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Eaton Gardens, Hove

Judy Middleton 2002 (revised 2024)

copyright © J.Middleton
There are some fine examples of Willett-built houses in Eaton Gardens. This is number 7; note the decorative details

The Hove Courier (8 April 1882) had this to say:

‘Eaton Gardens, another aristocratic neighbourhood of detached residences with large gardens and bold carriage approaches, arranged and built by Mr Willett, is just becoming filled, six (all that is finished) of the twelve houses already being tenanted and last week one was sold for £4,680.’

By 1886 Eaton Gardens contained ten occupied houses; in 1888 the road south of Cromwell Road for a distance of 358 feet was declared a public highway

William Willett

In around 1875 William Willett started his building operations at Hove with two houses in Second Avenue, in one of which he resided for some time. Afterwards he turned his attention to building on land belonging to the Stanford Estate. He constructed many residences in Wilbury Road, Eaton Road, Cromwell Road, The Drive, and Eaton Gardens.

In 1879 Willett lived at 9 Wilbury Road, in 1881 he lived at 1 Eaton Gardens but by 1883 he was located at The Drive where he remained until his death. It was in the latter house that Willett entertained General Booth of the Salvation Army in 1887. In 1893 the Willett Estate Office was at 79 The Drive.

J.W. Lister, Chief Librarian of Hove, wrote the following tribute:

‘The work of Mr Willett, senior, is a triumph of private enterprise and Hove can neither estimate nor repay the debt she owes to this worthy citizen … The quietest and most unassuming of men without advantage of birth, wealth or scholarship, he built upon the foundation of a good and honest heart … He was a pillar of Nonconformity and was given to charity and hospitality. His hobby was the building and maintenance of the Clarendon Mission Hall.’

It is worth noting that when he undertook the building of the Police Seaside Home in Portland Road he did it at cost price, thus foregoing any profit because he believed in the worthiness of the enterprise.

In fact his acts of charity were not trumpeted abroad because he preferred ‘to do good by stealth’. He retired in 1900 and died in 1913 exactly six years after his wife had died; he was buried in Hove Cemetery on the anniversary of her interment.

William Willett was so well known that his death merited an obituary in The Times (12 November 1913).

‘Mr Willett, a Colchester man, founded the business of building and contracting now carried on in Kensington, Hampstead and elsewhere.’ The firm enjoyed a high reputation for building solid town houses and the term ’Willett-built’ applied ‘to a type of residence, which is distinguished by individuality of design both inside and out.’

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An 1915 advert from the Brighton Season Magazine for the sale of two Willett homes in Grand Avenue

His son, another William Willett (1856-1915) worked alongside his father in the business. He was also a member of Hove Council. Both Willetts had a horror of gloomy passages and dark corners and consequently ‘brightness and cheerfulness were always striven for’ in their houses. Willett, junior, was the originator of daylight saving or summer time but he died before his idea was implemented. His pamphlet The Waste of Daylight met with general derision but he had important supporters in Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Keir Hardie, Balfour and Edward VII.

Willett, junior, died in 1915, only sixteen months after his father. Willett junior’s son, Herbert William Mills Willett died in 1917, 26 months after his father. It must surely be unusual for three generations of a family to expire within four years.

Late Appreciation

Today the name of William Willett is a byword for good quality building and interesting decorative details. Unfortunately, Hove councillors came rather late to an appreciation of such qualities and it is incredible to record that it was not until 1990 that a Willett Estate Conservation Area was established although it must be admitted that in 1989 numbers 3, 8 and 14 became listed buildings. Some people considered it a case of shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted because some of the handsome houses had already been demolished. But now the aim was to ensure the preservation of those that remained intact.

By 2001 the only original houses were as follows:

Numbers 3, 5, 7, 13 and 17 on the west side

Numbers 8, 10 and 14 on the east side

House Notes

Number 2

Edmund Yates (1831-1894) lived in the house from 1891 to 1894. He was a journalist and author and a friend of Charles Dickens. Yates was famous in his day and his name was one of four inscribed around the interior of the dome at Hove Library as being a noted Hove resident. The other three were Richard Jefferies, Roden Noel and Hablot Browne.

In 1987 developers wanted to pull down the house and build an eight-storey block of flats but planning permission was refused in July of that year. Michael Ray said the house was of particular importance because it occupied a prominent site and was screened by trees.

By 1990 the house had fallen into a bad state of repair and attacks from thieves and vandals made matters worse. In fact the situation was so bad that the building could not even be converted into flats. Hove Council was obliged to give permission for its demolition but the front wall must be preserved. Moreover, bricks salvaged from the demolition would be re-used together with other second-hand bricks; even the mortar would be treated to give it a mellow look.

David Garbutt of Garbutt McMillan was the architect behind the scheme and Newbay Construction were the builders. The development was called Eaton Gate and it proved to be an expensive undertaking.

In October 1991 Roderic Chaffin-Laird, chairman of Brightsky, spoke highly of the support given by local councillors, particularly Peter Martin, former chairman of planning, and Garry Peltzer Dunn, former leader of the council, in the enterprise.

The building has an impressive entrance hall with ornate plaster cornices and panelled doors. Flats were sold for prices ranging from £85,000 to £250,000. The completed building, which also has a frontage to Eaton Road, was deemed to be an architectural success.

Number 3

This Willet-built house was erected in the 1880s and on 7 December 1989 it received listed building status.

In 1999 although the ground floor remained in use as a doctor’s surgery, planning permission was given for the charity Phoenix House to utilise the rest of the premises. It was stated that around eight former drug and alcohol users and their respective families would live in the house, which would replace a smaller establishment in Seafield Road, Hove. It later transpired that the house in Eaton Gardens would be able to accommodate twelve adults plus ten children under the age of twelve for a period of six months.

Naturally enough, there was uproar among other residents of Eaton Gardens with petitions and letters of protest flying about; the Evening Argus stated there were 498 signatures and 83 letters of objection while The Leader specified 49 names on the petition and 80 letters of objection. But whatever the exact numbers were, councillors took no notice and voted eight to four in favour of allowing the scheme to go forward.

The director of operations with the Phoenix House Housing Association said they had been established for over 30 years and were the largest drug rehabilitation association. A manager would be present in the premises on a 24-hour basis and there would be a strict family routine.

It was announced that from 1 June 2000 the Eaton Gardens Surgery would be known as the Eaton Centre and would provide general medical services as well as dental, chiropody and complementary health care. Eaton Gardens Surgery and Goodwood Court Medical Centre were to merge.

Number 4

During the Second World War the house was the headquarters of the Brighton & Hove League of Remembrance that supplied garments to the armed forces, hospitals and missions.

In the late 1950s Maud Stewart-Baxter lived at flat 5. She was of Scottish descent and became a well-known composer of her time and some of her works remain in print to this day. At the age of eight she composed her first song and when she was fourteen she won the Associated Board Open Scholarship for violin playing out of 300 entrants. She considered her best song to be Loveliness More Fair. In later years her advice to aspiring composers was never to waste time on poor lyrics because only fine words could inspire fine music. Her favourite composers were Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. She had a wide range of interests including swimming, fishing and shooting and she also read a great deal. She enjoyed collecting old china, fine glass and seals. She lived at various addresses in Hove including flat 2 / 35 Adelaide Crescent (1951) 49 Wilbury Gardens (1954) and Eaton Gardens.

Number 5

In the 1880s Mrs Henrietta Challis put this property up for sale. Her husband called her Hetty and he was a member of the Reform Club. But he had recently died and she must have felt the house was too large for her now she was widowed. The house was first offered for sale on 17 November 1884 and again on 20 April 1885.

The property had a frontage of 165 feet and a depth of 145 feet; the house was surrounded by lawns and shrubberies and was approached by a carriage drive.

Glazed panelled doors fitted with cathedral glass divided the entrance and inner halls.

The dining room measured 22 feet 8 inches by 17 feet. There was a carved, marble chimney-piece, a decorative bronzed stove with tiled hearth, and there was an enriched ceiling.

The drawing room measured 22 feet 8 inches by 17 feet. There was a richly carved statuary marble chimney-piece and tiled hearth.

A broad staircase led up to the first floor where there were four principal bedrooms.

There were a further four bedrooms on the second floor.

The basement contained the housekeeper’s room, a spacious kitchen, large scullery, larder, butler’s pantry, manservant’s bedroom, wine, beer and coal cellars and several large cupboards.

In 1883 an inventory of the house contents was taken and the effects sold off on 13, 14 and 15 May 1885. Among the items were the following:

A wainscot oak dining room table with three extra leaves measuring 16 feet 3 inches by 13 feet 6 inches

A brilliant tone seven-octave tri-chord pianoforte in a walnut case by Broadwood & Sons

A 28-day clock in an ormolu case enriched with a Sevres china dial and eight Sevres china panels under a glass dome

Sevres china vases richly gilt

A table mirror in a Dresden china frame with raised flowers and figures (from the south front bedroom)

Most rooms contained a Berlin black ornamental curb fender

The contents of the cellars included the following:

One dozen bottles of Pol Roger champagne (1874 vintage)

Fifteen pints of T. Logette’s champagne

One dozen bottles of sparkling Moselle from Deinhard & Co

One dozen bottles of Amontillado sherry

One dozen bottles and eleven pints of Chateau Margaux claret

Twenty-three bottles of hock

In 1921 Hove Council gave planning permission for the property to be converted into flats.

Number 8

In 1925 Mr A. Faulkner on behalf of the Willett Estate submitted plans to convert the property into eight flats. Hove Council gave approval but it appears the conversion did not take place.

On 7 December 1989 the house received listed building status.

In February 1990 the William Willett Trustees applied for listed building consent to demolish the house but Hove Council refused permission.

In November 1993 it was stated that the house was one of the last vacant and un-modernised Willett mansion houses in Hove and would be sold on 6 December 1993 in the ground floor lounge. There was planning permission for the house to be turned into nine flats with another five in a new block at the rear.

In 2001 it appeared that the bricks had been cleaned and thus it gives the appearance of what a Willett house looked like when it was newly built.

Number 9

In 1905 Herbert Welsford Smithers (1868-1913) and his family occupied the house. The following year Herbert and his brother Edward Allfree Smithers founded their brewery at Brighton with the amalgamation of the North Street Brewery and Bedford Brewery. In 1913 they acquired West Street Brewery (Vallance & Catt) and in 1919 the firm purchased Portslade Brewery. Edward lived in a house called The Gables at Furze Hill. The brothers were unusually close and when Herbert died on 9 June 1913, Edward never got over his loss and died on 5 February 1914. The grieving father donated two stained glass windows in their memory at All Saints, Hove; he only had one daughter left, Mrs C. Somers Clarke.

copyright © Brighton & Hove City Libraries copyright © J.Middleton
This fine portrait of Captain Smithers is stored in the Roll of Honour Archive at Hove Library, the elegant memorial plaque in All Saints is in memory of Captain Reginald Cuthbert Welsford Smithers.

