Notable people of Burgess Hill:

Here we look at William Norman, the founder of Norman’s brick, tile and pottery works; Simeon Norman, who was known as “the father of Burgess Hill”; Emily Temple, who donated the Park and the “Park Centre”; Bee Mason, the explorer, activist and bee keeper; The Norris Brothers who’s family firm created the Bluebird racing car.

These are not the only notable people that Burgess Hill has ever had. They are a selection which we hope to add to in the future.

By Fred Avery

The Norman family had been associated with brick and tile making on ‘The Brow’ area of St. John’s Common since the 1700s and in 1813 Richard Norman, William’s father, advertised for a potter at his St. John’s Common brick kilns.  Richard had married Elizabeth Nye at Ditchling in 1777. He was also involved with the Ditchling Common brickworks, owned by John Billinghurst who, in 1792, bequeathed to him his other works, at Chailey. After their father’s death in 1818, Richard’s two sons, William and Richard Norman inherited his old site on the Brow but it was William who managed and expanded the business in Burgess Hill. He was able to invest in a grand new site by buying one of the large freehold lots in the London Road, offered for sale at the Keymer Enclosure in 1828, which abutted on its east side with his existing land at The Brow.  Combining the two sites together, his premises then stretched from the Brow, including the western part of the pedestrianized Town Centre – from the Martlets Hall site down to Church Walk and west to the London Road.  Early ordnance survey maps show that the London Road end contained the working premises while the land stretching up to the Brow contained the claypits.

William’s first marriage was in 1804, to Mary Avery (1780-1815) a local St. John’s Common girl, which produced a daughter and two sons. These sons became more involved with the Chailey works than with Burgess Hill but his second marriage, in 1815 was to another local girl, Barbara Leaney (1796-1867) and it was she who carried the business on after William’s death in 1849. The works were then taken over by Richard (1817-1903) and Nathan (1827-1896), two of the sons of the second marriage.  They became partners in the Burgess Hill works and carried the business forward.

In later years the management passed to Richard and Edgar Norman, their respective sons. Eventually though, after 117 years of brick and pottery making, the land and premises were sold in 1930 to Burgess Hill Urban District Council. The land comprising 24 acres was completely undeveloped towards the Brow, allowing the new ‘Martlets’ Town Centre and Civic Way to be constructed there in 1970.

William, the founder of the Norman family’s Burgess Hill works, continued as a joint partner at the Chailey works with his brother Richard. His elder son Richard by his first marriage inherited the half share at the Chailey potteries. This share passed to his son Richard and on down in that branch of the family to Wallace William Norman (1881-1947, son of Ephraim Norman) who was sole owner in 1930. The works, with extensive pits, are currently still operational by Ibchester Brick at South Common, Chailey, on the A275 from Sheffield Park to Lewes, just north of the T-junction at Honeypot Lane: O.S. Grid ref. TQ 391(-5)176. The Burgess Hill works are shown below and a  sample of their work.

This article is drawn from Fred Avery’s Development of Burgess Hill and its potteries, 1828-1978.

The info. about John Billinghurst, is from Heather Warne (forthcoming), Heart of Burgess Hill: the brick and tile makers of St. John’s Common 1520-1860. Before he went to Ditchling, John Billinghurst appears to have worked at the Dunstall’s Farm brickworks on Fairplace Hill, Burgess Hill. The Chailey works, recently Redland Bricks, are now run by Ibstock. The huge clay pits there, east of the works, which can be seen from nearby public rights of way, are similar in aspect and size to those at Keymer Brick and Tile works, recently filled in and developed for housing. The paths near the head of the pits are made up of broken sherds of brick and tile, bright red in colour.

By Fred Avery and Heather Warne

Simeon Norman (1833 -1890) was the youngest of 9 children of William, the brickmaker by his second marriage, to Barbara (née Leaney). Born in 1833, he became a carpenter by trade. The family lived in an old 17^th century timber-framed building called Diamond Cottage, lying back a little from the west side of the London Road.  It had been built by a previous, small scale brickmaker in the 1650s which had since grown to encompass 2 acres. When he set up in his building business in 1862, it was on the south end of the 2-acre plot where the Wickes DIY store now stands. An old timber-framed cottage called Diamond Cottage, built around 1650 for the local brickmaker Henry Marten, was the Norman family home. It was replaced in Simeon Norman’s lifetime by a double-fronted detached brick-built house which still stands today, as shown below. It lies in a narrow lane behind the Brewers Arms in London Road.

It was perhaps his father William Norman’s strategy that two of his sons should be trained in carpentry as it would enable his family to command a greater hold on the building trade in our growing town.  The 1851 Census shows that Simeon’s half-brother, William – sprung from his father’s first marriage – had been born at Chailey but was then, at 39 years old, a carpenter living in Burgess Hill and employing three men and an apprentice.  Simeon was a ‘journeyman carpenter’ at the time, aged 17. ‘Journeyman’ means a person employed on a daily wage rate, so he was probably working as one of William’s employees. Another decade passed before he started his own business. In 1856, aged 23, he had married Catherine, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Burt of Ditchling and in 1864 with his 14-year-old brother-in-law, Henry Burt (1850-1922) as an assistant, he took that step. He was much influenced at this time by the building of Burgess Hill’s very first parish church, St. John the Evangelist, which he photographed from all sides on its completion. Simeon Norman had thus embarked on photography at an early stage of its development and he was also a very competent artist. These qualities fed into the ethos of the new firm which concentrated on high-end carpentry and stone masonry.

