a fantastic honour and that comes about not from one good performance or a couple of good performances, but over time, years. That, for me, is a standout.

It means a huge amount to me. Everyone loves to say I was born in South Africa, but I’ve lived most of my best years in England, and in Sussex. I’ve been very fortunate to travel the world, which is fantastic, but I love nothing more than coming home, and home is Sussex. It’s a very special county. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

“I’ve been very fortunate to travel the world, which is fantastic, but I love nothing more than coming home, and home is Sussex”

How do you remain focussed on your career and continue to push yourself onwards? Sport’s always changing, isn’t it? You’ve always got new challenges, new hurdles in front of you – at the moment it’s just to get fit again after a big operation. You’re always reassessing and re-evaluating where you are and your goals, which I think is important. But there’s APRIL 2015 | SUSSEXSTYLE.COM

Do you have any particular favourite places in Sussex? How many can we list? Well, look, the County Ground at Hove has to be one of them, that’s certainly one. The thing I love about it is when I lived in Brighton you’ve got seafront five minutes in one direction, countryside, Downs. It’s just the location of it all.

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IMAGE CREDIT: PA IMAGES

RICHARD JUDD

Alex Hopkins looks back at life in Sussex in the 1920s – and uncovers two captivating extremes

FOUNDATION.

HEAD OF FINANCE

she married Hugh Grosvenor, Things,” says Sinclair. “Later, in 1930, marriage was a disaster. For all the second Duke of Westminster. The society, I think she was actually that she was a part of this wonderful

TO THE MANOR BORN

THE TRUSTEES OF STANSTED PARK

SEÁN KANE

sussex history

ALL IMAGES BY PERMISSION OF WWW.STANSTEDPARK.CO.UK

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

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2015

Batting for cycling fans: Matt Prior

You’re really into cycling and you’ve just formed the One Pro cycling team. How did that come about? It’s quite a leap from a cricketer to cycling, don’t you think? It’s a massive leap. It started off with my [Achilles] injury, getting into cycling, becoming passionate about it. When I had to pull out midsummer I sat down and had a think. I can’t lie still for too long and I came at this from a cycling fan point of view. I saw an opportunity to go right, ok, hold on a minute, if we had a pro cycling team that gave a bit more back to the fans that would be phenomenal, because I would love that, as a cycling fan. And that’s when I approached Simon Chappell, the chairman. It all developed from there. For information on One Pro Cycling

All Pages

visit http://oneprocycling.com

APRIL 2015 | SUSSEXSTYLE.COM |

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Welcome...

This month Sussex Style steps back in time to possibly the greatest decade of them all: the 1920s. It was the era of divine decadence, conspicuous consumption, breathtakingly bold fashions and the birth of filmmaking. Sussex, we discover, was pivotal in shaping this new industry, with pioneers flocking to Shoreham’s beach with their cameras and glamorous young starlets. We’re also celebrating Sussex’s most beautiful homes - past and present. What went on in Stansted Park and Charleston during the 1920s? And, for the less privileged, what was it like to work as a servant in one of these magnificent places? Buying the perfect home today? Check out Bosham, Forest Row and West Wittering - three of the richest villages in the UK. We show you all they have to offer. Perhaps you’re looking for stunning, unique furniture for your home? We have an exclusive behind the scenes look at two of the county’s leading auction houses. You’ll find our guide more fascinating than anything on TV. Our fashion shoot this month took us to the sumptuous Dome Cinema in Worthing, where we reimagined the silent movies. Skipping forward a few decades, we catch up with Edina Ronay, iconic 1960s actress and knitwear guru. All this plus delectable recipes, top gym tips and inimitable advice from your favourite columnists,. So sit back, unwind and stay chic...

Alex Hopkins

CMY

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sussex history

TO THE MANOR BORN

Alex Hopkins looks back at life in Sussex in the 1920s – and uncovers two captivating extremes

The woman in the portrait is looking slightly to her left, meaning that her beautiful face, with its proud, high cheekbones is caught almost in profile. Her dark hair is immaculately bobbed in the style of the day and she wears a shimmering white gown, draped in diamonds and fur. In her right hand she holds a single pink rose. Visitors to Stansted Park always pause in front of this oil painting, wondering who this elegant, yet strangely aloof woman is. Her expression is inscrutable, yet it is clear from the way she holds herself that she has a story to tell. This woman is Loelia Ponsonby, a cousin of the 9th Earl of Bessborough. She, of all the women who spent time at Stansted Park in the 1920s, sums up the glamour of this heady decade the best. It was in 1923 that the 9th Earl of Bessborough bought the Stansted Park estate, near Chichester. The family had lived in Ireland where their home, Bessborough House, had been destoyed by arson in the Troubles. Fortunately, they’d already taken the wise step of moving their priceless collection of art and antiques to their London home. But they were still looking for the perfect location to store their treasure. They found this when they came across a property advertisement in Country Life magazine – for Stansted Park. “With the Bessboroughs, you have the last gasp of the traditional country house,” says Janet Sinclair, curator of Stansted Park. “They moved in to entertain on a grand scale, both politically and socially. The Countess of Bessborough, Roberte, was a French aristocrat and brought European influences to the house. In the kitchen you’ll find a French enamel stove, French cookery books and black candles in the dining room. “They restyled the entire house. It was almost brand new because it had burned down and been rebuilt between 1901 and 1903, so although the house has 800 years of history, the actual fabric of the building was pretty new when the Bessboroughs moved in.” 10 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

The family made some major changes. They were very fond of amateur dramatics and built the theatre in 1927, by the stable block. Three productions each year were performed by family members, local amateurs, and visiting professionals. The theatre was based on the design of the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End; sadly, it burned down during the war when being used by the Home Guard. But this theatrical legacy was maintained by Eric (Frederick), the 10th Earl, who later became a founder of Chichester Festival Theatre, and was also involved in the rebuilding of the new Globe in London. Although no visitors’ books from the time exist, the striking Loelia Ponsonby, born in 1902, would certainly have spent time at the estate. The daughter of the courtier Sir Frederick Ponsonby (later 1st Baron Sysonby), she was accustomed to living on a grand scale and had been brought up at St James’s Palace, Park House at Sandringham, and Birkhall. “In the 1920s Loelia became an integral part of the Bright Young

ALL IMAGES BY PERMISSION OF THE TRUSTEES OF STANSTED PARK FOUNDATION. WWW.STANSTEDPARK.CO.UK

STANSTED PARK The last of the great houses

Things,” says Sinclair. “Later, in 1930, she married Hugh Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster. The marriage was a disaster. For all that she was a part of this wonderful society, I think she was actually quite an unhappy person.” But in London and Sussex, in the 1920s, Loelia reigned supreme among this hedonistic set. The parties and antics were legendary and included fancy dress, night-time treasure hunts, alleged use of drugs and, of course, endless alcohol. But, says Sinclair, Loelia was somewhat of an outsider in this set. “Despite her background she didn’t have a huge income. She didn’t have money in her own right until after her marriage. This led to her inventing the ‘Bottle Party’, which we still have today, where people bring their own alcohol to parties.” Loelia’s life inspired the writers and artists of the time. Noel Coward wrote the preface to her autobiography Grace and Favour, and more fascinating still, she left an indelible mark on a British born spy called James Bond. “One of Loelia’s friend was Ann Fleming, the wife of Bond author Ian,” explains Sinclair. “Loelia’s name was used in the early novels. Originally, she was James Bond’s secretary in From Russia With Love, but later, when Loelia remarried, she asked Fleming to write her out, so her name was changed to Mary Goodnight – but then, in the films, the relationship is between James and Miss Moneypenny, so you can actually think of Loelia as the origin of Moneypenny.” In her later years, Loelia would become a writer and editor for House and Garden magazine. She was also a highly skilled needlewoman, and her embroidery is on show at Stansted Park. “She was part of a time when, like in the Bertie Wooster novels, you could travel down to Sussex by car in just a few hours. This was so different from having to spend all day in a stage coach,” says Sinclair. “Loelia helped define this last great age of entertaining. She was a larger than life figure – and an integral part of the high society that still intrigues us so today.”

“This is the last gasp of the traditional country house, where they entertained on a grand scale, politically and socially”

Scenes from the magnificent life of Stansted Park as the last of the great houses of Sussex, including a fulllength portrait of society beauty Loelia Ponsonby; and the house as it stands today.

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CHARLESTON A Bohemian paradise

The avant-garde Bloomsbury Set inhabitants of Charleston House in their garden; and the rooms and artefacts they made so distinctly their own.

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EXTERIOR IMAGE OF CHARLESTON BY PENELOPE FEWSTER. ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT THE CHARLESTON TRUST

Over in Lewes, East Sussex, is the other extreme of 1920 country living, embodied by Charleston House, sometime home to the decidedly unconventional Bloomsbury set. “It will be an odd life, but…it ought to be a good one for painting,” wrote Vanessa Bell, the painter, sister of author Virginia Woolf, and wife of art critic Clive Bell. Bell’s words could also be used to describe the rather complex relationships between members of the Bloomsbury Group. Although married to Clive Bell, she was having an affair with the predominantly homosexual artist Duncan Grant, who in turn was having an affair with the predominantly heterosexual writer and publisher David Garnett. All players in this entangled web set up camp at Charleston from 1916 onwards. “Duncan Grant and his lover, David Garnett, were both conscientious objectors,” says Darren Clarke, curator at Charleston. “When conscription came in in 1916, they had to find work on a farm or doing something else of national importance or face going to prison. Vanessa Bell already lived in that area of Sussex – she shared Asham with Virginia Woolf, and it was Woolf and her husband Leonard who found Charleston for Grant and Garnett. They came down one day in 1916 and took the lease on the house and found a farmer who would employ the two men. They moved in in October of that year.” The rest of the war was spent at Charleston. Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell’s child, Angelica, was even born there on Christmas day, 1918. After the war the group began redecorating the house, but they weren’t sure they’d be able to keep it on: finding staff who were willing to stay in such a remote location was a challenge. Even so, they managed to secure a long lease. “In the 1920s, Charleston was very much a summer residence,” explains Clarke. “They all had studios and flats in London, rented a house in the South of France in the inter-war period and quite often took studios in Rome or Paris for one or two months, but they would always come back to Charleston in August or September. It was a decade

of long summers in the beautiful Sussex countryside. “The group would have spent their days working on their own paintings and trying to be outside as much as possible. It was, in many ways, rather Edenic in the 1920s: you had Bell’s children running around naked in the pond and there was a very relaxed atmosphere.” But Clarke stresses that it was also a working household. Those who came down from London were expected to bring work with them. Typically, they would meet for breakfast and then everyone would go off to their various studios. Lunch would follow and the afternoon would be more social. The day would conclude with dinner and lots of discussions, many taking place in the Garden Room, which Grant played a pivotal part in decorating. “The house was famous for its discussions,” adds Clarke. “In 1918 Lytton Strachey read the first draft of his book, Eminent Victorians, in the Garden Room. The first Hogarth Press was set up by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at Charleston, which published T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland – again the first edition was read out at the house. Physically it was remote from London, but was still very much engaged with what was going on in the cultural world.” While, on the surface, the Charleston of the 1920s looked like an idyllic environment, there were tensions – particularly of the emotional kind, given the avant-garde relationships between the house’s occupants. But, on a more practical level, life was also tough: there was no running water and supplies had to be pumped every day from a spring. Neither was there electricity, meaning the house was freezing cold in the winter. But the positives certainly outweighed the negatives for the Bloomsbury Group. Charleston allowed them to live a very private life, where their creativity could flourish. In 1939, it became Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s primary home and remained so until they died. They had found their solace in a small, hidden corner of Sussex.

“On the surface, the Charleston House of the 1920s looked idyllic. But beneath it, there were tensions, particularly of the emotional kind”

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01273 605577 - 16 Gardner St BN1

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cinema history

Sussex’s

silent movies

Film pioneers flocked to Sussex in the late teens and early 1920s. Alex Hopkins traces their hopes and dreams

rom a distance they would have looked like little more than derelict huts: small, rickety wooden structures, held together with corrugated iron. There they sat, for three summers, on the otherwise deserted space of Shoreham-by-Sea’s beautiful, windswept beach. A stranger to the town could have been forgiven for thinking that they were perhaps makeshift homes for the less fortunate. But the local residents knew better. They would have watched, with growing excitement, as glamorous figures – decked out in often elaborate costumes – emerged from these structures, taking their places in front of rolling cameras. What they were witnessing was the birth of the UK’s film industry. Shoreham’s “Bungalow Town” developed on the beach between 1918 and 1921, just next door to The Church of the Good Shepherd. It proved to be the perfect open space in which to make movies. But this community of actors and directors was in fact part of the second phase of Sussex’s rich film heritage. It all began way back in 1897 with two men from Hove, James Williamson – a chemist - and George Albert Smith, who had previously worked as a hypnotist and became manager of the St Ann’s Well pleasure gardens. The pair were friends and, independently, began to make films. “What’s very intriguing about these men’s work is that by 1900 they were making edited fiction films,” says Dr Frank Gray of Screen Archive South East. “Smith and Williamson were world pioneers and we can credit them with the creation of film editing. “Yes, there were their American contemporaries – who were making films for the Edison Company of New York - but these films did not have edited features. This is something very special to Sussex and Britain.” Before this, the first films made in the UK, and indeed around the world at this time from 1896 to 1900, were all about one minute in length. Smith and Williamson transformed this by literally gluing each shot together to produce an edited sequence. This, explains Gray, was revolutionary. “Thanks to these men, films immediately started to become longer. Multiple shots were used and stories could then be told because you could not only move from scene to scene, but – in the case of Smith’s work - also

From top: image from Williamson’s Fire, 1901 (provided by Frank Gray); A Lowland Cinderella, Progress Films, 1921; The Mayor of Casterbridge, Progress Films, 1921 (both Screen Archive Soouth East); Smith’s Grandma’s Reading Glass, 1900 (provided by Frank Gray).

