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'Belmont Hassocks'

Memories from Mr Avis, Belmont’s gardener and general factotum
1934 until 1950s

1. An interesting letter from Mr AVIS, former gardener/groundsman

This arrived as a result of the review of Belmont Hassocks in South Downs Living magazine. He is living in Hassocks and must be a good age – nearly 90 I should think. Here are some extracts:

Clayton Wickham (as the school site was first called) was a field ambulance reception area in the Great War.

The school moved to Burgess Hill “for a while” after leaving Brighton and before occupying the Clayton Wickham site.

Mrs Evans was a “very professional gardener in her own right”.

The three extensions to the main building, designed by Mr Denham, were built by Frank Davey of Hurstpierpoint. The chapel had a Canadian hot air boiler and its roof was made of Canadian shingles. When it was converted into a dwelling “on no condition was its structure to be altered in any way”.

The Lodge “which used to be for employees of Clayton Wickham was not only used for Masters Mr Vidal and Mr Appelbe, but also for the Butler and myself free of charge”.

“I was there as second gardener in 1934 when the school had 22 boys boarding and two daily. Mr Burr had to do away with two 40 ft greenhouses and the conservatory in order to put more heat into the school. Also I had to do away with ornamental gardens to save on time and money as I was responsible for one acre of kitchen gardens well as all playing fields, three tennis courts and the swimming pool.”

“When Max de Wharton Burr took over he had a very good Master, Mr CS Jeffries, who later for various reasons became a full financial partner. Rev Mr Allan Burr came into partnership at Easter 1936 and continued until the school evacuation”.

The “Princess Pats Rifle Brigade” took over Belmont on the Dunkirk invasion. (This was a Canadian Light Infantry Regiment. See History page for more info).

“In November 1940 I had to join the army much against Mr Burr’s wishes so my wife had full responsibility for some considerable time. After the war I returned to the school for a while and was actually talking and joking with Mr Burr at 8 o’clock one Saturday evening and he died at midnight”.

“I still have two fully illustrate brochures”. I’m not sure what this means but will try to get down to Hassocks to see them. I’ve sent Mr Avis a complimentary book.

Submitted by Dale Vargas, June 2006

2. Recollections from Mr AVIS, in his own writing, received 12 July 2006

When I went to Belmont in 1934, Mr M.Burr had recently bought an Austin 10 open tourer in a beautiful green and was very pleasing to wash and clean (including the spare wheel) every Saturday. I took a great pride in doing this job. Later on as the school progressed a larger car was necessary so the Austin was traded in for a Daimler which was unfortunately but accidentally damaged by a man walking into it at Preston Circus by which the man after a few weeks died. This upset Max quite badly and he thus bought a new Morris 30 6-cylinder which was later adapted (in the early part of the war) to run on parrafine as petrol was greatly pricey and ration until after the war when Mr Max bought a Ford V8 also a Hillman Minx tourer as well as an Army jeep & trailer!

Mr C.S. Jeffrey had an old Riley very strongly built and Mr Appelbe had an old 2 cylinder Morgan “three wheeler, “Belmont Transport”.

As the school generally ran on paraffin we always had a good stock of paraffin for oil lamps at The Lodge & extra oil heaters in the school. The generater as mentioned only brought in 120 volts by 60 2.5 acid batteries with 2 in reserve which we tested regularly with a hydrometer controlled by brass segments with its armature arm consistency dipping in mercury the main electicy was soon installed by the B.C.R.E Royal engineers soon after they took posisition of the school.

The trenches you mention were first dug by the boys in early part of the war & they were lit from a 12 volt car battery and about 30 3.5 torch batteries installed by one of the boys and I myself was greatly surprised at this achievement “whilst in this area”.

The 400 Christmas trees in the side of the 18 acre field was planted by the boys Mr Max and myself upon instruction of the Forestry Commision with the idea that after three years each other could be sold as Christmas trees as a slight income for the school & the rest left to grow for use poles or pit props & likewise as they were planted 4 feet apart. It was our job to keep them hand weeded!
At the same time of this planting the Forestry Commision planted about 100 poplar trees in the paddock or Goose Field. These poplars for future use for floor boards & poles for farm wagons. After a period of 12 months the Commision cut them all down to the ground & when I inquired why? They told me that they would regrow & we could expect 3 or 4 poles from each one. Unfortunately this planting done away with the rifle range!

