Lois

LITTLEHAMPTON MUSEUM MEMORIES

 

Burtenshaw. The name reverberated out to me from the museum boards about the history of Littlehampton angling and the Burtenshaw family. I felt a chill. Ron and Nora Burtenshaw were my neighbours in the late 70s and early 80s. My parents had a house in Littlehampton and Ron and Nora were like an uncle and aunt to my sister and I.

 

Suddenly, I could hear the theme tune to Grange Hill in my ears as I used to watch it with Nora after school in her armchair. Then the sharp tang of the sawdust floor from Ron’s workshop invaded my nostrils. Ron used to be a fisherman all his life. He’d invite me, as a little girl, into his workshop next door, a wonderful cavern of tools and lengths of timber scattered about. He’d show me how to create and build models of ships from memories of his life on the seas. With hands like snow shovels, he’d clamp wood, shave it, tenderly craft and paint it so it looked like it was ready to sail the Atlantic Ocean. What i remember most was when he showed me how the “pop up” ship stood proud inside a bottle. As a little 8 year old girl I thought it was a magnificent magic trick!

 

I only knew Ron in his later years. A tall, broad man with a shuffling stoop, always with braces over his white vest and always ready with consuming bear hugs and full of fishing stories. Memorabilia and faded framed family photos adorned the rest of his and Nora’s home and I still have a huge beautiful mahogany and silver handled tray with a silver shield of a fully rigged ship on which sits in my kitchen. The Burtenshaws were a fascinating family and their Littlehampton memory lives on wonderfully!