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cinema history

within a scene. He was responsible for creating edited sequences that could involve a close-up – so you could move from a view of a grandmother and a child playing with a magnifying glass and then cut to the shot from the viewer’s eye: a move from an objective to a subjective point of view and an insight into the experience of a fictional character.” The “Hove pioneers,” as they became known, were soon making both comedies and contemporary dramas. One of Williamson’s most successful movies, 1901’s Fire! depicted a house fire and the ensuing rescue of its occupants. By the early 1900s, both men expanded their businesses by constructing studios. These were like oversized green houses, housing interior sets, illuminated only by natural light. Exteriors were shot in Brighton and Hove’s streets and further afield in the Sussex countryside. Smith continued making films until 1903 and Williamson until 1909. Williamson’s films were distributed not just in the UK, but also Europe and the U.S. “In their separate ways both of these men became part of this new international industry,” says Gray. “Even though they were both Hove residents it’s a mistake to see them as just making movies for Hove; they were making films for the whole world.” Hollywood by the sea Shoreham’s Bungalow Town was the next chapter in Sussex’s film history and came some nine years after Williamson had stopped making pictures. “There was a small film studio that was set up just before the First World War in 1914,” says Gray. “It made just two or three short comic films. But after the war, the Manchester based company Progress Films were looking for a location in the south of England to start a studio and found it on Shoreham beach.” Between 1918 and 1921 Progress made 17 feature films in Sussex, most of which were derived from either famous or contemporary English novels. The most notable of these was Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit and Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge. “Sussex was perfect for filmmakers, largely because it had more sunlight than other parts of the UK,” says Gray. “There was very little on Shoreham beach, so it was ideal for location work. The town was also used and they shot up in the Downs.” The Shoreham story is particularly interesting in that it was not a fulltime studio. It had a summer season only and the rest of the year was blocked out around this. The Progress studio was largely shaped by the work of Sidney Morgan, who not only wrote the scripts, but directed and produced the films: “a massive undertaking”, acknowledges Gray.

“At the start of the year he’d write the scripts and prepare, then he and his cast and production team would assemble in Shoreham and live together on the beach in converted railway caravans. Imagine the beach as a studio setup with accommodation, a workshop and other facilities to create the sets and prepare the costumes.” After completing a film, Morgan would go to London where he’d edit it and prepare for the trade shows, which were scheduled for the end of the year. Films would open just before Christmas. But despite having some commercial success, these films, Gray explains, neither met the artistic standards of movies being made in Europe, or attracted the huge audiences that flocked to cinemas in the U.S. “The difference was that in the earlier period of Sussex’s film history, circa 1900, there was a real buzz. Smith and Williamson were trying out new things. There was a great sense of experimentation about the period, whereas you could not call the films made in Shoreham in the late teens and early twenties experimental in anyway. They were conservative in comparison with the new filmmaking found in Germany – I’m thinking of German expressionism. They certainly were not avant-garde and were not really that far away from the theatre of its day. “They played quite well – Little Dorrit was particularly popular, but the anxieties of the English film industry – that they’d never be as good as the Americans – proved to be the case. This was the era of the great Charlie Chaplin and British films were slower in pace, lacked imagination and certainly didn’t have the visual comedy found in Hollywood. But they were nevertheless still worthy.” Filmmaking during the great silent era of the teens in Hollywood didn’t stop because of the war and cinemas in the UK didn’t stop showing films, but what changed was that there was a dearth of English productions throughout the war years. This was the death knell of Sussex’s once burgeoning film production. “You have to remember,” Gray points out, “that the first UK cinemas didn’t start to open until about 1910. Across the teens, there were brand new cinemas, but unfortunately for the British, they were largely showing American content, and so the movement started to die out. It could not compete with America.” A fire of 1924 badly damaged the Progress film studio, but by that time production had pretty much stopped forever. They had enjoyed three glorious years. Walking across Shoreham’s beach today, and looking out to the sea, through a blazing sunset, you can understand why those brave pioneers were drawn to this corner of Sussex – and perhaps even feel something of the ghosts of those beautiful twenties starlets, waiting patiently for their close-ups.

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FRAME IMAGE VECTORPIC/SHUTTERSTOCK

“Sussex was the perfect location for filmmakers, largely because it had more sunlight than other parts of the UK”

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daniel raven

History repeating?

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IMAGE CREDIT: EVERETT HISTORICAL/SHUTTERSTOCK

Why should a country’s entire population have h, the twenties! Broadway WORLDWIDE AUSTERITY, Melody, Babe Ruth, bathtub THE RETURN OF PINSTRIPED to suffer for the misdeeds of a privileged few? gin... Black Tuesday, Benito TROUSERS AND NATIONAL How can that be democratic? Of course, I don’t understand money and the way it ‘works’ across Mussolini, backstreet abortions... POLITICS IN A MESS. IT’S ALL the global economies any more than you do (yes, Come to think of it, it was a pretty crappy time to be alive, in VERY REMINISCENT OF THE be honest). But isn’t that sort of undemocratic in 1920S, ARGUES DAN RAVEN itself – the fact that this great force we all depend lots of ways. Style-wise, though, it’s experiencing upon to sustain us can only be understood by a something of a resurgence: the Bob is back (that’s the hairstyle, not the Holness), the glossy magazines are full of flapper fashions tiny percentage of the people who need to use it? Please don’t misunderstand me: I have no truck with that Russell and the whole nation’s awash with Great Gatsby-themed stag and hen parties. Even the cast of TOWIE got in on the act recently, and if anyone’s Brand (I’ve managed to ignore the bulk of his cod-messianic nonsense, so a credible barometer of when something’s filtered waaay deep into the public shamefaced apologies if any of the above has accidentally duplicated it), and I don’t believe this country has either the wit or the energy to have consciousness, it’s those guys. It might be worth noting, however, that the last time people dressed revolutions any time soon. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could get a halflike this was at the dawn of the Great Depression. (The frantic face- decent Labour leader – one who wanted to do half-decent Labour things shielding and back-kicking of the Charleston actually originated as a like renationalising utilities, extricating the NHS from the stranglehold means of defending one’s person against grabbing tramp-hands). Can of PFI and going after all those wealthy ‘non-doms’ who make obscene it be coincidence that we seem to be returning to these styles just as our amounts of money in Britain but pay next to nothing in tax? The runaway recent success of UKIP has come about only because economy threatens to go down the clag-funnel once more? Perhaps, with so many nations of the world working harder and harder to service of a public hunger for literally anything that doesn’t look like one of our increasingly unpayable debts, it was only a matter of time before we hopelessly compromised ‘proper’ parties – so, ironically, the emergence started thinking about pinstriped gangsters again. Because we’re all of this extremely right-wing ‘people’s army’ should give any sitting paying protection money now, and anyone who steps out of line can Labour leader confidence that the electorate would be equally prepared expect a firm rap on the knuckles – just look at poor old, plucky Greece. to consider a few extremely left-wing policies. But poor old Ed just can’t I guess it could be true that allowing Greece to walk away from its see this green light, because he’s too busy trying to look both ways. Okay, that’s it: I’m stepping away from the soapbox. In any case I debts would have sent the rest of the world’s economies shrieking into the abyss, but you can’t blame the Greeks for thinking austerity stinks. dare say it’s probably someone’s bed for the night.

Forthcoming Antiques & Interiors Auction 20th, 21st, 22nd May We offer free valuations at our West Sussex Saleroom: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9.30am - 1pm & 2pm - 4.30pm Home valuation visits by appointment A white gold and diamond set necklace in an Art Deco millegrain setting. SOLD FOR £2,500

Folio albums - photographs of 1930’s cabaret artistes. SOLD FOR £550

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sussex gentlemen

KEEPER OF

MATT PRIOR BECAME SUSSEX COUNTY CRICKET CLUB’S FIRSTCHOICE WICKET-KEEPER IN 2005 AND HAS REPRESENTED ENGLAND FOR OVER A DECADE. STEVE HILL MEETS HIM.

THE COUNTY Matt, you’ve obviously had an illustrious career for England. What are your top highlights and most memorable experiences with England? I have three that really stand out. The first one is winning a test series in India. Anyone that’s played over there knows how hard it is to win. I think it was 28 years since the last England cricket team won out there, so that was a real standout victory for us. The Australia Ashes series 2010/11, winning over there, that was a real special time for English cricket, all those guys that were involved in that, it was amazing. And the final one is when we became the best team in the world. To be known as the number one in the world is a fantastic honour and that comes about not from one good performance or a couple of good performances, but over time, years. That, for me, is a standout. How do you remain focussed on your career and continue to push yourself onwards? Sport’s always changing, isn’t it? You’ve always got new challenges, new hurdles in front of you – at the moment it’s just to get fit again after a big operation. You’re always reassessing and re-evaluating where you are and your goals, which I think is important. But there’s

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always got to be a drive, there’s always got to be that thing that gets you up in the morning, whether it is playing for England, whether it is being involved in an Ashes, whatever it may be, and it’s those things that you hold on to that drive you. Sussex County Cricket Club has played a huge role in your career. What is so special about the club and how have you seen it change over the years? I think first and foremost the thing that’s special about Sussex is that it’s a small club, in essence, and it’s a family club, and there’s a huge amount put on that family environment and team environment. We certainly had a period where we won a lot of trophies and actually outperformed for the size of our club – we were beating Surrey, Lancashire, etc, and that was based on this real strong team ethic and team ethos, which pulled us across the line on many occasions, and that’s a thing that I think is very special about it. You were born in South Africa, but moved to Sussex aged 11, where you attended Brighon College. What does the county mean to you? It means a huge amount to me. Everyone loves to say I was born in South Africa, but I’ve lived most of my best years in England, and in Sussex. I’ve been very fortunate to travel the world, which is fantastic, but I love nothing more than coming home, and home is Sussex. It’s a very special county. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

“I’ve been very fortunate to travel the world, which is fantastic, but I love nothing more than coming home, and home is Sussex”

IMAGE CREDIT: PA IMAGES

Batting for cycling fans: Matt Prior

postcards from sussex

Come on in the water is lovely!

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IMAGES SUPPLIED BY ELZBIETA SEKOWSKA/SHUTTERSTOCK

disgusting spectacle of all and sundry changing ere are a few things I’ve “MACKINTOSH BATHING”, on the beach”. The good lady was on the wrong learned about our building side of history. By the 1920s a pressure group these past few months. It TURKISH BATHS AND was built in 1875, just three ACTS OF INDECENCY: PAUL of local businessmen, the Progressive League, years after the Hastings pier BURSTON FINDS THAT THE aimed to turn the once declining Hastings into a leading health and pleasure resort. first opened. The wood chip 1920S WERE AN EXCITING Luckily for them, the 1920s was also a boom wallpaper probably dates from the 1970s. TIME IN HASTINGS time for the motor car, whose numbers doubled Removing wood chip wallpaper is an arduous to two million by the end of the decade. Smaller, task, and should be left to the professionals. At some point the building was divided into flats. Some of the present cheaper, mass-produced vehicles meant that more people could afford to go on holiday, or just drive down to the coast for the weekend. owners are rather more house proud than others. Unlike Brighton, which had some industry and strong links with There’s not much more information online, unless you’re interested in property prices. But walk across the green and towards the seafront and London, Hastings in the 1920s was economically dependent on visitors. you’ll come across Hastings Library. Upstairs is the research department, By mid-decade, the bandstand at White Rock Gardens was proving another popular tourist attraction. And there was still great demand for and there you’ll find an impressive collection of books on local history. The 1920s were an exciting time in Hastings. The White Rock the old swimming, Turkish and medical baths. The gentlemen’s baths at Pavilion, later renamed The White Rock Theatre, was opened by the White Rock first opened in 1878, and was reputed to be the largest in the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) in 1927. It’s still there, opposite the world. The ladies’ baths opened a year later. By the 1920s the baths were pier which is currently being refurbished. Whoever lived in our building in rather a dilapidated condition. Despite this, records show that there then, I hope they who took full advantage of the gentlemen’s baths and were 100,000 visitors in the first ten months of 1924 alone. A scheme to improve the baths and add a large interior hall was possibly even indulged in what was then known as “mackintosh bathing”. People had been swimming in the sea for some time, often to the outlined in 1926. When the new baths were unveiled in May 1930, disgust of local residents, who complained of “scenes of a disgraceful plans had also been approved for an open air public bathing pool at the character” and “acts of indecency”. In 1903, the town council had taken West Marina. Many people considered sea bathing not only immoral but the then scandalous decision to allow mixed bathing. Canvas changing dangerous. What’s more, “mackintosh bathing” was strictly monitored. cabins became a familiar sight along the seafront. When demand for the If a man was seen changing under his mackintosh, he risked arrest. With the opening of the public pool came another novel pursuit – changing cabins outstripped supply, the council took the equally bold step of allowing “mackintosh bathing”. This meant that swimmers could sunbathing. In 1930, the town made national headlines when its chief arrive at the beach already in their bathing costume, over which he or she medical officer declared it suitable for consenting adults and offered advice to would-be sunbathers. Presumably this involved the removal of was required to wear a mackintosh or similar covering garment. Not everyone approved. A Mrs Grundy complained bitterly of, “the one’s mackintosh.

