The Old Mill House, Sidlesham A Little Local History By Christopher Bond

Contents

Foreword...... iii.

1. Pagham Harbour - The lost harbour of West Sussex...... 1.

2. Sidlesham Mill...... 13.

3. The Old Mill House...... 19.

4. The Selsey Tram...... 25.

5. Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve...... 35.

Acknowledgements ...... 44.

Sketch Map of Pagham Harbour & Sidlesham Quay...... Inside back-cover

i.

Foreword

The original intention behind writing this little book (which has been long in gestation) was not only to find out more about the history of the beautiful area in which we live but also to inform others who may follow in our footsteps and become future custodians of this unique property when we come to move on. For us it has been a very special home in which we have raised our family of 4 daughters and so it is also to remind them and their children how fortunate they were to have been brought up here.

West Sussex is a very well-endowed county, with its rolling downs, its beaches and harbours and ready access to sporting activities – be it horse or motor racing, swimming, surfing or sailing, hiking or cycling, or be it cultural activities such as are found at Chichester Festival Theatre, the Pallant Gallery or at Chichester’s fine cathedral.

Bosham, the Witterings, Itchenor and Chichester itself are well known and all considered highly desirable places to live. Sidlesham is less well known and is often just passed through by those on their way to the sea. Being one of the largest parishes in area in the county it has a sprawling nature, largely on account of the Land Settlement Association, which set up a large number of horticultural holdings in 1936 to provide employment opportunities for enterprising out-of-work Durham miners, the place chosen largely for its fine sunshine record.

But few, outside the village, are aware that it contains two significant Conservation Areas – one surrounding the 13th Century church of St Mary’s, the other around Sidlesham Quay, where our lovely house is located and on which this little history is centred.

There can be few better places to live which overlook the ever-changing tidal seascape and the ever-foraging sea birds and where there is no risk of any man-made development to obscure the far-reaching views from the windows of your home, than this.

Chris Bond The Old Mill House November 2019

iii. 1. Pagham Harbour – the lost harbour of Sussex 1. Pagham Harbour – the lost harbour of Sussex

Pagham Harbour has only However, the recorded history of Earlier visitors included the been so-called since the latter the harbour precedes this. The Vikings, who were raiding the part of the 18th Century. Romans landed here in AD46, Sussex coast towards the end Before then it was called when the extent of the harbour of the 9th Century. Viking Selsey Haven, Selsey Harbour was much greater than today, warriors beached their longship and, sometimes, Sidlesham on their way to establishing the on the mud of the harbour and Harbour. These former names town of Noviomagus Regnorum - made their way to engage the would seem more appropriate, modern day Chichester. The site local Saxon tribe. A fierce battle as by far the largest part of a Roman Villa and the remains ensued in which the heathen of the harbour lies within of a Roman road have both been Danes were overwhelmed. the parishes of Selsey and discovered nearby. Sidlesham. In earlier times it It is believed that they were had been known as Undering, The fortunes of Pagham Harbour offered the choice of surrender Wydering or Vadering. For as a port began to wane after 1341, and freedom - if they agreed to consistency, we shall use it’s when some 2700 acres of land be baptised into the Christian modern name throughout. had been “over floyed by the sea”, faith - or to fight. The Vikings and from 1401 Pagham ceased chose the latter option, in Looking at Pagham Harbour to be listed as a port. Changes to the belief that it was more today - normally a vast the shingle bank at the harbour honourable to die in battle. expanse of mud flats, saltings mouth - which changes continue Accordingly, they were put and reed beds, covered by the to the present day - probably to death by the Saxons; their sea for only a few hours each obstructed much maritime remains, in full military day - it is difficult to conceive traffic. Nevertheless, the quay regalia, were buried a little that this was, back in the 13th at Sidlesham continued to be way inland, in what is now Century, England’s ninth used by barques bringing corn to the garden of the house called biggest port. Sidlesham Mill, about which there “Danesacre” in Mill Lane. is more in 2 - Sidlesham Mill.

1. The Saxons had earlier been converted to Christianity by Bishop Wilfrid, the man credited with converting the pagan inhabitants of Sussex – the South Saxons. He founded an Abbey/Cathedral on an island (Seal Island) near the mouth of Pagham Harbour. The modern town of Selsey is now located some miles South of “How do I know what is greatest, the Abbey site – now called Church Norton. Later, in the 11th How do I know what is least? Century, the cathedral was relocated to Chichester, and the nave That is My Father’s business,” of the church buildings moved to the new settlement of Selsey. Said Eddi, Wilfrids priest. The chancel was left behind and is now the tiny and lonely Eddi’s Service “But-three are gathered together- St Wilfrid’s Chapel, the subject of Rudyard Kipling’s haunting by Rudyard Kipling Listen to me and attend . poem “Eddi’s Service”. I bring good news my brethren!” Eddi, priest of St.Wilfrid Said Eddi of Manhood End. In his chapel at Manhood End, Ordered a midnight service And he told the Ox of a Manger And a Stall in Bethlehem, For such as cared to attend. And he spoke to the Ass of a Rider, But the Saxons were keeping Christmas, That rode to Jerusalem. And the night was stormy as well They steamed and dripped in the chancel, Nobody came to service They listened and never stirred, Though Eddi rang the bell. While, just as though they were Bishops, “Wicked weather for walking”, Eddi preached them The Word, Said Eddi of Manhood End. Till the gale blew off on the marshes “But I must go on with the service And the windows showed the day. For such as care to attend.” And the Ox and the Ass together The altar-lamps were lighted,- Wheeled and clattered away. An old marsh-donkey came, And when the Saxons mocked him, Bold as a guest invited, Said Eddi of Manhood End, And stared at the guttering flame. “I dare not shut His chapel The storm beat on at the windows, On such as care to attend.” The water splashed on the floor, And a wet, yoke-weary bullock Pushed in through the open door.

St Wilfrid’s Chapel today

2. Following the battle of Hastings in 1066, the Norman conquerors established several settlements along the South Coast, which included a castle at Church Norton, for the protection of Pagham Harbour. The earthwork remains of this are visible today, beside the tiny chapel.

Artist’s impression of the Norman Castle at Church Norton.

