Leaving Nelson Place

Amelia Scholey also recalls Nelson Place in Backyard Brighton, and moving from the only house left standing there to Milner Flats.

We didn't want to move. Mine was the only house standing in Nelson Place. My Dad wouldn't move until they gave him a bottom flat in Milner Flats, because it had a yard with running water for the watercress. They offered him a top floor flat first.

Sunday they would take a barrow (of watercress) around. You used to get a newspaper full for a penny for sandwiches for Sunday tea. My Dad sold watercress and took bets. The business was in my family for a hundred years.

My Dad went to the watercress beds in Surrey in a van; started at 4.30 am taking the watercress that had been bunched up the night before for sale at the market at the Town Hall. It was a good living. All the children helped their Dad with the watercress.

They smoked herrings in Nelson Place, there were two 'Deese's. Herring Dees was a big yard where they smoked the herrings into bloaters. They used to hang them up with a stick through the heads, when the heads fell off you used to buy three penn'oth of headless bloaters. My Mum used to send us over there for two penn'oth of tie tails, the ones that fell off, that's why they were tie tails. We used to have them on toast.
Amelia Scholey - Backyard Brighton