IF YOU are annoyed by litter, food prices and unfounded anti-vaxxer theories, you will have a surprising amount in common with previous generations in Eastbourne going back nearly 200 years.
Keen amateur historian Warwick Davis has spent years painstakingly researching what everyday life was like in the town for Victorians and for people between the wars.
And he’s struck by how many themes recur down the decades.
“I was amazed by how much resonated with today – people complained about things like potholes damaging carriages, there were anti-vaxxers during smallpox outbreaks and there were complaints about the price of bread,” he said.
Warwick, 70, a retired biomedical scientist, has self published two books on local history – Everyday Life in Victorian Eastbourne and Everyday Life in Interwar Years (1920 – 1940). They provide a unique glimpse into the details of subjects ranging from dentists and opticians to litter and motor cars.
Originally from Bath, he moved to Eastbourne 30 years ago for his job. He was prompted to undertake the extensive research in archives, local newspapers, museums and libraries after researching his own family history.
Ultimately, Warwick managed to create an enormous family tree stretching back across more than 17 generations to the 1600s (above).
Gradually, their names emerged from the mists of time. “They were starting to come to life and I could feel them standing around me. There was something real about them,” he said.
Warwick’s father, born in Bath, had been a Japanese prisoner of war and his Yorkshire-born mother had a difficult start in life. They both wrote autobiographies about the major experiences of their life.
But Warwick realised there was little detail about how they lived from day-to-day.
He said: “It annoys me now – and a lot of people looking into family history say the same – that I didn’t ask them more about their experience of everyday life.”
He spent many hours searching digitized local newspapers – the Eastbourne Chronicle, Eastbourne Gazette and Eastbourne Herald – which were, of course, the only detailed source of news long before the advent of radio and television.
The letters pages also provided insights into what irritated people as the only outlets of the time where people could publicly vent their frustration.
Warwick said: “What I like doing is gathering bits of information. I take all those scraps of information and put them into one story.”
Credit: Eastbourne Local History Society
While nowadays people might complain of aggressive cyclists or scooter riders, in 1887 a Victorian visitor objected to “perambulators and Bath chairs” on the middle promenade which should be only for admiring ladies’ dresses.
By 1907, a local alderman (councillor) said that Bath chairs – light carriages for invalids which could be pushed along – shoud be banned from the Western Lawns because their wheels caught in the ladies’ dresses and spoiled them.
In another chapter in the Victorian book, a conversation is reported with the English-born Countess de Noailles, who lived in Hollywell Lodge, at the western end of the seafront. She falsely claimed that the smallpox vaccination was “against every law of nature” and did more harm than the disease itself.
In fact, the World Health Organisation notes that smallpox was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity and caused millions of deaths before it was eradicated in 1980.
The smallpox vaccine, created by Edward Jenner in 1796, was the first successful vaccine to be developed and became the most notable public health success in history.
Credit: Eastbourne Local History Society
In the Inter War Years volume, Warwick writes that discarded omnibus tickets were a major cause of concern by 1929. It was observed that there was a daily trail of litter down both sides of Terminus Road opposite the railway station.
He said: “There is a huge amount of discussion about waste paper from people throwing their bus tickets away. Eventually, they put waste bins on the omnibuses but then there was the issue of emptying them!
“Those were the really interesting things to me – what got people annoyed.”
Credit: Eastbourne Local History Society
The same book traces an argument about the price of bread in Eastbourne, apparently the most expensive in the country during periods of the 1920s.
Letter writers to one local newspaper said an Eastbourne loaf cost 9 ½ d (approximately £1.72 today) while the same in London was 8d (£1.53), accusing bakers of making excessive profits. By 1928, the price was back in line with other areas due to a bumper wheat harvest.
But fish and chips were as popular as today and, even better, you could order home delivery just as now. In 1934, H Gale of 66 Seaside delivered fried fish for 3d (1p) per portion, the equivalent of about 63p in 2017 prices.
To put that into context, the average weekly income for a manual worker in 1938 was £3.50, according to the Office for National Statistics (equivalent to about £177 in 2017).
Warwick is due to publish his third Eastbourne book later this month on Victorian health. He has uncovered gruesome details including complaints that, during outbreaks of tuberculosis, there were no spitoons on the trains when people coughed, so the phlegm soaked into the carpet.
His other publications include a biography of a soldier in 360BC Sparta, ancient Greece and a novel set in Eastbourne with a supernatural theme.
:: The two books on Victorian Eastbourne and the Inter War Years are available at the Beachy Head Story gift shop or directly from Warwick at warwickdavis@ymail.com
:: Many thanks to Eastbourne Local History Society for providing the historical photos.
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