The site of the Norman Castle today. 3. In the 13th Century, a new port – Newhavene – was created on the North East side of the harbour, probably formed by an inroad of the sea. This may have been associated with the establishment of the new township of Wardur by the Bishop of Chichester, to encourage which he granted the tenants the right of freehold ownership of their land at 14d an acre. Wardur did not survive the 13th Century, probably on account of its port of Newhavene being cut off from the sea by the first building of the Pagham Wall, one of the first of many attempts to reclaim land from the sea. The Pagham Wall, rebuilt in 1637, now carries the footpath between Pagham and Sidlesham. The harbour itself continued to host significant maritime traffic, mainly transporting corn for milling at Sidlesham Mill, although from 1401 it ceased to be listed as a port. The Armada map of 1587 shows the Mill with the legend “unto which a Barcke of 40 tonnes may flote”. Pagham Harbour, and the men of the Manhood peninsula, reputedly played a part in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Having been sighted off the Scilly Isles on 29th July of that year, the Spanish fleet was chased up the English channel by the English fleet under Admiral Howard, harrying the Spaniards, but to little effect. By the 4th August it had reached the Isle of Wight. Armada Map of 1587 4. A nice, but possibly apocryphal, story Whether, or when, the wealthy farmer relates that, on that day, the wedding subsequently consummated the marriage of a wealthy farmer from Sidlesham is not precisely recorded. was taking place in the tiny chapel at Church Norton, near the harbour The book “English Country Lanes” by mouth. Just as the marriage had been Elisabeth Chidsey records probably the solemnised, a messenger arrived at the harbour’s most famous visitor. This church to announce that the Armada book is an anthology, in which country had been sighted off Selsey Bill. The lanes – selected by famous people – are best man at the wedding happened to described by the author. Sir Patrick be the captain of the barque used for Moore, the eminent astronomer who transporting corn and flour to and lived in Selsey, chose Rookery Lane in from Sidlesham Mill. The crew of the Sidlesham (which leads into Mill Lane barque had been practising techniques and to Sidlesham Quay). The author of repelling Spanish invaders since records that “on certain occasions a the threat of the Armada had short, slim, heavily-cloaked figure left become known. his launch and stepped into a private coach waiting at the quayside. This Black and white engraving of the Battle of Trafalgar. On hearing the news, the bridegroom was Admiral Lord Nelson, come from Engraving by William Miller after JMW Turner in 1875. and best man left the bride at the altar, his fleet anchored off the coast and on ran to the quay at Sidlesham Mill, his way to visit Lady Hamilton, his boarded the barque, whose “trained” mistress, who was a guest at nearby crew were already assembled and set Uppark House”. Unfortunately, though sail to join in the harrying of the credible, this legend is certainly Spanish fleet, possibly by trying to lure Whereas it is true that Emma Hamilton apocryphal, having been created them on to the Owers rocks which lie off stayed at Uppark, where she is reputed by the present owner of the Selsey. A local historian has described to have danced naked on the table for the Old Mill House (which faces how the little barque, during its sortie entertainment of the owner, Sir Harry Sidlesham Quay), to explain to out of the harbour, fires a broadside Featherstone Haugh, by whom, it is his children the presence of a at the slow and lumbering Spanish rumoured, she had a child, she did not cannon ball-sized hole in the front galleon “Carthagena”, bringing meet Nelson until 1798. The courtship wall of the property’s garden, down its mainmast and causing it of the two actually started in Naples, which he purported to be the to surrender, with 500 soldiers on following Nelson’s victory at the battle result of wayward actions by the board. The stricken vessel was towed of the Nile, and continued in various crew of HMS Victory (tied up at to Portsmouth, where she was quickly Mediterranean locations, including the quayside) while the Admiral repaired and pressed into the service of Menorca, until Nelson’s death at the was cavorting with his mistress the English fleet. battle of Trafalgar in 1805. at Uppark. Admiral Lord Nelson

5. In its long history, Pagham Harbour has seen many attempts at land reclamation – some successful, some not. The first may have been towards the end of the 13th Century, when a wall was built between Pagham and Sidlesham, cutting off the new town of Wardur from the sea, probably leading to its failure. By 1340, however, it appears that the sea wall had been breached, leading to the loss of some 2700 acres back to the sea. By 1755, Sidlesham Mill had been rebuilt and more land reclaimed to the Northern and Eastern sides of the harbour. By 1778, maps of the time show the built Pagham wall at the North end of the harbour. By 1800 a major part of the land to the West of the Wadeway, the track which joined the island of Selsey and Sidlesham - passable on foot at low tide but only by ferry at high tide, had been reclaimed and split into several fields. Between 1805 and 1809 Lord Selsey built a strong bank to prevent the flooding of these fields, which provided, for the first time, a mostly dry roadway to Selsey (now the B2145). Further parts to the northern end of the harbour, adjacent to Pagham wall and Sidlesham Mill were reclaimed during the first half of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the second half of the century plans were drawn up to reclaim the whole of the harbour, culminating in Parliament passing the Pagham Harbour Reclamation Act in 1873. Pagham Harbour after the building of the Pagham Wall and rebuilding of Sidlesham Mill, c.1778

6. It took three years to complete the construction of a causeway to seal off the sea. By the finish, around 700 acres of mud flats had been reclaimed, including some 30 acres of tidal mill pond, and turned into agricultural land where cows and sheep grazed. A map, dated 1909 shows the line of the defensive wall and the re-positioned exit for the fresh water rifes (a Sussex term for streams) which still flowed to the sea through the fields , the boundaries of which are also shown on the map. To this day, some of the fence posts can still be seen at low tide. The tidal mill at Sidlesham, which earlier had had its water wheels supplemented by coal-fired steam- driven ones, denied of its principal driving force – the flood and ebb of the tide – and the means of transporting corn, flour and coal in bulk by sea, fell into disuse and gradually decayed.

Map of Pagham Harbour (1909) just prior to the Great Storm of 1910.

7. During December 1910 the peninsula was besieged by a violent storm which raged for several days until on the night of the 15/16th December, the sea defences were breached and the reclaimed land inundated by the sea. The vicar of Pagham at the time wrote in his diary: “I found it very interesting, though rather alarming, to sit at my upstairs window at the vicarage ...and watch the waves begin their work of smashing through the coastline and then tear away the low ridge of beach for a width of some hundreds of yards, and come rushing up to the vicarage the better part of a mile from the gap”. Those living in the Old Mill House and other properties fronting the quay at Sidlesham must have found it even more alarming. No further attempts were made at the time to reclaim the land lost to the sea. “Man drove the fish away and, you see, God has brought them back” said an old Sidlesham fisherman at the time. However, this was not to be the end of man’s efforts to find alternative uses for the now silted-up and un-navigable harbour. The 20th Century saw ambitious ideas floated; as well as continuing struggles to combat the forces of nature.

Sidlesham Mill: The Great Flood 1910

8. In 1924, the National Seaplane Club was formed, to “practise the new and virile sport of seaplaning”. The founders of the club approached W A Thornton, Esq., who had acquired the lordship of the Manor of Selsey and, thereby, ownership of Pagham Harbour and large parts of the foreshore, with the intention of using the harbour as a seaplane base. In addition, they wished to build a clubhouse on the Pagham foreshore and a land aerodrome adjacent to the harbour, so as to provide easy access to the club’s members. The plan came to nought, due to the insolvency of the club’s founder in 1926. Mr Thornton was, however, soon faced with another problem – the disquieting prospect of his railway-carriage “bungalows” at Pagham Beach soon being engulfed by the sea. His consulting engineers had concluded that the harbour’s mouth, created at the North end of the shingle bank by the storm of 1910, had been steadily moving east at “the mean rate of 91 feet per annum”. This was, in fact, no more than a continuation of the pattern of historical changes to the harbour’s outflow over centuries and which was set to continue. The changing shape of the harbour’s mouth 1785 - 1961