But there was further tragedy in store for the family. Captain Reginald Cuthbert Welsford Smithers of the 7^th Battalion King’s Own Light Infantry was killed in action near Ypres on 16 August 1917; he was only nineteen years of age.

Captain Smithers’ widowed mother married again, becoming Mrs A.J. Hollick and continued to live at 9 Eaton Gardens.

Number 10

Sir Robert Hussey (1802-1887) occupied this house in the 1880s. He joined the East India Company in 1819 and followed a long and distinguished Army career, seeing action in Burma, India and the Crimea. He was eventually promoted to the rank of general.

In 1846 he married Emma, widow of Captain Gordon of the Madras Army. She died just four days before her husband’s death. He died at Eaton Gardens on 3 May 1887.

From at least 1940 the house was run as a registered nursing home and it was called the Eaton Gardens Nursing Home. On 3 December 1962 Richard Olivier was born there. He was the son of famous actors Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) and Joan Plowright who married on 17 March 1961 when he was aged 53 and she was 29 years old. Unusually for those times, Olivier was present at the birth. This was Olivier’s third marriage, his first being to Jill Esmond. In 1940 he married the actress Vivien Leigh (1913-1967). Olivier was not content with being just an actor and tried his hand at being an actor-manager too, notably in three films of Shakespeare’s plays.

The actress Fay Compton (1894-1978) lived here for a year before she died in London on 2 December aged 84. She was the sister of author Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972) whose most famous work Whisky Galore (1947) was made into a memorable film two years later. Fay and her brother came from a long, theatrical line, with both parents, a grandfather, a sister plus various aunts and uncles all being involved in the theatre.

Olive Gilbert, a friend of Ivor Novello, died in the nursing home aged 82 in February 1981. Olive Gilbert was born in 1898 at Carmarthen and thus shared a Welsh background with Ivor Novello, She started her career with the Carl Rosa Opera Company but in 1935 joined Ivor Novello’s company. She appeared in many of the musicals he wrote including Glamorous Nights (1935) Careless Rapture (1936) Crest of the Wave (1937) The Dancing Years (1939) Perchance to Dream (1945) and King’s Rhapsody (1949). Novello wrote We’ll Gather Lilacs especially for Olive (it came from Perchance to Dream) and it proved to be one of his most popular songs, almost trumping that other favourite Keep the Home Fires Burning. When Ivor Novello died on 6 March 1951 Olive was at his bedside and at his funeral We’ll Gather Lilacs was played and relayed to the crowds outside the crematorium.

Ivor Novello left Olive a cash legacy, as well as his collection of quartz, amber and jade items. In his biography of Novello the author MacQueen Pope wrote:

‘Ivor owed much to Olive who for a long time looked after him, controlled his staff and his flat, to say nothing of Redroofs, which became perhaps the best known theatrical home in the world.’

Ivor and Olive had separate flats at the Aldwych and she was one of a select party that accompanied him to his home in Montego Bay.

As for Olive’s musical abilities, even a stern critic like James Agate admitted her singing was admirable. She gave 2,000 performances as Sister Margareta in The Sound of Music.

It is said that in later life Olive lived at Brunswick Square, Hove and her friend, celebrity vet Buster Lloyd-James, also lived in Hove. He moved from Courtenay Gate to a house near Hove Park and she presented him with some lilac trees and a magnolia. When she became too frail to live on her own she moved into Eaton Gardens Nursing Home.

Ethel Read celebrated her 108^th birthday at the home in September 1992; she was believed to be the oldest person in Sussex. She died in October 1993, two weeks after her 109^th birthday, by which time she had lived at the home for eleven years.

Mike Enright had run the home since 1979 after he retired from the Royal Navy, having served for 27 years. In June 2001 Mr Enright, 66, and his wife Mary announced that they were closing down the home and 24 residents were obliged to move out and find alternative accommodation. The Enrights were caught in a cleft stick, as it were, because on one hand there were strict planning regulations governing what they were allowed to do to the house while on the other hand new Government regulations were due to come into force in April 2002. The new measures aimed at the comfort of the residents meant that it was no longer financially viable for small homes to stay open. During the previous year, 54 beds in Brighton and Hove had been lost because of the new rules. Perhaps the last straw for the Enrights was being told to close until a new lift costing £600,000 had been installed; the reality was that planning permission for such an improvement had already been rejected.

Number 11

Sir Joseph Sheridan (1882-1964) lived in this house in the 1960s. He was born in Ireland and was called to the Irish Bar in 1907. He entered the Colonial Service the following year and rose to become Chief Justice in Tanganyika in 1929 and Chief Justice of Kenya from 1934 to 1946. He was knighted in 1932. He was married to Muriel, also from Ireland, and they had two sons and four daughters. Sir Joseph died on Boxing Day 1964.

Number 12

James Bull (1844-1911) lived in this house when he came to Hove in 1888. He was born in Bedford and educated at Bedford Grammar School. He followed the career of civil engineer and spent some 30 years working on various projects in Spain including constructing railways and developing mines. When he lived at Hove he still made periodic visits back to Spain. He called his Hove residence Valverde House because of his Spanish enterprises and it was named after Valverde del Camino (Heulva). He was married to Mary and they had two sons and three daughters.

In 1900 Bull was elected to Hove Council and to East Sussex County Council. At Hove he was chairman of the Works Committee and his knowledge of engineering was of great value. During this period the King’s Gardens extension scheme and Kingsway widening scheme were carried out. Bull was also chairman of the sub-committee formed to design the layout of St Ann’s Well Gardens. He was one of the original members of the Hove Bench and gave liberal assistance to All Saints building fund. In 1902 Bull and George Cheesman were both proposed for the position of Alderman but in the ensuing vote, Cheesman won. Bull was a Freeman of the City of London and a member of Turner’s Company.

Bull suffered from heart trouble for three years and for the last eighteen months of his life, he was unable to leave the house. He died on 14 January 1911 and was buried in Hove Cemetery where his grave is marked by a white cross.

He left a widow who died on 16 July 1946. One of his daughters married Captain Grant of Third Avenue while another became the wife of Captain Herbert Spencer of Byfleet.

Today, Bull’s residence has long gone and a block of flats now occupies the site but it is pleasant to record the name of Valverde House is still in use.

Ronald Martin lived here in the 1960s and his career spanned both commercial and fine art. His most famous design was for the Mars bar wrapper. He also worked on many paintings of the old Hove Town Hall, one being a watercolour he completed just two months before the building was wrecked by fire. Hove Museum purchased it for its collection. Martin also painted the Town Hall as it was being demolished.

Number 13

The ‘notorious Marquess of Ailesbury and his plebeian wife’ occupied the house in the 1890s. He was George William Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, the 4^th Marquess (1863-1894). The residence in Eaton Gardens was called Savernake House because the Brudenell-Bruce family were hereditary Wardens of Savernake Forest. The lady came from very humble circumstances and attended the Central National School in Brighton. But when she grew up she achieved fame on the stage as Dolly Tester. She married Viscount Savernake in 1884 at Brighton Registry Office and two years later she became a Marchioness. She attended the last Polo and Hunt Ball held at the Royal Pavilion resplendent in white satin and flashing diamonds. Her husband maintained an interest in horse racing but ended up being warned off every course in the country.

Number 14

By the 1980s this villa was in use as a nursing home and it received listed building status on 7 December 1989. In 2001 it was still a registered nursing home called Sunningdale.

Number 15

Phyllis Dare (1890-1975) lived in this house from 1955 and remained for several years before moving to 22 Pembroke Avenue. Although she was born in London, she would not have been unfamiliar with Brighton and Hove, having appeared with her sister Zena Dare at the Hippodrome, Brighton.

Phyllis Dare trod the boards from an early age, rather like Vesta Tilley, who also retired to Hove. Phyllis was on the stage from the age of nine and by the time she was sixteen, she was a seasoned performer in musical comedies and pantomime. Phyllis was enormously popular and indeed during the First World War she was a pin-up girl. The public eagerly bought the many postcards produced for her fans, and she was so in demand that the poor girl was obliged to sign up to 300 postcards a week. She had a great success at the Shaftesbury Theatre when she was nineteen, taking on a musical role in The Arcadians, which ran for no less than 809 performances.

But there was tragedy in her life too because her song-writer fiance died in 1917, and for a while she could not face the stage. She might also have thought that she deserved a respite, and she was well able to do so because the fiance kindly left her some money. Perhaps she felt old before her time and she wrote her autobiography From School to Stage during the lull when she was only 27 years old. On returning to the stage, she opted to take on straight acting roles. But she did not neglect her singing either, because she recorded some songs. She retired in 1951.

Number 16

In 1891 Mrs Campbell and Miss Campbell obviously thought that 16 Eaton Gardens was not spacious enough for a grand social event. They hired the newly-built Clarence Rooms attached to the Hotel Metropole, Brighton, where the local Press reported they gave a charming ‘At Home’. The Campbells hired the Fraser Quintet from London to provide the music and the guest list included Lady Pocock, Lady Napier and General and Mrs Holland.

Captain Sir Henry Digby-Beste (1883-1964) lived in flat 5 in the early 1960s. He was born in Hampshire, educated at Stonyhurst, and at the age of sixteen he went to sea on the sailings ships of the Shaw Savill Line. Six years later he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Indian Marines, and saw service in the Persian Gulf. He served as Deputy Port Conservator of Madras. For ten years he was Captain Superintendent of the Indian Mercantile Marine training ship Dufferin.

During the Second World War he served with the British Expeditionary Force off the French coast, and finally found himself once again in Indian waters. During the 1950s he was Chief Scout Commissioner.

He was married twice. His first wife was Olave, whose father was a colonel in the Indian Medical Service, and they had three sons and two daughters; Olave died in 1955. In 1958 he married Amy Mary Taylor. He died at the age of 80 at Eaton Gardens in September 1964.

Number 17

This house is one of the originals. An unusual detail is the imposing porch standing guard over the entrance. The pillars are of a peculiar design because they start off plain and unadorned and then halfway up they turn into Corinthian columns.

Number 20

copyright © Tackagain
The German siren whistle datiing around 1900 is engraved with the following:-
H.J.S.B. Cunliffe 20 Eaton Gardens, Hove.

In 2018 at Newcastle an interesting object with a Hove connection came to light. It was a German siren whistle, dating from around 1900, engraved with the following H.J.S.B. Cunliffe 20 Eaton Gardens, Hove. Heinrich James Saint Benno Cunliffe was born on 9 July 1864 in Munich. It would be interesting to know why he was born in Munich – his parents were obviously proud of the fact because he was named Heinrich, and St Benno is in fact the patron saint of that city. (Later on, Heinrich would find it expedient to anglicise his name to Henry). His father, also called Henry, could have been living in Germany because of his business interests, and census returns identify his profession as banker. Eventually, Henry Cunliffe, senior, settled at Hove, where he lived with his wife Annie and children at 28 Adelaide Crescent from 1871 to 1881. It is interesting to note that out of the seven servants employed there, two senior ones were of Swiss nationality.

