No. 40. Saturday 21 October 2006. Your free local newsletter - anything and everything to do with Bohemia

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Bohemia V illage V oice

Will Bohemia get its new supermar-ket by Christmas. Bohemia Food-market owner, Masood Iqbal is fore-casting mid-December as the open-ing date for his new store located atthe site of Lullabuys pram shop inBohemia Road. “The flooring isnearly finished, and then we have toput in a suspended ceiling, an alarmsystem, closed-circuit TV, shelvingand refrigeration. The electricalwork will take some time.” Howmany staff will he be employing? “Iintend to start with two people in themorning and two in the evening, plusmy wife and I will be popping in.” What’s the latest news regarding the

application for a post office counter?“I’ve been told by the Post Officethat I can buy an existing post office.But I wouldn’t be allowed to move itto Bohemia. I’ve written toTonbridge Wells, where training forsub-postmasters takes place, askingto be allowed to open a post officecounter and I’m still waiting for areply. The Post Office is closingoffices all over the country, so itdoesn’t look good. But I’m tryingmy best.”

� Last week, Mr Iqbal was grantedan off-licence for the sale of alcoholat the store from 8am to 10pm,Mondays to Saturdays and 10am to10pm on Sundays. Residents and thepolice had expressed concern aboutsales to street drinkers. Will he beselling cheap booze? “I don’t sellcheap booze - all the alcohol I sell isat the full recommended price,” saidMr Iqbal.

Drama in Chapel Park Road - a van plunges through a brick wall into the front garden of No. 58

BOHEMIA FOODMARKET

Open for Xmas?CHAPEL PARK ROAD

Oops! Nightime drama for Paula & girls

A removal van crashes into frontgarden. In the early hours ofThursday 5 October, a blueremoval van careered out of con-trol into the front garden of num-ber 58 Chapel Park Road, failingto wake the occupants of thehouse.

Paula Sedge, who lives at theproperty with her three daughters,first became aware of the accidentwhen a neighbour called. “It hap-pened about one o’clock in themorning,” said Paula. “We wereall asleep in bed and didn’t hear a

thing. The police arrived withinminutes - they were wonderful.Paramedics also turned up,although there was nothing forthem to do. The van was compete-ly blocking the front steps and itwas impossible to get out of thegarden without help - from thefiremen who also attended. Idecided to send my girls, Kierneyand Bethany to their Nan’s for therest of the night, and I let themstay off school for the day.”

How did the accident happen? “Idon’t think there was anyone in

the van,” said Paula. “I believe thepolice think it was a bungledattempt at stealing it. The van wasapparently parked further upChapel Park Road by St Peter’schurch.” It is thought that two orthree youths tried to steal the van,and let the handbrake off, allowingthe vehicle to roll down the hilland into Paula’s garden. It thencrashed through the garden brickwall onto the lawn, taking the gar-den gate and fence with it, comingto a rest just inches from Paula’s

Continued on page 2

Do you remember the story ofBookman’s Halt and the Vogue modelcovered back in the August 5 of BohemiaVillage Voice? At the time, our printedcirculation was a very modest 7, so youmay have missed it! At last you can seefor yourself what the fuss was all about(see picture, just received, right). Earlierthis year, Clive Linklater, owner ofBookman’s Halt, was as surprised asanyone when an 8-man crew turned up athis shop and asked to do a photo shoot.The 6ft 2” model, whose name Clive stilldoesn’t know, spent the whole day in hisshop, posing with umbrellas, bowlersand many different costumes. Clive got abottle of champagne. The photographswill be used in a forthcoming Italian edi-tion of Vogue. Model browsing at Bookman’s Halt

BOOKMAN’S HAL T

Model photoshot s arrive

Bohemia rememberedby Vic Chalcraf tPart 1 of a series of extract s from V ic’ s forth -coming book

Out of school hours:this was of their ownmaking and seasonal.