The engineers’ advised solution was to seal In 1936, work started on sheet-piling to close the off the existing mouth and create a new one, existing harbour mouth and open the new one. roughly in the position of the 1910 breach, However, a series of great storms in the Spring at the Church Norton end of the shingle and Autumn of 1937 wrought havoc with the bank, with the added possibility, in the work – “twisting the steel locking piles into every future, of installing sluice-gates which could conceivable shape”. make the harbour non-tidal. 9. However, by late 1938, the new opening had been established, ensuring a more certain future for Pagham’s shacky architecture and, probably arising from the unfulfilled hopes of a decade earlier, gave rise to a new dream for Mr Thornton for converting his muddy empire into a fortune, spurred also by advancing age and the costs of a lengthy high court action against the contractors of the harbour mouth scheme. In 1939, Imperial Airways were searching for a new base for their Empire Flying Boats, due to congestion from ever-increasing shipping traffic at their current base in Southampton Water. Their application to use Langstone Harbour having been overruled by the Navy, William Thornton spotted a chance. He employed an eminent aerodrome designer to come up with a plan. The scheme was impressive. The designer proposed dredging between 3 and 4 feet of mud out of the harbour and introducing a sluice gate at the new mouth, thus maintaining the water at constant level throughout the harbour. Artist’s impression of Pagham Harbour re-modelled as Imperial Airways’ Flying Boat Base The main terminal buildings were to be at the Sidlesham end of the Pagham wall, with a rail link to Chichester using the route of the, by then The only snag was that the plans required the The Ministry’s admirable foresight put paid defunct, Selsey tramway. There would also be approval of the Air Ministry. To the dismay to the scheme. Had it not done so, it is likely a large circular-shaped land aerodrome to the of the local Bognor hoteliers and traders, who that the onset of the second world war would north-east of the harbour and a luxury hotel had greeted the scheme with enthusiasm, the have, instead. near the beach at Pagham. Air Ministry – after giving the scheme a good going over – concluded that “giant flying So, at a cost of £750,000, the harbour was to boats of the future might require take-off and become the main British base for Imperial landing zones of up to 4 miles” and might Airways’ flying boat fleet – anyway “be eclipsed by large multi-engined Pagham International! aircraft operating from land-based aerodromes close to major centres of population”. 10. The war brought no respite to the The age-old shifting of the harbour mouth, fragile tranquillity of the harbour. however, has continued. The Church Norton Not only did it become a practice mouth, completed in 1938, held its position bombing range for the RAF but its for a number of years, as is shown in the banks also became home to a local RAF reconnaissance photograph of 1941, but RAF base. The site of a former private further storms in the 1950s caused breaches air strip near Church Norton was until the present mouth was built in 1957, requisitioned in 1942 and an ALG which is still holding its position, although (Advanced Landing Ground) created the variations in the direction of its outflow and became operational in 1943 with are, once again, a cause for concern to the the arrival of Spitfire and Typhoon residents of Pagham beach. squadrons. The harbour was eventually sold by the On 19 June 1943, a fatal accident executors of the estate of W.A.Thornton to occurred when a Typhoon crashed into the West Sussex River Board, for the princely the Harbour, killing the New Zealand sum of £500! pilot. It is thought that this was the result of an unauthorised low-level mock combat with a RAF Mosquito aircraft in the vicinity. The remains of the Typhoon were salvaged from the harbour, in 1984, by volunteers from Tangmere Military Aviation Museum, with the aid of a US Air Force helicopter. Selsey ALG went on to play a significant part in the run-up to, during and after the D-Day landings in June 1944. The site was de-requisitioned and returned to agricultural land soon after the end of RAF Typhoon recovery 1984 re-printed from the Evening Argus. the war. Today, a blue plaque beside Rectory Lane, Church Norton is all that remains. RAF Reconnaissance Photo of 1941, showing Mr. Thornton’s harbour mouth of 1938 still holding up.

11. 2. Sidlesham Mill

Pagham Harbour at low tide, revealing field marker fence posts dating from the reclamation period.

Pagham Harbour today

12. 2. Sidlesham Mill There has been a mill at Sidlesham for centuries, Here also stood the village hostelry, the Crown that is until about 100 years ago, when the last Inn, fronting the harbour. This Inn became so and greatest mill of all was demolished. notorious as a rendez-vous of contrabandists that its licence was forfeited and transferred to It is not known exactly when the first mill was an Inn of the same name in Selsey, and was built. The written account of the custumal – later demolished. that is, the medieval laws relating to the dues payable to the Manor – of Sidlesham in 1275 In 1755, one WoodroffeDrinkwater rebuilt the makes reference to the ‘Bishop’s Mill’, which may mill. Mr Drinkwater is variously described well have been the one at Sidlesham. in the records as a miller or mealman (an old English term for someone who deals in A survey was carried out in 1587 “with a View to meal or grain), of West Ashling, a village near the Defence against Foreign Invaders” – that is, Chichester. By 1734 he is styled a merchant. in anticipation of the Spanish Armada – which Various pieces of land in Bosham were resulted in the preparation of a map, now known settled on him prior to his marriage to Anne as the “Armada Map” (See page 4). This shows a Castellowe, daughter of the mayor of Chichester, mill on the present site. in 1720. A deposition in a legal case of 1606 states “that Despite this, by 1739, Woodroffe Drinkwater the harbour of Undering (the old name of had been declared bankrupt. How he managed Pagham Harbour) doth extend from the entrance to raise sufficient money to finance the re- of the harbour mouth against Selsie unto building of the mill at Sidlesham remains Siddlesham Mill”. something of a mystery. The Stone Tablet It is also known that customs men were stationed A stone tablet, recovered from the demolished at Sidlesham in the 1680s, presumably on mill and now set in the wall of the Old Mill In 1745, Robert had supplied the millstones account of the sea-borne trade in corn and flour House, informs us that the mill was “Rebuilt and necessary mechanisms for the new King’s to and from the mill. Smuggling was also rife 1755 the building directed and machinery Mill at Portsea in Portsmouth Harbour in the area at the time. The customs house – invented by Benja Barlow”. There is no record and, in 1756, added new floodgates and a now Quay House – and the Granary, which, of this invention at the Patent Office, although great variety of machinery to improve its according to a plaque set in the wall was built in there is record of machinery for cleaning wheat performance. This tidal mill ground the 1723, stood either side of the miller’s house – now, patented by his father, Robert Barlow, a grain for the navy’s Victualling Office. the Old Mill House. millwright from Reading.

13. Little is known of young Benjamin Barlow, but the rebuilt mill was later described thus: “for symmetry of parts and justness of principle is inferior to none in the kingdom”. The mill had three waterwheels, eight pairs of millstones and a fan for cleansing corn (his father’s invention?). It could grind 40 bushels (about a ton) of wheat in an hour. A tidal mill operates on the principle of the incoming tide entering an upstream mill pond through a sluice gate, which is closed at high water. After a period of time on the falling tide, another sluice gate is opened to allow the water to flow out of the mill pond. This flow of water would drive the water wheels, which in turn drove the mill wheels which ground the corn, for several hours. The Mill, in its working state: c.1850 - from an oil painting in the possession of the Kiln family - descendants of John Kiln. Tide mills had the great advantage over windmills in that the source of power - the The Mill Pond at Sidlesham covered an area of some The 1841 census shows the miller to be John Hunt; by tide – was both dependable 36 acres, extending as far as the aptly-named Pondtail 1848, Clark and Company are shown occupying the house, and predictable. However, a Cottage, which stands at the junction of Rookery Lane land and mill, the total valuation being £176. The 1851 disadvantage was that the hours and the Selsey Road. census lists John Kiln and his wife living at the Mill of operation were constantly House, aged 27 and 20 respectively, with 11 men working changing, as high tide times Mr Drinkwater and his family owned the mill and at the mill. vary in line with the phases of surrounding land at Sidlesham until 1792. Thereafter, the moon. Thus the miller had there was a succession of owners, of which one – Charles no choice but to work a schedule Dendy – was reported to have amassed a fortune of entirely dictated by the times of £100,000 from the mill at the time of his death in 1834. the tide. 14. Clark and Kiln doubled the capacity of the mill by the introduction of steam power – hence the appearance of the tall chimney in later photos of the mill. The coal for the boilers was stored in what is now the boathouse, with the legend “THINK” (intended to deter inconsisderate parking) on its modern up-and-over door, at the eastern end of Sidlesham Quay. However, whatever steam power did for the mill, it did little for Kiln, as he was declared bankrupt in 1865 on the death of his partner, Clark. It could be that Kiln had some premonition of what was to happen or perhaps he was forced out of business, for the next recorded owner is James Clayton, whom in the 1871 census is shown to be 42, having been born at Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. James Clayton later becomes a director of the Pagham Harbour The Mill after the Reclamation of the Harbour Reclamation Company, which produces a plan in 1873 to acquire the mill and its associated land and The Rector of St Mary’s, the Parish Church They are Wesleyans and have for the enclosing and reclamation of of Sidlesham, wrote in 1878: “My parish has just commenced building a the harbour from tidal waters. been greatly injured by the influx of navvies chapel on a site of reclaimed and rough characters from neighbouring land near the mill. The In the same year, the Act of parishes, drawn hither by capitalists from Harbour Company have raised Parliament is passed, and the process Lancashire who have not only enclosed wages more than fifty per of reclamation begins, assisted by Pagham Harbour but bought several farms cent and seriously injured the workmen recruited by Clayton in Sidlesham, Selsey and Pagham. morals of the working classes”. from Lancashire. This was not universally welcomed by the locals.