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John Piper (1903-1992) ‘Brixworth 1985’ Estimate £8,000- £12,000 This is one of a collection of Piper paintings to be sold at our Auction on 30th April 2015

www.gorringes.co.uk 15 North ~ Lewes ~ BN7 2PD | SUSSEXST A PRI L 2015Street YL E . CO M | 23

Book a styling appointment at 2 Victoria Street Brighton BN1 3FP Tel: 01273 757 258 Maudbysophiecorbett.com

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MAIN IMAGE BY STEF KERSWELL

fashion & beauty

We greet spring with the joie de vivre and elegance of the 1920s, a decade when everything was new

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fashion interview

Edina Ronay everything’s organic Edina Ronay’s luxurious knitwear dresses are much loved by the most elegant women of Sussex. Alex Hopkins meets her and traces her journey from 1960s TV star to one of the world’s most respected and enduring designers

ou never planned anything in the 1960s or 1970s,” laughs Edina Ronay. The fashion designer, feted for revolutionising knitwear, is talking to me about the early days of her career. “Everything happened organically,” she explains. “My designs, my career – nothing was planned like it is today with business plans. That made everything so much more exciting.” Ronay has had a remarkably versatile career. She was born in Hungary in 1944, the daughter of legendary food critic Egon Ronay, and began a foundation course in art and design at London’s St Martin’s College. She always knew that she wanted to design, but everything changed when she was stopped on the street and asked if she wanted to go into films. It was, by her own admission, something she “fell into”. Her first outing was in 1960’s The Pure Hell of St Trinian’s, which she still recalls very fondly. “It was a small part, but a great first experience. My father told me I should get an agent and so I did. In those days you had to do repertory theatre to get your Equity card. I ended up acting in places like Bromley, Canterbury and Guildford. They were good days.”

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edina A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 27

fashion interview

“You never planned anything in the 1960s or 1970s everything happened organically. That made it so much more exciting” forerunner of London Fashion Week], we got huge orders from all over America, which we could hardly cope with,” she says. “But again, it was totally organic – and amazing. We started showing in New York, Paris, Milan, Japan and sold masses everywhere across the world.” Fashion shows followed in the 1990s, along with concessions in Harvey Nichols, Liberties and Selfridges. Ronay’s ascent seemed unstoppable. She stuck to what she knew and loved best – the niche that she had pioneered – knitwear. When other designers have branched out into other directions, what is it that has kept her with knitwear? “I adore 30s and 40s styling and the knitwear from that period. It’s just so comfortable in the day. And then, if you have a really good design, you can wear it in the evening, too.” Ronay has just brought out her Spring/Summer 2015 collection, which she says, follows much the same influences as her early work. “As long as I keep it feminine, romantic and pretty, it works. Fit is paramount. The garment has to be really flattering and I spend a lot of time on fitting to get it just right. This summer we’re very print orientated and we’re doing our own prints in-house. The beauty with these dresses is that they can be worn in the town and the country. My son, who used to work for Diesel, is great at graphics, so I give him the design and he executes it. And then everything is printed in England.

IAMGE CREDITS: BY COURTESY OF THE EDINA RONAY ARCHIVE

More roles followed in iconic TV programmes The Avengers, Special Branch and even a Carry On film. Ronay would spend the next 12 years acting. She cemented her skills with a course at Rada and even enjoyed a spell modelling. She went where the work was and found herself having a lot of fun. Her chiselled face became one of defining images of the 1960s. But alongside all of this, she never lost touch with her love for designing. “I always used to make my own clothes,” she says. “Vintage is my great love and was, of course, very much a la mode in the 1970s. I soon found that a lot of my friends – girls I’d acted or modelled with - also wanted the clothes. That’s how I met my first business partner.” Before she knew it, Ronay had opened a shop on Chelsea’s King’s Road. Her days were spent reworking vintage clothes and then selling them. The business really took off. “A lot of people are doing what we did back then with vintage garments, but in those days it was something completely new. I started finding lots of knitwear patterns. We set up production in Devon and everything was hand knitted. No one was doing hand knits at that time and so suddenly we found ourselves selling them in the shop alongside the vintage clothing.” Just listening to Ronay speak conjures up vivid images of this experimental time. Her rich and authoritative voice radiates an effortless glamour, recalling an era when actresses learnt their craft meticulously and had deportment off to a fine art. In hindsight, one could say that she was always going to make it big. And yet when success started to come Ronay admits that it was quite overwhelming. “After our first showing at the London Design Collection [the

Scenes from a life of variety: Edina Ronay as a model, mother, actress, and designer, from the 1960s through to the present.

It’s pure fabrics all the way: silk, cotton, nothing synthetic.” Ronay remains greatly influenced by her clients – many of whom have been with her since she started out in the 1970s. What type of woman buys her clothes? “They’re all fairly wealthy, because the clothes aren’t cheap. I have a lot of ladies – and by that I mean titled ladies. Camilla Parker Bowles is a client. They’re all pretty goodlooking, dynamic women and they all know that they want. “But I think the clothes are also ageless. My daughter – who is in her forties – buys them and so do a lot of her friends. I know how to dress all of these women. They generally want something that has a sleeve and is below the knee. We’ve got a lot of clients from West Sussex.” Over such a long career Ronay has found that the challenge has been keeping her designs fresh. She’s pragmatic about this: “That, after all, is the job of a designer,” she laughs. But she has discovered that she has needed to tread a fine balance. “Yes, I need to keep things modern, but also in keeping with what my clients want, rather than being radically different. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. My ladies want something new, but it must be similar to what has gone before, otherwise they get confused. “In the old days, when I did fashion shows, I’d design something very radical and enjoyed doing that to an extent, but thought that

it was kind of ridiculous: I was making something that I knew would never sell. I like the practicality of someone saying: ‘Yes, I definitely want to buy that’.” Scores of happy clients have been saying exactly this to Edina Ronay for over 40 years now. She is one of the most important British fashion retailers working today, has dressed society figures from royalty to red-carpet stars, and has been honoured as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Not bad for a woman who admits that she didn’t really plan for any of this. “Today, of course, it is very different,” she muses. “Life has changed so much. I was very lucky to start out at a time when things were more exciting – when there were more opportunities.” What advice would I give to new designers today? “Try and begin by working for a company for a year so that you can pick up vital tips. And then, when you do branch out on your own, make sure that you have a financial partner. Nine out of ten new fashion businesses fail unless they have amazing business sense and backing. Sadly, there are not many British fashion houses left; they’re all big conglomerates.” Women all over the UK – and beyond – are certainly thankful that Edina Ronay’s company remains one of these.

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fashion

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A BRIEF ENCOUNTER When a day at the seaside meant Art Deco piers, picture palaces, and Jazz Age elegance, rather than chips and kiss-me-quick hats

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Photographer: Stef Kerswell. Stylist: Inger Moss. Direction: Michelle De La Motte-Rice Models: Olga Polienko & Elina Mitrofanova – Profile Model Management (London). Male Model: Harry Rumsey MUA: Julie Chalk. Hair: Simon Webster assisted by Hannah De Frateschi, Simon Webster Hair, Brighton. Clothes by: hopeandharlequin.com. Accessories by: bejewelledvintage.co.uk. Suits & Shoes: Model’s own Special thanks to Sue Dadak - Dome Cinema, Worthing and also to Christophe Chalvet de Recy, Gary Lathrope & Gemma Shaw at Profile Model Management (London)

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fashion

THE ROARING S Sussex style icon Inger Moss revisits the flapper fashions of the 1920s

he First World War had just ended and change was in the air. The fashion of the 1920s was not only a trend but also a social statement for young women. In addition to the physical need to free themselves from the bustles and corsets, there was a strong if unarticulated urge among them for social change. There are many different explanations for the origin of the word ‘flapper’: a young bird flapping its wings; a slang phrase used as early as the 1880s for a young prostitute: girls who wore unbuckled galoshes that made a flapping noise when they walked. Nobody really knows, but it became an expression used to describe a young, middleclass, strong and independent woman. She smoked and drank, had casual sex, drove automobiles, partied all night and danced to jazz music, and she was strongly driven by a desire to be different and to rebel against some of society’s strict expectations of females The flapper loved going to the movies, not just to enjoy the film, but also to watch Hollywood stars like Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo, so she could copy their hairstyles, make-up and clothes. But it wasn’t just the movie stars who were admired and closely watched by the flappers: the appearance of the Royal Family would also have huge importance and in those days they would be considered fashion icons on the same level as Kate Middleton is today. The flapper would wear make-up, such as rouge and lipstick, previously worn only by prostitutes, and

she would even pluck her eyebrows. She would be depicted as someone irresponsible and undisciplined who favoured the materialistic over the political, yet her existence was a political act in itself. The flapper dress was a loose shift dress, shortened to just below the knee, allowing flesh to be exposed when walking or dancing, but always in an “accidental” way. Such dresses were much less intricate and lighter than their predecessors. This made them much easier to make and copy at home, giving people the chance to duplicate the fashions of the rich, and of their screen and royal idols.

The closest thing to naked

Evening dresses had the same structure at the waist and hem as the daytime dresses. This, however, is where the rich people had the opportunity to show off their wealth. These dresses were made from lush fabrics such as velvet and silk, and trimmed with fur and beads. Cut neck lines and shorter sleeves allowed jewellery to be displayed in a different way around the neck and on the arms. As the hemlines rose there would be more emphasis on shoes, with heels reaching two or three inches high, and stockings being available in all colours and often with patterns. Beautiful, colourful beaded evening bags would be worn over the shoulder or fixed to a belt. The wider cut on dresses and bras enhanced a woman’s lack of curves while also flattening the chest to give a more masculine look to 1920s fashion. A fine example of this was Coco Chanel’s designs – a looked known as “garçonne” (“boyish”). It has been said that Coco Chanel put on a man’s sweater one morning, wrapped a belt around it and the flapper look was born. The designer herself perhaps best sums up the era: “I wanted to give a woman comfortable clothes that would flow with her body. A woman is closest to being naked when she is well-dressed.”

“Tomorrow we may die, so let’s get drunk and make love” LOUIS LONG 38 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

IMAGE CREDIT: INCOMIBLE/SHUTTERSTOCK

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WHEN I THINK OF THE WORD “VAMP” GARBO, DIETRICH AND LOUISE BROOKS SPRING TO MIND. SENSUAL, MYSTERIOUS; ALL HUGE EYES AND DARK OF LIP AND NAIL. IT’S TIME TO CHANNEL YOUR INNER SILENT MOVIE STAR

Eau boy and girl Penhaligon’s Eau De Cologne: A classic citrus with subtle ripples of powdered orange & aromatic rosemary. A unisex scent that resonates with nostalgia for the Jazz Age. Created in 1927, and perfect for the coming summer months. £110 www.penhaligons.com Lashings of lashes Max Factor Masterpiece Mascara: A fullsome flutter from the make-up of makeup artists. Give your lashes the movie star treatment. The state-ofthe-art iFX brush promises to coat evenly and separate even tiny lashes for perfect definition with maximum volume. £9.99 www.boots.com

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Lips, inked M.A.C Lipstick: Make like a silent movie queen and let your lips become the focus. Paint a perfect pout with MAC’s richly pigmented, silky smooth Paramount, Film Noir or, dark as you dare, Cyber. A perfect vintage look. £15.50 www.maccosmetics. co.uk

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MODEL IMAGE: NICOLETA IONESCU/SHUTTERSTOCK

Redden your claws Chanel Rouge Noir Nail Enamel: Often imitated, never bettered, Chanel’s Rouge Noir is the standard that other brands’ vampedup shades aspire to. A deep blackened red which goes with everything and looks gorgeous on short, well manicured nails. £18 at all good department stores nationwide.

Sparkle for Spring

Spring is all about renewal and there’s no better time to reinvigorate your body. Posh Beauty Salon & Medi Spa has everything you need to give you that beautiful glow for the year ahead.

ounded on a passionate belief in high quality treatments and impeccable customer service, our hand-picked team of expert therapists and medical practitioners are committed to providing both pampering and the latest in non-surgical aesthetic skin care. We all have things that we’re not happy with about our bodies. When it comes to revitalising your skin we offer a comprehensive range of treatments from microdermabrasion and chemical peels to indulgent facials.

Perhaps you’re worried about unwanted body hair or troubled with undesirable veins? Our IPL and Laser hair removal, skin tag and vein removal treatments will set your mind at ease. Turn back the clock with our anti-wrinkle injections or dermaroller skin needling treatments – all carried out in a safe, comforting and non-judgmental environment which is guaranteed to make you feel special. Finish off with an immaculate spray tan, body wax or manicure and pedicure. You’ll leave feeling and looking like a star.