Winter was sliding on iceformed on large puddles andyou were not welcome on aslide if you had studs in yourboots - it ruined the surface.Then of course with snowcame sledging, with home-made toboggans of manydescriptions. Spring saw theonset of marbles and gameswith fag cards - cards on var-ious themes issued with pack-ets of cigarettes. So manywere stood against the walland by flicking other cards

you had to try to knock themdown, keeping the ones youdid. This game was alsoplayed with milk bottle tops,milk being delivered in glassbottles with press-in card-board caps. Then on throughSpring to bird nesting, onlytaking one egg from the nest.And then fishing: no poshrods and reels, but a six footcane with line and a float tiedon. When fishing in the parkit was always one eye out forthe park keeper, because wenever had fishing permits.Sweet chestnuts: always plen-

HISTORY OF BOHEMIA

(Continued on page 2)

front door.When the Bohemia Village Voice

arrived on the scene, a large cranewas being set up, levelled and bal-anced. A couple of policemen werecontrolling the handful ofbystanders, one of whom wasPaula, who’d been asked to waitoutside since 8.30 that morning.

Straps were fixed around the vanand secured to the chains from thecrane and it was finally lifted cleararound mid-day, allowing a anexhausted Paula back into herhome.

So, how does Paula, who haslived in Chapel Park Road forseven months, find Bohemia? “It’salright,” she said.

Bohemia Village Voice No. 40. Saturday 21 October 2006. Page 2 Page 2

M onsieur Mouton continued“A newspaper that wouldquite simply report the

state of the king’s health and theworld’s riches. After all, what’s theuse of all your magazines thatnobody can understand? Just toillustrate my meaning: I work at theTown Hall, you see; I keep my reg-ister; so far so good. Well, it’s as ifsomeone came to me and said:‘Mounsieur Mouton, you writedown the names of the deceased.Well, do this, do that!’Well, what dothey mean with their ‘thises’andtheir ‘thats’? Well, with the newspa-pers it’s just the same,” he conclud-ed.

“Exactly,” said a bystander whounderstood what he meant. M.Mouton, after receiving the congrat-ulations of the customers whoshared his views, went back to hisgame of dominoes.

“I put him in his place,” he said,indicating Rodolphe, who had goneto sit at table with Schaunard andColline.

“What a dolt!” said Rodolphe,nodding in the direction of the func-tionary.

“A remarkable specimen, with his

eyelids like the hood of a cab and hiseyes like lotto discs,” saidSchaunard, bringing out a wonder-fully seasoned cuttypipe.

“By Jove, sir,” saidRodolphe, “that’s avery fine pipe.”

“Oh, I have a betterone, for when I go intosociety,” saidSchaunard casually.“Pass me the tobacco,Colline.”

“I say, mine’s fin-ished!” the philosopherexclaimed.

“Permit me to offeryou some,” said Rodolphe, taking apacket of tobacco from his pocketand putting it on the table.

In response to this kindly gesture,Colline felt called upon to offer around of drinks. Rodolphe accepted.The conversation turned to litera-ture. Questioned about his profes-sion, which was in any case revealedby his clothes, Rodolphe confessedhis relations with the Muses, andordered another round. As the wait-er was removing the bottle,

Schaunard asked him to leave itbehind. He had heard the silveryduet of two five-franc pieces in one

of Colline’s pockets.Soon Rodolphe hadreached the samestage of expansive-ness as the twofriends, and wasreturning their confi-dences.

They would doubt-less have passed thenight in the café, hadthey not been request-ed to leave. When theyhad gone only a fewsteps down the street -

which took them a quarter of an hour- they were caught in a torrentialdownpour. Colline and Rodolphelived at two opposite ends of Paris;one on the Île Saint-Louis and theother in Montmartre.

Schaunard, who had completelyforgotten that he was homeless,offered them hospitality. “Come tomy place,” he said. “I lodge nearhere. We’ll spend the night chattingabout literature and the fine arts.”