15. The Methodist Chapel was reputedly built with boulders picked up on the harbour ground after it was enclosed and was primarily for the benefit of the workers on the reclamation, and also for the use of other local Nonconformists. During the second half of the 20th Century, attendance declined and the Chapel fell into disuse. It is now converted into 3 residential dwellings, with newly built garages. A memorial plaque to James Clayton is set in the wall of one of the garages.

Clayton died on 1st May 1910, aged 81, just 7 months before the great storm which wrought total destruction on the sea defences and the reclamation work which he had directed just over 30 years earlier.

Memorial plaque to James Clayton

16. The Ordnance Survey map of Sussex West of 1898, parts of which are reproduced, show, in detail, the reclaimed harbour with its field boundaries, criss-crossing farm tracks and footpaths and the courses of the Mill Channel and Bremere Rife still flowing to the sea. The map also shows the Mill Pond at its much-reduced size, as it is today, and several buildings, related to the Mill and the Miller’s house, which are no more. Over the remaining years of the 19th Century, it seems that the conversion to steam-driven milling was insufficient to arrest the fall in trade, particularly as the carriage of corn and coal by sea was no longer possible. The mill ended its useful life around 1900 and the buildings fell into decay. Photographs of the Great Flood of 1910 (see page 8), when the sea broke back in to the harbour, show the derelict buildings to be already in a sorry state.

The Ordnance Survey map of Sussex West of 1898

17. 3. The Old Mill House

All that remains today are the quayside and the mill’s foundations enclosing a grassy site adorned by two oak seats provided by the Parish Council to commemorate the Queen’s silver and golden jubilees, which afford residents and visitors superb views across the harbour, now teeming with bird life. Two of the former millstones have found their way to becoming decorative features in the garden of the Old Mill House, the residence of so many former millers.

The Decaying Mill c1913

One of the former millstones. 18. 3. The Old Mill House

Overlooking the site of the former tidal mill at Sidlesham Quay stands the Old Mill House – in bygone years the home of the millers for many generations. Its origins are uncertain, but are believed to date from the 16th century. Its occupants at the time were almost certainly witnesses of the goings on associated with the bold attack by locals on the Spanish Armada in 1588. The house, now an imposing, elegant residence overlooking the green at Sidlesham Quay, with commanding and ever-changing views across Pagham Harbour, is constructed in two halves. The rear portion, built in the 16th century, was probably at the time little more than a two up/two down cottage, probably timber-framed, in-built with flint and brick.

The Old Mill House: The “Old and “the New”

In the 18th century, a “modern” extension was added to the front of the old cottage, with high ceilings and large windows fashionable at the time, contrasting with the low beamed ceilings of the older half. Its outbuildings, which included the granary (now a separate residence), served the purposes and trade of the mill. The granary was built in 1723 and it is likely that the extension to the Mill House was added around the same time.

The Old Mill House today, overlooking Pagham Harbour and the site of the former mill. 19. Occupants of the Mill House will have It was in vain. At the time of his included all the former millers and their bankruptcy an inventory was made of families, the names of many having been Kiln’s assets, as follows: lost to posterity, up to the time of the unfortunate John Kiln, listed in the 1851 Goods, chattels and livestock £431 12s census with his wife Fanny, aged 27 and Book debts £227 9s 5d 20 respectively. Mill stock £189 1s Empty sacks £150 Fanny was the daughter of Richard Clark, Total Value £998 2s 5d of Fareham – the birth-place also of John Kiln. Presumably, the marriage of his The livestock included 2 horses, 2 cows and daughter to Kiln, had prompted Clark poultry. The live and dead stock and effects to invest in the mill, which had enabled of the mill were sold on the premises on 25th Kiln to introduce steam power to the mill, May 1865. The sale catalogue lists the thereby doubling its productive capacity. effects of the mill, including“7 millstones, 80 mill bills and various quantities of Following the death of his father-in-law, wheat, sharps, flour, rough meal, barley John Kiln was declared bankrupt in 1865. meal, offal midellings and clover seed”. Records of the time show Kiln’s desperate efforts to save what he could. On 8th The Mill House was sold the next day. The John Kiln March 1865, he wrote to Messrs R & C catalogue of its sale indicated the extent of Asser (probably a firm of corn factors, with the property, the rooms listed as:“kitchen, whom Kiln had been dealing) an appealing breakfast parlour, pantry, dining-room, letter stating: front chamber, small front chamber, best chamber ,children’s chamber, office, drawing room (with a list of the books it contained), servant’s chamber, lobby, together with cellar, brewing utensils with quantities of recently brewed beer, and a greenhouse.” ruined“If you and do nota Bankrupt. interfere to Although assist me you between this and next Wednesday I fear I am totally Mention of the cellar is interesting as there is no evidence of its presence today, appear very vindictive I cannot believe that although there is an inaccessible void on you will do otherwise....What on earth to do the ground floor of the present building, I know not and all for a paltry amount. I between the 16th Century “cottage” and can imagine that thousands will be wasted and its “new” extension. It is interesting to myself a beggar. For goodness sake stop it or postulate how many barrels of aged brandy it will be too late.” may be stored there. 20. Fanny Kiln The next recorded miller, and owner of the Mill House, is James Clayton, who becomes a director of the Pagham Harbour Reclamation Company and, essentially, presides over the demise of the Mill. He also becomes a director of the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramways. In 1873, the Pagham Harbour Reclamation Plan and Book of Reference is published and shows the amount of property owned by Clayton at the time: “millpond channel; 2 fields; garden and piggery; pasture; stables, coach-house, yards and outbuildings; drying kiln; cottage, garden, yard and outbuildings; dwelling house, office, garden conservatory; brew-house; mill, engine house, machinery, landing stage and wharf, mill channel and sluices; private road.” The 1873 Act of Parliament which sealed the fate of the Mill included clauses which stated that after the expiration of one year from the passing of the Act, the Reclamation Company The derelict Mill c.1910 (flooded Sidlesham Station in the background) could not acquire any of Clayton’s property without his consent and also provided for the purchase and The inhabitants of the Mill House at the time must have been sore relieved when the disused and decaying compensation of his property. As mill was finally demolished in 1918, its bricks being re-used for building new houses in Selsey. The Sussex Clayton was both the Mill owner and Daily News of 16th August 1919, in its article entitled “An Old Sussex Mill, Sidlesham” ended with these a director of the Reclamation Company, words: “When it fell into disuse, the old mill, partly covered with ivy, formed a picturesque relic of bygone there was, presumably, little difficulty in times, but latterly so much attention has been paid to it by mischievous boys that it has presented an agreeing the amount of compensation. unsightly appearance, and there are many in the neighbourhood that will not regret seeing it come down.”

