We believe that Gwen and Alan first met when they were working together initially at the Gypsum Mines in Robertsbridge.
Alan first joined the Kent Police and was packed off to training college by a force who briefly showed some leniency on height requirements to let him in. It seemed however that this career choice wasn’t entirely a natural fit and had been championed more by a domineering step mother to be an appropriate training regime to instil some discipline in a young man. Up until that point Alan had showed more interest in football than in academic studies and his warnings about not copying his example of doing homework on the bus on the way to Pitmans College in Hastings were always recounted to Jenny and Richard while they were at secondary school. The leap to being an Estimator at the Gypsum Mines is not entirely understood but it had the benefit of being a stone’s throw from his father’s house at Netherfield Road and this was probably one of the major attractions.
Gwen on the other hand had chosen a more traditional route for a young lady at the time, studying typing and shorthand (Pitman’s of course) as the basis for a career in secretarial and office administration. The Gypsum Mines were for her a fairly substantial bike ride (circa 15 miles round trip) from home at 10 Northlands Bodiam where she lived with her relatively large family – 7 siblings at one point all be it that Charles, the youngest, sadly died as a baby.
Alan was a keen motorcyclist to start with and many years later his white Norton bike could still be found in the garden shed at Hurst Green gathering dust and it was a treat to be wheeled around the garden on it as young children.
Conscious of the need to transport his new girlfriend in greater comfort and style Alan soon upgraded to a BMW Isetta “Bubble Car” with front opening door and a single wheel over the engine at the rear. Sue – Mum’s youngest sister remembers Alan passing her one day in the Bubble Car and stopping to give her a lift.
Sue also remembers how quickly Alan was accepted into their large family and would go to tea at Bodiam.
Skip forward and both of them ended up moving away from the Gypsum Mines but fate intervened and they ended up working together again this time at Guinness Hop Farms in Bodiam. This was a far more convenient location for Gwen to get to on her bike being just a short ride away on the other side of the village.
At the time Guinness owned most of the farmland around Bodiam and most of the family worked there in some capacity – Gwen’s father Tom being a fitter working on agricultural machinery with Mick and Ron her two older brothers being employed in the hop fields stringing up the vines. At hop picking time it was all hands to the pump and Gwen spent many summers with her siblings in the hop fields while her mum Gladys and other aunts and relatives harvested the hop bines and dried them in the oasts.