You mentioned about the laundry problem. After some consideration the Burgess Hill laundry was chosen but after some time it did not prove very reliable so St Georges Hurstpierpoint was given the contract. But they put up their prices beyond the expenses of the school. So Mrs Burr allowed them to do all household linen including all the boys sheets & the laundry of all masters and general staff and my wife her sister and mother were responsible for all boys shirts vests pantssocks & hankies every week and NO MACHINES were used all by hand! Such as:-

71 pairs pyjamas @ 5d a pair               Vests & Pants 1d each  & Socks
71 Shirts           3½d each                     Hankies            ½d each

The 4.10 air rifle belonged to Mr W. Bayley chief steward in 1930 but usually kept in Mr Burr’s study I used it a few times for rats as well as rabbits of which there were plenty (as matter of fact one week early in the war when meat was severly ration we shot or wired 70 rabbits! Mr Burr owened the 12 boredouble barrel shot gun which he was a good shotfor moles just as they were heaving up the soil? I was amazed when I saw him do such a thing.

I agree that Max was a first class mathematic teacher. You probably remember as well as the school having a lot of chicken it always kept one middle white breeding sow. One year 5 young pigs were born. After a few months they were offered to Mr Baker the butcher at Hurst. Mr Burr wanted £10 each for them & Mr Baker said it was too much so Mr B asked him for 9½ Guiness this was accepted. Work it out & you will find it comes to £9.19.6 just 6d short of £10 if you understand the old currency of £.s.d!

Early in 1940 Mr Hebditch a great national chicken farmer & well known for building 1st class chicken houses in all designs and sizes, lent the school 3 or 4  very large transport wooden egg boxes each holding 720 eggs. After the evacuation my wife and myself filled these boxes with pickled eggs which were obtained from the many chicken which the school had always kept. These boxes we packed and got them dispatched by lorry to Hassocks Station and then by train to Litchfield and not one egg was broken. The cost of transport to Hassocks Station also and to Litchfield 16/2 for two boxes. We were even packing until midnight of the day before.
I had to join the army so all was left entirely to my wife also the selling of all produce & the chicken including several young cockerals. And according to the ledger carriage on 7 sacks of potatoes to Hassocks Station 2/6 and the cost of carriage to Litchfield 17/10! Apart from this all furniture from the dormonteries beds wash stands etc also chairs and tables, tressels and staging all sent to Litchfield by Mr Cragg with a 3-ton lorry. 4 or 5 journeys.

Before I forget
When the chapel was to be built I cleared the ground of long grass & when the brickwork was being built, the Rev Witherton temporally placed a half a crown 2/6 coin between 2 courses of bricks and Keith his son was in the school at that time & being thought physic was told what his father had done unknown to anybody else where on he was invited to find the coin. He immediately went to the chapel and without hesitation he went straight to the spot and reclaimed the coin. What a feat!
On the coronation of George VI Mr Burr gave all the general staff £5 which was a lot of money in those days but greatly appreciated by everyone.

As the lane was the boundary of Hurst and Clayton on busy end of term Max used to say to me potholes in Clayton or potholes in Hurst so I knew where he wished me to repair such holes.
Thought before I end the facts from ledger Sept 21-Dec 1 1940 we sold 85 dozen eggs @ 2/- per doz. Also we sold 81 chickens. So thanks to my wife for such a trade apart from all garden produce which we sold.

And lastly to reply in the very last. The school was classed as the finest prep school in Sussex. That in itself was a great honour. With that Max was inspired to buy Eastern House in St Georges Lane as a pre-prep school for the little toddlers 3 & 4 years old. This was given up when Max died.
Before I forget Belmont was claimed to have a tree of every sort grown in England. The Tulip tree the second largest in Sussex& really good for wood work as it was pure white.

This must be all.
Yours truly
L. K. D. Avis [Address available on request]

3. Verbatim transcript of a letter from Mr Avis, April 2007 -

I went there as gardener on June 9 1934.The staff then was: gardener; chauffeur-steward Bill Bailey; butler; handyman who looked after the boiler, chickens, geese and pigs; a scullery maid; cook; kitchen boy; head housemaid and two under-housemaids. The houseman had to pay for any china breakages as he tried to be too careful. I myself was responsible for all gardening and sports grounds, which I enjoyed immensely.