21. In the 20th Century, the old mill There was an illustrious occupant site has been grassed over, though the of the house during the second foundations of the mill are still visible, world war – Captain Evan George and the quay now little used except for Charles Cavendish OBE RNVR the occasional launching of small sailing (retd). Captain Cavendish was born boats and canoes. The hamlet adjacent in 1891 and enjoyed a distinguished to Sidlesham Quay has been designated and much decorated pre-war naval a Conservation Area, all the buildings, career. He attained the rank of most of which are “Listed”, being given Commander in the Royal Navy, was over to residential use, its peaceful awarded the OBE in 1935 and was location now being visited mainly by ADC to King George VI between walkers, birdwatchers and those seeking 1936 and 1937. The photographs to indulge in the gastronomic delights of below show Capt. Cavendish in full the nearby Crab & Lobster pub. naval uniform and later as a retired RNVR officer, standing under the The millers’ house, now appropriately pergola (unfortunately no longer renamed the Old Mill House, has seen a standing), adorned with a ship’s bell, succession of owners, not all of which are in the garden of the Old Mill House, Extract from the Census of 1911 recorded. The census of 1911- the year and his daughter, Susan (born 1923), following the great flood and Clayton’s also in naval uniform sitting outside death – lists 2 occupants: William the front porch. Capt. Cavendish died J Tippett, aged 41, farmer, born in in 1955, aged 64. His wife, Esmé, Cornwall, and his housekeeper, aged 34, survived him, passing away in 1959, from Devon – both single! aged 58. She was just 22 when they married. Later, the house was acquired jointly by its 2 neighbours – one a barrister, the A few remnants of various aerial other a lawyer – apparently to avert the contraptions, presumably for the risk of it being acquired for the purpose receipt of naval wireless signals, which of turning it into a night club. Its land he erected, remain attached to the was partially subdivided between the two house to this day. neighbours and the remaining property sold to elderly relatives of the owners of the neighbouring Quay House, who lived there for a number of years. Captain Cavendish Cavendish in retirement Susan Cavendish

22. Since this time, the house’s fortunes of ownership have been more constant, its misfortunes mainly due to the forces of nature. In 1987, it stood directly in the path of, but strongly withstood, that year’s notorious hurricane, although numerous trees were uprooted and a somewhat decrepit adjoining barn completely flattened. Out of adversity, fortune often smiles, as, in this case, with the help of the Sun Alliance Insurance Company, the elderly barn was replaced by a capacious garden room and conservatory, facing on to its beautiful walled garden.

Walled garden, conservatory and garden room at the Old Mill House.

23. 4. The Selsey Tram 4. The Selsey Tram

James Clayton, as well as being a director of the Stephens had studied engineering at Pagham Harbour Reclamation Company, also University College, London following which joined with a group of influential local business he joined the Metropolitan Railway where, men to consider the possibility of building a at the tender age of 22, and still effectively railway to link Selsey with Chichester. The a student he supervised the building of the group had been prompted by the passing of Hawkhurst Line from Paddock Wood to the Light Railway Act in 1896. As they Hawkhurst in Kent, which was completed researched the idea, they found that it would in 1893. be possible to utilise the provisions of an earlier piece of legislation – the Railway Construction Through a combination of family Facilities Act of 1864 – and structure the link connections and graft Stephens got himself as a tramway, rather than a railway. By doing admitted to the Institution of Civil this, the line could be constructed and operated Engineers, whereupon he was qualified more cheaply, as the many public road crossings to undertake projects in his own right. would not require the safety arrangements, such Stephens’ dream, developed while involved as level crossing gates and signals, necessary for with the Hawkhurst line, was to build railways. Hence the group formed the Hundred railways of low cost construction and of Manhood and Selsey Tramway Company Ltd economic operation where the established which was incorporated on 29th April 1896. railway companies perceived little chance of success. His first such project was the Rye Such was the influence of the group that they and Camber Tramway in Kent, constructed were able to acquire the necessary land from in just over 6 months in 1895. It was built local farmers - who could see the benefits of a entirely over private land and was about new method of transporting their produce to 1¾ miles in length, its initial purpose being market - very cheaply and thus minimise the to convey golfers to Rye Golf Links, later construction costs. In fact, the total cost of extended to take holidaymakers to land purchase and construction of the track was Camber Sands. £21,750 – less than £2 million at present value. Route of the Selsey Tram. Stephens’ role was to design the line and As the land had been acquired from cooperative The Company appointed as its chief engineer a supervise its construction. Whereas the landowners, the line followed a slightly indirect young 28 year-old named Holman Stephens, in Rye and Camber Railway was built to a route, starting just south of Chichester mainline later life better known as Col. H F Stephens, the relatively unusual narrow gauge (3ft.), the station, whence it left westwards and immediately later military title being acquired in the service Selsey line was to be built to the railways turned south, following a slightly winding route to of the Territorial Army. standard gauge of 4ft 8½ins. Selsey, a distance of some 7½ miles. 25. There were, ultimately, ten stations or halts on the line, some with sidings, as follows:

• Chichester passenger station, with goods siding

• Hunston, with siding, located south of the main Chichester to Selsey road, where there was also a road crossing

• Hoe Farm, which was a private halt, with siding

• Chalder station and siding, serving the north part of Sidlesham village • Church Farm private siding 2 • Sidlesham (spelt Siddlesham initially) with cross-over siding, where there was a road crossing of Mill Lane

• Ferry Halt, siding and crossing of the Chichester-Selsey road

• Golf Club Halt, which was private

• Selsey Bridge Halt, where the Chichester-Selsey road crossed the line by means of an over-bridge Maps of Sidlesham Station in 1910 (left) and 1932 (right) • Selsey Town, located to the north of the junction of Church Road, Manor Road and Beach Road. The engine sheds were also located here.

26. The line was extended to Selsey Beach in 1898, but this was closed in 1904, probably due to coastal erosion. Mill Pond Halt, to the north of Sidlesham station was opened in 1910, closed in 1911 and reopened in 1928; here there was also a road crossing of Rookery Lane. So, in all, the line had 6 public road crossings. There was also a crossing of the Chichester canal at Hunston, where there was a lifting bridge, which took 5 men to operate. The construction of the stations was rudimentary, all timber-framed with corrugated iron cladding. Chichester, Hunston and Selsey Town were the only stations that were staffed and only Chichester and Selsey were lit – by gas lamps.

Rails being carried forward after the passage of the locomotive.

During the construction of the track an amusing event occurred. Chichester City Council had taken responsibility for the lifting bridge over the canal at Hunston, the building of which was subject to some delay. To maintain the progress of building the southern part of the line, the contractors decided to move their 17- ton locomotive by road, towing it with a traction engine. To avoid damage to the road surface, rails were placed on the road and progressively moved forward by a team of workmen as the locomotive passed. Its progress past the Anchor pub in Traction engine “Queen of the South” towing the 17 ton locomotive. Sidlesham is pictured (left), and the progress of the rails (above).

27. The line opened on the 27th August 1897; the crowds gathered at the Chichester terminus to witness the departure of the first train are pictured. Inexplicably it was an hour late arriving from Selsey. When it did arrive, with three coaches, it was discovered that the platform was too short, and an intricate shunting operation had 5 to be performed. This somewhat ignominious start presaged what would become the hallmark of this little railway.

Crowds gathered at Chichester terminus to witness the departure of the first train.

28. There was only ever one new steam locomotive built for the line – named “Selsey”. The remainder – there were seven in all over the years – were acquired second-hand from other light railway companies or ex-industrial uses, some with several previous owners. However the first passenger coaches were newly built, with open verandas at each end.