Our range of treatments include: Waxing & Threading • HD Brows • Facials • Manicures & Pedicures • Spray Tanning • Microdermabrasion CACI non-surgical facelift • IPL and Laser hair removal • Skin tag and vein removal • Semi Permanent make-up Dermaroller skin needling • Chemical Peels • Anti Wrinkle Injections • Stockists of Dermalogica, Medik8 and Obagi

3 St Peter’s, Chichester PO19 1ND Tel: 01243 538326 3 Crossways Court, Fernhurst, Haslemere GU27 3EP Tel: 01428 653304 www.poshbeauty.co.uk • hello@poshbeauty.co.uk

health and fitness

MUSCLE

MANIA of the

192Os

Forget the new-fangled fitness devices and look to the 1920s for your inspiration. That’s when the exercise game really took off, says Ben Marshall

he quest for the perfect physique seems to be a very modern phenomenon. Certainly the pressure to look a certain way is greater now than it has ever been. Hollywood, the fashion industry, advertising agents and sometimes even our close friends conspire to make us all feel a little inadequate. So first things first: let’s put the idea of looking better out of our minds and concentrate instead on feeling better. The good news is that putting your health before your looks will almost certainly result in better looks. Diet comes before anything. Eat lots of green vegetables and, as I said last month, avoid any foods that come with free toys and any restaurants with plastic bucket seats and a Pixar promotion. You can’t out-train a bad diet, so don’t try, you’ll only make yourself feel awful. It is 42 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

also worth bearing in mind that although we are the first generation to talk about things like body image and dysmorphia, notions of healthy living and the body beautiful are as old as the hills. Or at least as old as Ancient Greece and Egypt. In both societies men and women exercised with stones of various sizes and weights (a practice that would occur in one form or another throughout history) in their quest for body transformation. The celebration of the human body through muscular development was, in fact, one of the Greek ideals. In 11th Century India stone dumbbell weights, known as Nals, were lifted by those wanting to develop their bodies to enhance health and stamina. Amazingly, gyms were commonplace in India during this period, and by the 16th century, training with weights running and doing all the stuff you’re doing today figured among India’s national pastimes.

IMAGE CREDIT: DRAWING: BSD/SHUTTERSTOCK. WEIGHT LIFTER: AABEELE/SHUTTERSTOCK

“Health and strength had been the stuff of circuses, with moustachioed Victorian strongmen pushing carts and lifting animals”

Contemporary notions of good health and a buff physique owe a huge debt to India, ancient Greece and 1920s America. Prior to the 1920s, health and strength in Europe and the US had been the stuff of circuses, with the classic moustachioed Victorian strongman pushing carts and lifting animals in a way that was designed to astound but was never pretty to look at. It was a time of extraordinary invention and quite a few businessmen seized upon the notion of physical development, health and beautification to sell equipment and literature, often of extremely dubious benefits. Bernarr Macfadden, who came to be referred to as the “father of physical culture”, sold a popular chest expander and went on to become one of the most famous exponents and representatives of physical training. Along with boxer and health freak Joe Rollino, Bernarr was something of a superstar. In 1921, Macfadden helped to push another major propagandist for the physical movement into the spotlight – Charles Atlas. Atlas (Real name Angelo Siciliano) was a big lad for his time. Pictures of him now show a male physique many would consider to be hugely desirable, as unlike today’s body-builders he looks like a healthy person rather than a roided-up Marvel Comics cartoon character. Atlas became immensely popular and, through his standing as an expert on training, acquired the rights to a mail-order course called Dynamic Tension. Often credited to Atlas, and considered at the time to embody absolute state of the art techniques, Dynamic Tension was in fact an exercise system developed by his mentor, Macfadden, 20 years earlier. The Charles Atlas advertisements that featured a young, frighteningly wimpy fella getting sand kicked into his face, only to retreat into a world of physical self-improvement, and eventually turn the tables on the bully, served as inspiration for generations. This advertisement, which to our eyes seems absurdly naïve, is now recognised as the single most successful advertising campaign in history. Thanks to Charles Atlas (and his scores of imitators) by the end of the 1920s, barbells, dumbbells and a thousand other exercise devices were sold the world over as the general public grew to acknowledge the importance of becoming fit and strong. The adverts are now much better made and certainly do their utmost to appeal to both sexes. But the techniques for a better, healthier body remain pretty much unaltered. Eat well and build strength. I can practically hear the women reading this shaking their heads and saying,

“But I don’t want to look like Charles Atlas”. Well, don’t worry, I don’t want you to look like Charles Atlas either. Moreover, I don’t want to look like Charles Atlas myself. And I certainly don’t want to look like his modern day equivalent, the terrifying Ronnie Coleman. The point is that a good physique and good health rely on strong muscles. The way to build strong muscles is to cause micro-trauma to the cells. And the way to cause micro-trauma to the cells is to get the body to think it has been in a fight and lost, and that it never wants to lose a similar fight again. Since most of you won’t want actually to fight in order to achieve this, you will need to lift weights. Weights push the body to build tighter, denser muscle. When people say they don’t want muscle they just want definition, what they are actually saying is they want to lose the fat around their muscle, because muscle is the only thing that gives a body definition. I should also say that when I tell you to use weights, I don’t necessarily mean barbells and dumbbells. Your own body weight can work just fine. In fact Charles Atlas’ Dynamic tension is based almost entirely on using your own body weight to promote muscular activity and health. The Dynamic Tension course called for certain types of movements done in isometric fashion, such as push-ups, where you hold yourself in a push-up position for a given time. I don’t know how much muscle people have gained over the years using these programs, but what I do know is that certain concepts and training methods taken from his program can be extremely effective for anyone hoping to get into shape today. In the health and fitness game nothing new is really ever invented, rather we just keep putting new twists on the same old things. So a 1920s workout would involve combining your regular sets of squats, dips, press-ups, pull-downs and chin-ups with an isometric movement, where you essentially held yourself in the position where you feel the weakest. Yoga works like this. The plank, for instance, where one holds oneself on both elbows in a plank-like position (remember to breathe), is a hugely effective way of building a strong core and helping you to get that six pack you’ve always wanted. So the next time you are in the gym, remember Charles Atlas and hit the weights. Or at least use your own body weight. You may not enjoy it at first. But it will work. Think of the weights as that big bully kicking sand into your face. And think how much that kid in the ads owed to that bully. Chop, chop! Email your health and fitness questions to ben@sussexstyle.co.uk A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 43

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MAIN IMAGE BY CHURCHGATE PORTER

weddings

Wake up to the wedding of your dreams, with ideas to inspire you and make the big day a perfect day

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Jewels of the aisle Find the perfect wedding jewellery to complement your dream day

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weddings

2 3

IMAGE CREDIT OPPOSITE PAGE: CHURCHGATE PORTER

7 6 1. Carat Round Brilliant Cubic Zirconia single stone pendant 1.50ct in 9ct white gold 18” chain, £210. 2. Carat Emerald cut yellow Cubic Zirconia single stone pendant 1.50ct in 9ct white gold 18” chain, £280. 3. Carat Pear drops Synthetic Emerald drops 2.75ct in Silver, £270. 4. Carat Pear drops Yellow Cubic Zirconia drops 1.50ct in Silver, £235. 5. Diamond rings available in Platinum, Palladium 18ct white, yellow and rose gold, POA. 6. Carat Silver Synthetic Sapphire ring, 4.00ct centre, £250. 7. 18ct White gold D-Shaped Wedding bands. Ladies 3mm £255, Gents 5mm £460; Platinum Court: Ladies 2mm £370, Gents 4mm £835; 18ct Yellow gold: Ladies 3mm £440, Gents 5mm £760. Main image: Ungar & Ungar floral diamond set bands available in Platinum, 18ct white, yellow and rose gold, POA. For more details visit austenjewellers.co.uk

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Imagine the scene: fresh from your wedding ceremony, your guests walk into a beautifully presented dining room. Every minor detail is perfect. The glassware shimmers in the light of a roaring fire. The silver cutlery on impeccably dressed tables – covered with crisp linen - glitters against the finest china. A hush falls over the room: everyone is utterly enchanted. Whatever your tastes – sophisticated, vintage or classic – and whatever the occasion, Co-ordination Catering Hire specialise in supplying all of your catering equipment and furniture for your special day, helping you plan everything from colours and looks to themes. Entice those that matter as you entrust your dreams to us. www.co-ordination.net T: 01293 553040 E: info@co-ordination.net

This page: Top Left Image – Melanie £3,520. Bottom Left Image – Alex £3,800. Bottom Right Image – Renne £4,787. Opposite Page: Lily. All dresses from Churchgateporter.com

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elegance defined Exquisite gowns for your fairytale day

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Top left: Laura Chiffon Skirt worn with Thea Ivory Hand Beaded Camisole, £3000. Top right: Iris Ivory Slip worn with Silver Embroidered Belt and Isobel Velvet Floral Jacket, £2500. Bottom left: Irene Tee with an Ivory Iris Camisole with Rita soft Tulle Skirt £3550. Bottom right: Violet Dress, £2000. Opp: Rita Camisole with soft Tulle Skirt, £3500. Photographer: Cat Vinton. Hair and makeup: Enzo Volpe. Model: Thea at Established. From halfpennylondon.com

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wedding style

Perfect memories at Ghyll Manor

Entrust your special day to the idyllic Ghyll Manor in Horsham

t’s any bride’s dream: a wedding in a historic country house set within beautifully landscaped grounds. With Ghyll Manor’s wedding packages starting from just £750, this can now be achieved even without a lavish budget. Situated in the typically English West Sussex countryside, the manor house dates back to the seventeenth century, whilst a scenic lake provides a perfect backdrop for those special wedding photographs and romantic walks. Wedding guests also have the opportunity to make the most of the time in the stunning Sussex countryside with an overnight stay, as selected wedding packages include preferential rates on Ghyll Manor’s rooms.

Dream experience…dream cost

For those looking to get married in style this year, couples can tie the knot in Ghyll Manor’s Hunsdon Hall, Terrace Room or Summer House, and hold a sparkling reception for 50 guests – all for the same price as the year they will wed. Weddings are available for just £2,015. There are plenty of refreshments for guests included, with two glasses of sparkling wine and two canapés per person and a reception finger buffet. With a dedicated wedding co-ordinator and Master of

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Ceremonies, as well as table plans, menus and a cake stand included, the big day is sure to run smoothly. What’s more, Ghyll Manor can offer the happy couple a complimentary bedroom for their wedding night.

Lord and Lady of the Manor

For couples who have always dreamed of being Lord and Lady of the Manor, for £10,000* Ghyll Manor is available for exclusive use for 70 day guests and 100 evening guests. They will be able to truly relax on the day as the price includes a Master of Ceremonies, place cards, a table plan, menus and a silver cake stand and knife. Day guests will then enjoy two reception drinks and four canapés, before sitting down to a four course wedding breakfast with half a bottle of wine and a glass of bubbles for the toast. Later on, the evening guests can enjoy a finger buffet to help the couple celebrate in style. The happy couple will also be able to enjoy a complimentary stay in the Bridal Suite on their wedding night. To find out more about the wedding offers available at Ghyll Manor and availability for 2015, please visit www. ghyllmanorweddings.co.uk or call 03301 230 371. *Please visit ghyllmanorweddings.co.uk for full terms and conditions.

A country house to call your own Ghyll Manor, a charming 17th century hotel & restaurant nestled in the Sussex countryside with 40 acres of stunning grounds.

NEXT OPEN DAY SUNDAY 31 MAY 11am-3pm

Exclusive use

Sunday weddings

2015 weddings - just £2,015

For ultimate privacy at your wedding, opt for exclusive use in 2016 and let Ghyll Manor become your home for the day for £10,000* for 70 guests.

Ghyll Manor are pleased to offer Sunday weddings throughout 2015 and 2016 for just £5,999*, for up to 65 guests.

Looking for a beautiful but relaxed setting for your big day? Throughout 2015, lucky in love couples can tie the knot at Ghyll Manor with up to 50 guests for just £2,015*.

Tempted? 03301 230 371 (lines open daily 8am to 11pm) enquiries@ghyllmanor.co.uk ghyllmanor.co.uk Rusper, nr Horsham

*All offers are subject to availability, valid for new bookings only and not available in conjunction with any other offer. Standard terms and conditions apply. Room allocations and complimentary rooms (if applicable) will be date dependent and minimum room numbers may apply. Upgrades and extras for your wedding and reception are available at an additional charge - please enquire for options. Promotional offers are valid for selected dates only. A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 15_0071 55

likE drinking your firsT day of Holiday Tequila evangelist Cleo Rocos created AquaRiva® Premium Tequila and Organic Agave Syrup in 2011 after working with a Master Blender in Mexico for 10 months. Being featured in the Virgin Atlantic inaugural flight to Mexico in 2012 with Richard Branson, we are proud that AquaRiva® is now available in Virgin Clubhouses. AquaRiva® Tequila is a double gold medal winner in the UK and voted ‘Best of the Best’ in the USA. Available in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, on-line; DrinkUpNY, thedrinkshop.com, Amazon and in clubs and bars nationwide.

