Portslade in the Past: Clarence Street, Portslade

Judy Middleton 2001 (revised 2022)

Copyright © G. Osborne
An Edwardian view of the southern entrance into Clarence Street from Wellington Road, on the left corner of Clarence Street is the Jolly Sailors pub.
(all the buildings in this photograph were demolished over 40 years ago)

Mission Hall

The 1898 Directory states that there was a Free Church Assembly Hall in the street. In August 1898, in the days before there was a town hall in which councillors could foregather, Portslade councillors decided that they should hold their monthly meetings in this hall for the moderate cost of five shillings a time. By 1902 the hall was known as the Clarendon Mission Hall, and it was connected to the larger Clarendon Mission in Clarendon Villas, Hove, a building which still stands to this day. It is astonishing to note that in a comparatively small area, such as Portslade-by-Sea, the various denominations of Christianity were well represented with the presence of the Salvation Army, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Cokelers and Church of England.

The Clarence Hotel

The Clarence Hotel on the corner of Clarence Street and North Street, was most probably built in the 1860s, and in the early days it was known as an inn rather than a hotel. Although the Directories list James Hammond, builder, as the occupant in the 1860s and 1870s, the 1871 census identifies Walter Flint, aged 44, as the inn-keeper. He lived with his wife Emily, 35, two sons, one servant and five lodgers.

The Jolly Sailors

copyright © G. Osborne
This exceptionally rare and fascinating photograph is well over 100 years old and most probably it is the Peters family standing in the doorway.

The Jolly Sailors was situated on the corner of Clarence Street and Wellington Road. In the 1890s the pub was numbered at 15 & 16 Wellington Road. But when the road was re-numbered it became number 19. The family did not just rely solely on profits from drinks sold in the pub. The façade of the pub also advertised that Mr Peters was a cab proprietor and hired out boats too.

It was remarkable that there were two pubs either end of a very short Clarence Street, the Jolly Sailors and the Clarence Hotel were in fact only 70 yards apart.

Palatine House

In the 1861 census Charles R. Smith the owner of the Britannia Mills was recorded as a 48-year old miller, living at Palatine House in Clarence Street. He lived with his 39-year old wife Ann and their children Frederick and Richard (both clerks) Charles aged 9, Jane aged 7 and 3-year old Wilhelmina plus two servants.

Pipe Factory

In the 1890s, in an area situated between Middle Street and Clarence Street there was a business that produced clay pipes in which the working man smoked his tobacco. The clay pipes were somewhat fragile, and if your pipe broke, you had to buy a new one. Several broken clay pipe stems have been discovered in the gardens of Southdown Road. No doubt left behind by men enjoying a game of quoits.

The factory was owned by Edward Sequin, and it was a brick building, 35-ft in length, 30-ft in width, and 20-ft in height. There was a large loft filled with 75 trusses of hay. Early in the morning of 6 October 1898 a fire broke out, and the building was well alight by the time the Hove Fire Brigade arrived. Neighbours were already at the scene and had managed to rescue three horses from an adjoining stable, and were by then busily engaged in throwing buckets of water at the flames. Unhappily, the entire contents of the factory were destroyed including the following:

120 clay pipes

copyright © D. Sharp
Some of the many clay pipe fragments dug up in a
Southdown Road garden, some of these pipes would
have be made in Mr Sequin's Portslade Factory

Three screws and presses

Two benches

Two saggers (clay boxes in which the clay pipes were baked)

Two stoves

A quantity of tools

A brake (a type of vehicle)

A number of rabbits belonging to Martin Peters

A goat-cart and harness and the goat belonging to Mr C. Curd

Plight of a Steam-Roller

In November 1904 Mrs Kewell complained to Portslade Council that her steam-roller had fallen into a trench in Clarence Street. The steam-roller had therefore been delayed for half-a-day, and she had been obliged to employ extra labour in order to drag it out again. The Council kindly agreed to pay her the magnificent sum of £1 in compensation.