H.J.S.B. Cunliffe was educated at Eton – by this time calling himself Henry – and then went up to Oxford as an undergraduate at Exeter College, gaining his BA in 1886, and being awarded his MA a year later. In 1889 Henry married Edith Woodhead at St Patrick’s Church, Hove, - at that time a very fashionable place of worship. His bride Edith was a resident of Hove, having been baptised at St Andrew’s Old Church in 1862. Her sister, Grace Eyre Woodhead, became famous in local annals for her philanthropic work and indeed her name is still remembered to this day through the Grace Eyre Foundation. Meanwhile, Henry and Edith’s concerns were for the plight of animals and they made several large donations to the Brighton Division of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which Henry was also a committee member.

On marriage Henry and Edith took up residence at 20 Eaton Gardens, which he continued to occupy until he died on 30 November 1930. Perhaps the couple hoped to have a large family because the spacious house was surrounded by large gardens, which by the 1950s supported a massive screen of mature trees. But sadly, no children arrived. Perhaps this led to tensions in the marriage, and it is a fact that by 1911 the couple were living apart, which was a rare step to take in those days. Edith moved away from Hove and went to live in Waldron, a village near Heathfield, and had four servants to look after her.

Henry consoled himself by concentrating on intellectual pursuits, and in 1908 he published his work Catholicism on a Philosophical Basis. It is unlikely to have been a bestseller, despite its modest price of 2/6d. Thenceforth, he described himself as an author.

It seems likely that Henry was a keen bicycle rider, hence ownership of the siren whistle. Cycling was an extremely popular sport, and Hove with its broad, uncluttered roads, was a cyclist’s paradise. At one time, bicycles at Hove far outnumbered other forms of transport. But there was one grave drawback – there was no braking system, and no warning bell. In fact, early Acme siren whistles were known as a ‘cyclist’s road clearer’. If a cyclist wanted to warn an unwary pedestrian of his presence, a good blast on his siren whistle would usually do the trick. Henry must have been fond of his whistle to take the trouble to have his name engraved upon it. The question remains – how did Henry’s whistle end up in Newcastle? A clue lies in the fact that Annie, wife of Henry Cunliffe, senior, was born in Newcastle, and because Henry Cunliffe, junior, had no children, it seems probable that relatives from Newcastle, claimed his possessions.

(Additional research by D. Sharp)

Eaton Restaurant

In around 1944 the residents of Eaton Mansions formed their own dining club and it was after the war that the landlord expanded the small restaurant. In around 1953 he sold it to Mrs Barber who ran it as a high-class restaurant. In 1960 Mrs Barber sold the enterprise to Mr Daniel and two years later John and Tony Cutress, directors of Forfars, purchased the business from Mr Daniel’s liquidators.

Photograph from the 1910 Brighton Season Magazine showing
Forfars Confectionary Department in Hova Villas

Mrs June Cutress devised the re-decorating scheme, which was carried out by Ring’s and Braybon’s. It was keeping business in the family, as it were, because John Ring was June Cutress’s father. It was John Ring who fitted the luxurious and specially designed carpet.

From Hove’s Coronation Souvenir Book
(1953)

There were 120 wines on the wine list to choose from and it was appropriate since John Cutress was a Chevalier de Tastevin. John Rowlins was the manager and the restaurant could seat 85 people while the function room could accommodate 40.

In 1980 the Eaton Restaurant won the Golden Crowns Award, the highest distinction awarded by the Automobile Association. The restaurant was run as part of the Forfar’s group initially, and then as a family company. By 1987 it was described as one of the most distinguished restaurants in the area, having also won awards from both the AA and Michelin.

In September 1987 the Cutresses sold the Eaton Restaurant for £200,000 to a company headed by Councillor Alfred Feld of the Norfolk Resort Hotel. It was re-named the Eaton Gardens Restaurant.

In November 1991 Gilles Ferrod, the French manager, declared the restaurant a Beaujolais free zone. He said the much-publicised event was nothing but hype and the quality of the wine had gone down.

In March 1992 there was a full-page in the Evening Argus celebrating the restaurant’s 25^th anniversary. By then it could seat up to 120 people and 90 wines of quality were on the wine list. However, John Cutress retorted that celebrating a 25^th anniversary was a trifle premature since Resort Hotels plc had only been there five years.

On 23 March 1997 the actor Terence Morgan and his wife Georgina celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a ball at the restaurant. Among their guests were Lord and Lady Attenborough, Donald and Diana Sinden and Judy Cornwell. Morgan met his wife at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, while working with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in The Skin of Our Teeth. They married in Caxton Hall. Morgan took a leading role in 26 films and played the part of Hamlet early in his career. The couple had lived at Hove since the late 1950s.

In 1994 Robert Feld was managing director of Resort Hotels when the company collapsed with debts of over £70 million.

In May 1998 it was revealed that Club Moor, registered in Crawley, but owned by a Brighton businessman, was the new owner of the restaurant. But staff refused to reveal his identity. The restaurant employed 17 full-time staff.

In March 1999 the council refused to grant a public entertainment licence to the management because new electrical work had not been carried out as required. The restaurant later closed and in July 1999 was put up for sale by contractual tender. The property included numbers 11 and 13 Eaton Gardens as a freehold investment beside the restaurant premises. The house contained 15 self-contained flats comprising 8 studio flats, 5 one-bedroom and 2 two-bedroom flats.

In October 1999 Bourne Property Developments put in a planning application to convert the restaurant premises into five flats and consent was granted by December.

John Cutress said he was very disappointed about the outcome. He remembered what a popular place it had been with its fine wines and traditional English cuisine; he had employed the same cook for 25 years.

Bramber Court, Steyning Court, Valentine Court

These blocks of flats were built in the 1960s

Eaton Court

copyright © J.Middleton
Eaton Court was built with red bricks, in start contrast to the pale bricks used in the Willett-built houses, known oddly enough as white bricks.

This block of flats is built on the corner of Eaton Road and Eaton Gardens.

Eaton Hall

In 1978 the sites of the old houses numbers 15 and 17 were to be numbered as 15 Eaton Gardens and the new property was to be called Eaton Hall.

Gainsborough House

This block of flats was built in around 1980.

Valverde House

It was named after the house of the same name at number 12, that once occupied the site and engineer James Bull lived there.

Vanbrugh Court

It was built in 1989 and contained 31 double-glazed apartments; there was garaging underneath the building. Prices were from £69,000 to £300,000. In July 1999 a two-bedroom flat was on sale for £105, 000.

Veric

This block of flats was built in the 1980s. A resident, Maurice Michaels, waged a long battle with the council about improving the lighting in Eaton Gardens. It began in February 1989 and some 90 letters later in February 1998 the council at last got its act together, putting up an experimental higher-powered lamp outside Veric while the rest of the lighting in the road was also to be improved.

Miscellaneous

In 1883 an orphan servant girl Mary Christmas was working in the kitchen of one of the houses in Eaton Gardens when her clothes caught fire. Her mistress, Mrs Mary Taplan, ran to the front door and called for assistance. But nothing was done until a neighbour, Mrs Isted, ran in and smothered the flames with a blanket; the unfortunate girl meanwhile cursing callous onlookers for doing nothing to help. At the inquest held the very next day the coroner remarked that apart from Mrs Isted nobody else had behaved with much credit.

In 1976 Peter Hadlow was cleaning windows at a block of flats in Eaton Gardens when he slipped and fell five floors down to the ground. He suffered multiple fractures and was blinded but he survived.

Cannabis

Sussex Police received a tip-off that there might be a cannabis factory secretly at work in well-to-do Eaton Gardens. Thus on 9 July 2024 officers paid an official visit to the premises and discovered that there were over 100 cannabis plants merrily flourishing inside. Moreover, the street value of the innocuous-looking greenery was estimated to be in the region of £50,000. The plants were destroyed and the plant infrastructure destroyed. (Argus 20/7/24)

Sources

Adland, D. Brighton’s Music Halls (1994)
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Evening Argus
Wojtczak, H. Notable Sussex Women (2008)

page layout by D.Sharp

St Barnabas Church, Sackville Road.

Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2022)

copyright © J.Middleton
This charming old postcard view of St Barnabas dates from around 1906, and it is amusing to note the rampant ivy

Hove’s Rapid Growth

The reasons for the establishment of St Barnabas was the rapid growth in Hove’s population. The situation was charmingly described in the following extracts from A Cameo of History published in 1901:

‘The sudden and rapid growth of Hove, and the consequent great increase of population, which began more than 25 years ago, was a heavy strain on the Ecclesiastical arrangements of the Parish of Hove. Large houses were springing up on every side, and land which a few old inhabitants can still remember as fields was quickly covered. Naturally, the great demand for bricklayers, builders and every kind of labourer brought a very large working-class population to the neighbourhood. Work was plentiful, wages good, and the quiet little town of Hove became a very large and prosperous community.’

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums
Revd Thomas Peacey
Vicar of All Saints, Hove, 1874-1904
the founder of St Barnabas

The Revd Thomas Peacey, who became vicar of Hove in 1874, was well aware of what was happening in the west part of his parish. It was he who instigated the building of St Barnabas, which became in fact the daughter church of All Saints with financial assistance until the parting of the ways in 1915.

It is pleasant to record that Hove Christians made vigorous and successful efforts to provide spiritual welfare for this rather overpowering addition to the flock. Many ladies came forward to help, and soon the streets that were so quickly appearing on the east side of Sackville Road were well provided with District Visitors – those Visitors ‘who had sufficient energy to penetrate into such an out-of-the-way place as Shirley Street being considered especially worthy of praise.’

Miss Baines and Miss Bullen established a Sunday School in Conway Street. This was quaintly situated in a corn-loft with the only means of access being by a narrow ladder, but there is no record of either child or helper falling off. The building was known as the Saw Mills, and was near a pub. Partitions were erected in the loft in order to separate the classes.

The announcement of a Parochial Tea caused quite a stir in the neighbourhood. This was followed by a concert in the Conway Street Mission Hall. Miss Baines managed to rope in the help of her brother on this occasion. At the time he was a young Oxford graduate who later became Bishop of Natal.

Planning for a New Church

On 14 March 1881 the first meeting of the Building Committee took place at Hove Town Hall. It was noted that ‘This meeting of the parishioners of Hove recognises the necessity of a new church for the large and increasing population of the north-west of the parish composed almost entirely of labouring people.’

The Meeting approved of the site offered by Messrs Beves, situated on the west side of Sackville Road / Hove Drove. At the time the land was being used for allotments – before that it had been a cornfield, and it was also a site where travelling gypsies were accustomed to set up camp.

On 2 April 1881 a public meeting was held at Hove Skating Rink in Holland Road at which the Bishop of Chichester was in attendance. It was stated that it was now eighteen years since the Holy Trinity Church had been built in Blatchington Road. It was also recorded that near to the site of the proposed new church, some 600 houses were to be built in the following three or four years. These houses were intended for mechanics, artisans, and other labouring people, many of whom were relatively poor, and only earned sixteen or seventeen shillings a week.

