apples that we picked off the trees and then put the maggoty ones on the top - no one ever twigged it and mums and dads were very pleased because you'd got all these nice apples. It was much better than scrumping. Besides if you got caught by PC Hyams, you'd get a cuff on the ear and he had a hand like a side of beef; if he hit you your ears were ringing for days after! He wouldn't go and tell your parents but tell you straight that if he caught you again, you'd get another cuff and be up in court. But if he caught you once you didn't do it again."
" From the bottom of Coldean Lane to the beginning of Wild Park was Woolards Orchards which was easy to get into. But you had to keep an eye out for Slimey Joe who I think was a special constable.
There was a code of honour that you wouldn't thieve off anybody's allotment, because they were all people in the same boat as you - you'd only scrump off the big orchards, and then you'd only do it until you got a smack round the head by PC Hyams.
We never used to stay in - what entertainment was there when you stopped in? You had an old coalfire to sit round on a winter's night and a radio to listen to. There was no television. We used to play football and cricket on the Wild Park - the pavilion doesn't seem to have altered at all.
John Rackham, in his book `Brighton Ghosts, Hove Hauntings' talks about the many sightings of the ghost including this one: "Both Moulsecoomb Place and the cottage are said to be haunted by the mistress of James II. Legend has it that she committed suicide by drowning herself in the well by the cottage. There have been several sightings of the ghost.The most detailed account of the phantom comes from contract supervisor Vic Kemp who, with his family, occupied the flat from 1962 to 1972. Early one moring in 1970, he awoke to find a woman leaning over his bed. She was dressed in a long, grey gown and a bonnet-type hat. There was a slight haziness about her appearance. Mr.Kemp looked on in astonishment as the woman then walked over to the casement windows, where she seemed to go through the motions of adjusting curtains before finally leaving the room. She did this by walking straight through the closed door!" |