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Clarence Street and ajoining roads in 1910

A Coal Car-man

In 1911 William Mendoza lived at 12 Clarence Street, and he earned a living as a coal car-man. He delivered coal around the Portslade and Hove area in a horse-drawn cart, and of course coal was imported to Shoreham Harbour. William was probably employed by George Daws the Coal Merchant and Car-Man at 74 North Street, just around the corner from William’s home.

Mendoza’s exotic surname suggests that he was of foreign origin, and indeed he was, his father was of Portuguese origins. William’s father, (Joseph) William Mendoza, was a Gentleman’s Gentleman (Valet) in London. While travelling to New York on his master’s sailing ship (Joseph) William fell in love with a young maid called Jennie McKay.

Jennie McKay was born in 1851 in the north of Scotland at Burghead near Lossiemouth the daughter of James and Margaret McKay. Jennie left Scotland to seek employment in service in London.

The couple were married in New York on the 15 October 1875, and their son William Wallace Mendoza was born there in 1876.

One imagines that Jennie was a strong-minded woman to chose the name of William Wallace for her firstborn, and never mind his Portuguese heritage. Perhaps William Wallace was a hero of hers, and indeed he remains an iconic figure in Scotland to this day.

Unhappily, the marriage was short-lived because her husband (Joseph) William had an accident at sea and drowned, presumably on their way back to England in their master’s sailing ship.

The tragedy was even more poignant because Jennie became a widow when she was pregnant with her second son. There seemed nothing else to do but to return to Scotland but it must have been a sad home-coming. Joseph James Garden Mendoza was born in Drainie, Lossiemouth, Scotland in 1877. The two boys then lived with an aunt whilst Jennie returned south to England to seek work as a cook.

Jennie worked for Queen Victoria's chaplain the Revd George Mathias in Hastings, Sussex. Here one of her work colleagues was the sister of John Thomas Coussens who became her second husband in Hastings in 1881. Some time after this they moved to Eastbourne, Sussex. The1891 census shows that the Mendoza brothers had rejoined their mother to live with her Coussen family in Eastborne.

Jennie (McKay-Mendoza) and John Coussens went on to have eight children; Jennie died at Eastbourne in 1930.

Joseph Bedford at number 1 in 1913.

Meanwhile, W. W. Mendoza also moved around the country a bit, moving to Chatham in the 1890s where he worked as a billiard marker, which meant he looked after the equipment and acted as a scorer. It would be nice to know if he was on the staff of a posh gentlemen’s club, or in a more humble public house surrounding. He married Annie Fryer. (on there marriage certificate, William Wallace Medoza gives his father's name as 'William Wallace' who was a butler, in earlier accounts of his family's history, his father was known as Joseph)

They did not stay in one place for long, moving around London, then to Bexhill, Gillingham and Eastbourne.

In fact their longest stint seems to have been at Portslade where they remained for around ten years, and their sixth child was born at 12 Clarence Street. The older children did not have far to walk to school because they attended St Andrew’s School in Wellington Road. In the 1911 Census, William gave his occupation as a coal car-man he gave his status as an American born British Subject of Portuguese Nationality.
One of the children, George Mendoza, has some descendents still living in Portslade.

A Murder in 1933

Joseph Bedford ran a little ironmongers shop at Number 1 Clarence Street on the corner of North Street for many years. Although he was aged 80, he was still active and kept his shop open for business until 8 p.m. Apparently, Bedford knew how to play at least a dozen musical instruments. For the previous fifteen years Alice Sandells of 8 Ellen Street, Portslade, cooked an evening meal for him, which she then took to his shop. Her nephew James Goble lived next door to Bedford.

On 13 November 1933 at 10 p.m. P. C. Peters discovered Bedford in a collapsed state inside the shop. Bedford was taken to Hove Hospital, but he died the next day. The house surgeon noted that Bedford’s skull was much thinner than normal. At first everyone assumed that the old man had simply stumbled in his shop, although P. C. Peters did not go along with this theory.

