LOWER HIGH STREET SHOPS

I can remember Dewhurst Butchers, 'Seniors' sweet shop (where I regularly spent my 3d), 'Acres the Bakers' and 'Elizabeths'. Does anyone else remember these old shops?

Yes I remember Dewhurst's also Elizabeth's

Yes, I remember all of these shops Sylvia!!

I can remember all those shops too, plus the Co-op and there was a couple of newsagents and a fishing tackle shop, anyone else recall these? Acres the Bakers was the place to get your hot cross buns, my friend Richard's mother worked in Elizabeths and we used to help out there occasionally, unloading the truck which parked outside.

Yep, I remember all of those shops. Graham, wasn't the fishing tackle shop also a tobacconists called "The Book and Bacca Shop"?

Wasn't the Book and Baccy Shop next door [or next-door-but-one] to The Mikado Cafe, owned by a Mr Purbrook, and immediately opposite the Southdown Bus waiting rooms?

My memory is of two shops which shared a common entrance somewhere around where Pauls and Ladbrokes are in this photo. To the left was a model shop which sold loads of Airfix kits and to the right was (I think) a wallpaper shop -both had long glass windows at right angles to the pavement. This would have been in the early 1960s.

The two shops that shared the Ladbrokes site were a dry cleaners and Seniors sweet shop which was owned by my grandparents Mr and Mrs Stream from about 1963 til 1977 ish. Does anyone remember Marty Feldman filming in Newhaven in the early 70s. He did a cricket run up from Fort Road recreation ground and ran up the High Street.  I remember him coming into my grandads shop and buying a box of chocolates! I have had no luck finding any record of this film on You Tube etc. Please could someone prove to my disbelieving girlfriend that it really happened!

Hi Martin, yes I can remember Marty Feldman filming in Newhaven and Brighton, I was doing some spare time driving for Horaces Taxis at the time and spent a week driving Marty and his crew to various locations, never did tell Horace how much I had in tips. Marty was a very clever and talented man but also appeared to be very disturbed. I will always have fond memories of the time spent with him and his crew. As for the film, I did get to see it and will try and find some more "info" on it. So you can tell your lady, it was indeed true. My memory is not as sharp as it could be and I'm thinking it was more late 60's than 70's.

I can add another little memory to that episode regarding the day Marty Feldman came to Newhaven. Apart from the sketch of the ‘The Long Distance Bowler’, which was the highlight of the programme ‘Marty Amok’ which was broadcast on BBC, on the 30th March 1970. Does anyone remember the other sketch that was also filmed in Newhaven and shown in the same episode? It was filmed at the old REX cinema in the High Street and in that sketch, Marty went to the cinema to see a cowboy and Indian film and whilst watching the film he somehow got involved with the story as it was been shown on the screen, got up onto the cinema stage and mysteriously walked through the screen into the story of the cowboy and Indian film where he got himself caught up in a gunfight with the Indians. This went on for a short while and then when he had sorted things out in the film, he walked out of the screen and came back into the cinema and sat down. As he sat back down in his seat he looked round towards the back of the cinema where he he saw, up on the right hand side of the balcony an Indian on horseback wearing full headdress and a rifle  looking down on him. Whereupon Marty sank into his seat and continued to watch the film, and there it ended!

My day job at that time was working in "Elliott and Mann’s" furniture shop in the high street where I worked as a carpet fitter. This shop was run by two brothers, Peter and Bill Avenal and the day after the filming of the cowboy & indian saga, I was asked to go into the cinema to repair the carpet where the horse's hooves had ripped edges of the carpet on the stairs when the horse was manoeuvred up to the balcony. A comment made by the manager at the time was that they had a job on there hands getting the horse up the stairs, and again down after filming because the stairs that led to the balcony took a sharp turn half way up. The manager of the Cinema at the time was a Mr Bob Grover, with his assistant manager, Mr Lawrence. I was the projectionist and I got 10 shillings a performance to show films. There was Mick who use to tear the tickets and show you to your seats, Mrs Terry and I think the other person was Mrs Hills, who sold your ticket as you went in from the foyer.

I am from the United States and was introduced to Marty Feldman when his materials were used in a summer series with Dean Martin and the Golddiggers. The series began in 1968 and continued to 1973. I don't remember the exact year, but it could have been 1970 when the cinema / cowboys / indians segment was shown. I remember being totally engaged and fully in awe of what was put together. When I searched online in the past I could not find anyone who confirmed my recollection. It was as if I had imagined it all. Imagine my delight at having come across these recollections! Do you know of any way to see this segment again? I'd like to show it to others.

Both sketches are on YouTube: The cricket sketch is the last segment on this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yuZkhq4lMU & the cinema sketch is the third segment on this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXEzzDx_sTs

Seniors was a narrow shop with the counter down the left-hand side. On the right was a shelf, below which Airfix kits hung. These were the cheaper ones (2/-) which had the instructions folded up and stapled to the top of the bag as a label. I still have one - the village church ("Just like the real thing"), which was probably bought in Seniors. 

In the early 60s the shop next door to the right, mentioned above by Alan Terrill, was "Newhaven Hobbies", which I think was just one business. The left-hand side window and inside was models - plastic kits, model railways etc., and the right hand window and inside was "Do it yourself" - wallpaper, glue etc. Oh, and those spindly turned legs for home-made wobbly coffee tables. It probably also sold plywood for the table tops.

The shop next to the Westminster Bank was a small Lipton's Supermarket (probably just called "self-service"). Was "Acres the Bakers" previously "Tip Top Bakery" (a chain)?

When "modern" street lighting arrived in Newhaven High Street and Bridge Street in the late 50s, it was fluorescent tubes rather than the orange sodium lighting used later in Brighton Road and Peacehaven (where I lived).

I well remember the REX episode with Marty Feldman. I was still at school at the time and used to get in free as my Mum (Hazel Hills) was an usherette there part time. The lady Tom Bonner refers to in the ticket desk was actually Audrey Terry (later Brown). I also remember Tom in the projection box who often would tell us what happened in the film before we got to watch it. Mum (Hazel) died in March this year (2014) aged 92. Dad also worked there part time as a bingo caller both in the original cinema and in the replacement building opened in 1972. By that time Tom Bonner was a DJ and he worked there on odd evenings. Dad (Wilf) was at that time managing the photographic section of Newhaven Pharmacies opposite. We have many happy memories of working in the old cinema. One night Mick (Relf ?) went upstairs into the circle to turn the gas wall heaters on. He turned the gas on one of them, realised he didn't have any matches, went down to the ticket desk to get some. On his return he lit a match and by that time there was a fair amount of gas in the air so there was quite a bang and flash. Not really appropriate at the time as the film showing was Born Free at a particularly sad moment.