A daughter's journey through Thorney Island's secret history

BBC SOUNDS: copyright owned by the BBC

By HILARY GAVIN

YOU COULD say the past week was a time for me to reflect after discovering more about “my patch” on the Manhood Peninsula.

If you read my last WordPress blog, you’ll know that I decided to cycle to my holiday caravan let at Seal Bay in Selsey via my local canal, Chichester Harbour and Medmerry Reserve cycleway.

In truth, I had three primary reasons to get on my bike – the spiralling cost of petrol, my desire to be eco-friendly and to keep fit after giving up golf and, if I’m honest, my natural curiosity.

Of course, I took a quick look at the Ordnance Survey map of our beautiful peninsula before setting out to explore the changing coastline at Bracklesham, Earnley and Medmerry.

If you want to know more about the Medmerry Nature Reserve, and its managed coastal realignment which reintroduced mudflats and saltmarshes, visit the Environment Agency posts on Gov.UK, or the RSPB and Coastal Partners’ websites (see links below).

Medmerry Nature Reserve, West Sussex

Home — Coastal Partners

A few days after my cycle ride, I got back in the saddle to explore the lanes and footpaths (I did, on the whole, walk) via both North and South Mundham to Pagham Harbour and Sidlesham Quay.

In a word, beautiful, as my Facebook videos contest. You can fully appreciate why so many exceptional artists were drawn by the airy light here on the West Sussex coast in times gone past.

Given my adventures over the past week, I was truly thrilled to discover the delights of our local BBC’s Secret Sussex radio series with its quirky insights into our county’s rich history.

I’ve been gripped by these fascinating stories after BBC Sounds rebroadcast a walk around Thorney Island entitled The Secret Button to an Island Paradise which I’ve shared above.

If you’ve never heard of Thorney Island, it is a peninsula, and British Army base, jutting out into Chichester Harbour beside Emsworth on the Hampshire border.

Of course, the general public aren’t allowed on to MoD land at Thorney Island but we can walk along the coastal path which I’ve done several times so I can tell you that it is blissful.

My interest in Thorney is deeply personal as my late Dad Gordon Gavin was stationed on the island as a young, and dashing, RAF serviceman at the beginning of the Second World War.

At the time Dad was studying state-of-the-art radio (and possibly radar) communications with his fellow trainee airmen before his squadron was sent abroad to Cairo in North Africa, and my late Dad went on to serve in a small unit in Keyna and Italy.

If you’ve been reading my WordPress blogs, you’ll know that I’m in the process of researching my Dad’s “secret war“, but I doubt I’ll ever discover why he had a photo of Winston Churchill sat in his dressing gown on a balcony tucked away with his war effects.

Uncovering my late father’s secret Second World War photo of Winston Churchill – Hilary Gavin

Anyhow, from Dad’s photos it appears he had some close wartime chums so I’m posting a photo of him with a few of them sat, and stood, on a rock presumably off Thorney Island in 1939.

My late Dad Gordon Gavin with his airmen chums at Thorney Island during the Second World War — *My late Dad Gordon Gavin with his airmen chums at Thorney Island somewhen during the Second World War*

Lest we forget!

By HILARY GAVIN

A freelance journalist who wants to see a return to public accountability in the local press

IF you want to watch my Facebook videos of my cycle rides at Medmerry and Pagham Harbour, visit my social media pages.

Hilary Gavin

T/A Business ‘n’ Commas

6 Southover Way

Hunston

CHICHESTER

West Sussex

PO20 1NY

Tel: 07940 444664

Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog

Hilary Gavin

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