Then came a call from Worthing Police Station to say they were holding two men who had been acting suspiciously and one of them had admitted to hitting an old man in Portslade – they did not know that Bedford had died.

On 17 December 1913 the celebrated Sir Bernard Spilsbury arrived to examine Bedford’s body He found that Bedford had been hit about the head several times. Two detectives from Scotland Yard came to help in the search for the criminals, unaware that the suspects were already in police custody.

The Bedford case was unusual because it seems the old man, although severely injured, managed to walk about the shop afterwards, shut the door and lock it, putting the key in its customary place, and climb a ladder twice. When the police arrived at the scene, there was no sign of forced entry. Bedford never had anything so grand as a till, and kept his money in a tin. This had been forced open and around £6 in notes and coins removed.

The two suspects were Frederick William Parker, a 21-year old labourer, and Albert Probert, a 26-year old fitter. Before the crime, the men had lodged with Mrs Payne at 76 St Andrew’s Road, where they arrived on 7 November. Although Parker admitted knocking the old man down in North Street, Probert denied being at the scene. But it was obvious the duo were intent on robbery because Probert carried a tyre lever wrapped up in a stocking, while Parker was in possession of an unloaded revolver; the tyre lever was later recovered from the garden of 16 Albany Villas, Hove.

Parker and Probert appeared at a local court with Probert being represented by John Bosley, and Parker being represented by Stanley Cushman. (Stanley Cushman’s father, F.W.A. Cushman, of Whychcote, had been Mayor of Hove 1919-1922. Stanley, as well as his brother and sister, were all articled to their father’s firm of solicitors, and indeed Eileen Mary Adcock Cushman was the only female solicitor in Hove and one of the youngest in the country).

On 15 December 1933 Mr Gerald Paling outlined the case for the prosecution. (Here is another Hove connection because Paling was an Old Boy of Hove High School, while Stanley Cushman was an Old Boy of Hove College. Paling later served as Deputy Public Prosecutor from 1948 to 1958). Parker and Probert were committed for trial at Lewes Assizes, which began on 14 March 1934. On 16 March the jury retired to consider their verdict, but they only needed 35 minutes to come to the conclusion that both men were guilty of murder.

Parker and Probert were hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 4 May 1934. It was the first double execution since 1921, when strangely enough the two men were also guilty of a murder in Sussex.

Flexer Sacks

In later Directories there is practically nothing of interest in the street apart from the fact that it was home to Flexer Sacks. The firm was founded by an enterprising man by the name of Joseph Flexer (1923-1996) who was born in Lithuania. He would be well in vogue today because after the First World War he came up with the idea of re-purposing the humble used potato sack by washing it, turning it inside out, and re-selling it. After the Second World he made good use of surplus Army great-coats. These he turned into civilian wear and sold at a reasonable price. He carefully collected the military brass buttons and established a profitable side-line in them as well. (For further details, see under Wellington Road).

Clarence Street No More - Road Permanently Closed & Built Over

copyright © D. Sharp
The northern route of the former Clarence Street from Wellington Road was through the section of this building where the three large windows and the Catnic Company (Tata Steel) signs are today.

In the 1980s Flexer Sacks purchased Clarence Street from the Council and demolished existing properties so as to extend their factory buildings across the road to link up with their paper store and workshop on the west side of the former Clarence Street.

copyright © D. Sharp
The southern route of the former Clarence Street from North Street was through the section of this building where the Dance Station entrance and the grey Millimetre Company warehouse garage entrance are today.

Sources

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade-by-Sea

National Library of Scotland

National Library of Australia

Mr Alan & Mrs Theresa Mendoza

Mr Garry Osborne

Mrs Sheila Reeves

Mr John Trusler

Portslade Council Minute Books

Street Directories

Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

The Sunday Mail (Brisbane), 20 December 1936

10 March 2022

Clarence Street, Portslade