Midsummer
is on the distant horizon and June has given us some marvellous,
warm sunshine with long daylight hours.
Rymans gardens, following the very enjoyable
June 12/13 opening when again teas were served in aid
of church funds, are open again on 4 July.
Apuldram gardens, including Rymans and
the Rose Garden at Manor Farm, will be open on Sunday
afternoon of 4 July. Also a mini Flower Festival in the
church so plenty for local folk to enjoy. For further
information please log on to our website www.apuldramchurch.co.uk
The Flower Festival at the Cathedral
in early June was a magnificent spectacle of floral display
enjoyed by crowds of people. Superb flowers with hugely
varied colours and presentations. Our contributor, Jose
Pound with her colleague Jean Stiff were responsible in
the Sailors’ Chapel area for Sea Fever, a very nautical
display of seaside plants and atmosphere complete with
lifelike seabird models and sailors’ gear. Very
effective and notably in memory of a sailor who died in
December 1941 when the Japanese bombed and sank the battleship
Prince of Wales together with HMS Repulse with over 840
lives lost. Horrendous. The two escorting destroyers were
able to rescue 2,000 sailors from the water after the
Japanese planes returned to base.
An Evening Song summer concert by the
excellent Chantry Quire, celebrating their 10th anniversary,
on Sunday evening, 4th July at 8 p.m. at St Paul’s
Church in Chichester. The concert is in aid of the two
Anglican Mission Societies, CMS and USPG.
Ahead on Saturday 11 September is the
annual Historic Churches Ride and Stride when church volunteer
cyclists or walkers do their rounds of churches to raise
money by sponsorship. Consult Graham Pound (tel: 788265)
for further information and sponsorship forms. Our church
will be open for visiting cyclists on that day.
Congratulations to Tanya and Ashley on
the arrival on 18th May of Maurice Riley Hatton, a brother
for Charlotte. We look forward to seeing them all in Apuldram
before too long.
Welcome to the Wiltshire family, Kevin,
Sharon and Samara, who recently moved into Rymans Cottage.
Samara is already displaying her excellent cake making
skills and Sharon her talent for flower arranging. We
hope they will enjoy their life in Apuldram.
The Black Horse Inn. Lt. Col. Ron F.
Pennicott, who lives in South Africa, contacted St Mary’s
because his grandparents, who ran the Black Horse in Apuldram,
were buried in the churchyard. Unfortunately we were unable
to locate the graves as neither has a headstone but it
was a great pleasure to meet him and his wife on their
visit here in June when they attended a service. He wrote
the following a few years ago for his family and we thought
readers would find this small piece of local history of
interest.
“As far as I have been able to establish, The
Black Horse Inn was built around the mid-1700s and is
still the original building except for the extension on
the left, which is post-war and is used as a restaurant
area.
The aunt and uncle, who adopted my father after his father
was killed in the Boer War, rented the pub from Henty
and Constable Brewery, which was taken over after the
war and no longer exists as such. His uncle carried on
running the place until he died just after the war. I
always acknowledged them as my grandparents.
We used to spend most of our pre-war holidays at the pub
as it was quite close to the sea with beautiful beaches,
which were not commercialised and were unspoiled and also
it was within a short drive of some of the best scenery
on the South Downs. Chichester, an old Roman town with
a lovely cathedral, was about two miles away.
Where the extension has been built there used to be a
five-barred gate through which Dad parked the car. There
was also a gents urinal which was not too savoury in the
summer. You must remember that pre-war there was no electricity
or sanitation laid on. We had to use outside toilets with
buckets which grandpa used to empty every day and dig
into the garden. He grew marvellous vegetables! There
were also pee-pots under the bed. Lady customers used
to have a special, more up-market bucket toilet down a
path leading to the chickens. The “posh” one
was made of stone, whereas ours was made of wood.
Gran used to sell sweets from the window on the right,
which in those days was a saloon lounge - all very snazzy
with arm chairs and a piano. Only respectable people were
allowed in there. When I was small, apparently I used
to ask Gran for a penny then go outside to the window
and buy sweets from her.”
To be continued in September .
