First of all, apologies if you get a dozen Emails a week from
sentimental twits like me. Nonetheless, I felt I had to write to
express my pleasure at finding the Ferring Village Web Site. I have been
investigating my family history recently and that put me much in mind of the
West Sussex village where I spent so much time as a boy in the 1950's
and first couple of years of the 1960's. Out of curiosity I told the BT
search engine to look for Ferring and there we were!
I can't claim any long Ferring ancestry but my family were reasonably well known
in the village from just after World War I until the mid 1960's. After
nearly 40 years I don't suppose there are many people who would remember us but
- to risk being boring - here goes.
My great grandfather Arthur Cannon, together with his brother Harry, bought land
at the end of what is now The Grove, Brook Lane about 1920 and built typical
wood and asbestos bungalows of the period. Arthur lived there from some
time later until his death about 1952. His wife Alice died in 1950.
Harry together with his daughter May and her family were there until the mid
sixties, latterly in a modern bungalow (still there I think). Harry's
daughter's married name was Wooldridge. Harry died about 1965.
Arthur Cannon's bungalow passed to his daughter Kitty Turner and her husband
Bert (my grandparents). Bert worked in later years for Jack Robins the
village barber. (I think the shop was in the square block building immediately
to the right of Caffyns (?) garage in the second photo down on the right in the
photo album.) My grandparents died in 1962 and 1963 respectively and my
late mother (Joan Pallant) sold the bungalow site for development.
I have never been back to Ferring since, although I did pass by the top
end of the village by train in 1992. It looked relatively unchanged,
an impression I also have from the photos. May I ask a question about the
photo of the sharp bend by the Church (above the panel with your Email address).
I can't completely place the school like building across the road. Is it
new? I remember that site as being partly the grounds of a private hotel (Greylands?)
and the premises of the Turle family builders and undertakers. Similarly,
I am uncertain if I recall the evident reconstruction work to the long burnt out
Grange at the rear of the Church. Would I remember this or is it more
recent?
Lastly, and having been tedious, can I offer you the use of various
monochrome snapshots I have in the family papers in the 'wooden bungalow' days
of Ferring. Any interest for the photo album or do you have a drawer full
of this sort of stuff? As they are the only copies I have, I would of
course pass them to you electronically (if I can get the attachment facility to
work!)
Thank you again for a trip down memory lane.
Nick Pallant
nick.pallant@btinternet.com
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