Lots of events have now taken place where we have been screening the film compilations we have made but also playing selections of the oral histories Gillian and the team of volunteers have been gathering.   On 31st January we undertook the project’s  first History workshop and screening was received with smiles, once a few initial technical issues were overcome, at the Rustington History Society earlier in February. Just under 70 loyal society members including the Chair Harry Clarke attended the event to watch and listen to a selection of oral history recordings that we have all been gathering from residents along the coast over the last 7 months.

Harry Clarke hosting the monthly Rustington Heritage Society meeting. January 31st 2013

We were pleased to also have Martin Hayes join us, who presented a workshop on how to use the Local Studies Service and access historical documents and records at Worthing Library.  Its vast collection includes 25,000 books dating back from 1614, 2,500 in 200 volumes bound pamphlets from the 1640s, 1746 newspapers and 1.5 million+ photographs and pictures, 3000 maps dating back to 1575, to name just a few..

The headline act however, was the screening of a film called ‘A Variation On A Theme’made in 1973 by Keith Ayling and the LIttlehampton & Rustington Cine Club.  Especially transferred from its unusual 9.5mm film format so that it could be screened for the first time in over 30 years to the invested audience at this event.

Unlike the majority of films in the SASE collection, that consist of footage that capture everyday life over the 20^th century  ‘A Variation on a Theme’ is a short fiction film. In fact a romantic ghost story.. The film’s opening scene depicts two male cyclists zooming down a country road, and then decide to picnic in the grounds of a Manor House. Whilst one has a post lunch snooze on a bench the other decides to take a wander into the Manor. It his discovery of an old photographic album that begins the mystery… as he suddenly he finds himself a hundred years previous, dressed as an officer with his bride to be.

The whole event was a great success and we’d like to thank Harry and the society members. We were also pleased to get a news item in the local Rustington Gazette.

We have been frantically busy carrying our oral histories and events – which of course is no bad thing! But it does mean we have lots to update readers with..

‘Dead Man’s Grip’ in Shoreham Port

Firstly going back to February we were lucky enough to film an interview with local and best-selling author Peter James. Peter’s crime fiction novels include Looking Good Dead, Not Dead Yet, Dead Simple and the others in the Detective Roy Grace series. http://www.peterjames.com/about

Before living in converted farm buildings on a historic site outside Lewes, Peter was brought up in Ditchling, Sussex and regularly visited Shoreham, and in fact was in fact the early inspiration for his crime scenes. When thinking back to his childhood he particularly he remembers regularly taking bike trips down to Shoreham Harbour with his father, or on his own

“My earliest memory when I was about 10 when I was allowed to go out on my own on my bike, when I lived down the Withdean Road.  I used to bike down to the sea-front  and I just loved going around the harbour. In those days you could go all around the quay.  My dad would drive, I’d sit on his lap and I’d steer the car, he was pretty brave because we were quite close tot the water.  The memory I have is the smell of it, the smell of coke and watered timber, and slate, oil and rust. Almost to me, the defining smell of Brighton was the smell of that harbor…” Peter James

Peter’s writing is greatly entrenched in the geography and history of Shoreham, “its the perfect location for villains, with all the escape routes needed – close proximity to London, Shoreham airport, the harbour to import and export and many antiques brokers to fence stolen goods” Many of his novels have been inspired by real life tales told by local Sussex police.  Including the origins of one of his most popular books ‘Dead Man’s Grip’.

Since meeting Peter who gave us a contact for Retired Sussex officers we have been following up many  leads and interviewing retired officers who have memories of the area, which will now be incorporated into our reminiscence project.

The full interview with Peter James was screened as part of the Shoreham Port Past & Future event on 26^th February.