“Selsey” - the first and only new locomotive

A newly-built passenger coach with open verandah at Chichester 29. There were no signals on the line. Road crossings were accomplished by the fireman dismounting from the cab to see the train across the road, and then re-mounting. This did not, however, obviate a large number of road accidents and a larger number of near-misses. Initially, the railway was a great asset for the people of the Manhood Peninsula – Selsey fishermen could load their catch of crabs and lobsters to be carried on the main line from Chichester to the markets of Billingsgate and Brighton; farmers were able to load their produce for speedy transportation to market; for foot passengers the scheduled journey time from Selsey to Chichester was only 30 minutes, though the schedule was frequently not adhered to.

Local residents gaze at the inundation.

By 1910, there were seven trains each way on weekdays and three on Sundays, timed to link with trains to London and Brighton. Annual passenger numbers had reached around the 100,000 mark. In the same year – on the night of 15th December 1910 – catastrophe struck, when the great flood which reclaimed Pagham Harbour inundated the section of the track between the Ferry and Mill Pond Halt, rendering it impassable to trains. Part of the railway was reported to be under 12 feet of water. Sidlesham station became an island, much to the wonderment of local residents.

Sidlesham Station at the time of the Great Flood, 16th December 1910. 30. The service was maintained, however, by operating shuttle services between Selsey and Ferry, where passengers disembarked to board a horse-drawn carriage to Mill Pond Halt and re-join the train to Chichester; a similar arrangement operated on the return journey. A train from Chichester terminating at Mill Pond Halt is pictured (below left) and the horse-drawn bus at the junction of Rookery Lane and the main road is right.

“Shuttle Bus” linking Mill Pond Halt to Ferry

Mill Pond Halt at the time of the flood 31. Fortunately, at the time, the railway was in its prime and the company prosperous enough to afford to build a mile-long embankment high enough to carry the line across what had become Pagham Harbour again. In 1913, buoyed by success, the directors of the company decided to build a branch line from Hunston to Itchenor and East Wittering. However, World War I intervened and the project was abandoned. Following the war, passenger traffic was at its peak but then gradually declined due to the increase in private motoring and the introduction of a rival bus service, which was both more reliable and more convenient. Whereas in 1919 the railway had carried 102,292 passengers generating income of £3,912, by 1933 annual passenger traffic had declined to 21,088, generating a mere £427 in passenger fares; goods traffic had become the principal source of revenue, amounting to just under £2000 in that year. A typical scene in the line’s later years - no passengers, just milk churns and a calf!

32. Until 1924, the Company had been operating without any legal status. In due course, Col. Stephens became chairman of the Company, and steps were begun to be taken to rectify the legal situation. The end result was the formation of a new company – the West Sussex Railway Company – being formed to take over the undertakings of the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey tramway Company. The process was completed in 1928, at which time, the legal status sought may have been obtained, although this is uncertain. This move may have been spurred by the declining revenues and the hope that the company could be sold to the Southern Railway. In 1934, the Southern Railway did investigate that possibility, but declined to proceed, largely on account of the line’s state of disrepair. In its declining years, the company, which had now adopted the grandiose title of “West Sussex Railway – Selsey Tramway Section”, tried all sorts of avenues to reduce operating costs. The most remarkable was the replacement of steam locomotives by petrol-driven vehicles. In 1924, two railcars built on a Ford Model T chassis were purchased personally by Col. Stephens. They operated back-to-back with a truck for luggage in between. In 1928, two more railcars were acquired from the Shefflex Motor Company of Tinsley, and operated on the same principle. While they were a novel solution, they failed to arrest the gradual decline in the fortunes of the “Selsey Tram”.

Col. Holman Stephens

Col. Stephens died in 1931, aged 63, before the ultimate demise of the company, the service being finally suspended on 19th January 1935. He had, in his time, been involved in at least 17 other light railway projects (as well as many more which never reached fruition) some of which, including the Ffestiniog Railway, which he personally managed for a time, continue as heritage railways today. His life and works are remembered in the Col. Stephens Railway Museum in Tenterden, Kent – his home town. At the time that the West Sussex Railway Company entered receivership in 1934, one of the directors was a Mr Luther Clayton, presumably a descendant of James Clayton, one of the original founders.

Two Shefflex cars operating back to back with luggage truck in between. 33. Following the closure of the line, much of the mouldering rolling stock was left The rusted sheets of abandoned to nature. For a period, while the line remained intact but unused, a bunch corrugated iron which once 5. Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve of local Sidlesham lads used to illegally commandeer a trolley which they pushed along formed the roof of Hunston the track as a means of free transport to visit the cinema in Selsey. station are still just visible, beneath the smothering Little evidence of the line remains today, the principal exception being the embankment brambles, beside the B2145 along the shore of Pagham Harbour, between Mill Lane, Sidlesham and the Ferry, now at the southern end of the a footpath. The abutments which carried the timber bridge over the Ferry channel village. Parts of the route remain; they now support a gas main. of the former line can still be observed by following public footpaths. In recent years, a group was formed to investigate the feasibility and champion the cause of rebuilding the line, to alleviate the ever- increasing road traffic which plies the main road (still a ‘B’ road) between the ever-expanding town of Selsey and ever-expanding city of Chichester. Its efforts came to nought. With the current resurgence in interest in trams and light railways as an environmentally friendly means of transport, who knows what the future may hold?

Locomotive “Hesperus” abandoned after the closure of the line A modern walking map, the footpath loosely following the route of the old 34. Selsey Tramway 5. Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve

