MY CONNECTION WITH SOME OLD NEWHAVEN FAMILIES
Alfred Hills c 1900
Connie Sexton
Alfred Hills with Baldwins deivery cart c1915
Connie Sexton
Alfred with another cart & unidentified person
Connie Sexton
From left to right, Alfred Hills, daughter Lydia and his wife Sarah c1915
Connie Sexton
The wedding of Albert Edward Winder & Lydia Hills June 1918
Connie Sexton
Jane Woolgar, sons Albert & Christopher and John Charles Woolgar c1900
Connie Sexton
The Hills, Winders & Woolgars
By RAY SEXTON
Alfred Hills was my Great Grandfather. Born at Sandgate, Kent in 1866, he moved to Newhaven from Dungeness with his parents John & Mary, c1874. In 1887 he married Sarah Miller from Udimore. Alfred worked as a butcher/journeyman for Baldwins of Chapel Street Newhaven using a horse & cart for the local deliveries around Newhaven.
Alfred & Sarah had a daughter Lydia who married Albert Edward Winder RN. He was the son of John Charles Winder & Jane Woolgar. Albert Winder served in the Royal Navy 1906-1919 and was on HMS Kent at the Battle of the Falkands Dec 8 1914. After leaving the Navy, Albert worked in the pumice factory grinding the blue pebbles collected from Newhaven West Beach. They had a son Robert who died young, then sadly a year later Albert died leaving his widow Lydia 6 months pregnant with my mother Connie.
Connie later married Robert Sexton the fourth son of Frank Archer Sexton & Beatrice (nee Taylor).
Connie & Robert (or Bob as he was known), had 3 sons, Robert, Maurice, and myself (Raymond), also three girls, twins Maureen & Sylvia then Julie.
We grew up and went to school in Newhaven at Hillcrest, the boys School where I started in the annexe, a small outpost. I think my first form teacher was Frank Hersey, though Mister or Sir to us in those days. Then we moved to the main school and finally up to the Secondary school at the end of Southdown Road, the road we lived in. Both my brothers and I left home to join the Royal Navy and we all settled elsewhere around the country. In my case it is Hampshire.