“You can play the piano, andRodolphe can recite his poems,”

said Colline.“By Jiminy, yes,” said Schaunard.

“One must have some fun, we onlylive once.”

Arriving in front of his house,which he had some difficulty inrecognising, Schaunard sat down fora moment on a post and waited forRodolphe and Colline, who hadentered a wine-shop to obtain thefirst essentials of a supper. Whenthey rejoined him, Schaunardbanged on the door several times, forhe vaguely remembered that the jan-itor was in the habit of keeping himwaiting. At length the door opened,and old Durand, in the sweet depthsof the first sleep and forgetting thatSchaunard was no longer his tenant,was unperturbed when the lattershouted his name through the hatch.

How the Bohemian Club was formed SERIAL - VIE DE BOHEME (18 of 24)

The story so far ... homeless artist and musician Alexandre Schaunard has been traipsing the streets of Paris, searching for anyone from whom he can borrow a fewfrancs. He meets a philosopher, Gustave Colline, they share a meal and, as firm friends, they move on to another café in search of alcohol and coffee. There they

meet two gentlemen, M. Mouton and M. Rodolphe, in the middle of a heated exchange about the quality of newspapers. Read on ...

[To be continued ...

Vie de Bohèmeby Henry Mürger, avivid portrait of the ‘Bohemian’life ofthe artistic quarter of Paris in the nine-teenth century was originally published(by Michel Lévy) in 1851. The extractabove is taken from a translation byNorman Cameron, published byHamish Hamilton. The illustration isby Dodi Masterman.

Chapel Park Rd drama - runaway van being hoisted from garden

Runaway van (from page 1)ty to gather but the secret was whereto find the big ones. In Summer wealso built camps in the woods orwalked miles exploring, often goingout early in the morning and not get-ting back till evening. Nobody hadto worry - as my mother used to say“He’ll come home when he’s hun-gry.” Mind you, we were always toldnot to accept sweets from strangers,a warning far more necessary today.It seems that child molesting seemsmuch more prevalent now than then- is it just more publicity? Then inNovember it was ‘Penny For TheGuy’, which lasted about a week(see picture). Then it was Christmasand carol singing. Any lad whoknew his carols and could sing madequite a few bob going from door todoor - not as it is now with two linesof We Wish You A Merry Christmasand then ring the bell. Football wasnot the mania it is today, in fact youwere lucky to possess a football -and then it was a heavy leather one.Did we have favourite teams? - notto my recollection, though the CupFinal, both professional and ama-teur, provoked strong interest: lots oflittle boys running about with theirteams’rosettes on. It was the samewith the Boat Race - everyone sup-

porting one or other with rosettesand even the newspapers making abig thing of it. Hobbies includedstamp collecting, cigarette cards,train numbers and even car numberplates, special care being taken torecord the latest models.

To be continued...

An enormous Guy Fawkes, madeby Vic for his children. It is fixed toa go-cart for touring round thestreets, eventually to be burnt onthe allotments behind Upper ParkRoad. Pictured, L-R, are Neil &Lynn Chalcraft and Shirley Harbord.

(Vic Chalcraft, from page 1)

Bohemia Village Voice No. 40. Saturday 21 October 2006. Page 3 Page 3

Ex-St Paul’s teacher and passionatelocal historian Ken Brooks is inter-viewed for ‘Bohemia Village Voice’.This final part of covers his child-hood battle with osteomyelitis, bul-lying at work, and his struggle to get‘O’ levels and get qualified to teach.

