Deconsecrated hallowed walls to commercial gain
Shamefaced the stone walls weep
The ageing tower crenels kiss the sky
and now glazed windows
arch to residential pews
Adjacent still, forlorn the church school doors
etched into stone now hide
the jubilant voice of eager learning
faded into silent time
closed to commercial mind
Yet still an echo calls from passing years
religion's words still cry
to this edifice, a monument to former days
saved from demolishment
from those now re-interred
[St Lawrence’s church was built in the 15th century with 18th and 19th century additions. It was deconsecrated in the early 1960s and had become derelict until 2021 when it became part of the Ballymore led Brentford re-development project. As a part of the re-development, 850 bodies including the Commonwealth graves of two First World War heroes, victims of the 1642 civil war Battle of Brentford and builders of the Grand Union Canal in the 19th century were exhumed and re-interred in a Woking cemetery. The ex-church building has now been remodelled to provide luxury housing].
There's an abandoned tug listing to port
moored up near Brentford Ait
it's been quite a while since anyone cared
so it's in quite a terrible state
There's a wolf on the bow so there was some intent
at a time for it boldly to go
perhaps plying for trade on Old Father Thames
on the water to go with the flow
But those days are gone long time now I fear
and the listing says more than words can
that this once proud lady now slips away
from the time she proudly began
It rained for the Coronation, puddles everywhere
but that didn't stop the nation with its pageantry to share
Most of us just stayed indoors to watch it on TV
a rarity in fifty-two but not in twenty-three
I heard that on Hove lawns a giant screen erected
but the precipitation meant that just a few selected
to brave out there the elements early May has gifted
though on this special day most spirits still were lifted
And it really didn't matter if you were Royalist or not
for this was history in the making and for all of us our lot
A once in almost any lifetime thing upon this day
the Coronation of a king on this the sixth of May
From the Saltings 'cross old oyster beds
the town of Shoreham lay
steeped in ancient history
and yet familiar today
The Norfolk (then suspension) bridge
to fore of course long gone
and the brewery chimneys now replaced
by newer builds upon
The High Street of the new town
with St Mary's to the rear
a town that lives in history
which we all hold so dear
[Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection – circa. 1912. Shoreham-by-Sea viewed from ‘The Saltings’ bank of what is now the new Mackley’s sea defence wall adjacent to the Houseboat community on the river Adur; Shoreham Beach side]
Forlorn now this iron leads to nowhere
save to a shortsighted whim
synonymous to abandoned towns
where Beeching's blunder echos still
Yet testament still here they lie
as memory fades with brittle truth reminder
tracking to long lost connections
and a politician's gain
[#16 in the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse]
One hundred sixteen years ago
'Old B' he wrote some lines
and sent them to Molteno
in those now long distant times
I can't quite read his writing
but I know so well the scene
on the postcard that he used
as it is a place I've been
My hometown, Shoreham, Sussex coast
though things have changed a tad
my home since the mid sixties
when I was just a lad
And this little piece of cardboard
though it's travelled many miles
still serves the purpose given
as it still keeps bringing smiles
[Photo – of a postcard in the author’s collection].
William Henry Borrow (the artist) was 19th century English watercolorist who worked largely in Sussex between 1863 and 1893. This postcard, postmarked Bexhill-on-Sea (Sussex) on May 10 1906 and Molteno (South Africa) on 31 May 1906, is notable as it has travelled from Shoreham to South Africa and back to Shoreham again, 116 years after it was first purchased, written and sent.
No.15 in the ‘past to present’ series from Jemverse
Found an old map in Emmaus
worn and dusty and old
thought to myself 'I'm having that'
went out of the shop with it sold
Familiar but different
there are things long gone away
a past the history books have claimed
from our quaint yesterday
And yet there's still a memory
from distant childhood time
places gone, remembered still
with part of them still mine
Photo -Jempics. Taken from the 1946 map itself. An original 182 Ordnance Survey of Sussex from 1933, it’s significant as it’s pre-Shoreham flyover (1970) – so there’s no blot on the landscape, pre-Beeching (1966) – so the whole of the old Guildford line is marked with all the now long-gone stations, and it’s immediately post-WWII – so the Brighton & Hove Municipal Airport at Shoreham is there but not marked as such. (Emmaus – btw – is a second-hand bric-a-brac and furniture store run by a homeless project).
It's the morning after the mourning
the official period done
and though not forgetting Majesty
she's now radiant in the sun
Her long reign now is over
and with Phillip and the rest
she's Queen now where in heaven
everything is just the best
Long live now King Charles the third
a new era for our land
our only wish, continuance of
his Mother's loving hand
[Queen Elizabeth II was queen of the UK and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her passing on 8 September 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British Monarch and the longest recorded of any female head of state in history. At the moment of her passing the throne accessioned immediately and without ceremony to her eldest son Charles, former Prince of Wales. At 73, he’s the oldest person ever to assume the British throne, a record previously held since 1830 when William IV acceded at age 64].
Two thousand years of weathering
this column's stub has seen
in situ still in Sussex where
in all that time it's been
A testament to Roman skill
and craftsmanship to see
that though but just a stub remains
it's here and long will be
So, looking up to Bignor Hill
this ancient land so fair
I stood to ponder that a while
and in that moment share
Part of the ‘Past to Present’ series from Jemverse
Four spans across the Adur
at its mouth at Shoreham town
on the road on into Lancing
at the foot of Sussex Down
Four spans of steel construction
admired for sixty years
'til Norfolk Bridge mark II's demise
'midst many local tears
Four spans across the Adur
not forgotten yet now lost
to progress and the march of time
no matter what the cost
Photo – from a postcard in the author’s collection – Jempics
[The second Norfolk Bridge in Shoreham was opened on 4th July 1923 by Lord Leconfield. A four-span cantilever design, it was initially a toll bridge until 1927. It was replaced the third (and present) Norfolk bridge in 1987].
...all about me and my life in words. I write most days, carrying an ideas book around in which I capture a word snapshot of life around me. So there's a lot here about Sussex and the sea and anything else I see that inspires.
The pictures are mine too. Some taken to match a poem; some poems written to match a pic; others chosen because they work well with words written.
Jemverse is life in words. Hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing...
Jemverse 