The first priority was to raise £1,500 to purchase the site, and then hope to build a church to accommodate 900 people at a cost of £5,000. (As so often happens, these figures were unrealistic, and the final cost of land and buildings came to £8,710).

Revd Thomas Peacey mentioned the difficulty of raising money locally. This was because a large proportion of the population came to Hove for pleasure, or after they had retired from service in the colonies, and they had no desire to take up other burdens.

James Warnes Howlett said it was extraordinary that in a town of 20,000 inhabitants, so few people had their roots here, and it was a constantly shifting population. Although he had lived at Hove for the previous 25 years, he knew no more people socially than he did at the outset.

At another meeting held on 16 February 1882, the architect John Loughborough Pearson was present with the plans he had drawn up; the fees came to £325-19-8d. J. L. Pearson (1817-1897) was a very popular Victorian architect with Truro Cathedral, St John's Cathedral (Brisbane, Australia) and a large number of churches to his credit. His favoured style was known as Gothic Revival, and at Hove, as well as St Barnabas Church, he was also responsible for All Saints in The Drive.

On 5 April 1882 John Shillitoe’s tender to build the church for £5,400 was accepted. Shillitoe was based at 30 Palace Square, Upper Norwood, London.

Laying the Foundation Stone

On 27 May 1882 the Bishop of Chichester, Rt. Revd Dr Durnford, by then in his eighties, laid the foundation stone for the new church of St Barnabas in front of a crowd numbering between four and five hundred people, and included many of the Hove Commissioners, and some 200 children and their teachers from the National Church School. The procession started from the Parochial Institute, Livingstone Road, headed by the choir of the parish church, and followed by the Bishop, the vicars of Brighton and Hove, and around twenty other local clergy. They sang the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers, which was also sung when the church was consecrated.

The foundation stone was a massive block and it was carefully lowered by means of a pulley. Beneath the stone there was a cavity into which a sealed bottle had been placed. The contents of the bottle were as follows:

A copy of that day’s London Times

A copy of the Sussex Daily News

The Parish Report, containing the vicar’s address, and a list of subscribers

A Pamphlet recording the first Public Meeting for a new church on 2 April 1881

The Bishop then gave a short address in which he stated that the people of this area had ‘homes for their material wants, but they had no home for their spiritual wants’.

St Barnabas Church consecrated

In a remarkably short time after the foundation stone was laid, the church was ready for service only thirteen months later.

The building was of brick faced by knapped flints, and red brick and Bath stone dressings on the exterior. It was cruciform with a seven-sided apse. The original design included a tower at the south-west corner but although the base was built, the tower was never completed. J. L. Pearson described St Barnabas as ‘one of my cheap editions’. But perhaps Pearson was being unduly modest and he must have liked his work because he later used almost the same design for St Matthew’s Church, St Leonard’s. Today, it is fully recognised that St Barnabas is a beautiful church, and indeed on 10 September 1971 it became a Grade II* listed building.

Pearson also designed the pulpit and choir stalls in St Barnabas.

Unfortunately, the best view of the church was from the south but this was completely blocked off when the vicarage was built. The dimensions of the church are as follows:

Nave 97-ft in length, 28-ft in width

Aisles measure 12-ft 6-in

Choir measure 40-ft

The interior was at first distinguished by its somewhat austere aspect, and the walls were still exposed brick. But over the years many gifts and embellishments have turned the church into rather a splendid edifice.

St Barnabas was consecrated on 11 June 1883, which was the Feast of St Barnabas. It was entirely free of debt, and because it was intended for working folk, all 800 seats were free. This was becoming a more usual practice in late Victorian times, whereas formerly fashionable churches used to make a charge for family pews or reserved seats. However, so many people were expected to attend the consecration service that admittance was by ticket (free) only. Half of the allocations went to subscribers of the building fund, and half to the parishioners. The collection taken at this service came to a remarkable £63-10-9d. (£64 in 1883 has the equivalent purchasing power as £7,397 in 2017)

Furnishings

It is interesting to note in a church now so full of decorative detail, that one of the first additions to the interior was severely practical – in short an altar rail for which there was an appeal for funding in the autumn of 1883. In times past, an altar rail was supposed to keep the sanctuary separate and holy at a time when animals might wander into the building.

At St Barnabas, the altar rail was for the benefit of older or infirm persons who found difficulty in kneeling without something to lean on.

The marble font was installed in around 1885, and it was donated in memory of Emily Weldon Jackson who was only aged seventeen when she died on 17 January 1867.

The font was important as being the starting point of the Christian life, and especially for a parish like St Barnabas where there were many births, but alas many premature deaths of babies and young children as well. For this reason, the clergy urged mothers to have their babies baptised as soon as possible. Old parish magazines printed every month provide the stark reality with a long list of burials. On a happier note, the list of baptisms was even longer.

copyright © D. Sharp
J. L. Pearson designed the pulpit.
to the left of the pulpit is the Church's
Foundation Stone

The pulpit was installed in April 1885; it was of carved oak, set on a stone base. It was given in memory of Henry Cunliffe of 28 Adelaide Crescent, who died in Homburg on 24 July 1883 aged 56. Mr Cunliffe a wealthy banker, had been a generous subscriber to the St Barnabas building fund, and the pulpit was donated by his widow and children. His son Henry lived at 20 Eaton Gardens.

The choir stalls were erected in July 1893; the carvings represent the four evangelists and the four great doctors of the Western Church.

The mosaic work on the floor of the sanctuary dates from the 1890s.

In June 1902 oak panelling was installed in the sanctuary. There were niches for statues and the first two installed were of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. Other statues followed later on – the best being the work of Captain Louis Wyatt of Horsted Keynes.

The figures represented were as follows: St Barnabas, St Thomas, St Peter, St Paul, St Francis, St Catherine, St Ursula, St Michael, St George, St Nathaniel, St Luke, St Nicholas, St Jude, St Giles.

copyright © D. Sharp
The sanctuary's sixteen wooden statues, eleven on the left of the High Altar and five on the right.

In 1911 oak panelling was installed around the nave to a height of 6-ft, and in 1921 the rest of the walls were whitened.

Bainbridge Reynolds designed the chancel screen, which was dedicated in June 1913 by Canon Southwell, Archdeacon of Lewes. A local newspaper described it as follows:

‘The screen, which is of iron wrought into an ornamental pattern, has two gates in the centre, while a cross surmounts the whole. When the gilding on it has been completed it will add very considerably to the beauty of the church.’

Bainbridge Reynolds was also responsible for the electric light standards that replaced the old gas ones, the bronze candlesticks and the brass processional cross.

copyright © St Barnabas Church, Hove.
The copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper
below the First World War Memorial window

In 1914 Father Smythe purchased a large copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in London for £25 – it measured 17-ft in width and was nearly 10-ft in height. At one time it was thought the painting was the work of one of da Vinci’s pupils, but later opinion dated it to around 1800, and the artist was most probably Fuseli.

It was hung below the west window.

Reredos

copyright © J.Middleton
This is how the interior of St Barnabas looked before the controversial reredos was installed in 1907

In 1907 an oak reredos was added to the altar. It cost £535, and it was a triptych carved by Laurence A. Turner of 42 Lambs Conduit Street, London.

copyright © J.Middleton
The reredos – architectural bad manners or pious embellishment?
(photograph dates to c1920s, before the walls were whitened)

Although the triptych was designed by no less a person than George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) many people did not think it was a success in this particular location – one critic going so far as to say it showed a ‘total disregard of all sense of proportion’. The trouble was that the structure was so tall it obscured the Clayton & Bell stained-glass windows. Indeed, a later vicar, Revd Francis Smythe, felt obliged to remove the central light to a new position south of the chancel because nobody had been able to appreciate it when it was hidden behind the reredos. In 1923 Revd Smythe wrote ‘It is impossible to alter it (the reredos) or reduce its size, so it must stand always as something of a shock to lovers of good art and architecture.’

The dominant theme in the reredos is the crucifixion; beneath it is the Nativity scene at Bethlehem with the heads of an ox and ass on the left, the manger and Holy Child at the centre, and the Virgin Mary and St Joseph. Other details are a lantern on the ground by St Joseph, and a ladder in the background. People might like to think the ladder is there as a reference to the early days of mission in the corn-loft with the only access being up a ladder.

The Angel of the Annunciation and the Angel of the Shepherds appear on separate panels on either side. Above them are the figures of the Virgin Mary and St John who stood at the foot of the cross.

Above the triptych – and almost apart from it – stands an angel with outstretched wings. The words Sic Deus Dilexit Mundum (So God loved the world) were carved on the retable below.

In 1910 Captain Louis Wyatt, then aged 70, carved the altar front consisting of five panels surrounded by a vine and clusters of grapes. One word was carved into each of the four outer panels – Deus – Vita – Vera – Veni (God, True Life, Come).

Revd Smythe then took it upon himself to gild both the altar and the reredos.

Stations of the Cross

The church walls were once adorned by Miss L. Warren’s mystical paintings enclosed in heavy frames – the lady being a member of the congregation. She chose to illustrate the Seven Sacraments, thus:

Baptised into The Name

The Laying on of Hands

The Consecration

For me, O Lord, for me

Holy Marriage

Repentance

Intercession

Revd Smythe was an admirer of these paintings, and described each one in detail with illustrations as well in his history of the church. But the paintings fell out of fashion and out of favour to such an extent that they were removed in 1966.

Indeed, in Revd Smythe’s time, the walls must have been awash with works of art because he lists no less than fourteen in his booklet, and this was besides the seven ‘mystical’ paintings. Many of them were removed in 1966 too.

Instead, the Stations of the Cross were put up, being described a ‘simple depictions’. But these too were of short duration because in 1974, a Victorian set of the Stations of the Cross, carved in relief, replaced them.

Organ

The organ has an interesting history; it came originally from St George’s Chapel, Albermarle Street, Mayfair, and in its heyday had accompanied famous singers such as Dame Clara Butt, who later lived at Hove.

In 1904 the organ was sold at auction for 360 guineas and purchased by Revd H. W. Maycock, the second vicar of St Barnabas, for his church. The previous organ was a two-manual instrument but the new organ was three-manual. It was built by J. C. Bishop & Son & Son, and incorporated some 18^th century pipework. In 1899 the firm of Morgan & Smith overhauled this organ

When the three-manual organ arrived at Hove, it was re-built at a cost of £220. But in 1912 Morgan & Smith re-visited the instrument, re-built and enlarged it, and moved it to a new organ loft in the north transept. Not everyone was happy about the move – for one thing it upset the balance of Pearson’s design. But of more importance as far as the congregation was concerned, it meant the music was more audible in the south transept, instead of leading people in the nave.

By the 1940s the organ was described as having become ‘unreliable’. It was overhauled in 1948-1949, and there was a novel way of asking for donations for the necessary £500 – an organ pipe was placed at the west end of the church.

