THE DROVE, 1962
Remember Wheatleys' Bungalows?
By Geoffrey Ellis
On my way to Denton Church on Sunday 27 January 2008, I chanced to meet a lady who introduced herself as Valerie Offord. She went on to explain that, although now married and living in Switzerland, she was born in Newhaven and that her father was Ronald Wheatley, who lived in one of the two adjacent bungalows which used to be in the Drove. She had returned to the area to see her elderly aunt, Ethel Wheatley, who had recently gone to live in Peacehaven. Ethel, who came originally from Tarring Neville, lived in the other bungalow with her late husband Bernard, Valerie's uncle.
I spoke of the wonderful floral spectacle provided by the gardens of the two bungalows, and the many vehicle 'shunts' when distracted drivers slowed down to appreciate the display without regard for those similarly engaged in front or behind them. I later found a number of 1962 colour-slides of the gardens that I scanned and emailed to her. Valerie sent the prints to her aunt who was delighted to receive them.
Valerie then told me a surprising story about her father and uncle. She was always puzzled as to why they were unaware that the gardens of the two properties were such a riot of colour until one day her father remarked that he thought her mother's new bright red dress, whilst very becoming, was a little subdued - the puzzle was solved. She realised that the colour blindness with which Ronald, and to a lesser extent his brother Bernard, were afflicted made what appeared to everyone else as incredibly bright colour schemes in those gardens, appear to them to be delicate, almost subtle!
Today it is almost impossible for anybody who did not see these delightful bungalows to imagine just where they were, how wonderful they were, or how well-known they were. So well-known that one delightful summer evening Ronald decided he would take a short mystery coach tour. He was completely taken aback to discover that the evening's delightful surprise was not some unknown gem of the Sussex countryside but a drive to view his own garden! He thought it a huge joke and regaled friends and family with the story for many a year.
On another occasion a car drew up and hailed 'the gardener' to ask who was the owner of the magnificent garden he was working in. When Ronald, dressed as usual in his old working clothes topped by the then normal Sussex labourers' brown coat, tried in vain to explain that he was indeed the owner; his questioner drove away smiling and remarking that he should 'Pull the other leg'.
It goes without saying that Valerie Offord was less than impressed with the scene that supersedes the floral exhibition of yesteryear - a factory estate and J. Sainsbury! Progress comes at a price.
© Valerie Offord & Geoffrey Ellis, April 2008.
The precise location of these former properties is BNG reference TQ 452 018. Today (2008), these plots are occupied by Shere Accessories and SBFI, Units 2E - 2G inclusive, and a small part of J. Sainsbury, close to the Flyover roundabout.
Those with computers can go to Google Earth and enter [50 47.851' N 00 03.540' E] exactly as typed but without the square brackets into the "Fly to" box.
If using Google Maps, search for "The Drove, Newhaven", then home-in on the light-grey oblong roof between the extreme end of "Avis Way" and "Sainsbury" on the northern side of the roundabout.