Portslade in the Past: Shelldale Road, Portslade

Judy Middleton & D. Sharp. 2003 (revised 2024)

The Name

This picturesque name is not a recent invention but a re-use of a word current in the 19^th century. In 1841 it was spelt as two separate words while in 1871 it was spelt Sheldale.

The road was built on what was originally a part of the Great Shelldale farm. Elizabeth Bridger was the owner in 1797, the Bridgers owning a quantity of land in Portslade. Great Shelldale passed down to her daughter who was also called Elizabeth Bridger. In 1832 when this daughter married Thomas Thompson Cattley, her land was put in trust and Charles Bridger and Henry Colvill Bridger were tasked with the duty of managing it. The wealthy Bridger family's memorials can be seen in St Nicolas Church.

Eventually, the Bridgers sold Great Shelldale consisting of 11 acres, 1 rod and 23 perches to Abraham Peters, a Portslade farmer. On the same date as this transaction, Peters took out a mortgage for £900 on the land with John Sharp, a Southwick ship-owner. Abraham Peters was already familiar with the land because he had been farming it, having rented it for seven years on 26 February 1859 for £227.

The property next passed to to Abraham’s brother, Frederick Peters who was left with the problem of sorting out the moiety and the real estate. He put the whole lot up for sale with the agreement of his nine surviving nieces and nephews. He then purchased the land for £2,482 and out of this sum £1,241 was divided between the nine relatives.

copyright © D. Sharp
Shelldale Road and the junction with Barnes Road on the right. This road was named after Joseph David Barnes who owned land west of Wolseley Road in 1897

Growth

According to the census of 1871 there were four families living in Shelldale, and modern development did not start until the 1920s.

In 1928 Portslade Council approved plans drawn up by F. J. Edmonds for fifteen houses. It is interesting to note that the next plan did not appear until 1951 and strangely enough that was for a pigsty.

Stables

On the north-east corner of Shelldale Road near Trafalgar Road there used to be an old stable-block facing south-west. There was a slate roof undulating delightfully as the underpinnings shifted their weight. The main body of the building was constructed of flint and rubble with the odd brick thrown in, and there was some weather-boarding on the south side. For some years Portslade Car Centre occupied the premises. It is remarkable that such a rural relic should have lasted so long – in fact up until 2024 – then the bulldozer moved in.

Housing

The 1891 Street Directory recorded that on the north side of the road there was a terrace called Hartington Terrace numbered 1-12. The three-storied houses are still there but now numbered 15 to 29 Shelldale Road. Part of the road was declared a public highway in 1903.

Resident of Note

copyright © D. Sharp
Shelldale Road and the junction with Abinger Road, The site of the former Westup Laundry was on the opposite side of the road to the modern day Co-op.

Albert Dudeney lived in Rose Cottage in Shelldale Road. The cottage was full of stuffed birds plus a live parrot that had pulled out most of its feathers through boredom. In addition there were several dogs.

Dudney was always to be seen wearing a Norfolk suit and knickerbockers. He owned the laundry that stood on the corner of Shelldale Road and Abinger Road, which was rumoured to have been used as a smithy for many years previously. Dudney was also keen on motor cars, and owned a Daimler, which you had to steer with a tiller.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Dudeneys would have had the same machinery
as this Brighton laundry of the early 1900s

Albert Dudeney owned the Westup Laundry, which was on the corner of Shelldale Road and Abinger Road. It was rumoured that the building had previously been used as a smithy for many years. Mrs Cecilia Peters used to work at the laundry. She was very proficient at ironing and an expert with the goffering tongs that were used for the frilly aprons and caps worn by female staff at top Brighton hotels such as the Old Ship Hotel and Hotel Metropole before the Great War. She used a flat iron for ordinary work and because she needed a hot iron she frequently had to change to another one. There was a circular stove in the ironing room upon which stood around fifteen flat irons heating up.

The following article appeared in the Commercial Motor Magazine on the 16 April 1914:-

“I am only too pleased” says Mr. Albert Dudeney, proprietor of the Westup Laundry, 33, Shelldale Road, Portslade, “to give your readers my experiences of our motor-delivery facilities. The machine I use is an early Daimler, the date of its manufacture being 1890.
I myself have had it now for five years and three months. I use it for collecting and delivering laundry goods, which are packed in hampers, and on some occasions it has carried as many as 43 different baskets of linen, and this in addition to three passengers. The machine enables my assistants to call on 60 customers in a day, and it usually covers about 50 miles in that period.
Before I bought the machine, I use to have a pony-cart to deliver the articles, the cost of upkeep of which was 12s a week, whereas I find the motor costs me but 7s., so that a direct financial saving is effected. In addition to this desirable advantage, there is no horse to see to at nights or on Sundays, consequently our men work less hours."

Australian Newspaper Article

First World War Heroes

Harry Pierce of the 2^nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment was killed in action at Richebourg, France on 9 May 1915. He was born in Portslade and lived at 17 Shelldale Road. Harry’s name is commemorated on Le Touret Memorial, St Nicolas Church Roll of Honour and the Portslade War Memorial in Easthill Park.