What was Ken’s own educa-tion like? “I had rather adifficult time, in a way,

because at the age of nine, I got aserious illness and ended up in hos-pital. It just gotworse and worse,affecting one legand one arm. Thedoctors thought itwas polio at first,and it just gotworse. I found outlater, that the doc-tors told my motherand father that therewas nothing morethey could do, andthey didn’t think I’dsurvive - and if Idid, I’d spend therest of my life in awheelchair. Thenone of the doctors,almost by chance,looked at some x-raysof my leg and recog-nised the disease as osteomyelitis,which is a disease of the marrow ofthe bone. So he started treating mewith what was then a comparativelynew drug - penicillin. I was given sixinjections a day, and very slowly Irecovered. This would have been in1949. I actually had my tenth birth-day in hospital. For a year after, Iwas either pushed round in a wheel-

chair or I was in crutches. So Imissed about two years of school.That meant that I didn’t get thechance to take the eleven plus exam.So I was sent to a secondary school,which was Tower Road secondaryschool. In those days, at secondaryschools, you didn’t do ‘O’ levels,they were done at the grammarschools.

BULLYINGAnd Ken’s first job? “With no ‘O’levels, I ended up working as a

stonemason’s apprentice, which Idid for five years. But, during thattime, I was bullied, mainly by theolder apprentices at the stonema-sons. I had a really bad time. Everyday was a nightmare for me. It got tothe point in the end, when I thought,‘I’ve had enough of this’. So I joinedthe Hastings Judo Club. I didn’t tellanyone. After a few months, bully-

ing started, and I ended up having atussle with one of these big chaps onthe floor and I ended up with a judoarm lock on him. And from that dayon, things changed.”

GETTING QUALIFIED“While I was at the judo club I wasasked if I would be prepared tobecome an instructor for a juniorsection that they wanted to start. Atthat time it was just adults. So that’swhat happened and that’s when Irealised that what I really wanted to

do was to teach. But I had no quali-fications, no ‘O’levels. I managed toget an interview with the principal ofthe Hastings College of FurtherEducation, to ask if I could go thereas a full-time student - to do my ‘O’levels. At the end of the interview,he said to me ‘Well, Mr Brooks, tobe perfectly honest, with your back-ground, you’d be wasting your time

trying to get to a teachers’trainingcollege. My advice to you is to goback to your stonemasonry.’ Andthen I thought, ‘Well, they can’t stopme going to night school’. So I wentto night school to do EnglishLanguage at ‘O’level, and after justsix months, I took the exam andpassed. And on the strength of that,they more or less had to let me gofull-time to Hastings College.” Kenstill had another hurdle to get over -money. “So then I had to try and get

a grant. When Iapplied for agrant, the grants’officer said‘Hastings Collegeis for people whowant to continuetheir education,not repair it.’I’mnot angry aboutthis now, but atthe time, it reallyknocked medown. Anyway, Idid get the grant,went to the col-lege, and got therequired ‘O’ lev-els. Then I

applied to teachers’training college

and did my three years teacher train-ing. Then, I went into teaching - atthe age of about 25. And I spent therest of my working life teaching.”

� Ken Brooks was born inNovember 1939, a ‘war baby’. Helives with his partner Diana in CliveVale, Hastings.

The three ages of Ken. Left: aged 9, recovering from osteomyelitis in the Buchanan Hospital. Middle: aged 17, working as a stonemason’s apprentice. Right: Ken today.

The History Man - final part of the Ken Brooks’ story

Bill (pictured above) and MiekeThird of St Peter’s Road are con-fidently predicting a bumpergrape harvest this year. “We nor-mally get about 14kg of grapes,but this year it’s going to be about30kg,” said Mieke. “I think thereason is that we gave the vinesa severe pruning two years ago.”Will the Thirds be making gallonsof wine? “No, wine has been adisappointment. We’ll be makinglots of grape juice and grape jelly,instead. We give a lot of it away.”

Bumper crop BAA meeting Nature notesOctober’s meeting of the committeeof the Bohemia Area Associationtook place on Thursday 5 October.Before the meeting proper started,two members of the public who hadcome hoping to attend, were request-ed to leave. But they were invited toattend next month’s open meeting onThursday 2 Nov at the YMCA.