THE PErfEcT MargariTa rEciPE:

aquariva.co.uk

35 mls AquaRiva®Tequila

25 mls fresh squeezed lime juice (juice of one lime)

15 mls AquaRiva® organic agave syrup

Shake with plenty of ice and serve in a rocks glass with more ice. Garnish with an orange zest.

@cleorocos1

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aquarivatequila

MAIN IMAGE BY HILLBROOKE HOTELS

food & drink

Taste all the joys, flavours, recipes and dining experiences of Spring

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food news

DELI OF THE YEAR

The Hungry Guest in Petworth has beaten over 500 hopefuls to be crowned Delicatessen of the Year at the Farm Shop & Deli Awards 2015, celebrating the highest levels of service, expertise, innovation and community involvement in the speciality retail market. hungryguest.com

WIN!

42 Juice is offering one lucky Sussex Style reader a 3-day juice cleanse. To enter this competition email your name and address to comps@sussexstyle.co.uk.

WHAT’S COOKING

SOUTH LODGE CHEF SCOOPS AWARD South Lodge Hotel in Lower Beeding boasts another Young Sussex Chef of the Year. Tim Sheed won out at the recent Sussex Food & Drink Awards. (2010/11 winner Steven Edwards became MasterChef Professional Champion 2013.) Other victors included Cocoa Loco ( Sussex Food Producer) and Wobblegate (Sussex Drink Producer) For full details visit sussexfoodawards.biz

Sam Bilton takes a look at the very best in Sussex food and drink HEALING THE WORLD ONE JUICE AT A TIME

Brighton based 42 Juice has recently launched a range of 100% raw, cold-pressed juices and juice cleanses. Available from their juice bar in the Laines or online, the cleansing packages include I Am Healing, I Am Grounded and I Am Alkaline, and are designed to heal, protect and boost cells from the inside out. 42juice.com

great Susse x Mint Jellie s

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1. Ouse Valley Mint Jelly 227g £3.95 The mint leaves are magically suspended in this jelly made with a Bramley apple stock. ousevalley.co.uk 2. Jolly Scrummy Organic Mint Jelly 145g £4.25 This delicate rose-coloured jelly has a delightfully fresh minty taste.jollyscrummy.co.uk 3. Lily’s Chillies Mint Chilli Jelly 220g £3.85 Made with fresh mint, habanero chillies and apples from a local Sussex orchard. lilyschillies.com

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food

Domestic goddess... MUST BE PROFICIENT IN ALL ASPECTS OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT. MIN 75 HOURS PER WEEK, PAY NEGLIGIBLE AND YOU MUST GET HUBBY’S DINNER TO HIM ON TIME. SAM BILTON LOOKS AT THE ROLE OF AN OLD-FASHIONED HOUSEWIFE

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it strikes me that certain pressures remain. Yes, there are countless companies out there who provide convenience foods, gadgets and short cuts to take the chore out of cooking. But there are just as many celebrity chefs and cooks chastising us for not cooking from scratch, treating it like the holy grail of domestic perfection. The ideal of a woman as the perfect domestic animal persists. Perhaps the modern woman is not so far removed from the 1950s housewife after all. Back in Time for Dinner (Bantam Press) £20

BOOK PIC

We have three copies of Mary’s ! N WI book Back in Time for Dinner to give away. To enter simply email you name and address to comps@sussexstyle.co.uk

IMAGE CREDIT: BBC/WALL TO WALL/DUNCAN STINGEMORE

ertainly not my idea of the dream job. But this, I find as I read Sussex based food writer Mary Gwynn’s new book Back in Time for Dinner, was the lot of the 1950s housewife. Seventy-five hours of hard graft. And as Mary points out that was just Monday to Friday. Mary’s book accompanies the BBC television series of the same name hosted by Giles Coren. It follows the journey of one family, the Robshaws, through six decades of food. Over a week the family experience the culinary highs and lows of one decade starting with the 1950s. This was the period that mum, Rochelle, found challenging, particularly dealing with the privations of rationing (which didn’t end until 1954). Mary was able to call on her late mother’s experience of being a 1950s housewife. She soon discovered that the housewife was expected to be the perfect mother and hostess as well as a domestic juggernaut. Mary’s mother had saved a newspaper clipping from 1958 by Fanny Craddock on how to plan a fuss free, economical dinner party. As well as preparing four courses, the housewife, so Fanny instructs should “have a lie down and rest before the guests arrive,” to ensure she is suitably refreshed for the evening’s entertainment. At the time this article appeared Mary’s mother had four-month-old twins, lived in a small twobedroomed cottage with no central heating situated half a mile from the nearest shops, and was unable to drive. As well as charting a fascinating social history of the way we eat, the book uncovers some startling facts. Despite a diet much higher in calories and laden with saturated fat, in the 1950s incidences of obesity were far lower then than they are now. This is in part due to our more sedentary 21st century lifestyles. So although the 1950s housewife may well have indulged in a biscuit or two, and enjoyed her fair share of suet puddings, she had plenty of opportunity to work off those excess calories during her daily routine. Whilst women are now encouraged to pursue a high flying career

WEDDINGS / RESTAURANT / BEDROOMS / MEETINGS

Dining at Pelham House ~ Delicious and seasonal Pelham House focuses on simple and delicious food, using good quality seasonal and locally sourced produce. We offer a variety of regularly changing menus. The restaurant is the perfect setting for a special lunch or dinner. We also have several additional dining rooms which seat between 4 and 120 guests private dining. Pelham House has a carefully selected list of wines and cocktails to complement our menus. Diners can choose the historic Panelled Room, the charming Garden End Room or to dine alfresco on the stunning south facing Terrace. Our Gallery menu is available from 10:00 until 22:00 for brunch, bar snacks, light meals and pre-dinner drinks and afternoon tea between 3pm and 5pm.

The Restaurant is open daily from 12:00 for lunch, and 18:00 for dinner.

To Book, or for any enquires please contact Pelham House: p: 01273 488600 e: reception @pelhamhouse.com A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 61

food

Roast lamb with dill and lemon

Serves 6-8 Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: Medium: 25 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 25 minutes Well done: 30 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 30 minutes 1.3kg/3lb lean whole lamb leg joint Salt and freshly milled black pepper 60ml/4tbsp freshly chopped dill leaves 2 lemons, zest removed and sliced thinly

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30ml/2tbsp rapeseed or olive oil 45ml/3tbsp elderflower cordial mixed with 30ml/2tbsp cold water Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4-5, 180190°C, 350-375°F. Place the joint on a large chopping board. Make a series of long slashes over the joint and season on both sides. Press the dill and lemon zest well into the surface of the lamb. Put the lemon slices in a large non-stick roasting tin and position the joint on top. Drizzle with the oil and open roast for the

preferred, calculated cooking time, basting occasionally with any meat juices. Cover with foil if browning too quickly. 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, spoon the elderflower cordial over the lamb and return to the oven for the remaining cooking time. Remove the joint from the oven, transfer to a large plate, cover and leave to rest for 1520 minutes. Carve the lamb, spoon over the meat juices and serve with a potato, fennel and olive salad.

RECIPES AND IMAGE FROM SIMPLYBEEFANDLAMB.CO.UK

COMBINE A SEASONAL FAVOURITE, ROAST LAMB, WITH UNEXPECTED FLAVOURS TO CREATE A TEMPTING VARIATION ON A CLASSIC SPRING DISH

in season

In Season...

PHOTO CREDIT: SMIT/SHUTTERSTOCK

Wild Garlic Spring arrives with the appearance of this woodland plant. It tentatively pokes its head above ground in March; by April it’s in its full garlicky glory, fragrant white flowers and all (which, according to my children, smell like pizza.) Unlike its cultivated cousin the garlic bulb, its pungent flavour is found in the leaves and flowers (which are a fantastic garnish for salads). Plus its odour doesn’t linger on the breath after consumption. Wild garlic loves shady, damp places so it adores the heavy clay soils of Sussex. Dismissed by some as a weed, it is gaining increasing favour with professional chefs for their soups, risottos and sauces. There’s a great recipe for a simple but delicious Salsa Verde using wild garlic on my blog, comfortablyhungry.com, which is superb with that other seasonal favourite, lamb. Lamb The traditional choice for the Easter celebratory roast in the UK, and we have some excellent producers in Sussex. Sweet and tender, lamb is a remarkably versatile meat, with cuts that respond well to quick or slow cooking. Use lamb mince in burgers and meatballs, or marinate chunks of lamb steak in spicy yoghurt for melt-in-the-mouth kebabs. Aromatic spices are its friend - think cinnamon, coriander and cumin, in curries and tagines. Take a leaf out of Raymond Blanc’s book and try slow roasting a shoulder joint smothered in chopped fresh herbs for several hours. For more delicious recipes such as this Roast Lamb with Dill and Lemon, visit simplybeefandlamb.co.uk.

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home & garden

MAIN IMAGE BY TOM PENPARK/SHUTTERSTOCK

Heaven is a place on Earth, and this month, we climb the stairway there

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property and lifestyle

SUSSEX’S FINEST

IMAGE CREDITS: MAIN IMAGE: IAN WOOLCOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK. OTHER IMAGES: FOREST ROW PARISH COUNCIL/ CUBITT & WEST

FOREST ROW, WEST WITTERING AND BOSHAM ARE SOME OF THE WEALTHIEST VILLAGES IN THE UK. DAVID BENNUN TAKES A LOOK AT ALL THEY’VE GOT TO OFFER

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hould you have a hankering for a lifestyle that is both rustic and refined, along with well upwards of a million pounds to spend on a house, then you will surely find yourself looking at property in Sussex. And once you find yourself looking at Sussex, your attention will likely settle upon at least one of the three villages we’re looking at this month. Would it be fair to describe Forest Row, West Wittering and Bosham as millionaires’ playgrounds? The residents might differ, but if you want to buy there today, then you’ll certainly need to be well-heeled, and you won’t lack for diversion once you’ve moved there. Forest Row is not just a playground for millionaires, but historically, for kings. Its very name implies it: the forest in question is Ashdown Forest, established as the hunting preserve of the monarchy and nobility in Norman times, and now designated an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It surrounds the village on all sides but one, and is glorious for walks. Of particular note for walkers - and also for cyclists and riders (of horses, naturally) - is the Forest Way. This runs from nearby East Grinstead along a disused railway line as far Groombridge, a full ten miles. But the most obvious draw for those millionaires will appeal to those with a set of high-end golf clubs in the boot of the Roller. Ashdown Forest is home to the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club and its twin courses - the West Course and the Old Course - spread over what it would be a cliché to call rolling hills were they not exactly that. It is almost unchanged in over a century; the bunkers and hazards are chiefly natural ones. Memberships are available only to those proposed and seconded by existing members of five years standing. Which just goes to show that there are some things money can’t buy. What it can buy, though, if you have between £800,000 and £2 million of it, is four to eight bedrooms’ worth of detached

FOR £800,000... ... You can snap up this four-bedroom, threereception, two-bathroom house in Forest Row, directly overlooking the course (well, one of them) of Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club, with a secluded front garden, decking at the back, a wood burner in the lounge, and - the current owners are keen to point out - updated throughout. It does not come with a live-in caddy, but any small children you may have can be duly trained for such a task, and one presumes that the property insurance has long since covered any window breakages caused by wayward golf balls. It’s on the market via the East Grinstead branch of Cubitt & West, 01342 314324.