In 1974 Morgan & Smith made yet another visit to St Barnabas – this time to supply the modern wonders of electricity, and to re-build the console, all at a cost of £3,500. Apparently, one reason for the organ’s poor performance was that the blower intake was situated in the sacristy and sucked in smoke from incense that caused sticky deposits in the pipes. Then, in 1977, the quality of the pipework was improved so that the organ, although never fine enough for recitals, was perfectly adequate for liturgical purposes.

The organ had a mahogany case, but later on an oak front was given in memory of Frank C. Capel.

A long-serving organist was Miss Margaret Verrall who officiated from 1909 to 1948, and was still active and a regular worshipper in 1983 at the age of 94.

Side Altar

copyright © D. Sharp
The St Agnes side altar on the north wall, the banner proclaims:- Sancta Agnes ora pro nobis (Saint Agnes pray for us)

Stained-glass Windows

Apse

There are five windows. The central one depicted the crucifixion and entombment but Revd Smythe had it removed to another site in the church because it had been obscured by the reredos. Instead, a pane of clear glass was installed in memory of Henry Cunliffe. The other windows represent the following:

The descent of the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament of Ordination

The Ascension, and institution of the Eucharist

The Resurrection

The Nativity

It is interesting to note that the ‘Resurrection’ window was given in memory of Lewis Barrett Solly RN ‘who died on 8 June 1881 while serving as an inspecting commander of the Coast Guard’. Lewis Barrett Solly was married to Susanna Courtauld the daughter of George Courtauld the industrialist.

Lady Chapel

The east window represents the Adoration of the Lamb by the twenty-four elders.

The three windows in the south wall depict the Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael. These windows were given in memory of Major General Charles Shuckburgh Hearn by the officers of the Madras Police Force.

Nave

The windows on the south side were the work of Mr Curtis of Ward & Hughes, Frith Street, Soho, and were completed in 1923. The same man also designed some windows in St Philip’s Church, New Church Road, Hove. Revd Smythe described Mr Curtis as ‘perhaps the most wonderful painted glass artist of our time’.

The north window depicts the Epiphany and was donated by Mrs Gerald Moor in memory of her brother Ernest Henry Cole. Mrs Moor was a very generous benefactor to the Anglican church.

The south window depicts the Resurrection. Mrs J. G. Fryer donated this window in memory of her father Henry Hills, churchwarden for nine years, and her mother Mary Hills.

The congregation of St Barnabas donated the window depicting the Ascension in memory of the Rt Revd Herbert Edward Jones, Bishop of Lewes.

The window with Pentecost as its subject was given by Mr J. M. Paice in memory of his wife Mary, and other relatives.

South Side

Mr Curtis, who was responsible for some of the windows in the Lady Chapel, also designed the window in the south side. It was installed in 1923 in memory of Rt Revd Herbert Edward Jones, Bishop of Lewes. The Bishop died in 1920 and was known as a good friend to the parish, and there is another window given in his memory in the nave.

South Transept

This window dates back to 1889 and it was given in memory of Mrs Gage Adams.

South-west Window

Mr F. Willis designed this window depicting the Annunciation. It was installed during the time Revd Smythe was vicar, and it was given in memory of Miss Longley’s mother.

North-west Window

This window was designed and executed by Thomas Curtis and Mrs Kibblewhite.

It depicts Christ the Divine Healer, surrounded by needy people – there is the blind man led by a child, the deaf man with his hand cupped to his ear, and the lame man on crutches.

The left light has a design of ringing bells, while the right one is based on astronomy with sun, moon, earth, planets and stars.

St Luke, the physician is shown in the top light.

The small designs denote architecture, chemistry, microscopy, and music.

At the foot of the window are the words Oh! All ye Works of the Lord, Bless the Lord.

The window was given in memory of John Francis Grayling (1853-1923) and was installed in 1926.

West Window

This window served as a First World War Memorial and was also the work of Mr Curtis who wrote a letter about the window in a long and somewhat convoluted style to Revd Smythe as follows:

‘These long and elegant lights of yours admit of the composition of two phases of what – in these times of deliverance from the terrible dangers we have been subjected to, and mercifully delivered from – should be expressed in joyful praise and thanksgiving to the great Succourer and Refuge: and this thought could be expressed by the central feature, to which the attention should be at once drawn, of our Lord in pure and spiritual body, reigning from the cross, now of glory and not of shame, and in the bestowal of the crown of heavenly reward, which fadeth not away to those who overcome in the earthly conflict of right against might: which could be expressed by idealistic representations of the allied nations fighting the battle of the Lord, each identified by the respective banners of their countries. The other phase would be the Te Deum.’

The window includes the dedication In memory of the faithful soldiers of the allied nations who gave their lives in the Great War 1914-1918. This window is dedicated by the people who in hundreds came regularly on a weekday night over four years to intercede for our soldiers and sailors, Britain’s cause and the triumph of right.

Vicarage and Parish Room


copyright © J.Middleton The view of St Barnabas Church from the south was considered the finest, but as can be seen from this photograph, the Vicarage obscured it

In 1890 it was stated that plans for a vicarage had been drawn up by a Mr Pertwee. However, in 1892 it was the plans provided by Clayton & Black that where were finally approved by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The plans also provided for a spacious Parish Room.

On 30 July 1892 Mrs Waugh laid the foundation stone of the Vicarage, while Miss Perceval laid the foundation stone of the Parish Room – to which project she had donated the sum of £450.

For many years the Boys’ Sunday School was held in the Parish Room, and under Revd Bowling’s auspices the number of Sunday School children had risen to 500.

The Vicarage and the Parish Room were completed by December 1893 and the total cost came to £2,911. Remarkably, the balance owing to the Bank was only £216.

The Mission Room

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
From the Brighton Herald 4 April 1903, a concert to raise funds
for St Barnabas Mission Hall and Brighton's Queen's Nurses.
the top ticket price of 7s 6d was very expensive in being
half the weekly wage of a general labourer.

In May 1900 an appeal was launched for funds to build a Mission Room. The money needed for the project was £700 to purchase the site, and a further £2,500 for the building. The foundation stone was laid on 14 June 1902 for the St Agnes Mission Room. Later on, the church of St Agnes was built on the same site at Goldstone Lane, and the Mission Room became the crypt.

Livingstone Institute

All Saints was responsible for the upkeep of the Livingstone Institute, in Livingstone Road, which was used by the people of St Barnabas. However, in 1915 all this changed when a new vicar came to All Saints. Historically, financial assistance was given because St Barnabas was the daughter church of All Saints. But the new vicar decided to cut the ‘daughter adrift’ as Revd Smythe described the action. It was an unexpected blow for the parish because as well as having to assume responsibility for the Institute, All Saints also stopped the grant of £100 to the Poor Fund and £100 to the Sunday Schools.

Sunday School classes were held in this hall. Children were very important to the parish, and the Sunday Schools must have been popular because in the early days ‘great lads of 14 or 15’ still put in appearance, although sometimes they were unruly and tried the patience of their good-hearted teachers. But for poor children classes were a welcome reprieve from crowded home life and of course there was always the annual ‘treats’ to look forward to – one at Christmas, and the other in the summer when they might actually be taken on an excursion outside Hove’s boundaries.

In 1924 the institute was effectively handed over to St Barnabas, with the freehold being invested in the Chichester Diocesan Fund, as custodian trustees.

In the 1930s the institute was used as an employment centre with a Church Army captain in charge. The innovation proved to be of great help to those people without work. This was just as well because it meant that many church organisations – and there were at least 20 – had to move to the War Memorial Hall.

In 1943 the Shirley Press in Shirley Street was destroyed by a bomb during a daylight raid. The business was owned by a Mr Bailey, who served as a churchwarden at St Barnabas. He was offered the use of the institute premises so that he could have the Shirley Press up and running once more.

The institute gradually ceased to be of much relevance to St Barnabas and in February 1947 it was sold. The Charity Commissioners stipulated that the proceeds must be used for repair and improvement of the church hall.

War Memorial Hall

A site was purchased in Sackville Road in early 1919 on the opposite side to St Barnabas, and the site measured 140-ft by 40-ft. At the time of purchase there was a house with adjoining shop fronting the road plus a stable and coach-house, known as Caley’s stables

The purchase would not have been possible without the generosity of Mrs Alice Mary Moor, widow of Prebendary Gerald Moor. She gave the project £2,050 and laid the foundation stone on 28 June 1920 of an Institute for the church of St Barnabas.

Mrs Moor was the daughter of Revd T. H. Cole. In 1896 she married Revd Gerald Moor who was vicar of Christ Church, Brighton, from 1902 to 1905, and vicar of Preston from 1905 to 1916 when he died at the age of 65. Perhaps Mrs Moor’s most generous gift was a large house called Elfinswood at Haywards Heath that she gifted to the Diocese of Chichester in 1927 – it cost, with endowment, in the region of £20,000. It was intended for use as a diocesan retreat, guest-house and conference centre. The charming chapel was created in a barn with timbered roof, and as the parish had contributed and promoted the project, it was dedicated to St Barnabas.

copyright © Parish of Portslade & Mile Oak
The 'Tin Church' in Mile Oak in the 1950s,
the tin church was demolished in 1967 to make
way for a modern brick built church :-
Church of the Good Shepherd, Mile Oak, Portslade.

Mrs Moor also gave the Church of the Good Shepherd, Dyke Road, Brighton, and the greater part of the church hall, in memory of her husband. When the structure, popularly known as the tin hut, was no longer required, Mrs Moor and the current vicar gave it to Mile Oak, Portslade. Mrs Moor lived at 30 The Drive, Hove, for a time, and she died on 8 September 1936.

On 11 July 1920 an anonymous gift of £700 was offered on the altar so that a boys’ club room might be built at the back of the hall. The gift came from two ladies (Misses Mabel and Zoe Ethel Grimwood), in memoriam of their nephew Flying Officer Bertie Grimwood who was awarded the Military Cross and died in the war. The room was known as the Grimwood Room.

The War Memorial Hall cost £5,758 to build, excluding the site. The front and club rooms came to £1,500. It was built quite rapidly, and the Bishop of Chichester dedicated it on 12 May 1921, although it was not fully completed and furnished until two years later.

By the 1960s Revd Hadden, then vicar of St Barnabas, considered the hall to be more of a liability than an asset because it was old and rambling. In December 1962 he said that the hall ought to be demolished, and something smaller and more simple should be built instead. Perhaps he was speaking prophetically because less than four months later there came news about the ambitious plans for the re-development of the Conway Street area. Demolition work on the hall began in September 1965. On 12 June 1967 the Bishop of Lewes blessed the new hall.

However, circumstances change, and in 1980 it was realised that the church was not making adequate use of the hall, and besides, the days of volunteers with the experience to run it were long gone. In 1981 Hove Council helped to negotiate an assignment of lease to the Hove and Portslade Voluntary Care Service, while St Barnabas could still have a room free of charge with due notice.

Sisters of the Holy Name & The Guild of St Ursula

In the spring of 1900 the Sisters moved into a house in Sackville Road. The Sisters of the Holy Name was an Anglican Order – not to be confused with the Roman Catholic Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.