Parking. The perennial linkedproblems of parking and retail tradewere discussed, the meeting beingasked by Peter Holland, (chair) ‘Arewe flogging a dead horse?’and ‘Justhow many shops are actually trad-ing?’ Perhaps short term ‘stop andshop’ (30mins) parking bays werethe answer? Does the body thatdecides on parking actually listen tothe BAA? Andy Holmes explainedthat HBC certainly does, but thatESCC doesn’t always listen to HBC.

BAA logo. A simple acronymdesign was selected. The one of asheep saying ‘Baa’wasn’t.

Naming the twittens. It was agreedthat the BAA would canvass resi-dents for suggestions of names forthe unnamed alleyways in Bohemia.Forms will be made available atMunday’s Newsagents and Wood’sNewsagents.

Treasurer’s report. Mike Crampreported £652 in the bank.

Bohemia Bygones Exhibition. Thisis due to be held in the new vestibuleat Park Road Church and cannot takeplace until special paving slabs forthe blind have been laid outside thebuilding.

Newsletter. Andy Holmes, editor,said he hoped to bring out anotheredition ‘before Christmas’.

� Other members attending were:Jeanette Holland (vice chair), IrisMillar, Rosemary Iddenden, John LHumphries, John D Humphries, MikeWard, Charles Levitt, Steve Mann,Trevor Webb, Keith Wood and TerryFoord.

Snakes alive! Slow worm spotted onthe garden path of 16, St Paul’sRoad, on Monday of this week.

A group of mushrooms growing onan earth bank at Horntye Park onMonday 9 October.

ST PAUL’S SCHOOL. St Paul’sSchool in Horntye Road has raised£120 for Macmillan Cancer Relief.Parents and children were involvedin the Harvest Festival event, andeach child donated one item of food.

GORDON BUSBRIDGE. This localfurniture store celebrated 95 years inbusiness by two days of special pre-views on Thursday and Friday of thisweek of their extensive range of fur-niture. The store was established in1911.

CLAIRVOYANCE. Jayne Sands ishoping to raise money for BBC’sChildren in Needappeal. She is pro-viding an evening of clairvoyance atHorntye Park on Friday 17November at 7pm. Entrance fee is aminimum of £3.

SCHOOL DISCO. ChristchurchSchool held two school discos yes-terday, one from 5.45 until 6.45pm,the second for older pupils from 7 to8.15pm. Tickets cost£1.50 and‘drinks and a biscuit’were includedin the price. It is perhaps a little sadto reflect that in a few years timethese same children will not be satis-fied with a (soft) ‘drink and a biscuit’in order to have a nice time.

ST PETER’S CHURCH. It is under-stood that St Peter’s is soon to launchan appeal for £150,000 for refurbish-ing its church hall. Further details tofollow.

SUMMERFIELDS. Author, archi-vist, ex-pupil and ex-teacherNicholas Aldridge, of Summerfields’School has kindly sent the Voice anillustrated account of the school:Time to Spare. He’s also sent twentyor so postcards showing life at theschool. More details soon. A secondold boy, Richard Compton-Miller,now a journalist with the EveningStandard, has expressed an interestin recounting his days at the school.

HORNTYE XMAS. Horntye Parksports centre is offering Xmas lunch-es every day from Wed 1 Novthrough to Fri 22 Dec. Prawn cock-tail or soup, traditional roast turkeyand Christmas pudding or apple pieplus mince pies and coffee. All for amodest £11.50.

Bohemia Village Voice No. 40. Saturday 21 October 2006. Page 4 Page 4

Grapevine

Edited and published by JohnHumphries at 33, St Peter’s Road,Bohemia Village, Sussex, TN37 6JQ. Tel. 01424 446759. E-mail john@johnhumphries.f2s.com Proof readerValentine Torrington. First published May 2006. © JohnHumphries 2006. Printed by Fastprintof St Leonards. Circulation (Oct 14):print version (provisional): 1,287, e-mail: 83, total: 1370. To receive an e-mail version of this newsletter, sendyour e-address to John Humphries.