Pagham Harbour became a nature Alford, a life-long ornithologist, reserve in 1964 under the National mindful of the past attempts at Parks and Access to the Countryside reclamation and alternative uses Act 1949. However, this was for the harbour, was horrified preceded by much work by local and immediately wrote a letter conservationists, naturalists and to the newspaper, suggesting bird lovers - those who had witnessed that, instead of the “bright lights the various attempts and activities development”, protection should for other uses of the harbour be given to the harbour’s wild before, during and after the second life and the area become a “Bird world war. The first, and perhaps Reserve”. His letter was duly the most significant inspiration, published, and sparked interest however, came from a most unlikely and further correspondence source - a soldier in Iraq. from local ornithologists and others, which gradually gathered Michael Alford, the author of momentum. This resulted in the book “The Paradise Rocks”, the formation of an influential an account of his childhood in a Pagham Harbour Preservation holiday home in Aldwick, recounts Committee, born out of the the strange course of events which Bognor Regis Natural History led up to his involvement. Society. Whilst serving with the 7th Queen’s The Committee, which became Own Hussars” in Iraq in 1943 he the Nature Reserve’s pressure received, in one of the occasional group, was soon faced with its bundles of mail sent from home first major challenge, when, in by his father, a copy of the Bognor 1947, it learned that the Air Regis Post. This carried an Ministry was again seeking article entitled “Bognor of the permission to use the harbour as Future” which set out a vision for a bombing range. However, in re-planning the Bognor sea-front; the face of strong local opposition, this looked forward to a “brightly the Ministry changed its mind illuminated stretch 8 miles long” and the slow bureaucratic process together with proposed uses of turning the harbour into a for Pagham Harbour “with all nature reserve, ground on. its possibilities”. Pagham Harbour LNR 35. The process was assisted from a seemingly In parallel with what had been going on unlikely source – The Pagham Wildfowlers. locally, similar movements were occurring Often seen by conservationists as the “enemy” on the world stage – the emergence of greater of bird life, wildfowlers are, in fact, just as understanding of the relationship between interested in conservation as in shooting, man and nature. Of particular importance because, without the former, the latter would to Pagham Harbour was the RAMSAR die out. The wildfowlers enrolled some of Convention – an international treaty for the their members as “Special Constables” to conservation and sustainable use of wetlands protect wildlife from indiscriminate shooting, which was to become the first model global inconsiderate tourists and the growing sport of conservation convention. water skiing, for which the harbour provided an ideal location. One of its founding fathers was Dr Luc Hoffman, a wealthy Swiss ornithologist, In 1954, the Harbour was designated a Site of conservationist and philanthropist. He Special Scientific Interest (known as a “SSSI”). had become aware that relations between This is a conservation designation denoting Man and Wetlands had become marred in a protected area, either for its biological or conflict. Whereas most human civilisations geological rarity. Various laws protect it from had developed within wetland areas – the Nile development, damage or neglect. Today, there delta, for example – wetlands were now held are over 4000 SSSIs in England, covering in contempt, drainage and reclamation “for around 8% of its area. more productive uses” often being the goal, or as mere dumping grounds for human waste - The Preservation Committee’s work ground witness the fact that the site on which Pagham on and was finally rewarded in July 1964, Harbour’s Visitor Centre now stands had when the harbour was designated a Local formerly been used as a council refuse tip! Nature Reserve. Luc Hoffman Dr Hoffman bought an estate in France’s Emerging from the 1949 Countryside Act, a Camargue, where he established a biological “Local” Reserve was a designation in which research centre, which, amongst other things, the management was delegated to the local contributed to the conservation of the greater Today, there are over 2300 Ramsar sites covering authority – in this case, West Sussex County flamingo in that area. over 2.1 million square kilometres in the world, with Council (“WSCC”). The Council’s remit over 170 contracting States. The UK now has the was to manage the reserve for the benefit of The Convention takes its name from the highest number of sites (170 sites) in the world; the both “people and wildlife”, offering people the Caspian Seaside resort of Ramsar in Iran country with the greatest area of listed wetlands is opportunity to study or learn about nature where the “Convention on Wetlands of Bolivia, with over 140,000 square kilometres. or simply to enjoy it. The Council was International Importance especially as empowered to introduce bye-laws to regulate Waterfowl Habitat” was agreed by the The UK designated its first Ramsar Sites in 1976; and control its activities. representatives of 18 nations, including the Pagham Harbour was so designated in 1988. UK, on 3rd February 1971. 36. The ownership of the harbour has, in Reverting to the days under WSCC management, when the first byelaws were enacted in 1966, recent years, remained materially the same, they prohibited the “launching, mooring or leaving any boat within the reserve”. However, to although the names of the owning bodies have placate local residents, a limited number of permits were issued to those seeking to keep and use changed several times in line with unfolding boats within the harbour. legislation; the current incumbent is the Environment Agency. Initially, the permits allowed a couple of local residents to moor boats in the harbour. Permits were also granted to the Pagham Wildfowlers, who maintained a Rescue Boat and to Sidlesham Sea Since its original designation in 1964, the Scouts (now disbanded). Over time, of course, the number of permits declined as boat-owners moved management of the Reserve has been the away or died. It was management policy not to re-issue permits to newcomers, apart for time- and responsibility of West Sussex County Council, space-limited permits offered to youngsters to use canoes or rowing boats in the summer months who may not have been best qualified for the in the vicinity of Sidlesham Quay. It became management’s clear intention that boating in the task and for whom it was not always “plain harbour should become extinct. A limited number of similarly restrictive permits were also issued sailing”. The potential for conflict between for fishing and bait-digging in the harbour. “Man” and “Bird” was always present. As we shall see later, two issues were particularly troublesome: boats and dogs. In 2012, the Council wisely ceded management responsibility to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), who also now manage the newly formed nearby Medmerry Reserve. Medmerry was created as a result of a man-made breach in the shingle bank west of Selsey, the primary purpose of which was flood alleviation. The breach was made at a point which had always been known locally as Sidlesham Beach. The shingle bank here had been over-topped and breached by storms several times in recent years, damaging local property. The £28m scheme – the largest of its type in this country – resulted in 183 hectares of farmland reverting to saltwater marsh, the hinterland now protected by 4 miles of new sea walls. The scheme, which took around 3 years before its completion in 2013, must surely have warmed the heart of Dr. Hoffman (who died in 2016) and his surviving fellow founding fathers of the Ramsar Wetlands Convention.

Pagham Harbour Permits - late 20thC. 37. A curious incident occurred on the night of 29th July 1972 In later years, when under strong local pressure to modify their stance, WSCC when a Mr Evans, while sailing single-handed in his 22ft employed a firm of ecological consultants, who, after a short study “surprisingly” yacht from Littlehampton to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, concluded that boating in the harbour could cause “disturbance” to birds. The was overcome by a headache and decided to put in to the consultant may not have visited nearby Chichester Harbour which, in summer, sees harbour and anchor for the night. He had not been there very a mass of sailing and racing craft and motor vessels and where the birds seem to co- long when wardens approached him and asked if he was in exist quite happily. distress. When he said he was not, they asked him to leave, in accordance with the byelaws. He said he would not, that he was going to wait for the next day’s tide, and went below to make a cup of tea. One imagines that there may have been more verbal altercation between the two parties, but this has not been recorded. In due course, he was prosecuted, found guilty by the magistrates and fined £5, with £50 costs. Mr Evans appealed. The appeal was heard two years later, on 8th July 1974. Much play was made in the appeal of the differences between “anchoring” and “mooring”. Also, as the byelaws had been drawn up under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act – which were envisaged to cover land rather 35. than water (in particular, tidal waters) – much argument ensued over the difference between “rights of way” over land and “rights of navigation” in tidal waters. Surprisingly, the appeal was dismissed. A sceptic might surmise that the appeal court judges may have been mistakenly studying the pre-1910 Ordnance Survey Map, showing footpaths, rather than the Admiralty Charts of the area. Armed with this case as a legal precedent, the Reserve’s management adopted and maintained a hostile approach to boating in the harbour and doggedly refused to issue new permits although, after strong lobbying, Pagham Sailing Club was permitted one annual “fleet” sail from their seaward base on Pagham Beach into the harbour to Sidlesham Quay, where they enjoyed a pint at the Crab & Lobster pub. Pagham Sailing Club’s Annual Sail to Sidlesham Quay

38. Fortunately, common sense has since prevailed. Before this, with some fanfare in the local press, the Reserve The current version of the byelaws recognises the had appointed a part-time Dog Warden, whose principal historic right of navigation on tidal waters and job was to enforce these byelaws. This resulted in several now only prohibits “propelling (by any means incidents and accusations of “spying”, which left female dog- whatever) any boat on an area or stretch of water walkers, in particular, feeling vulnerable. other than a public waterway in contravention of a notice exhibited beside that water...”. Notices The “anti-dog” regime persisted for some time and are now displayed indicating the areas and culminated in a regular visitor from London being caught, seasons which are sensitive, which are generally in the vicinity of Sidlesham Quay, walking his very elderly observed. Also, continued silting and the growth Jack Russell off a lead, whereupon he was later successfully of weed in the harbour have rendered it more prosecuted. He submitted no defence and was duly or less un-navigable, except for small craft such fined. Had he engaged legal assistance, his lawyer would as canoes and paddle boards, and then only for undoubtedly have picked up on the fact that the footpath on short periods around high tide. which he was walking was outside the then boundary of the Reserve. He never visited the Reserve again. Restrictions on dogs in the Reserve have, understandably, been in place since its birth, but these gradually increased over time. The first byelaws prohibited “ any dog.....unless it is kept under proper control.....”. By 1983 the wording “Walking Your Dog” Leaflet (2006) had become more restrictive, prohibiting “...any dog unless it is kept on a lead....”. In 1985, the Council published a leaflet “Walking Your Dog”, delivered to all local dog-owning households, which contained maps indicating the few areas The current version of where dogs could be walked “off leads but under the byelaws requires close control....”. Elsewhere within the Reserve dogs to be “kept under Boundary “dogs must be on a lead at all times”. proper control”; dogs can only be required At the same time, little plastic discs in red and to be kept on a lead green, indicating the rules, were affixed to most where a Dog Control stiles, gates and signposts within the reserve. Order is in place. As the reserve boundary encompassed about a quarter of Sidlesham Parish’s footpaths (public rights of way) local dog owners and walkers felt affronted, and the signs were largely ignored, if not already physically destroyed. “Dogs on Lead” - Reductio ad absurdum!