The Sisters’ importance to the community was immeasurable because they undertook the task of parish visiting, calling on people in their own homes, and really acting as social workers before the term was invented. The priests of St Barnabas found them a great help since the multiple needs of the parish were too much for a few clergy. Perhaps, in a male-dominated church, their contribution has been overlooked.

It was a great loss when the Sisters left the parish in 1926. This was because the lease on their house in St Patrick’s Road had expired, and nowhere else suitable could be found. Father Smythe was very angry about the circumstances of the lease being terminated – to add insult to injury he was then presented with a bill for ‘dilapidations’.

The Sisters of the Holy Name whose full name is the Community of the Mission Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus, was founded by the Revd G.W. Herbert at St Peter’s Church, Vauxhall, London in 1865 (St Peter's was designed by J. L. Pearson the architect of St Barnabas Hove). The Community’s mother house is at Malvern Link and the Sister’s still operate in Europe, Africa and Australia today.

Parish Life

In 1890 the vicar estimated that there were around 6,000 souls in his parish, and there was an average of 92 communicants a week.

There were Bible classes for young people, and at parish socials, young girls were allowed to dance and sing, which caused a few wry comments from their elders.

Another of the church organisations was founded in 1899 and carried the curious title of the Perseverance League for Laundry Girls.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An article from the November 1917 Brighton Pavilion Blues newspaper featuring the head of St Barnabas' laundry girls club.

Old time resident E. W. Holden related a story his mother told him about St Barnabas in the 1890s – his mother being born at Hove in 1882. It concerned a young lady who apparently was no better than she should be, and had something of a reputation. When she and her husband married at the church, she had the audacity to wear virginal white. This enraged local females, and when the happy couple emerged from the church, women from Conway Street and Clarendon Road, showered the bride with horse manure rather than confetti.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An advert from Brighton Herald 15 January 1898,
it is amazing that someone in St Barnabas' congregation was
able to secure the grand Hove Town Hall and Mr Charles Bertram
(who later became the favourite performer of King Edward VII)
for their cricket team's fundraising event.

In the 1890s Christmas Day became a favourite day on which to hold a wedding. This was not for any romantic notion, but rather the great difficulty working people had in trying to get a day off for the purpose. However, there were Christmas Day services to be considered, and Revd Bowling did his best to discourage hopeful couples from choosing Christmas Day for their nuptials.

It is interesting to record the fees charged in 1909. If a couple wanted to marry at St Barnabas, they would have to pay two shillings and sixpence to have the banns read in church on three consecutive Sundays, then afterwards a certificate stating that banns had been read cost one shilling, and finally the marriage service cost £10, which was quite expensive for people on low wages. This fee did not include the marriage certificate, which cost two shillings and seven-pence. If you wanted to get married in a hurry by special licence the charge was one guinea. Apparently, there was no charge for funerals, but if it was held in the church and a verger was required, then that would cost one shilling. For the services of the organist, the fee was one guinea for both weddings and funerals.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An advert from Brighton Herald 23 October 1909 for
a fund raising event in aid of St Barnabas Athletic Club
at St Agnes Mission Room

In 1910 Revd Smythe lamented the amount of noise that could be heard inside the church on weekdays, which prevented people from hearing what was being said during services. The noise came from ‘passing carts and street cries’ and matters were not helped by the bad state of Coleridge Street. The vicar asked Hove Council to lay a tarred surface on the road, but nothing was done, and the vicar reflected ruefully that obviously the district around St Barnabas was considered very unimportant.

In January 1911 the Bishop of Chichester held an Ordination service at St Barnabas when two men were ordained to the priesthood and served as curates at St Barnabas. This was the heyday of priestly numbers. In 1918 economies became necessary and the Bishop of Chichester removed curates from many parishes, and one from St Barnabas. Father Smythe was not impressed because it left just him and one curate to serve nearly 10,000 parishioners, two churches, and four hospitals – the latter often requiring nine Sunday services. Three bicycles were kept at the ready, in case one should develop a puncture and disrupt the timetable. Revd Charles John Meade had retired to Hove but willingly helped out at St Barnabas. In 1921 Father Meade's widow presented a processional cross to St Barnabas in his memory; the cross was designed by Bainbridge Reynolds.

In 1917 St Barnabas formed its first parish council and it is instructive to note how the lay members were chosen. Besides the clergy, churchwardens, and four sidesmen, these were the following categories:

2 members representing working men

2 members from the Mothers’ Meeting

2 members representing working women

2 Sisters

3 members from Sunday Schools (boys, girls and infants)

1 member for boys’ and men’s organisations

1 member for girls’ and women’s organisations

1 member for men’s societies or clubs

1 member for Foreign Missions

1 member for Temperance or social work

4 representatives from St Agnes

First World War

Wartime scarcities affected everyone. In 1916 there was such a shortage of paper that the parish magazine was suspended for a few months. Then in 1917 a restriction on the use of electricity was introduced – it had only been installed in the church in 1913. One of the solutions at St Barnabas was to chose well-known hymns that could be sung from memory on Thursday evenings when an intercession service for soldiers and sailors was held.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
A 1915 postcard showing soldiers from the 6th Cyclist Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment in Stoneham Park.
Bottom left of the photograph are the words, 'WE ARE OFF - FOLLOW ON'
in the background is the spire of St Barnabas Church in Sackville Road

Four capitals were carved in the sanctuary in memory of four men who lost their lives in the war. They were:

2^nd Lt Digby C. Cleaver of the Royal Flying Corps, killed while flying on 29 December 1915 aged 17, the son of Howard and Annie Cleaver of Much Hadham, Hertfordshire. Digby is buried at Hazebrouck Cemetery, France.

Pte Harold A. Golds of the 10^th Bn, The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment, died 27 June 1917 aged 24, commemorated at Ypres Menin Gate Memorial, the son of Allen and Mary Golds of 48 Cowper Street, Hove.

Pte Arthur C. Pettitt 9^th Bn, Royal Sussex Regiment died on 18 August 1916 aged 26, commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, the son of Mrs E.J. Pettitt of 2 Westbourne Street, Hove.

2^nd Lt Bernard C. Stenning of 5^th Bn, East Surrey Regiment (Royal Engineers) died 26 July 1917 aged 35, buried at Godewaersvelde Cemetery, the son of Herbert and Louisa Stenning of Leatherhead.

Digby Cleaver and Bernard Stenning did not live in Hove therefore their names are not listed on Hove’s Roll of Honour in the foyer of Hove Library.

The Golds family were one of the stalwarts at St Barnabas, giving many years of service. It is interesting to note that Miss Lillian Golds, who died aged 62 on 30 September 1968, revised an earlier tradition of lay parish visiting, and several members of the congregation attested that if it had not been for her, they would never have come to church. Miss Golds also worked hard on supporting overseas missions.

In 1920 two sisters Misses Mabel and Zoe Ethel Grimwood, who were members of St Barnabas Church gave £700 in memory of their nephew, Flying Officer Bertie Grimwood, who was awarded the Military Medal and died in the war. The money was for a room at the back of the War Memorial Hall to be used as a boys’ club room. The official citation for Grimwood’s Military Medal was as follows:

‘He was severely wounded when flying, by a shell which destroyed his wireless apparatus. His machine was so badly damaged that no expert would have believed it could hold together in the air, but in spite of this, and his wounds, he wrote out a message reporting the position of the enemy and dropped it on Divisional Headquarters, who were able to put nine batteries on to the target.’

Grimwood survived this incident, writing a long letter home describing his experiences.

They sent me on a dangerous mission to locate a party of our fellows who had been cut off. We flew very low and were the target of all the Boche infantry. When we got to the locality I could not see our party, but I saw a mass of 1,000 Boche coming up to attack. At that moment a shell hit our aeroplane close to my left leg and blew away the body of the machine almost up the centre line. The tail of the machine was only held on by the one remaining side of the machine and a few wires. Every time the rudder was moved ever so little the tail bent and threatened to fall off. I lay down in the bottom of the cockpit and with my foot pressing steadily against the broken edge, kept the tail as straight as possible. I wrote out a message and gave it to the pilot to drop at the dropping station, which he did successfully. As we got nearer the aerodrome, some light gusts of wind made the tail bend most alarmingly and I thought our last moment had come. The landing was a very anxious moment as the pilot said the tail was sure to give way under the strain. However we made a beautiful landing and I hardly felt the machine touch the ground. Then I was taken off in a motor to the casualty clearing station while the pilot rushed off to give full details of the impending counter attack. We heard all the guns wake up, and I knew we were revenged a hundred times over. It is quite extraordinary that the shell did not kill me. I was saved by the sack of message bags hanging beside my leg. Each message bag when rolled up is about the size and shape of a puttee, so I had a pad of cotton material three or four inches thick between my leg and the explosion. I expect to be quite fit again in a month or two.

Lt Bertie C.R. Grimwood M.C. of the 4^th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps and Artillery died 7 November 1917, commemorated Arras Flying Services Memorial, the son of H.R. and Amelia Grimwood of Florence, Italy. Bertie Grimwood was not a resident of Hove, therefore his name does not appear on Hove’s Roll of Honour in the foyer of Hove Library.

The church Roll of Honour was placed on the wings of the triptych. During the war a War Shrine with crucifix was erected on the east wall of the church in Sackville Road and people kept it well stocked with flowers.

The Grimwood Sisters

Bertie Grimwood's aunts, Miss Mabel Grimwood (1858-1934) and Miss Zoe Ethel Grimwood (1862-1941) lived at 60 Wilbury Road. They were very active members of St Barnabas’ congregation, taking part and organising numerous fund raising events.

Miss Zoe Ethel Grimwood was a remarkable lady. She was an expert marksman and secretary of Brighton Ladies Shooting Club and served on numerous Hove Committees:- Red Cross, Braille Books for the Blind, War Savings, R.S.P.C.A., Flag Days for the Troops, Hove Submarine Week and British Prisoner of War Relief Fund. Zoe was the local organiser for the Ladies Tariff Reform League which lobbied for cheaper food for working people and also held the high profile position of the Hon. Secretary of the local Belgian Refugees Relief Committee.

Mabel and Zoe were the sisters of Frank St Claire Grimwood, a Government Official in Manipur, India. Frank was married to the Hove educated Ethel Brabazon Moore. Frank was killed along with four other British Officials when the British Residency was attacked and burnt down, which marked the outbreak of the Manipur War of 1891. Ethel St Claire Grimwood escaped and led a party of sepoys back to safety behind British Army lines. In reports in the British Press, Ethel was titled the ‘Heroine of Manipur’.

On returning to England, Ethel was summoned to Windsor Castle for a private audience with Queen Victoria. The Queen wished to hear a personal account of her escape from Manipur after which in a short ceremony the Queen awarded Ethel the Red Cross Medal. Later on the same day Ethel met the Princess of Wales. Ethel was the author of ‘My Three Years in Manipur’ (1891) which is still in print today. Ethel was lauded by London society and many years later she remarried and moved to the U.S.A.