Advertisement ratesSizes in mm, (height by width). Whole page (269 x 189)..........£80.00Half page (133x189)..............£40.00Quarter page (133x93)..........£20.00Eighth page (65x93)..............£10.00Sixteenth page (65x45)............£5.00 3cm x single column box..........£2.502cm x single column box..........£1.801cm x single column box..........£1.00Next issue:No. 41, Sat 4 Nov 2006.

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This week’ s puzzle - £10 prize

All you have to do is say where inBohemia these saucers are located.Please ensure entries reach BohemiaVillage Voice at 33, St Peter’s Road,St Leonards, TN37 6JQ by Tuesday31st October. The first correct solu-tion opened on that day wins a £10prize, kindly donated by Empress Artof Tower Road.

Answer to puzzle 39The question posed in the last issuewas ‘Can you name the three peoplecommemorated by blue plaquesaffixed to buildings in Bohemia?’The answers are: 1. Author Noel Streatfield (1895 to1896) at St Peter’s vicarage inCornfield Terrace. 2. Soldier George Monger, who wasawarded the Victoria Cross at thesiege of Lucknow at age 17, theplaque being at 25, Tower Road. 3. Author Robert Tressell (real nameRobert Noonan) whose novel TheRagged Trousered Philanthropistswas written in Bohemia at 241,London Road from 1906 to 1910. No correct solutions were received,so the £10 prize offered will be car-ried forward to today’s puzzle.

Where are these saucers?

Puzzle CornerIs Bohemia a village?Dear Sir,As a person living in Bohemia formany years, I must put my objectionto the use of the word ‘Village’ bothin the heading of the newsletter andalso in your address. To my knowl-edge, Bohemia was never known asthe ‘village’, except by two people.One was Mr Aymoore who lived atKenrith and who would ask his gar-dener if he was ‘going to the village’.The other was a Londoner whomoved into the area and nice enoughbloke that he was, I always felt hewas trying for country roots he didnot possess. You say you thought ofthe idea. To me, this is on a par withthe towny who moves into a villageand then objects to the country nois-es, smells and habits. The only othername known to me for Bohemia was(if I can spell it), Bohemee[Bohemy?]. Never the village - thatwas strictly for Ore and I believe,Hollington. Vic Chalcraft, Aldborough Road

� What do you think? Do you agreewith Vic? Is Bohemia a village?Could it become a village? Wouldyou like it to be? Should this newslet-ter be called ‘Bohemia Voice’?

Kuraby NewsletterDear Sir,I very much enjoyed your newsletter.I cannot believe the similarity ofBohemia Village and Kuraby as thisis quite a new village on the outskirtsof Brisbane. Our countryside is a lit-tle different as we are only 15 min-utes from the bush. Now this is a coincidence but I also

print the local Kuraby Newsletter. It’snot quite as posh as yours as the oldcomputer at the community centredoesn’t do much except clip art but ithas a large printer and I usually rattleoff 4,000 copies which nearly killsme. Then I get or beg all my friendsto deliver them. It lets people knowwhat’s going on locally and I have apage for the Lions.

Perhaps one day if you’re short ofstuff I could do a little article for youon the similarities of Kuraby toBohemia. One glaring difference justto prove I have read it is that we haveto raise funds to pay for rent and ratesin almost the full for the communitycentre.Josephine BrownKuraby, Australia.

� Looking forward to receiving morenews from Kuraby.

Letters ++

MR VIC CHALCRAFTIn our last issue, we referred to MrVic Chalcraft, of Aldborough Road,as a ‘machine minder’. We nowknow that this is not the case. He wasan assistantmachine minder. A triv-ial detail? “No, the jobs were entire-ly different - we even belonged todifferent unions,” said Vic. “Mymates would never forgive me if Iwent round calling myself a machineminder.” Sincere apologies wereoffered and accepted.