MORE ABOUT MOUNT ROAD

What size were the huts and what facilities did you have?

Great to see these pictures of the mount. I also lived up there in a Nissen hut, 8 Seaview Road. The view across Newhaven and the bay was great. Must have been 1956 when we left there.
As I remember, opposite where this picture was taken there were some houses with battlement tops. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the people who lived there, but I remember going there to see their tortoise.

The huts were around 35' long with an outside toilet (elsan type). At one end of the hut there was a sink with cold running water and in the centre of the hut was a stove with an oven. There were two bedrooms at the far end and we three kids slept in one of them. In the rainy season we could sail toy boats in the corner of our bedroom. The neighbours all seemed friendly apart from the ones who sneaked around stealing your coal during the night.
We had an outside toilet (elsan type). The main construction was of Corrugated asbestos with steel framed windows. Later we moved from there to Northdown Road where there was a proper kitchen/diner and a bedroom each, which was pure luxury after the hut.

This photo was taken a couple of years before I was born, but from what my parents have told me they had a paraffin heater and, when it rained heavily a bit of a flood! I'll be seeing them in a couple of days so any more iformation, I'll add on.
I was born in 1956 William, the year you left.

I've just asked my mum about the Nissen huts and her description is exactly the same as William's. Even the flooding in the corner of the bedroom! The rent was 8/- (40p) a week. There was a bath house in Claremont Road where it cost 1/- (5p) to heat the water by coin operated meter. Mum and Dad left when my brother was two years old (1954) and moved round the corner to Arundel Road where they had bought a plot of land to build their first bungalow.

I always understood the Nissen huts were clad with corrugated iron sheets not asbestos. Does anybody recall who was selling the land at that time and how much did plots of land cost then. In 1959, I paid £350 to a local builder for the land my semi-detached bungalow is built on.

Hi,
We used to live in one of the Nissen huts which I think was close to the Searchlight workshops. We moved to Southdown Road about 1950.

I lived in one of the huts on the mount, 30 Fairholme Road from 1950 to 1954. The huts were in groups of four, next door lived Joe Sexton and family opposite was Sonny Folwell and family, next to them was Bert Vallance and family. Some good people lived on the mount, no need to lock doors in them days. Does anyone remember the Belcher family that lived in the bungalow above Fairholme Road, I was a playmate of Rodney Belcher, I often wondered what became of them. We moved from the mount to Gibbon Road and lived there till 1972 and then to Somerset.

My family lived in Fairholme Road - not sure which number - from 1949 to 1953. My mother was a young Dutch woman with bright red hair. Does anyone remember?

My birth certificate tells me it was number 22 Fairholme Road. My mother says the rooms were very cold and that the dividing walls did not reach all the way to the ceiling/

Why were the Nissen huts there in the first place, were they left over from wartime barracks use ?

Hi Rob Your answer is on our website !

Just follow this link

John -- Editor