Second World War

In 1939 there were already black-out restrictions in force. This meant that Christmas Eve Midnight Mass had to be celebrated in darkness, except for the sanctuary lamps. People were asked to bring their own torches to be able to read the words in the hymn book. Even under these circumstances, the congregation numbered 300 people. Evensong was brought forward to 3.30 p.m. in order to make use of daylight. In the summer of 1940 it was decided to expend the sum of £52 on providing black-out coverings for the church windows – no easy task. Then normal services could be resumed.

It was noted that there were over 400 men and women from the parish who were serving in the armed forces. In 1944 the vicar sent a printed letter to each individual, which was much appreciated.

The War Memorial for those members of the congregation killed in the conflict took the form of a painted wooden panel. On 12 January 1947 the Archdeacon dedicated the panel. Originally, it was located on the west wall of the south transept, but later on it was moved to the north aisle.

Centenary

The centenary of the church was celebrated in 1983. But first of all, there was a great hunt for the whereabouts of the foundation stone. Eventually, it was discovered inside the church, but it had been obscured by the pulpit.

Church Roof

By the 1990s it was obvious that the roof of St Barnabas needed complete restoration. It was certainly a large undertaking because the costs were estimated at £100,000. On 26 October 1996 Sir Tim Sainsbury launched the appeal.

On 5 December 1998 a fund-raising concert was held inside the church. It was a performance of Handel’s Messiah and several choirs took part with more than 100 singers, plus the well-known local soprano Penny Jenkins.

By December 1998 it had become apparent that even more money needed to be raised because some of the windows also needed attention. The revised total was now put at £150,000.

The amount of money already in hand stood at £34,000, and this included £500 from the will of the late Arthur Stapleton, a former churchwarden.

English Heritage pledged almost £26,000, and the Sussex Historic Churches would give £3,000. There was obviously still a shortfall.

Revd Trevor MacDonald, 65-year old assistant priest, had been associated with St Barnabas for a period of 35 years, as Parish Reader, and for the previous five years serving as an unpaid priest (non-stipendiary ministry). Revd MacDonald said he would donate up to £80,000 towards the fund since he would be leaving the money to the church in his will in any case. Revd MacDonald also wrote a detailed history of St Barnabas, which was published in 1983. In his ordinary working life, he had been secretary of the British Steel Corporation.

On 10 December 1999 a man climbed the scaffolding surrounding the church, and began to ring the bell. The man was poised some 80-ft above ground level and since there were high winds, there were fears that he might slip. Fire-fighters were in attendance, and they raised their hydraulic platform. But it took the emergency services some four hours to persuade the man to come down. The vicar said that the man was upset about a missing dog.

In March 2000 the scaffolding was still in place when it was stated that sign-maker Gordon Eaton had to climb to the top of the steeple to re-gild the golden ball. The golden cockerel weather-vane at the top was removed and taken down to be re-gilded, but the ball was part of the structure and thus there was no option other than Mr Eaton having to take his equipment up to a height of 150-ft.

There was a bombshell in 2014 when a Church of England report recommended that St Barnabas should be closed. The report included an unkind and withering comment - ‘This church seems more intent on maintaining its tradition and its building and has displayed few signs of growth.’ The report also cited the expense involved in keeping the building open for worship. For example, in 2003 St Barnabas received a subsidy of £24,000, which in cold cash meant each member of the congregation was subsided to the tune of £9 a week.

Naturally, the congregation were horrified, not to mention being absolutely furious. They justly accused the authorities of never having mentioned a possible closure before, and yet the people had managed to raise some £250,000 for vital repairs.

They saw it as their duty to keep a beautiful church in good order for future generations, who, it might be hoped, would be more appreciative. Suffice it to say that St Barnabas has not closed its doors, and people can still go there in 2019 with recent reports that they receive a friendly welcome.

In July 2019 it was announced that from the 1 August 2019 St Barnabas would share the services of a priest with St Philip’s Church, New Church Road.

Vicars

1884-1897 - Revd A. G. L. Bowling

1897-1908 - Revd H. W. Maycock

1909-1929 - Revd F. H. D. Smythe
1929-1942 - Revd Moray Hamilton O’Beirne

1942-1947 - Revd H. Porter

1947-1955 - Revd W. G. Calvert Lee

1956-1965 - Revd G. P. Hadden

1965-1967 - Revd H. M. P. Judd
1967-1985 - Revd Stanley D. Horsey

1985-1991 - Revd John Arrowsmith

1991-1996 - Revd John Wren

1997 - Revd Alan Reed

2014 - Revd Lawrence MacLean
2019 - Revd John Eldridge S.S.C.

Curates & Assistant Priests

1884-1897
Revd A. Devonshire

1897-1908
Revd F. W. Stokes S.S.C.
Revd L. H. Bruce (brother-in-law of Robert Falcon Scott - 'Scott of the Antarctic')
Revd F. Bell

1909-1929
Revd W. E. Lloyd (Revd Lloyd was blind he later became Deputy Secretary of the National Institute for the Blind)
Revd W. R. Whaits
Revd G. Frostick (attended the first Anglo-Catholic Congress at the Church of St. Alban, Holborn in 1920, Father Frostrick's scrap books and press-cuttings book relating to Anglo-Catholic affairs are held by East Sussex Record Office - Father Frostick was appointed the first Vicar of St Agnes Church in 1927)
Revd E. A. Somerset Allan
Revd H. V. R. Bromley
Revd W. G. Rudd
Revd H. W. Overs (served as a missionary in North China for the U.S.P.G.A. in 1926, later became Vicar of Chiddingly)

1956-1965
Revd P Campbell (Vicar of St Nicolas Church Portslade in 1969)

1965-1967
Assistant Priest Fr Trevor MacDonald

Some Biographies of former Vicars

Bowling

Revd Alfred George Lovelace Bowling was the first vicar of St Barnabas. He had attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and before coming to Hove, he had been a vicar at St Mark’s, Horsley Down, a parish in south-east London where he earned a reputation for being ‘indefatigable among the poor’. It was a good training for the work necessary at St Barnabas. Perhaps he had already set his sights on a certain young lady because on 28 April 1885 he was married at St Barnabas in front of an interested congregation. Church registers record that subsequently some baby Bowlings were baptised at the church too. At first, the Bowlings lived in a house in Goldstone Villas but the impressive new vicarage was built in 1893 and there was plenty of space for their children.

After thirteen and a half years of service in a very demanding parish, Revd Bowling seemed to be suffering from burn-out – at any rate, with medical opinion and the Bishop’s advice – he decided to go somewhere a little less hectic. Although he was the first vicar of St Barnabas to seek more tranquil pastures, he was certainly not the last. Indeed, out of the first six incumbents, four sought this course while one died in office.

A later vicar, Revd Smythe, admired Revd Bowling ‘particularly in that he was a splendid beggar’ who saw what was needed, raised the funds, and got it done.

Revd Bowling’s departure must have been quite sudden because the post of vicar remained vacant for several months – unusual for those days, but not today. Revd Bowling died in 1919.

Maycock

Revd Herbert William Maycock from Merton College, Oxford, became vicar of St Barnabas in 1897 – the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. One of his first actions was to arrange for the floor of the sanctuary to be beautified by the laying of mosaics. He must have been interested in music too because he was the one who purchased the rather expensive organ for the church. Perhaps he did not have a gift for begging like Revd Bowling, or maybe he found it demeaning. In the parish magazine he wrote, ‘Really it is always the same Money, money, money, but great need compels me to ask.’

After eleven years as parish priest, Revd Maycock began to feel the strain, just like Revd Bowling. His doctor warned him that if he did not relinquish such a busy parish, he would be heading for a serious breakdown. Thus it was that Revd Maycock arranged to exchange parishes with Revd F. H. D. Smythe who was rector of Horsted Keynes. Revd Maycock died in 1939.

Smythe

Revd Francis Henry Dumville Smythe arrived at St Barnabas on 4 January 1908, having exchanged parishes with Revd Maycock. Revd Smythe was educated at Haileybury, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He trained for Holy Orders at the Bishop’s College at Blackheath Hill, and had been rector of Horsted Keynes for nine years before coming to Hove, where he stayed for the next 20 years. Before his arrival, the congregation was told he was ‘earnest, energetic and devout’.

Revd Smythe re-introduced the use of vestments, which had not been seen at Barnabas for eleven years. However, it was not because his predecessors did not like vestments, but rather because the Bishop of Chichester, a stalwart of rather austere practices, forbade their use – the new Bishop of Chichester had more liberal views on the matter. However, Revd Smythe’s use of vestments did not mean he wanted to adopt all facets popular with Anglo-Catholics. For example, he would not countenance cottas, and genuflection was not allowed.

His ministry was memorable for his energy and for his down-to-earth response to situations. An example occurred in 1912 when a makeshift seat suddenly collapsed under one of the choirboys, sending the rest of them into a fit of giggles. Naturally, some of the more staid members of the congregation complained about their behaviour. But Revd Smythe wrote in the church magazine that in fact the boys were better behaved than the average choirboy and ‘if they had not lost their composure on this occasion I should have considered there was something very wrong.’

In the 7 June 1913 edition of the Brighton Herald, there was an article criticising seven churches, Hove's St Barnabas along with Brighton's 'Wagner' Churches of St Bartholomew's, St Martin’s, the Annunciation, St Mary Magdalene’s and All Souls for celebrating the ‘Roman festival of Corpus Christi on 22 May’ and ‘such observance was condemned by the Royal Commission of 1906 and disproved of by the present Bishop of Chichester’

Revd Smythe was kept busy during the First World War. He was Cadet Major of the Church Lads’ Brigade and was in charge when the St Barnabas Company were put on guard duty at the railway line from Barcombe to Haywards Heath, challenging any suspicious persons, while every quarter of an hour during the night, goods train of 50 trucks thundered by on their way to Newhaven. The vicar was also chaplain to the 106^th and 107^th Brigades of the Royal Field Artillery for the nine months that they were billeted at Hove. This was not the extent of his war work either, because he served as chaplain to four different Military Hospitals. A little church was built at the 2^nd Eastern General Hospital in Portland Road, and Revd Smythe prepared over 400 men for Confirmation. After the war this little wooden church was transported to Cinder Hill, Horsted Keynes (the vicar’s previous parish) where from 1923 it was used as a mission church.

During the Great War the Portland Road School (now Hove Junior School) was converted into 2^nd Eastern General Hospital with a temporary wooden Church erected in the school’s playground. Revd Smythe the Hospital’s Chaplain, can be seen in the above photographer greeting the congregation as they leave after Sunday Service in March 1917

The congregation definitely increased during the war years. Unfortunately, we do no know the numbers because Revd Smythe believed ‘the snare of the lust of numbers is a dangerous thing’.

Revd Smythe was a frequent visitor to nearby Hove Hospital. In 1921 he wrote a complaint in the Visitors’ Report Book about the fact that nurses and doctors were being given margarine instead of butter. He did not think it was good enough to treat them like that.

