This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 3rd June 1993

In the Remember When feature of 27 August 1992, a reader recalled memories of pre-war Broadwater, mentioning some Baptist Sunday school teachers who had taught her. Now one of those teachers has subsequently come forward with recollections from his own, even earlier youth.

He is 87-year-old Cyril Tickner who admits, 'As one gets older one remembers far distant days much easier than yesterday's breakfast.'

One of his earliest recollections at the age of five is of Gloucester Lodge, a large detached villa demolished to make way for the main post office in Chapel Road.

'I had just started Sunday School at the old Christchurch Road Baptist Church where we infants were put in the gallery. Our neighbour's baby who was with us in a pram struck me a severe blow on the head with a metal spoon, resulting in painful visits to an infirmary at Gloucester Lodge.'

Fond flashbacks of St James Hall, on the north side of Montague Street and nearly opposite Bath Place, arose for Cyril, 'Going back to when I was six, in 1911, there used to be a concert party held every week called Phillip Ritte's Concert Party. I can remember my mum taking me there because she laughed so much they actually had to stop the show.'

Seated in the gallery looking down on the proceedings, Cyril had a clear view of the show: 'They were pretending some chairs were aeroplanes when planes first came about, quite topical, and they were singing a comic song at the same time.'

Another reader, Mrs Beryl Andrews from Shoreham, just happened to write in with information about the Ritte Concert Parties: 'During the first world war my mother, whose maiden name was Elsie Neale and lived at Southdown Terrace in Lyndhurst Road was an usherette for the Ritte Concert Parties in Worthing. She used to say what a terrible time she had getting home afterwards in the blackout, instigated as a precaution against Zeppelins. Mother talked a lot about the Ritte family and said they had changed their name from Rittenburg because of the anti-German feeling at that time. Phillip Ritte was a tall, handsome man with grey, wavy hair. His daughter Sheila Ritte performed with him.'

Back to Cyril's memoirs again and his next recollection of Montague Street, a cinema on the corner of Portland Road where Boots Store is now: 'We went to the pictures there, it was called the Winter Hall, the entrance door was in Portland Road and I should think that it was probably part of the old Congregational Institute next door.

'The projectionist was a man named Bond whose wife kept a greengrocery and newspaper shop in King Street, Broadwater, about half way up on the east side. They had three children including one called Harold who was a well-known character of the time, a street newspaper seller, often standing by the entrance to The Arcade, his favourite spot being outside Mitchell's Restaurant. Sometimes I would go with him and help him to sell papers in the street.'

In the 14-18 war when some foodstuffs were in short supply, young Cyril recalls walking from home in Broadwater to queue for margarine at the 'Maypole' in Montague Street --- the Maypole was a shop that was part of a national grocery and provisions chain.

In that same road, where the British Telecom phone shop is now, next to Boots, was the old Congregational Institute.

Cyril remembers that in 1925, a concert party being held at the old Congregational Institute was a regular weekend entertainment called the 'Saturday Sixpenny Pops'.

'One of the soloists was a Mr Cragg who had a boot and shoe shop a little further along the road. Another artist was Mrs Roberts, a violinist accompanied by a pianist friend from Lancing.'
Cyril recalled a man playing the 'clappers' --- two narrow pieces of slate about six inches long --- they were held in each hand between the fingers and worked rather like playing the spoons, by tapping them up the length of the legs and over the body.

Cyril recounts the dual use of the building: 'It was a great big hall and still used for the occasional church service.'

A relic of the former religious building still exists today: its north flint wall containing a beautiful gothic leaded light church window which can be seen from along the passageway next to Boots.

This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on 3rd June 1993