Sadly if was not the last time that ‘17 Shelldale Road’ was the home of deep sorrow, as the next family that resided in this house also lost their son in the First World War:-

Frederick William Read of Lancing was the son of George and Fanny Read of 17 Shelldale Road, themselves former residents of New Salts Farm Cottages, Lancing.
Frederick was captured at the fall of the British Garrison in Kut (present day Iraq) by Turkish forces. Frederick was then taken to a prisoner of war camp in Turkey where he sadly died of illness on 30th September 1916, aged 24. Frederick has no known grave and his name is listed on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq, it is not known why his name is not listed on the Lancing War Memorial.

David Walter Richardson, an Ordinary Seaman on the H.M.S. Victory I (The Duchess) was drowned on the 1^st July 1917 aged 19 years old, while sailing from Newhaven to France with war supplies. The Duchess was involved in a collision with H.M.S. Cossack, 3 miles off the Royal Sovereign Shoals near Eastbourne. The collision and sinking of The Duchess resulted in the loss of all hands.

David was a farm labourer by trade and lived with his parents, Alfred and Kate E Richardson at 45, Shelldale Road.

David Walter Richardson has no known grave or Naval memorial listing, but he was not forgotten in Portslade as his name is listed on the St Nicolas Church Roll of Honour and the Portslade War Memorial in Easthill Park.

Allotment Site

A piece of land that had been used as allotments by Portslade Council since at least 1909 came up for auction. The land had a frontage to Shelldale Road of around 774-ft and was adjacent to Fishersgate Halt. It measured 5 acres, 1 rood and 16 poles, and by 1923 it was costing Portslade Council £24-14s a year.

In 1927 the Ministry of Health, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture, approved of Portslade Council’s plans to appropriate the remaining portion of land for use as housing.

In March 1936 it was stated that the proposed new road would involve the loss of a small portion of the side of the garden at number 56.

In 1958 planning permission was given for ten terraced houses and in 1960 for a pair of semi-detached houses on the corner of Abinger Road.

Dispute

copyright © D. Sharp
The western end of Shelldale Road, Portslade on the East and West Sussex Boundary where the road name changes to Manor Hall Road, Southwick.

In March 1992 there was an amusing story about four garages that backed onto a boundary wall, which was in a bad state of repair. The trouble was that nobody knew who was responsible for repairs with West Sussex Council, East Sussex Council, Adur Council and Hove Council all denying any responsibility.

Co-operative Store

Portslade Council passed plans for a Co-op grocery and provision store in January 1935. The single-storey building was located at 99 Trafalgar Road, right next door to the Southern Cross Mission. It was a homely sort of shop, which still delivered goods to your house until the mid-1960s. The van-man would collect your order booklet on a Monday morning and your goods would arrive later in the week. This store lasted until 1972 when George Rose, office equipment, took over the premises.

It seems there has been a change of heart regarding small stores where once all the talk was about superstores. In this atmosphere a small, neighbourhood Co-op was built at Portslade in Shelldale Road. It occupies a site once covered by a pub’s garden. The pub was the Gardener’s Arms in Abinger Road and although the pub has shut the building still stands.

Shelldale Avenue

Second World War

On the 8^th October 1940 three German planes – Heinkel HE 111s to be exact – flew over Portslade and Southwick. They were flying low to avoid initial detection, following the railway line west, and according to Eric Masters, shots were being fired all over the place. There were at least 40 explosions, and there was severe damage at Southwick with one woman being killed. At Portslade, there was a hairdresser’s shop on the corner of Shelldale Avenue and Trafalgar Road, numbered as 30 Trafalgar Road that received a bullet straight through the plate-glass window, travelling on to the large mirror and peppering it with holes. Amazingly, nobody was injured.

copyright © G. Osborne
Trafalgar Road in the 1930s, on the left is the entrance to Shelldale Avenue and in the centre is the entrance to Shelldale Road, West's Hardware Store was demolished many years later to widen Shelldale Road.

Resident of Note

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the War Office re-organised the Regional Savings Committees and launched the War Savings Campaign.
Savings Groups were set up by volunteers in work places, schools, clubs and streets.
Miss Mary Maud Carpenter, the Honorary Collector of the Shelldale Avenue Savings Group was awarded the British Empire Medal in January1953, the first New Year Honours List since the accession of Queen Elizabeth II.

Image: IWM (Art.IWM PST 16549)
1940's War Savings Poster

A Fire

On 2^nd October 1998 a fire broke out in the end-of-terrace council house in Shelldale Avenue. It started in the bedroom where two young sisters aged eight and six were sleeping. The fire destroyed everything in the room and part of the floor fell in. As other parts of the house were also damaged, the mother and her four daughters were obliged to move to bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

Shelldale Crescent

Sources

Argus

Census Returns

Directories

Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Mr G. Osborne

Imperial War Museum

National Library of Australia

Page Design by D. Sharp

20 October 2024

Shelldale Road, Portslade