Hugh Nelson, Captain Spear and the Memorial Hut, 1891-1923
The 1891 census records Hugh Hope Nelson, then a child of about four, with the Nelson family at West Derby in Lancashire. His father, Sir William Nelson, became chairman of the Nelson Line of Liverpool and the Nelson Steam Navigation Company. When Sir William died in 1922 his estate was valued at more than £990,000, and the newspaper account of the will named Hugh Hope Nelson among his sons.
Hugh Nelson served during the First World War. The Aberdeen Journal of 8 October 1914 named him among second lieutenants appointed to the 3rd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. By the early 1920s he was living at Lakers Lodge, whose grounds were used for village sports and other large outdoor gatherings. Nelson became patron of the Loxwood Comrades and gave the land opposite the churchyard on which their hall was erected.
The 1921 census records Arthur Gerald Bayfield Spear at Spoofhurst House, Loxwood. He was forty, had been born in Worcestershire in 1881 and gave his occupation as retired Army officer. His wife Gladys Cressy Spear, aged thirty-seven, was the only other person in the household on census night. Captain Spear founded the Loxwood Comrades Club in 1921 for local ex-servicemen. Newspaper reports during the following years call him Captain Spear, M.C., and in 1924 describe him as president of the Comrades, with Hugh Nelson as patron.
The Comrades obtained a former Army hut from a nearby military camp and brought it to Loxwood for re-erection on Nelson’s land. The building stood beside the road opposite the churchyard, close to the entrance to Fletchings and below the old Council School. It was a long, single-storey timber hall with dark boarded walls, a corrugated roof, regularly spaced windows and an entrance at the uphill end. The village Reading Room had been in use since 1897; the new hall gave the Comrades and villagers a substantially larger room for meetings and entertainments. Newspapers used the names Comrades’ Memorial Hut, Memorial Hut and, later, Old Comrades’ Hut.
The opening of the Memorial Hut, 1923
Before the hall formally opened, the West Sussex Gazette advertised a Loxwood Comrades sports meeting and fete at Lakers Lodge in June 1923. The Memorial Hut opened on Saturday 20 October. Captain and Mrs Spear arranged the concert, and the newspaper reported an audience of about 200. The Vicar of Loxwood, the Reverend W. H. B. Mainprice, thanked Captain and Mrs Spear for their assistance to the ex-servicemen since the Comrades had been formed and referred to the work done by the members in preparing and decorating the Hut.
The performers came from London and Guildford. Dorothy Collings played the violin, Dorothy Young sang soprano, Gwendoline Shaw gave recitations, Frances Stirling was the pianist and Herbert Norton sang tenor. Charles Harris supplied the comedy. The programme brought repeated encores, and the evening ended with three cheers for Mrs Spear and the visiting performers.
On Armistice Day in November, former servicemen attended the service at St John the Baptist. The Reverend Mainprice read the names of the Loxwood dead during the two minutes’ silence. On 17 November the Comrades held the second of their whist drives in the Hut. More than fifty people played, and the prizewinners included Mrs Hunt, Miss Etherington, Miss R. Cooper, Mrs Baker, E. Hill, A. Whale, H. Churchman and T. Puttock senior.
The Christmas whist drive in December drew 164 people. Evergreens and paper chains decorated the room, and thirty-three prizes had been given by supporters including Hugh Nelson, Mrs Scott, Mrs Boag, Mrs Head, the Priest family and W. H. Woods. The prizes included a live pig, a turkey, joints of meat, game, poultry and boxes of fruit. F. Remnant of Plaistow won the turkey and Mrs Crouch of Buck’s Green won the pig. The Reverend Mainprice closed the evening, with E. J. Barnard acting as master of ceremonies.
Whist, concerts and village organisations, 1924-1927
The last whist drive of the 1923-24 season was held on 10 April 1924. Mrs Spear supplied the first prizes for the best average scores over the season, an electroplated teapot and a table lamp, while the Comrades supplied the second prizes. On the following Palm Sunday the ex-servicemen assembled for the anniversary of the unveiling of the church War Memorial and marched from the Post Office to St John the Baptist behind the Rudgwick Band, with Captain Spear leading the parade.
Another concert followed at the Memorial Hut on 26 April. About 120 people attended. Mrs Spear and local performers took part, R. G. Blackman’s comic items brought repeated recalls, and dancing continued until midnight. The third annual Comrades sports meeting and fete was held at Lakers Lodge on 4 August. More than 400 people attended despite overcast weather. Hugh Nelson was named as patron and Captain Spear as president; the Rudgwick Prize Band played during the afternoon and evening, Captain Spear helped judge the events, and Mrs Nelson distributed the prizes.
The Women’s Institute at the Memorial Hut, 1925-1927
Loxwood Women’s Institute held its first meeting in the Memorial Hut in January 1925. Baroness Zouche took the chair and Miss Marshall of Steyning spoke about the Women’s Institute movement and demonstrated graft darning. Tea and games followed. The same newspaper report noted that the Comrades were arranging a whist drive to help the Loxwood and Alfold Horticultural Society after bad weather had caused losses at its previous flower show.
A West Sussex Gazette report of 12 March 1925 covered three gatherings at the Memorial Hut within a few days. At the Women’s Institute meeting Mrs Boag took the chair and Mrs Hardy of Fittleworth gave an address and demonstration, ‘Twenty minutes with a piece of tin’. Tea, dancing and singing followed. On the Thursday evening the Reverend C. de B. Durand gave a lantern lecture for the Waifs and Strays Society, arranged by Mrs Heygate and introduced by the Reverend Mainprice. On the Saturday the Domino Entertainers appeared in a Comrades concert, and every item was reported to have been encored.