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property and lifestyle

property, ranging from the Arts & Crafts style to plain but pleasant contemporary red brick. If the sea calls you more than the forests, the hills and the golf courses do, you might instead want to seal your wallet and head west to take a look at two Villages down Chichester way. West Wittering is part of the charmingly named The Witterings (there is an East Wittering, too), and stands on the western edge of the equally strikingly named Manhood Peninsula - not something one must be over eighteen to visit, as the popularity of the beach with families attests. The splendid Blue Flag beach is West Wittering’s greatest draw. Broad, expansive and blanketed with soft white sand in gentle dunes, it is a great favourite with dog walkers, whose charges may have the run of it bar the swimming beach in summer. Riders often take their horses along it as well, in the daylight hours - there is room for all - and the much prized beach huts are sold only by sealed-bid auction. Windsurfing, kitesurfing and kitebuggying, for that active variety of younger millionaire (internet tycoons, reality TV stars and suchlike, one guesses) whose idea of play they are, are permitted only to members of the appropriate local clubs. But these, at least, do not require proposing and seconding by longtime members for entry. Longboard surfers might prefer to head to nearby Bracklesham Bay, not only a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but notable for its waves. The village itself is largely Victorian or later; the High Street is bordered by modest, handsome terraces, while the surrounding environs are where your fun-loving millionaire is more likely to feel at home, in a detached property that might start at half a million pounds for a new build from Barratt, who have a development at Sandpiper Walk, or work its way up to a million-and-a-half for a four-bedroom thatched home near the water. A little way north, across the inlet that cuts in from Chichester Harbour, we come to Bosham. The first thing to know about Bosham is how to pronounce it: “Botham,” with a short “o” and a soft “th”. (Nothing like the celebrated cricketer, then. Say “Bosham,” and residents will politely repeat it back to you correctly; confuse it with Sir Ian and they may not be so patient.) Only slightly larger than West Wittering, Bosham is considerably

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“West Wittering stands on the edge of the Manhood Peninsula - not something one must be over eighteen to visit, as the popularity of its beach with families attests”

FOR £1,650,000... ...You may take possession of Gaddons, a fourbedroom, two-bathroom home in Seaward Drive (there is a clue in the name as to the proximity of the water), West Wittering. It is, in case you can’t tell by looking, an intelligent house. That is, it is fitted with a KNX home automation system. The flooring is oak, the kitchen is fitted, the worktops are granite, the lawn is manicured within an inch of its tiled borders, and the bathrooms have underfloor heating. All of which you might reasonably expect for the price, but nothing comes cheap in the Witterings - except, we’re guessing, talk. Henry Adams of Chichester will charge you nothing for that: 01243 533377

IMAGE CREDITS: MAIN BEACH SHOT 139263905/SHUTTERSTOCK. BOSHAM LIFE/HENNRY ADAMS/BARRATT HOMES

FOR £1,890,000 ...you’re looking at five beds, three baths, three receptions, an acre of frontage, a heated indoor swimming pool, and a private jetty onto Furzefield Creek, which opens onto Chichester Harbour. To call it a house would be a misnomer: it’s more a conjoined series of mostly single-story buildings converted into a remarkable property on Smugglers Lane, Bosham, the history of which may be inferred from its name. Our play-minded millionaires may consider it a snip - a five-bedroom, two-story waterside mansion directly across the creek at Bosham Hoe is on the market for very nearly double its price. So look on it as saving almost two million quid, if you are inclined to call Henry Adams of Chichester on 01243 533377

older, claiming occupation since Roman times, and referred to in the Bayeux Tapestry. Its church is sufficiently antique to have had Norman stories placed atop Saxon ones, and it may well have been the site where Canute the Great, who kept his palace there, taught his courtiers a lesson by vainly commanding the waves to turn back. If so, no wonder he knew that wouldn’t happen: the lower part of the old village is routinely flooded at high tide. That might not sound ideal for our putative millionaire, but the old village by the harbour is the more picturesque of Bosham’s two halves. The north part, aka New Bosham or Broadbridge, is quite literally on the wrong side of the tracks, although these things are relative. While less quaint, it is hardly ungenteel. Bosham is the place for millionaire mariners. Its sailing club, which will celebrate its centenary in two years’ time, is well reputed even for the area, and the harbour access makes it justly popular with enthusiasts. The Domesday book lists Bosham one of the wealthiest parishes in the kingdom, so today’s property prices likely reflect those of almost a millennium previously. A detached house on an ample plot will not change hands for much less than a million pounds, while a newly constructed mansion on Bosham Hoe will set you back threeand-a-half times that. One long-time resident frets, “We don’t want people buying big houses and building more houses in the garden. The planning department aren’t always terribly sensitive about it.” So millionaire playboys and girls are likely to be more welcome rapacious would-be magnates. Bring your boat.

“Canute the Great taught his courtiers a lesson here. No wonder he knew the waves wouldn’t turn back: the lower part of the village is routinely flooded at high tide” A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 69

Situated on Sandy Lane, The Pines is in the ancient market town of East Grinstead in Sussex. Standing halfway between London and the South Coast makes the town extremely accessible by both road and rail with the added benefit of access to Gatwick Airport. The Pines consists of two detached houses set in generous well screened mature plots. • Double height tiled entrance hall with oak staircase • Spacious kitchen with all appliances • Three further reception rooms with generous ceiling heights • Master bedroom with Juliet balconies, dressing room and ensuite • Four further bedrooms and three bathrooms • Double garaging with automatic doors £1,195,000 For further information please contact Tel: 01932 837690 Email: info@tkei.co.uk

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Thanks to TV costume dramas, we all think we know what it was like to work in a grand house. But was this the reality? David Bennun explores the history of servants in Sussex

UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS

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MAIN IMAGE: RANGIZZZ/SHUTTERSTOCK. PICTURE FRAME IMAGES: THPSTOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK. PHOTOS: EVERETT COLLECTION/SHUTTERSTOCK.

sussex history

o understand the role played in British life by servants, consider a statistic. On the eve of the First World War, in that golden Edwardian era of legend (Edward VII had died in 1910, but the epoch outlived him), over one-anda-half million Britons were engaged in domestic service. That is, three-and-a-half per cent of the population more than were engaged in any single other type of work, and twice as many as belonged to the army. For these servants, that golden era was anything but. The nostalgically celebrated joys of that time were largely confined to those they served. If you were employed in one of the great houses of Sussex, then it is improbable your existence reflected anything seen on our screens in the television age, which has coincided with the passing of domestic service as a feature of national life. The relatively light and dainty duties depicted in Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs would have seemed paradisiacal to workers rising in the small hours and retiring close to midnight; and in between, engaged in the drudgery of labouring, by hand, to launder linen, shovel coal, fetch water and peel potatoes by literally - the ton. Of the many luxuries denied to a servant, time was perhaps the most desirable. Why did anybody do it at all? Because the alternatives were less appealing still. Agriculture or industry made for even harder lives. In service, one was sheltered and fed. Of all the great changes wrought by The Great War, few would be more momentous than its inadvertent opening up of opportunities for the working-class women from whose ranks the bulk of domestic servants were drawn. Not that service was entirely without its opportunities for advancement. The writer, HG Wells, for instance, lived in grand surroundings not by dint of noble birth, but because his mother, Sarah, had been successively a housemaid at a great house, then its housekeeper. There, she had met his father, Joseph, then a gardener, and by marrying

The idealised images of the life and work of servants long depicted in film and telelvision were very different to the reality.

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sussex history Co-ordinated parlour maids were just one vanity of the great houses of 1920s Sussex their male equivalents, the footmen, also came in matching sets.

him had taken one of the very routes out of service available to a woman in her job. To leave, one must wed; yet to wed, one must have suitors, and often these were forbidden. We are well familiar, from film and television, with the quaint picture of stolen kisses and furtive romance “below stairs.” (The idea of separate servants’ quarters emerged only in the Victorian era, when privacy became the privilege of the grand.) But this furtiveness was forced upon the servants by circumstance, and to them, there was nothing quaint about it. It represented not only the hope of love, but of escape. More than just undertaking (laborious) duties, many servants were obliged to perform a ceremonial role - to be objects of ostentatious display, signifiers of wealth; human status symbols, in short. Or not so short, if you were among the parlourmaids whom one member of the nobility insisted must stand no shorter than five feet and ten inches. Similarly, footmen were hired - it is not too great a stretch to say acquired - in matching pairs. A first and second footman who might pass for twins commanded higher salaries than those whose appearance was displeasingly varied. To be a servant, then, was not merely to be an employee, but to be a kind of possession - part of an ornamental collection combining form and function. Between the dissolution of the monasteries and the arrival in the 1920s of the school which now occupies the former Abbot’s House, Battle Abbey near Hastings served as private residence. The pinnacle of its status as a great house came under the tenures of the Duchess of 76 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

Cleveland, and subsequently, Sir Augustus Webster, 8th Baronet in a line that had previously owned the property, and bought it back after the Duchess died. He and his carpet heiress wife Mabel were the last private owners to reside there. In this period, the domestic staff would have been extensive, and ordered in a strict hierarchy. At the top came the Land Steward and the House Steward, both professional men, and not considered to be of the servant class. The former was effectively a chief operating officer, the latter a human resources executive. Then came the upper staff: the Butler, of course, at the top, grandest of all the servants (in lesser estates, he might perform the house steward’s role); the Housekeeper, his nearest female equivalent, in charge of female staff and - plus ça change - paid somewhat less; the Cook, the quality of whose work was vital to the status of the house (think Anatole at PG Wodehouse’s fictional Brinkley Court), and who might consequently be paid more than the butler who outranked him; finally, the Lady’s Maid and the Valet. The upper staff could expect an annual salary range equivalent in today’s money to £2600-£4000 at the top, falling to half of that at the lower end. Even considering that food and housing were provided, this was hardly munificent. The lower staff began with the First Footman and his junior, the Second Footman, whose principal job was, “To be tall, handsome and represent the estate’s grandeur.” These footmen did not undertake heavy duties, which typically fell to female staff. Plain old Footmen served beneath them. Then came a descending roster of those who did much of

MAIN IMAGE: CHIPPIX/SHUTTERSTOCK. BATTLE ABBEY IMAGE BY ENGLISH HERITAGE

“To be a servant was not merely to be an employee, but a kind of possession - part of an ornamental collection”

CHANGING TERMS OF SERVICE

that heavy work: Chamber Maids and Parlour Maids (typically two of each), a House Maid, the Under Cook, Kitchen Maid, Scullery Maid, Laundry Maid, Groom and Stable Boy - the last of whom might be as young as ten, and paid as little as two hundred pounds a year in today’s money. Outside the house worked those whose duties excluded them from the accepted hierarchy within it. The Head Gardener was considered upper staff, yet his rank was not among the upper servants. Still, he might be the best paid of all of them, because his skills were so vital to impressing the guests of the house, earning twice as much as even the butler - and anything up to fifteen times as much as the Grounds Keepers who worked beneath him. The Game Keeper’s job was maintaining the bird population of the estate - and, if DH Lawrence was to be believed, sexually servicing the lady of the house, although it is reasonable to think this was not ordinarily part of his duties. The Gate Keeper scarcely ranked as a servant at all, viewed as he was as more of an unskilled labourer. He often lived in a small house attached to the gate he guarded, and might be paid the equivalent of seven hundred pounds a year. This was the world that would be diminished by the First World War, and swept away by the second. In its place came the agencies and visiting “lady-helps” which were the precursor to the professionalised domestic service industry we know today. It was a fabulous and glamorous world - if you were on the right side of it. If not, then our rosy view has disregarded just how tough and constrained a life you would have led.

Jo Stewart, Property Manager of the visitor site at Battle Abbey, in the care of English Heritage, tells Sussex Style how the roles and lives of servants then compare to those of its staff today. In Battle Abbey’s days as a great house, myself and all the staff at the site would have been classed as servants. I would have been one of the people the Duchess of Cleveland had to run the site for her. All of us are comparable to the staff that they had then, even though the site had a different use. My job would be a mixture of the butler, the land steward and the house steward, and somebody like the housekeeper. I’m also the abbey’s bee keeper. Because we’re no longer a country estate, we don’t have chamber maids, but there is a cook: we do have a cafe on site. We have a lady called Lesley who is the housekeeper of our holiday cottage. She would be the nearest thing we now have to a chamber maid. I think one of the biggest differences today is there’s a lot of respect for people’s jobs, whatever they do. If I was at my level back in time, you’d never find me cleaning a toilet; but now if one needs cleaning, I do it. Though we have a chain of command, we don’t have the old, strict hierarchy, and no one’s afraid to muck in and help anyone else in the team. I don’t think people would do those jobs today, if we were to treat them how those people were treated. If you were a modern day employer you’d be taken to court. I don’t think it was very nice at all for them in those days. There was no legislative protection. If there was abuse that went on back then, you just had to put up with it. I think the professionalisation of jobs is one of the biggest changes. In those days, jobs were something you were born into. If your father was a butler, you would be a butler. It was presumed you would go into service if you were a certain class or sex. For example, the people many of whose roles I now do would be men; in those days a woman would never have had those roles. Today a job is given a professional title and description, and you get that job if you are qualified, no matter what class, age or sex you are. In the Historic Property Steward’s role, I have male, female, people past retiring age, and people straight from school. I don’t discriminate. I used to be head of Food Buying and Development at Harrods. Flying around the world tasting wonderful things. A highly paid but incredibly stressful job. To make a change to the job I do now would have been unimaginable in the days of the great houses. A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 77

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fabric lady

Growing up in Brighton, I was always n the sleepy West Sussex countryside you SALTDEAN’S ART DECO LIDO aware of it. I am told I never actually visited don’t often get asked for Art Deco themed interiors. It’s normally flora and fauna - HAS FASCINATED PEOPLE FOR it and swam there. I wish I had. In 1958 with the occasional dog or chicken - so DECADES. THIS JULY, AFTER the Lido luckily survived a takeover bid by when a client popped in to ask if I would YEARS OF ABANDONMENT, Butlins, but remained derelict. The best things come to those who wait and in 1998 help her with her Miami-esque project I IT’S FINALLY RE-OPENING Saltdean Lido was finally re-opened. I was jumped at the chance. AND LAURA JANDAC COULD sadly long gone from Brighton by then, but I needed to do some research. I can NOT BE HAPPIER my love of the Lido has never faltered. The shamefully admit that I have never joined my feelings it stirs up in residents and visitors local library. The only bookshop where I live is basic at best, so I needed an alternative. I was suddenly transported alike affords it a special place in people’s hearts. In 2011 Saltdean Lido was given a special Grade II* listing status, back 20 years to when I was at school (OK, 30 years) and to memories of Saltdean Lido. It is perched right on the seafront in Saltdean and I meaning it will always be protected, and in 2012 the ownership of The can remember frequently driving past it and gazing. It is a truly iconic Lido was handed back to Brighton & Hove council. A once abandoned building has been brought back into the fold. building and right here on my Sussex doorstep. Refurbishment is under way and July 2015 will see the re-opening Before its latest closure, the Lido had been looking tired and a sad version of its former self. Built in 1937 by the architect Richard Jones, of a classic piece of Art Deco architecture. I for one cannot wait. I it was then hailed as the most innovative design of its type in Britain. have my swimsuit waiting in the wings, and I am excited to be able With its tea terrace, sun deck and café, perched on the flat roof, and to take my son to one of the few Lidos left in the country - one distinctive curved wings at either end, it became the only lido to be that, in my opinion, stands out as being the best. Now all we need featured in the Design Museum in London. I can see why. Even now, is the weather, and you can bet this crisp white building will look sensational in the sunshine. having been closed for so many years, it still conveys a real presence.