I prepared the ground for the chapel to be built. And extended the cricket pitches and the main football ground with a 24” motor mower until the 7’ 6” gang mower was bought in 1936 and towed by a 30 HP Chrysler car until the war commenced.

The conservatory was pulled down in Spring 1934 to cut down on the heat as supplied by a large horseshoe boiler, which heated the three greenhouses as well. The Aga boiler in the kitchen was installed in Easter holidays1936 at the same time as the bathroom was altered from one bath to four. Also straight back chairs were introduced in the dining room. The cost of all this depended on extra boys and the West wing became necessary. So 40 boys was gradually increased.

Bill Bayley and myself painted the flag pole and the rugby posts made from fir trees from the estate. We only had to buy timber for the flagpole stocks.

The swimming pool contained 40,000 gallons of company water which I helped to clean out twice a year and when in use often times I had to treat it with a pint or pint and a half of Voxan chloride of lime, according to Mr Burr’s instructions. The water went down into the carp pool. On Sports Day money thrown in at the deep end and not retrieved in time became my perks, as it had to be prized off the floor!

To help pay for the south wing, the Tudor house over the road was sold off to Mrs Duke Turner of Ditchling and two years before I helped to wire it for electricity generated by the school generator.

I mentioned about the geese. We had five geese. They were ideal for shovelling off the grass which made it perfect for repairing the cricket pitches. Then one day we heard such a noise. A Scottish terrier had got into their pen and when we got there it had killed all five geese. With one shot from Bill Bayley, the dog was killed. This meant that the police had to be informed. We were told that if we claimed for the geese from the dog owner, they could counter-claim more, but the owner was never found. After several days I was told to bury the geese and that was the end. The goose eggs were always used in cooking as they were considered too strong to use otherwise. What a loss to the school!

Well I’ve gone on and on, but hope it is of interest to you. So I bid you cheerio. I still have more memories.
RK Avis

4. Another helping from Mr Avis, July 2007 (now aged 92)

When the air raid shelter was being built Harold Warner, the chief bricklayer, amazed Max by laying 400 bricks an hour, whereby Max gave him a full time job at the school. He paid him a very good wage but Max noticed that he always finished work early to clean his tools. Why not? He had got them dirty in the governor’s time!

Anyhow several weeks later while I was carrying a sack of potatoes from the potato store Max came up to me and said he would give me an extra 10/- a week. This was greatly appreciated as I was paying 17/6 for rent on my house. A few days later Harold came up to me and said that Max had cut his wages by 10/- a week and so he was going to leave.

After the Second War some of the parents suggested to Max Burr that he might cut down and sell some of the many trees on the Clayton Wickham estate to help with ‘maintenance costs’. It was claimed that every species in the UK was planted there including Acacia; Mimosa (the Masonic Lodge emblem); Black, Lombardy and Whispering Poplar; a Tulip Tree (next to the largest in Sussex) – this has a beautiful white wood ideal for carving figurines! Red Turrey – notable for its inner staining; seven species of Ilex (Holly), one of which had pure white laterals which I always used to decorate the chapel for Christmas. Then there was a large Blue Cedar, a Douglas Pine, a Scotch Pine, a Norwegian Spruce (of which I still have some pine cones), Box, Macralappa and many others. The felling was done under the instruction of a gentleman in charge of the Danny Estate. As Max had asked me to go round all the Belmont grounds with him, I learned quite a lot about trees, their age and what they could be used for: straight Ash for garden tool handles, Beech for furniture and rifle stocks, Box for carpenters’ tools and Lime for hat boxes. Poplar, because of its toxins, was useful for wagons as the toxin killed the rats.

There was one very large Wellingtonia, which Max wanted to fell. The boys shot an arrow with a long string attached which then pulled a tug o’ war rope up. Several of the boys then pulled around another large tree at right angles. With a 4 foot American saw, Mitch and I then managed to fell this large tree right close up to the air raid shelter without any damage. The tree was then sawn up by the boys and used for log fires. Max was greatly pleased with the result. I still have the saw in my possession although it needs two new handles.

RK Avis