The Sports Club held its annual general meeting in the Hut in May 1925. Dr R. B. Heygate, the treasurer, reported that the club was flourishing and Hugh Nelson was re-elected president. The report also marked the end of a winter series of twelve Comrades whist drives, with prizes awarded for the best average scores across the series. Later that month the Women’s Institute met again, when Mrs Lambert of Horsham lectured on artificial flowers and demonstrated how they were made.
In December 1925 the Society Entertainers, a Pierrot troupe from London, performed at the Memorial Hut. The newspaper report also recorded money raised through two Comrades whist drives: two guineas went to the Daily News ‘Wireless in the Wards’ Fund and thirty shillings to the Lord Roberts Memorial Workshops. The annual Christmas whist drive followed on 23 December, when more than fifty prizes were offered. Mr Pirmor and W. Piper were among the principal winners, receiving a turkey and a goose, and the Comrades’ committee decorated the Hut for the evening.
The Sunday School Christmas treat was reported in January 1926. After tea the children played games and musical chairs and visited a ‘fish pond’ for small prizes. The Reverend Mainprice showed lantern slides of Jack the Giant Killer and Mr Grunt, and nearly every child received a prize. Miss Willer organised the annual event. The Domino Entertainers returned in March, with comic songs by Mr Glass, yodel and other songs by Mr Batlett, popular pieces by Miss Derrick and piano accompaniment by Miss Maud Goddard.
In May 1927 the Loxwood branch of the Women’s Institute organised another concert in the Memorial Hut. The programme included piano and violin solos, recitations and humorous songs, with Cyril Bartlett among the performers.
The Hut in the 1930s, 1932-1935
The first reunion dinner and entertainment of Loxwood ex-service men was held in the Memorial Hut in January 1932. Sir Frederick Frankland took the chair, supported by Hugh Nelson and Dr R. B. Heygate. After dinner Sir Frederick spoke about unity and comradeship and, at the request of the members, sang ‘Two lovely blue eyes’. Hugh Nelson sang ‘John Peel’, while the Magpies Dance Orchestra from Alfold accompanied wartime songs. W. Priest and his helpers arranged the evening. In May Mrs Stevens organised a dance in the Hut to raise money for swings on the children’s recreation ground, with H. E. Cookson supplying the music.
The Women’s Institute annual whist drive was held in the Memorial Hut in February 1933. A. Sopp acted as driver and Mrs Sheffield presented the prizes. Mrs Cox, Mrs Bindfield, Miss W. Howick, Mr Bindfield, W. Clayden and F. Sice were the principal winners, and Miss G. Sopp won the cake-guessing competition.
At the Institute meeting on 8 February 1934 Mrs Boxall spoke about bottling fruit and vegetables. A paper-hat competition produced what the newspaper called many amusing models, with Mrs H. V. Puttock taking the prize. A second competition required members to make something new from something old; Miss Gill, Mrs Gill and Mrs Hunt won the awards.
Loxwood United
Loxwood United Football Club held its first annual supper in the Memorial Hut on 27 April 1935, with F. S. D. Atherton in the chair.
In November the Loxwood Fair and Show Society marked Hugh Nelson’s departure from the district. At its annual meeting at the Onslow Arms, Earl Winterton presented Nelson with a silver salver subscribed for by the president, vice-presidents, committee and officers. Winterton said that Nelson had allowed Lakers Lodge park to be used for the annual fair and show and had been one of the society’s largest financial supporters. The inscription thanked him for his interest and support and dated his retirement as chairman to November 1935. Nelson said that he hoped to return for the annual shows.
The parish division inquiry, 1936
On 18 December 1936 a special committee of West Sussex County Council met in Loxwood to consider the proposed division of the civil parish of Wisborough Green and the creation of a separate parish for Loxwood. The newspaper report named the meeting place as the Old Comrades’ Hut. The inquiry used the 1931 census figures: Loxwood had 740 people in 252 inhabited houses, while Wisborough Green had 1,011 people in 318 houses. T. W. Wyldebore spoke for Loxwood and referred to the four miles of open country between the villages, Loxwood’s separate recreation ground and its cricket, football and tennis clubs. The committee also considered representation on the Parish Council, local rates and the property arrangements that would follow a division.
North Hall and the sale of the Hut, 1937-1938
West Sussex County Council decided in March 1937 to create a new civil parish ‘to be known as the parish of Loxwood’. Joy North laid the foundation stone of North Hall on 3 April, and the new hall, paid for by Mark Frederick North of Loxwood House as a Coronation gift, opened on 12 May 1937.
Hugh Hope Nelson, who had left the Loxwood district in 1935, died at Charvey Lawn, Ascot, on 8 June 1937. A legal notice published the following March recorded that his will had been proved on 26 November by his widow, Alice Mary Hope Nelson.
On 20 January 1938 the West Sussex Gazette advertised ‘The Loxwood Comrades’ Hut and Contents’ for sale by tender. The hut measured 60 feet by 20 feet, and the sale included a small shed, piano, about fifty chairs, card tables, a cupboard, hanging and wall lamps, cups and saucers, curtains, a stage and a clock. Inspection was arranged for 26 January and 2 and 9 February between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., after notice to C. Smith of Brewhurst Lane. Tenders were due by 12 February and were to be sent to E. J. Barnard of Woodlea, Broadbridge Heath. The Hut was sold in 1938.