“With its tea terrace, sun deck and café, perched on the flat roof, and distinctive curved wings, the lido is truly iconic” 80 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

IMAGE CREDIT: EVERETT COLLECTION/SHUTTERSTOCK

Viva La Lido

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life & style

MAIN IMAGE: CIRCLE OF YOUQUA (CHINESE, FL. 1840-1870), OIL ON CANVAS

Life & Style sponsored by Gorringes Auctioneers , the leading South East auction house.

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auction house confidential

Auctioneers behind the scenes

Gorringes LLP is one of the leading fine art and antiques auction houses in the south east. It was established in the early 1920s when Rowland Gorringes opened offices in Lewes as an estate agent and auctioneer.

Philip Taylor, managing partner

Philip has 40 years of experience. He has a particular interest in silver and jewellery and regularly undertakes valuations for inheritance tax and insurance purposes. We have six sales a year at our North Street galleries, which are always between 1,500 and 2,000 lots strong and cover everything: pictures, silver, jewellery, ceramics, and furniture. The average total hammer price is between £600,000 and £1 million every auction. Across town, in our Garden Street branch, we have a general auction every Monday – approximately 800 lots, totalling between £40,000 to £60,000 each week. The most common question we get asked is how to get items valued for sale at auction. There are three elements to this: Visit people’s homes Lots of items are too big for people to bring into our galleries, we happily visit customers to inspect them on site. This is the case for clearance of estates. We have six valuers and they travel all over the country, to the Channel Island and abroad. We also have our own transport teams who arrange collection to bring them to our sale

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IMAGES SUPPLIED BY GORRINGES

TV shows such as Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip have popularised the auction house. But what really goes on behind the scenes? Alex Hopkins visits two major Sussex auction houses

Gorringes specialises in fine art pieces and has been selling artwork at auction for over 90 years.

rooms or our offsite store. It’s particularly helpful to visit people’s homes because quite often people think about sending something to auction when it isn’t really suitable. The market has not been easy in the last few years, so we have to be quite specific about what we can and can’t sell. For example, at the moment Georgian and Regency furniture is very much off the boil, to say the least: it’s probably worth a quarter of what it was 10 years ago. Visit our galleries People can come here to North Street, Lewes. We are always happy to provide a free no-obligation valuation of auction estimates. This happens all the time and we always have at least two valuers on site. Take photos With the advent of the internet this has become an increasingly popular option. People can photograph items in their own homes, on their smartphones, and email pictures to us. We simply respond with our estimated values, subject to inspection. A third of the lots we now sell are via our Internet live bidding. Many people never set foot in the sale room and are happy to rely on our descriptions, photographs and detailed condition reports. Prospective buyers can request these on any lot, we provide a full breakdown of any marks, chips or hairline cracks, antiques always have a history! During our auction we have a global audience. Bids can literally

come from anywhere in the world, via commission, phone and internet. but we still of course, have actual customers bidding in person right in front of us…

Alex McCarthy, head porter

My job involves pretty much everything. A key part is organising the lots when they come through the door. I have to make sure we know where everything is at all times, not always easy with 2000 lots. Every single item that comes in has to be catalogued, entered into our system, labelled and then photographed. We’re always busy here. My days can vary so much; I can be booking things in, dressing the sale rooms for viewing days and generally ensuring that the gallery is looking its best. After the auction buyers come to collect their lots. I have to make sure that they are wrapped and packed properly and often have to fit large items into small cars. The excitement comes from never knowing what is going to come in next. You can find yourself unpacking a massive collection of taxidermy one day and then trying to make sense of Papua New Guinean tribal artefacts the next. There are often logistical problems that you have to overcome. Just last week I had to put together huge wardrobes and then there was the Chinese Opium bed that came in antique kit form, with no instructions. That was a challenge! A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 85

auction house confidential

The market in antique furniture is always changing; pieces that were worth a small fortune a few years ago may be bargains now.

Dan is a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and specialises in Oriental ceramics and works of art and European ceramics and glass. My grandparents had an antique shop in Purley, Croydon, and my interest developed there. My grandmother had a collection of coins from a house clearance and gave them to me and I began to catalogue items. When I was doing my A levels I did work experience at Christies, in South Kensington – portering jobs to get me experience and I really enjoyed it. This eventually led to a degree course in valuation of antiques and I became a chartered surveyor off the back of this. Although the degree was great for providing historical context, I learnt more in the first six months working at an auction house. Realistically, there were more opportunities with the bigger auction rooms if you came from the right background and had a double-barrelled name. The managing director of Christies even said as much in a talk on my degree course. The best route into the business for me was with provincial auctioneers and I started off in Eastbourne as a graduate valuer, under James Braxton, who is now on programmes like Bargain Hunt. I started off in general sales and progressed to antique sales; this led to getting specialist knowledge. The job is like no other. The lows come when you get overly optimistic about something. The great thing about being a valuer is that I’m not stuck doing any one thing. Three days a week I’m out on the 86 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

Spotlight on the Chinese Dan now specialises in Oriental works of Art. The Chinese market has been the biggest growth area in recent years. It’s the one end of the market where half the vendors and buyers are under the age of 35. It’s an obsession with them. A lot of them aren’t especially knowledgeable – they’re just trying to learn what they can. Much like Russia there’s little old money. Three years ago the Chinese has a completely scattergun approach. They were gamblers. They’d be chancing their arm to see if they could make a profit on something. Now they are more experienced and know much better the pieces they are looking for.

IMAGE SUPPLIED BY GORRINGES

Dan Bray, auctioneer and valuer

road attending appointments. The rest, I’m doing in-house valuations, which gives me the opportunity to do research and cataloguing. The thrill comes when you first see an interesting item, you’re able to explain it to the owner – which impresses them – and they decide to sell it. The best bit comes when you’re then the auctioneer for that piece and you put the hammer down for a good price. Once, the bidding finishing at £200,000 for a lot that I had first valued at a customer’s home Do I ever have that experience where I see someone put a value on something and I think they are wrong? Yes, on the Antiques Roadshow all the time! Sometimes it’s a matter of putting things in the right context. They say something is worth £15,000, but they don’t say that’s what they’ll be charging for it in a shop on New Bond Street. At auction it would sell for £5,000. That’s when you think that they’re exaggerating a little bit.

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auction house confidential

Bellmans, in Wisborough Green, is an independent auction house also offering inspection and valuation services.

Jonathan Pratt, managing director

“That, over there, is a Georges Braque,” says Jonathan Pratt, pointing to a simple but beautiful painting of blue and silver ducks. “It’s expected to make from £8,000 to £12,000.” Even Pratt admits that he can sound rather blasé when pointing out some of the antiques that fill Bellman’s gargantuan showroom in Newpound, Wisborough Green. “It’s the business – it does it to you,” he laughs. There really is something of everything in Bellmans. European ceramics jostle for space with antiquarian and modern books, English and continental furniture, and breathtakingly elegant silver and jewellery. The main room that Pratt is showing me hosts 11 auctions a year. Almost 200 lots are sold over a three-day auction, with prices ranging from £60 to £4000. “As you can see we’ll take anything, absolutely anything. Here we’ve got tobacconists’ signs, conservatory furniture and yesteryear toys. If something looks like it’ll make more than £20 then we’ll take it. Even if it’s dead we’ll have it,” laughs Pratt, as he leads me into another vast room and points to an array of stuffed animals on a far off shelf. “But that cat over there is out pet. We’ve had him for years now. We hide him somewhere different for every sale and people will look out for him. Last time I think he was hanging from a chandelier.” The cat, in many ways, sums up Bellmans. It has a real family feel 88 | S US S E X S T Y L E . C OM | APR IL 2 0 1 5

to it. As we continue the tour, Pratt introduces me to employees who have worked here for years: James Gadd, who specialises in 19th and 20th century oils and watercolours, and Stephen Thurlow, who works as the silver and items of vertu jewellery specialist. The men look up and greet me, smiling warmly, before resuming their work – in which they look utterly absorbed. As well they might: the auction house is a serious business, making big money. The contents of the room I’m standing in will make around £30,000, from 60 lots, with an average value of £50. Pratt has been managing director of Bellman’s for 10 years now. He also regularly conducts charity auctions all over the South East and travels the country as an expert on BBC1’s Bargain Hunt and BBC2’s Antiques Road Trip. What he doesn’t know about the business is not worth knowing. He speaks quickly and exudes a natural charisma and infectious energy. It’s clear that he relishes the time he spends at the rostrum. “Mentally the whole process of running an auction is great fun,” he says. ‘’There’s such a lot to remember. Many different elements. You have the auctioneer’s book in front of you with a description of the object, the estimate and then the reserve. When you start to read out the lot number, you’re reading the description and while you’re reading the description you’re working out where to start to land on the reserve in the room. It becomes a bit of a motor skill. I’ve actually drifted off and thought about what I’m doing at the weekend. In this room I’ll do about 150 lots an hour.” Having an audience makes this so much more enjoyable, admits

IMAGE CREDIT: SEAN KANE

His Uzis weighed a ton: a vast arsenal of decommissioned rifles, formerly the property of a single collector.

“If something looks like it’ll make more than £20, then we’ll take it.” Eclecticism is the name of the game at Bellmans.

Pratt. So much so that he tells me that he knows an auctioneer who actually pays out of work actors to come and sit in the room, so that he has something to look at. What you don’t see on shows like Bargain Hunt is the enormous amount of work that goes into preparing things for auction. When items come in they have to be catalogued and valued. I clatter up a steel flight of stairs to the administration area. Nothing could have prepared me for what I see next. In front of me, across four long tables is the largest and most eclectic display of guns I have ever seen. It’s an astonishing sight: AK47s sit next to Uzis. A Kalashnikov takes pride of place. Pratt explains that this arsenal belonged to a man who died in his house in Ashford, Kent. The police released the hoard to the estate because the guns had been decommissioned. Nothing is off limits when it comes to the frequently bizarre world of the auction. “This is going to be a very interesting sale to say the least,” winks Pratt. Further along, a shelf holds a collection of gold discs. Many are by the 1980s group A-ha. I rifle through the boxes and find a plaque commemorating Michael Jackson’s first Number One solo single. There are probably only two or three of these in existence and

it’s likely to sell for between £600 and £800. Another frame celebrates half a million sales of Sunday Girl by Blondie in 1979. Moving on, I reach another table covered with examples of jewellery made for Yves Saint Laurent, created by an illustrator for Marie Claire and Vogue. On the other side of the room is a display of ancient Islamic artefacts. It’s with trepidation that I pick up a glass that is 1200 years old. ‘’Anything can come up here,” says Pratt as he leads me back down into the main auction room. “Everything will now be catalogued. In the case of the Islamic art we’re waiting for a consultant to come over and place values on it. “It’s the stories behind the items that are the most fascinating. We had a great sale last year after being called to a wonderful Elizabethan flint manor house in Wiltshire. Christies had taken 10% of the contents, which was probably 90% of the value and left us with the rest. We got around 1000 lots from this house and did a single sale just of Chinese furniture and porcelain. It was stunning. We had an evening view with a party, serving Thai food and fizz. I do love selling to people when they have a glass of wine in their hands. The real joy about this business is that it always surprises you.”