39. In 2004, partly to placate the growing In 1974, the Reserve appointed its first In terms of bird life there has been resentment of locals at the increasingly full-time warden – Ian Kraunsoe, who a number of successes. The Avocet, restrictive measures which were being started his new job while lodging in recognised by its distinctive long, slender, put in place and were perceived by them the Old Mill House. Ian was a larger- up-turned bill had been hunted to as impinging on their recreational than-life, colourful character often seen, extinction in the UK by the early part activities, the council formed the “Pagham initially, on a motorbike and later, of the 19th Century; they were shot for Harbour LNR Advisory Board”. This crammed in his tiny Reliant Robin feathers to make fishing flies and their was constituted with representatives of 3-wheeler – and, regularly, at the bar in eggs were stolen to “interested parties” and included local the Crab & Lobster! make puddings. councillors and landowners and delegates from wild-life conservation bodies – the Two years later the “Friends of Pagham Probably dislodged by wartime flooding latter outnumbering the former. The public Harbour” was formed, as a Registered from their Dutch breeding grounds, they was also invited to the quarterly meetings Charity, to support the harbour began returning here soon after the end and to speak, but only under highly through fund-raising and carrying out of the war. They are now breeding on the controlled circumstances. voluntary work. They have recently nearby Medmerry Reserve. published“A Bird Watcher’s Guide” The Board was chaired by a forceful county focused on the locality. councillor who invariably sought to limit or refuse discussion on contentious topics. Hence, the Board served little purpose apart from being a talking shop, where, from time to time, the discontented could let off steam. The Board was disbanded in 2011, following the Council’s decision to transfer management of the Reserve to the RSPB. In spite of these little local irritations, the Reserve has flourished in terms of ecological and environmental importance. Soon after its designation, it received a visit from Peter Scott, the artist and founder of the Slimbridge Reserve, who had, incidentally, also been a founding figure, with Hoffman, of the Ramsar Convention. The visit was in 1966 – the same year as Avocet the first little egret was spotted on ferry pool. Sir Peter Scott 40. In 1978, there was great excitement The shingle spit, and the nearby when a Greater Sand Plover was spotted Tern Island, are again the breeding in a tamarisk bush on the edge of the ground for the Little Tern – the harbour, being a first-ever sighting in smallest and rarest of the the UK. Tern species. During breeding, the bird normally Their return to breed in 2007, inhabits desert areas of central Asia. after an absence of several years, It is known to have a large range, may have been, in part, encouraged but mostly confined to the southern by Pagham Wildfowlers, whose hemisphere. After its long flight to volunteers had raised the height Pagham, it must have been somewhat of the Island, thus providing surprised to have found itself at the a protected nesting site, by the focus of attention by several hundred addition of some 2000 tons of bird-watchers! shingle, some years earlier.

Little Tern

The Greater Sand Plover

41. Map showing boundaries of Marine Conservation Zone

View of Tern Island, showing piling of a former harbour mouth in foreground.

42. The Black-tailed Godwit, another bird One of the rare species, known only lost to Britain in the 19th Century to occur in 2 other locations in the (it had been trapped, using nets, to be UK, is Defolin’s Lagoon Snail. This served up as a table delicacy) has also tiny creature is only 2mm long, returned to breed. Similar in size to the with an unusual tubular shell, and Avocet, also with a long beak, it is on the lives in colonies which have up to conservation “red list” – indicating an 100,000 individuals per square metre. increasing level of conservation concern. Around the time of the designation there was some disquiet expressed A splendid sight in winter are the flocks by the residents of Pagham Beach, of Brent Geese, flying in V-formation, whose beach-front properties are trailing each other in head-to-tail file, under constant threat from coastal rising and landing in the local fields, erosion, that preference over “habitat” as if on a single command. They come protection was being given to a from Siberia to over-winter and breed, 2mm snail! Black-tailed Godwit arriving in October and departing in late Spring. Whilst applauding those, like Dr Hoffman and Peter Scott, who devote More recently (in 2013) Pagham their lives to the preservation of Harbour was also designated as a wildlife and the habitats that support Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ). The them, it is also important that over- zoning is intended to protect vulnerable zealous conservationists remember the marine life and habitats from fishing, objective of “Local Nature Reserves” – as well as protecting the food source of namely that they are for the “benefit many waterfowl species. The designated of both people and wildlife”. The two area is shown on the map to the right of must learn to live together on this page 42. shared planet. A MCZ prohibits certain types of fishing, such as trawling, limits the amount of shellfish, such as crabs, that may be caught, and restricts bait digging and seaweed harvesting, within the zone. ------Brent Goose

43. Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the following persons, publications and organisations for information, photographs, illustrations and articles which have informed and/or been reproduced

Bognor Regis Post Book of British Birds: Reader's Digest Branch Line to Selsey: Vic. Mitchell & Keith Smith: Middleton Press Charlie Roe: Photographs Church Norton Norman Castle: Artist's Impression: Michael Codd Col. Stephens Museum, Tenterden, Kent English Country Lanes: Elisabeth Chidsey Friends of Pagham Harbour Geological Conservation Review Manhood Wild life & Heritage Group Martin Hoskins: Photographs Michael Bond: 1898 Map of Pagham Harbour Pagham Harbour LNR Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Sidlesham Past & Present: Rev. H.W.Haynes Sidlesham: A look at the Past: St Mary's PCC Steve Kiln & family: Oil Painting & family portraits Tangmere Aviation Museum The Paradise Rocks: Michael Alford The Rail Thing: Sep 2013 The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands: Prof. G V T Matthews The Water Bulletin 29 Oct 1982: Author Tony Oldfield The Weekly Law Report; 8 Nov 1974 West Sussex Archives Society: Newsletter No.20 West Sussex County Council: Publications, Maps, Photographs 44. Wikipedia

Acknowledgements Mill Lane Mill

Rookery Lane Crab & Lobster Danesacre Pagham Old Mill House Pagham Harbour Pagham Sidlesham Sidlesham Mill Sidlesham Quay

Enlargement of Area Indicated Area of Enlargement Mill Lane Mill Mill Pond Tern Island Island Tern Sidlesham Sidlesham Norman Castle Norman Pagham Harbour Pagham Wall Pagham Church Norton St. Wilfrid’s St. Wardur Chapel Island Pond Church h Selsey ALG Key 1. Chalder Hoe Farm Hoe Mill Pond Halt Mill Pond St. Mary’s Visitor Centre Centre Visitor i Sidlesham To To Selsey

Ferry h Roman Harbour Roman Harbour Presents Reserve Nature B2145 Sites Route Selsey Tram Stations Selsey Tram Roman Villa Roman Boundaries Routes Historic Sidlesham To Chichester Chichester To

Sketch Map of Pagham Harbour & Sidlesham Quay (inset) Historic & Present Day The Old Mill ., A Little . History By . Bond