In 1923 Revd Smythe published a church history entitled Forty Years of St Barnabas. It is indeed a valuable source of information enlivened with his critical asides. For instance, he described the chancel as ‘the least satisfactory part of the Church, by reason of the two huge arches of the cross-aisle and the smallness of the architectural parts of the tribune itself’. He grumbled that Bodley’s triptych had ‘a total disregard of all sense of proportion’, and bemoaned the lack of natural lighting inside the church. On the other hand, he waxed lyrical on the subject of the church roof writing that ‘The pleasing effect is due to the seven-canted king-post roof, which, together with its cross-ties, runs unbroken from end to end; these ties being supported from the ground by a half-shaft arising in the bases of the nave-piers, and ending in corbels upon which the beams are laid’.

In 1928 Revd Smythe announced he was leaving Hove to become vicar of St Mary’s, Eastbourne. On 23 March 1929, he and his wife were presented with many personal gifts plus a cheque for the sum of £773 – an incredible amount. His decision to leave was not an easy one to make. He wrote My heart is bursting at the idea of leaving but I feel He is drawing me, and will wipe away my tears and forgive my mistakes. May he ever watch over our dear St Barnabas and its most lovable people and sweet children.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Revd Ellam the Vicar of St Agnes, Revd O’Beirne the Vicar of St Barnabas, Very Revd Horden, the Bishop of Lewes and Revd Smythe the Archdeacon of Lewes at St Agnes Church, Hove on 1 January 1938.

Revd Smythe became Archdeacon of Lewes in 1930. He retired to Haywards Heath where on 20 December 1958 he celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. He died on 12 October 1966.

O’Beirne

Revd Moray Hamilton O’Beirne was born in 1887 at Streatham but he was of Irish descent. He was educated at Wykeham House, Worthing, and at Kelham Theological College. He served as a curate at St Thomas’s Church, Davigdor Road, Hove, and was vicar of St Richard’s Church, Haywards Heath, before coming to Hove, where his parents lived. In 1920 he married Isabel Helen Wiley. He arrived at Hove in 1929. He was a colourful character who enjoyed boating holidays and playing for the St Barnabas cricket team.

During the 1930s Revd O’Beirne noted that his parish was going through hard times with many mired in poverty. But they did not despair and Revd O’Beirne wrote ‘ the patience and endurance of the people is wonderful.

However, there was joy too, especially in all the celebrations for the Golden Jubilee of St Barnabas in June 1933. One warm evening there was a large procession of clergy, Scouts, Guides, and people, accompanied by the Salvation Army Band, walking around the parish, with pauses for hymns and prayers. There was a Sunday School outing to Hassocks, an organ recital, a garden party, a gift day, a thanksgiving day, and a day of sports at the Goldstone Ground.

During 1941 Revd O’Beirne was not feeling well, and privately considered moving to a quieter parish. But he kept his worries to himself, and almost no-one in the congregation had any idea that something was amiss. The trouble was located in his throat, and in the spring of 1942 he had an operation on it at nearby Hove Hospital. On 29 May 1942 he suffered an obstruction in his throat, was taken back to hospital, and died peacefully the following day.

His death came as a great shock to his parishioners. Canon Meyrick, vicar of Hove, said, ‘He was big-hearted, so generous, so sympathetic’. Part of his gift was in establishing good relationships with ministers of other denominations in Hove. After his death the Salvation Army band played a lament outside the church and vicarage.

Porter

Revd Howard Porter had served as assistant priest at St Barnabas since 1939 in the time of Father O’Beirne, previous to being appointed vicar. His former post had been at St Michael’s, Ocklynge, Eastbourne, and he had also been the principal of a boys’ preparatory school at Willingdon. Before his induction as vicar of St Barnabas in September 1942, he was determined to rectify a likely deficit in the church accounts of around £400. There were special prayers, and sermons on stewardship; then Gift Day brought in the unexpected sum of £1,010. When the amount was announced to the congregation on the following Sunday, there was an audible gasp.

Revd Porter was especially good at encouraging young children at St Barnabas, and Sung Eucharist was principally arranged for their benefit. He was therefore delighted when on Christmas Day morning 1942, he asked a solemn question ‘What really is Christmas?’ and a young voice piped up loudly ‘It’s Jesus Christ’s birthday!’

Revd Porter’s tenure as vicar was of short duration because he suffered a heart attack in 1947 during a social gathering, and spent five months recuperating. In 1947 he concluded that country living was called for, although he was sorry to leave St Barnabas. He died in 1961.

Calvert-Lee

Revd William Gordon Calvert Lee became vicar of St Barnabas in 1947 when he was aged 48. Unfortunately, his time in the parish was marred by ill-health – he developed heart disease and circulatory disease, and then Parkinson’s Disease He soldiered on at St Barnabas until 1955 when he left Hove for the parishes of Alciston and Selmeston near Lewes – he died just two years later.

Hadden

Revd Geoffrey Paddock Hadden was the second vicar to have trained at Kelham Theological College – the previous one being Father O’Beirne.

For ten years he had worked in parishes in South Australia, and he met his wife there. The couple had three children when they came to Hove, and a fourth was born some months after they occupied the vicarage – it was the first baby in the vicarage for over 50 years.

Revd Haddon was also fortunate in the history of St Barnabas vicars in that he enjoyed good health during his nine-year tenure.

Revd Hadden possessed a neat turn of phrase and the following extract comes from the parish magazine for January 1960 under the heading Alas! Poor Cocky.

‘Having thrust his nose defiantly into summer squalls and winter gales for three quarters of a century, the St Barnabas weather-cock found one of the October storms too much for him last year, and, taking part of the roof with him, assumed a horizontal position in the gutter.’

Revd Hadden celebrated the Silver Anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on 16 October 1957. He left Hove in March 1965 to move to Horsted Keynes. He celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 16 October 1982, and retired to Bishops Tachbrook, Warwickshire.

Judd

Revd Henry Pomeroy Judd was the eighth vicar of St Barnabas and and was inducted on 26 May 1965. He was already familiar with the parish because he and Revd Hadden had swapped parishes as a holiday exchange. But Revd Judd’s tenure was the shortest. In his younger days he had spent a number of years as a missionary in India. He had been chaplain to a convent in Cornwall before he came to Hove He was advised not to resume parish work on account of a heart condition. But he felt called to accept a post, and he had long wanted to work in the Diocese of Chichester. In 1966 he was away from the parish suffering from ill-health.

On 14 March 1967 Revd Vickery, the curate, had been surprised not to see the vicar in church for the 7 a.m. Eucharist, as was his custom, even if he were not officiating. After the service was over, he hurried to the vicarage, and he and Mrs Judd found the vicar dead in his bed. The Bishop of Chichester paid tribute to Revd Judd and said his effect on the St Barnabas congregation in two short years was remarkable. Mrs Judd said her husband had been so happy in his work at Hove.

A fine statue of the Virgin and Child made by Italian craftsman was given in memory of Father Judd and arrived in August 1967.

Horsey

Revd Stanley Desmond Horsey was born in 1920. He was ordained priest at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Wells, during Advent in 1950. He was vicar of St Martin’s Church, Brighton, for nine years before arriving at St Barnabas in 1967 where he was the first unmarried vicar to hold the office. He was inducted to St Barnabas on 17 March 1967, a few weeks before his 47^th birthday. The Bishop of Lewes obviously took note of it being most unusual for a priest to move from one part of the area to another, and forbade his former parishioners from deserting their ‘accustomed shrine’ except for St Barnabas Day.

Tall, genial, and often smiling, he became a familiar sight around Hove pedalling along on his bicycle. He also enjoyed frequent dips in the sea.

Revd Horsey lived with his mother, who was also a member of his congregation. She died in May 1973 and in her memory Revd Horsey gave a statue of the Sacred Heart, which was placed in the Sacred Heart Chapel in the north east corner of the church.

Revd Horsey celebrated the Silver Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood on 3 December 1975.

After twelve years as vicar of St Barnabas, Revd Horsey decided to exchange parishes between May and September 1979 with Revd Paul Woodrum, a parish priest in New Jersey. It was a great success on both sides, and Revd Horsey returned refreshed.

He retired in 1985. Even after his retirement, he continued to exercise his priestly duties at St Paul’s Church, West Street, Brighton, and that is where he celebrated his Diamond Jubilee and 80^th birthday on 9 December 2000 – the service being described as a Solemn Votive Mass of the Holy Trinity. The Bishop of Chichester was there, and several fellow priests. The service was well attended and afterwards there was a reception and buffet lunch in the Wagner Hall.

Arrowsmith – The next vicar of St Barnabas was Revd Arrowsmith who also became acting Rural Dean. Revd Arrowsmith died suddenly in September 1991, becoming the third vicar of this parish to die in office. At the time Revd Arrowsmith was officiating at a service in All Saints, Hove, where the new vicar, Revd John Caldicott, was being inducted. There was some criticism that the service was allowed to proceed while Revd Arrowsmith was breathing his last in a side chapel. But it later transpired that the Bishop of Chichester, who was present at the service, had no idea of the gravity of the situation, and thought that Revd Arrowsmith had been taken straight to hospital. Apparently, there was some difficulty in reaching a telephone in order to call for an ambulance.

Wren – Revd John Wren was the new vicar of St Barnabas in 1992 but his stay was brief. On this occasion it was not ill-health that hastened his departure but rather the vexed question of women priests. He felt unable to reconcile his faith with this new policy – he felt so strongly on the issue that he resigned his post, and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in Lowestoft, Suffolk. Another local cleric who left the Church of England over the women priests issue was Revd John Calidcott, vicar of All Saints, Hove. He also joined the church of Rome.

Maclean – In 2014 Revd Lawrence MacLean arrived at St Barnabas, together with his wife Jacqueline and their four children. He had trained at Chichester Theological College, and spent ten years looking after Anglican churches in Florence and Siena. Before moving to Sussex, he had been vicar and rural dean of St Michael’s Church, Torrington. His new role at Hove was not confined to St Barnabas because he was also appointed priest-in-charge of St Andrew’s Old Church to mentor the new associate vicar Revd Dan Henderson.

copyright © St Barnabas Church, Hove
The Parish of St. Barnabas & St. Agnes Hove
The Church on Poets Corner, serving the people of West Hove,
which is a parish of the Society of St Wilfrid & St Hilda
within the Diocese of Chichester

For further information on Services & Parish Events, please see these Links:- The Parish of St Barnabas & St Agnes website, the Parish's facebook page or the Parish's Twitter page

Sources

Argus (8 November 1997 / 15/4/2005 / 4/9/2014)
Brighton Herald

Middleton J, Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

MacDonald, T. The First Century of St Barnabas (1982)

Smythe, Revd F. Forty Years of St Barnabas (1923)
St Agnes Church, Hove
Additional research on the Grimwood family by D. Sharp

Thanks are due to Kay Stringer for permission to reproduce her St Barnabas Church photographs