“Nothing could have prepared me for what I see next. It’s astonishing. AK47s sit next to Uzis. A Kalashnikov takes pride of place”

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mum on the run

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Home Alone

forgot to have breakfast because, as I was not ou have to be careful what you LAURA JANDAC FORGOT making it for anyone else, I forgot it even wish for. Like most mothers I WHAT TIME TO HERSELF existed. I watched 10 minutes of the news constantly crave “Me Time”. FELT LIKE. THEN SHE HAD rather than Fireman Sam; then I left the house. Whether it be a bath or a VAT THE HOUSE ENTIRELY TO As I got to work I realised that I was EARLY! return, I just want some quiet HERSELF AT HALF-TERM. What a strange feeling: I haven’t been early for time to get it done. My need to be alone is a constant source of aggravation BUT WAS IT AS BLISSFUL AS anything for five years. I literally had no idea what to do with myself. I found my way to in our house and is, of course, completely SHE HAD EXPECTED? Costa Coffee, ordered a beverage, sat down (a misunderstood. Let me be clear: a supermarket unique experience in itself ) and started peoplerun sans children does not count as Me Time. watching - my pre-children favourite pastime. Neither is it retail therapy, but my husband can’t see this. My day went without drama but at 3 o’clock, as a matter of Realising that I was close to breaking point, my husband (who is Czech) offered to take our son to see his parents for the half-term habit, I started to put on my coat and get ready to leave, only to holiday. Bliss! I was going to get seven days on my own. 168 hours be reminded by a colleague that for this week at least there was no all to myself. 10,080 minutes to indulge in whatever I fancied on any school run. My afternoon was my own. I really am brainwashed into particular day. Generosity on this scale is a rarity in our house, so I a routine. That evening I got home and the house was tidy, just as agreed before he could change his mind. I could not have packed their I’d left it. No toys on the floor or shoes in the middle of the living bags any quicker. As I waved them off a grin crept across my face. I felt room. I made dinner because all the food I had bought was still in like a teenager whose parents had left her home alone for the first time. the fridge. No one had pinched vital ingredients for a sandwich. It What to do? There was a pile of ironing with my name on it, a was all just as I had wanted. It was what I had been nagging for for dishwasher screaming for some attention and a pile of dirty school so long. But I didn’t like it. It was too quiet. It was lonely and I realised that while an odd day uniforms waiting to be addressed, but for the first time in forever I ignored it all, poured a glass of wine, put the iPod on and danced off may be nice, I love having my boys at home, even with their mess around the living room. It was a party for one - but the best party I’ve and clutter. In fact, it’s the Lego on the carpet and the slippers under the coffee table that make it home. I couldn’t wait for them to come back. been to in ages. Not that I would tell them, of course. I might need them to do it The next morning I was late out of bed as my two-legged alarm clock was vacationing and I haven’t set a real alarm clock in years. I again one day. A PRI L 2015 | SUSSEXST YL E . CO M | 91

school gate confidential

Not-so-happy birthday to you

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IMAGE CREDIT: STUDIO 37/SHUTTERSTOCK

The only saving grace was the “not so cheap but he other month friends of mine MYLEENE KLASS GOT A worth every penny” children’s entertainer they threw a party for their 6-yearTICKING OFF FROM HER hired. He kept most of them suitably captivated, old son. They bravely decided to CHILD’S SCHOOL HEAD. otherwise it would have been utter mayhem. invite the entire class of 30 kids, BUT SECRETLY PARENTS “We expected 25 guests. We ended up with as there were likely to be a few EVERYWHERE ARE 34 and only 4 adults to help. While I should have declines. The party was being been watching my child enjoy his party, I was held at the local community hall, so there was APPLAUDING HER FOR flexibility on numbers and no upfront costs per EXPOSING COMMONPLACE rushing around like a headless chicken trying to accommodate these thoughtless parents,” head. They distributed printed invites with the BIRTHDAY PARTY DRAMA she said. “One mum brought both her invited help of the teaching staff, which included the option to R.S.V.P. by email or text. Even for the busiest of parents it daughter and uninvited sibling then left the party feigning excuses she would only take 30 seconds to fire off a response. Or so you would think. had things to do. What could I say? No?” This birthday party drama didn’t surprise me in the least. At a party a Party day arrived and nearly a fifth of the class hadn’t bothered to respond at all, despite being chased. The parents catered accordingly, few months ago, the parents had actually agreed to this “drop and dash” only to find a few non-responders actually did turn up. Other parents but naively didn’t organise enough helpers. I stayed to help out only to came with uninvited siblings. This left them short of food and party witness an extremely stressed and snappy mum-host taking it out on all bags. Desperate not to disappoint any of the children, and despite the the kids. Her idea of making the party to go smoothly was to chastise appalling show of bad manners from their parents, they were scraping them into submission. “What are you doing it like that for? Do you about for extra places at the table and cobbling together additional party understand what you’re meant to do?” she barked at one poor kid during one game. Language and tone I would not even use on my own kids let bags with stuff from the local shop. Half the parents ‘dropped and dashed’ – the practice of leaving your alone someone else’s. You have to admire the parents who don’t throw parties – or at least child at a party, while you swan off to do your own thing – without bothering to check if there were enough supervising adults. “I didn’t put you never know if they are, as they keep a dignified silence and don’t on the invite that they could leave their kids with us,” the mum tells me, invite classmates. I always imagine they are throwing fabulously unique “because they are 5 and 6 years old! Some of them still need help going and exciting birthday celebrations for their child. Truth is, they won’t tell to toilet. We had to help them go to the loo when we should have been you, because it’s none of your business. Leaving you only to guess if they putting out the food and drink and lighting the candles on the cake.” have really cracked the secret to proper “happy” birthdays.

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brighton mums

Proper coffee mums

IMAGE CREDIT: ALESHYN_ANDREI/SHUTTERSTOCK

taken black to bitter and grainy Americanos. lthough Britain is traditionally Many places are starting to serve a ‘guest filter’, a nation of tea-drinkers, GETTING THROUGH meaning you can try a variety of beans from the consumption of coffee THE DAY NEEDS SUPERB around the world and find one that suits you. continues to rise. According ORGANISATION SKILLS, We asked Sussex mums to pick their top to a Mintel report in 2012, HUMOUR - AND LARGE places for coffee and social gatherings. the estimated turnover for QUANTITIES OF COFFEE, Moksha, York Place and Trafalgar Street, coffee shops in the UK that year was £5.6 billion. Gone are the unsavoury, scalding SAYS CLAIRE JONES-HUGHES Brighton. “Plenty of buggy space, healthy and tasty food, cups of instant. Mums are building microcommunities around their local café, based on what they serve, how they and guest filter coffee. The staff are great at supporting mums with babies and small children.” Claire Jones-Hughes, BrightonMums.com editor. serve it and whether it’s baby and child-friendly. The need for coffee starts shortly after having a baby. Adapting to Baltica, High Street, Lewes. sleep deprivation requires a pick-me-up, and the opportunity to combine “Even the decaf is great! It has a nice relaxed vibe and tends not to be that with a social gathering increases the attraction. The NHS suggests mad busy plus delicious gluten-free cake and brownie options. I love the talking over parenting worries with friends can help prevent post-natal unique lovely Polish pottery.” Morgan Nichols, Lewes-based writer. depression. During those early weeks and months as a first-time mum, Jasper Wood Café, Cornfield Terrace, Eastbourne. “All dark wood and lovely coffee.” Crimson Boner, local artist. it’s vital to meet up with other mums who are facing similar challenges. A good cup of coffee, welcoming sofas, endless supplies of cake and Tom Foolery, The High Street, Shoreham-by-Sea. excellent baby-changing facilities create a sanctuary to reset the brain and “Child and dog-friendly, plus run by locals and regularly features local refocus. “For me, coffee is synonymous with socialising and ‘me-time’,” artwork. There’s also a pop-up restaurant occasionally and craft events.” Jemma Patterson, Shoreham-by-Sea. says Worthing mum and blogger Jen Palmer, “and it keeps me awake!” A gourmet coffee is also seen as an adult treat, especially during these Cobblestone Walk Café, Steyning. tough economic times. The household budget often doesn’t stretch to “Although it’s probably known for tea and cake, the coffee is great too. regular meals out in restaurants but a cappuccino or caffè latte is an It’s almost like going back in time, in a good way.” Kat Naish from affordable indulgence. New mum and personal trainer Lucy Howlett WorthingMums.com. Honorable mention for mum-friendly establishments in Sussex also loves an Americano with soya or non-dairy milk. “Whether it gives me goes to The Flour Pot Bakery, Brighton; Bond Street Coffee, Brighton; energy or not, having a coffee is a nice ritual to start the day,” she says. Another recent trend around Sussex, which has no doubt trickled Flint Owl Bakery, Lewes; The Beach Deck, Royal Parade, Eastbourne; down from London, is slow-brewed drip filter coffee, preferable when Prestons Café, East Preston.

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book club

ub l c k o

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Penguin) Filmed repeatedly and always watchably, the Jazz Age must be the most photogenic era ever. But nothing matches the glamour dripping off this book’s pages. Nick Carraway is taken into the fabulously wealthy world of Long Island’s shoreline mansions. We meet his ravishing cousin, Daisy, her brutish, rich husband, Tom Buchanan, and the languid, the cool, the mysterious, the downright intriguing Jay Gatsby. Gatsby spends a fortune on sophisticated parties, but hides away from his invited guests in the library, nursing a drink. It’s a glittering and dangerous new age, and all that glitters is not gold. But this book is pure gold throughout. If you’ve only ever seen the film, do treat yourself to reading the original. It won’t disappoint.

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LAURA LOCKINGTON REVISITS CLASSICS OF THE ‘ROARING TWENTIES’ - BOOKS THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN OUT OF PRINT. READING ESSENTIAL; WHITE LADY AND EBONY CIGARETTE HOLDER OPTIONAL

DECEIVED WITH KINDNESS: A BLOOMSBURY CHILDHOOD by Angelica Garnett (Pimlico) Garnett’s childhood home, Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex (see p. 10 of this issue), is one of those magical places that must be experienced, even if you know nothing about the Bloomsbury set. Her mother, the acclaimed painter Vanessa Bell (and sister of Virginia Woolf), was chatelaine there. Garnett grew up believing, quite naturally, that her mother’s husband, Clive Bell was her father. Wrong. That was her mother’s lover, Duncan Grant, who lived with them at Charleston, where Garnett’s own precocious talents were exploited to the full. Her struggle to overcome the cloying and encompassing love of her mother and her aunt make this book fresh and new, even today.

THE COMPLETE MAPP AND LUCIA by EF Benson (Wordsworth Classics) Lucia is one of the greatest comic creations in literature: a monster of a woman, a pretentious, outrageous snob, a hectoring, plotting, vengeful Harpie. And, oh, so funny. Her sidekick, the sweet and ineffectual Georgie, and her long suffering husband ‘Pepino’, follow mildly in her wake, as she wreaks havoc amid the village of Riseholm. She is undisputed queen of her realm. That is, until the opera singer Olga comes to stay in the village. War is declared, and sides must be chosen. The parliament that meets every morning on the village green is undecided. Lucia has ridden roughshod over them for so long, perhaps it’s time for a new broom? There have been many TV series of these books, but again, nothing beats the giggle-inducing humour of the original.

I in 4 women WILL BE affected by domestic abuse at some point in their life. (Council of Europe 2002)

You are not alone Call RISE 01273 622 822 www.riseuk.org.uk @riseuk Wraparound services for women, children and LGBT people affected by domestic abuse in Sussex. Visit Domestic Abuse Surgery, Hove Town Hall, Wednesdays 9.00-12.00

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minxy mann yeager

ang went the ring main, boom OUR MINXY PRIDES HERSELF 1920s. It contained such arcane wisdom as the went my heart. All I did was turn ON RUNNING A VERY TIGHT order in which to wash up the dishes (glasses first as they are the least dirty), how to dust (from the waste disposal unit on. It was SHIP AT SCHLOSS YEAGER. top to bottom as it drifts downwards, don’t you a damp dark March evening and like Scarlett O’Hara, I flounced BUT WHEN AN UNEXPECTED know), and how to air a room, make beds and ELECTRICAL DISASTER carry out various methods of hand laundry. away declaring “I won’t think The laundry had been done, so it was just a about this now, I’ll think about it tomorrow.” WAS SPRUNG ON HER, matter of drying 10kgs of wet washing. We have Next morning, I tripped gaily down the SHE FOUND HERSELF TIME duvets, so no need of hospital corners. I know stairs of Schloss Yeager, realising breakfast was TRAVELLING BACK TO THE how to open a window and I believe dust to be going to be a challenge. The heating was still 1920S. HOW DID SHE COPE? a useful commodity. How else would one know on, we had gallons of hot water and the lights where to replace things without the dust ring? appeared to be working. A brief look at the fuse So I donned my pinny. Washing up was no problem - juice glasses box informed me that they were off a different ring main. Not so the toaster, kettle, dishwasher, tumble dryer and most importantly the coffee first. I dashed upstairs, opened the windows, and promptly shut them machine. I contemplated a morning of hellish chores; Ria, my woman again; too cold, and besides, I have air freshener. I made the beds, who does was on a week’s holiday. A quick call to Glen The Sparks cleaned the bathroom and hauled mop and bucket up to wash the floor. A brief check under the stairs revealed a huge fluffy duster on a pole. revealed he could not attend me for three whole days as he was still in Umbria on a foodie holiday. I am clearly in the wrong job. There was I set about the light fixtures and cornices like a woman possessed. I gave the bookshelves a once over as it seemed a pity not to. ”Have duster, will nothing for it but to roll up my sleeves and do like great-grandma did. Where to start? I had no electricity to any of the ground floor dust” was my mantra, followed by, “Have mop, will mop.” It is no wonder they were all lean, lithe and fit as fleas; all the below waist height, so 21st Century labour-saving devices were out. Fortunately, the dishwasher had finished its cycle, as had the washing bending, stretching and and upper body workout was more strenuous machine. But the dryer was mid-tumble and I had no oven or microwave. than an hour’s personal training in the gym. There are several pieces of Unfortunately, I did appear to have a working gas hob so dinner out sage advice I will offer after my ordeal: always keep hand cream by every would not be an option, alas. This modern woman of the millennium, sink as washing up is murderous to manicures; a gungy casserole pan needed to perform my chores like a house proud lady of the last century. can be de-gunked with a biological washing powder and boiling water; I cast my mind back to the interminable Home Ec lessons under vigorous chores are excellent exercise; and NEVER turn on the waste the expert tutelage of Mrs Mountshaft. We used a text book at school disposal unit when you have the dishwasher, food mixer and radio on at which, by its smell and faded illustrations, had been around since the the same time.

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An old-school housewife

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