1920

Littlehampton Driver Fred Prince is seen leaning against his loco, fireman not known 

Fred Prince started in the locomotive department at New Cross at the age of 16, in September 1897 (no day of the month recorded).

Fred was enginemen at the following loco sheds New Cross, Bognor & Littlehampton

It was on an autumns afternoon in the late 1960s when looking for the old house in Warningcamp where my parent had lived when first married in 1896, that I met Fred Fred Prince.

His father and grandfather had both worked on the railway and helped to construct the coastal and mid-Sussex lines of what was then the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway.
Fred's mother also was the gatekeeper at Warningcamp level crossing for many years and, when Fred left school at 14, it was his firm intention to become a locomotive engineer.

However, he was too young to taken on, and the first two years of his working life were spent impatiently at an Arundel Brewery.

Then in 1898 he joined the L.B.S.C. Railway at its main engine depot at New Cross. Soon he was posted to Bognor and then to Littlehampton. Towards the end of the Boer War (11th October 1899 - 31st May 1902) he was *driving goods trains nightly from Littlehampton to London via Brighton. He described these journeys, often made on freezing winter nights more than 85 years ago, in one of his many interesting letters to me written during the last two years of his long life.

"We had one duty at Littlehampton 11 p.m. at night to Brighton, after two hours' shunting at Ford. After leaving Brighton the worst part of the journey was tender first from Lovers' Walk, Brighton, three miles through Clayton Tunnel, with water dripping from the roof and frozen like long poles. It was very dangerous and we had to cover our heads up, because when we smashed these icicles it was like a shower of broken glass... But it was a different tale in the springtime. We were booked to leave Hassocks at 3 a.m. and with the first streaks of dawn the birds started up, before it was light; a treat many people have never heard. And now they tell me Hassocks yards and sidings are no more."

Fred loved the railways and deeply regretted that so many of his dear branch lines had been closed down. But, more that the railways perhaps, he loved nature and the unspoilt countryside, the birds and the wild flowers. I quote from another of his letters:

"I have travelled  thousands of miles through Sussex and Surrey during my career; I have seen the sun shining on lovely Box Hill on a frosty morning, and the beautiful Midhurst line (now closed also). But to me Arundel and its surroundings is still the fairest of them all. Running down the old Midhurst Line in the spring and watching the trees coming into leaf; the horse chesnut trees, those big leaves and blossom all out of a small bud, is really a wonderful.... I wonder what the motorists see of the lovely countryside as they race along? All kinds of wild flowers grow on the railway banks, and strawberries as well, and I suppose, just now between Amberley and Pulborough, the banks are white with daisies, pretty to see."

Fred Prince never married and in retirement lived with his sister and her husband at Warningcamp. When at Littlehampton he knew all the fishermen and often went out on the old paddle tug boat Jumna.

Sadly, his sister and brother-in-law both died, and Fred had to have a leg amputated. The last six or seven years of his long life were spent in Arundel's homely little hospital where he found time and encouragement to write many interesting reminiscences.

In one of his last letters to me, he wrote lovingly of his old home and the lane beside the railway and river at Warningcamp:

"I guess, over the old home, the snowdrops are coming up and will soon be in bloom. My place used to be white with them, also primroses and all spring flowers. I would love to be back again with the flowers and the birds, up in the morning to see the first streaks of daylight and hear the dawn chorus..... but never no more. So in God's care I leave you. With love Fred."

So ended his last letter to me in January, 1975. A few weeks later he passed away, to be buried at the ancient church of Lyminster, where he once sang as a choirboy and had bee christened 92 years before. 

Bognor Branch opens some time in the 1920s  

Railway accidents on the 

L.B.S.C.R.

POSTCARD

Fred Christmas started in February 1883 and retired as a Running Loco Foreman at Brighton