HARBOUR STATION

I worked as the railway porter on Newhaven Harbour railway station from 1967 to 1971. The Harbour station was the entrance for foot passengers arriving by train or car for the ferries, the station back then had a booking office from where I sold tickets a parcels office, two waiting rooms, and ladies and gents toilets, the following are snippets from my memories of that time. The police box at the entrance to the station with two or three Railway Policemen stationed there per shift, spent many hours talking to them at quite periods. The ferries running around that time were the Falaise,Valencay, Villandry, and the Senalac, they would run from Newhaven to Dieppe and back, sometimes up to eight sailings per day and at times with well over one thousand passengers on board. There was also a station for the Boat Trains that ran from Victoria London and back these trains had twelve carriages and carried hundreds of passengers at a time. The railway dock porters would assist me with running of passenger’s luggage from my station down through customs and on to the ferries, this was done for tips and on a good week this could reach over one hundred and fifty pounds not bad as the average wage was about thirty pounds. There was an unwritten law to this that on my return to the station from the ferry with an empty set of wheels I would go straight to the front of the queue for more of the passengers’ luggage. The docks where alive with shunting engine’s moving wagons around Newhaven shunting yards the lorries waiting to be cleared by customs, passengers and there car’s being loaded and unloaded onto the ferries, along with import and export cars being loaded and unloaded (Simca) there was also a sleeper car train that ran from Newhaven to Stirling in Scotland I would work overtime on this train securing the cars' wheels to the train (Baring In). We where able to purchase cigarettes and spirits on board the ships but had to run the gantlet of customs and railway police, although I think most of the time they turned a blind eye. Then of course there was The Harbour Tavern (The Shades) run by Danny and Lily Lynch along with their children Barbara, Tina, and Butch.This is where we all went to let off steam many a good old sing song had there along with many years of playing for the darts team. The Harbour was alive and buzzing at this time and I can see all the faces but lost there names very sad to see it now. Ray French