Pevensey People

The Floral Retreat in Westham

The Edwardian tea garden with an ornamental lake.

1951 Actress Sally Gray is secretly married

On 1st December 1951, the famous actress Sally Gray left her mother's house in Rattle Road, Westham and headed to the register office in Hailsham.

1839 The Old Ash Tree and the Reverend John Ashburnham

Ash trees were not common in Pevensey, but early in the nineteenth century there was a fine ancient specimen in the churchyard of St Nicolas. In November 1839, the vicar decided to cut it down.

1936 The Seachange Villa Murder

On Boxing Day 1936, at his house in Pevensey Bay, a retired Army officer shot his housekeeper and then shot himself.

1957 - Horace Field, the last of the Lookers

Horace Field was a legend in his own lifetime. He worked on the marshes as a "looker" for many years. As a looker, his job was to visit and count every day - twice a day at and after lambing time - all the cattle and sheep, numbering thousands during the summer - in fields spread over hundreds of acres of grazing land on Pevensey Marsh.

1927 - Percy Grainger first visits Pevensey Bay

"At about midnight we reached Pevensey and Westham railway station - a pitch-black night..."

1931 - Jim Mollison, the Flying Scotsman

On August 6th 1931, at about 13.30, an exhausted Jim Mollison landed his Gipsy Moth biplane on the beach at Pevensey Bay; by the next day he was one of the best known men in the Empire.

The Prinsep Family in Pevensey Bay

For many years at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the artistic and racy Prinsep family set the tone for Pevensey Bay.

1898 - Lily Woolven, Schoolmistress

Lily Woolven, the Insubordinate Schoolmistress of Hankham

1803 - The Devil's Own in Westham

In December 1803 His Majesty's 88th Regiment of Foot arrived in Westham. It had recently returned from India and Egypt, severely depleted by sickness, and was sent to recover and rebuild in Sussex for three years.