For the rest of his life he campaigned tirelessly for basic amenities for the growing town – paving, a gas supply, sanitation, drainage and an improved water supply. This brought him into contact with many of the wealthier new residents of the area, because they were as keen as he was for these improvements and they readily bought shares in the proposed new companies.  After the 1871 Education Act was passed his firm built a new school room for infants at the London Road School and also the very first local ‘Board’ school (State primary school) at Hassocks, which still stands there today, a distinctive red-brick structure in the middle of the village. This was the first time Hassocks got a school, whereas Burgess Hill had had theirs for 20 years or more. His firm also built, at Madame Emily Temple’s expense, the semi-detached polychrome villas in Lower Church Road and the larger detached houses in Upper St. John’s Road.

Simeon Norman was a leading light in getting what became the St. John’s Institute, later the ‘Park Centre’ on the road.  The cause was greatly helped by the ties he had forged with influential new residents of the neighbourhood. In March 1871 he called the meeting which aimed to provide ‘a place where the growing number of artisans coming into the town could meet together for mutual improvement and recreation’.  This was then set up in a house in Church Road with Simeon as its first Chairman and his friend, Mr. Bowers, a well-known local artist, as the secretary. They both started fund-raising by selling Mr. Bowers’ paintings, asking for donations of furniture and, calling themselves an ‘Art Union’.  Simeon was himself a competent artist.

General John Hall, who had been very involved with the gas and water campaigns, became the first President of the ‘Institute’ and he donated board games of various sorts, bagatelle and enough furniture to make the rooms comfortable. He also allowed the open field that he owned nearby to be used by members of the Institute for cricket matches. However, the General tragically died a short while later and it was at this point that Emily Temple, who seems to have inherited his Burgess Hill land, stepped in to get a proper meeting place built for the St. John’s Institute. Naturally enough, Simeon Norman was its builder, using the same decorative style of brickwork as he had previously used for the houses she had commissioned. He later taught archaeology and photography at the Institute.

During the next two decades he continued to do whatever it took to make Burgess Hill a socially-cohesive and decent place so that, when finally in 1879, the first official Local Government was set up, known as the ‘Local Board’, he topped the list with the highest number of votes.  Tragically, however, he was struck down and died during an influenza epidemic in 1890.  All the great and the good from all around the local area came to his memorial service, and, it was estimated, around 2000 ordinary townspeople also came, including 100 persons of his own work force. It was mentioned during the service that he had made Church architecture, especially carved oak work, a special study and he was known for it far beyond his own county.

Simeon Norman’s high-calibre craftsmanship and his work towards improving local amenities were a powerful combination which raised the profile of Burgess Hill in the early decades of its existence. During his life time the town’s reputation broadened from the making and marketing of bricks to include the creation of the structural and decorative features in wood and stone which turn mere bricks into a desirable home. As Fred Avery recorded in a foreword to his work on Norman and Burt (below), a newspaper reporter observed in 1937, There was an old gag that Burgess Hill descended from the Normans. My own opinion is that it ascended from the Normans.

Simeon Norman’s marriage to Catherine Burt in 1856 had produced three sons, Simeon, Francis and Cecil and six daughters Catherine, Emily, Florence, Anna, Jessie and Alice.   After his death, in 1894 his firm was officially registered as Norman and Burt Ltd. His sons Simeon (1863-1934), Francis (1873-1952) and Cecil (1876-1952) joined the business in partnership with Henry Burt. Its high class internal and external workmanship was sought out for prestigious projects and for country house owners throughout the land and abroad. It also became one of the principal firms of Church restorers in the country. The trees that line the London Road were planted by the firm and they remain there today as a memorial to Henry Burt for his work as Chairman of the new Burgess Hill Urban District Council which was formed in the 1890s.

Sadly, the new unfussy, ‘60s style architecture dealt a body blow to the skills and the ethos of the company and by 1974 it was decided to close it down.  A consolation at least is that Norman and Burt’s archives were rescued by archivist Peter Wilkinson and team from West Sussex County Record Office.  After an 11^th hour tip-off, they had raced over from Chichester in a hastily-hired lorry and stood catching the bundles of documents which were thrown down as the building was being demolished around them. The content of these bundles is awesome – ranging over the whole scope of their work including the ecclesiastical and ‘country house’ restorations in which they worked with Sir Edwin Lutyens and other famous architects.  Although the trip to Chichester is tedious, the Record Office does permit digital photography (usually for a small fee) so one can at lest return home armed with a lot of material before the next trip becomes necessary.

While working on a year’s contract as an archivist at WSRO in 1978, Heather Warne was given the task of creating the preliminary list of this great collection, which has since been used by Fred Avery and Leon Figg for their study cited in the notes below. The archive will, without doubt, reward many future research projects; and it is to be hoped that someone will take up the challenge (see note below).

The following images show:

First, workers engaged in church restoration.

Second, the workforce of Norman & Burt outside the firm’s premises in London Road.

Simeon Norman, artist and early photographer, at his easel.

The main sources for this piece are:  C. D. Meads (‘Historicus’), Historical Notes of Burgess Hill  (Charles Clarke, Haywards Heath, 1891; A. H. Gregory, Burgess Hill through the Ages (Charles Clarke), pp. 85-89; and the research of F. Avery and Leon Figg, published as:  F. M. Avery, Norman and Burt: builders of renown, (B.H. Local History Society, Occasional papers no. 2), 2007.

By Stephanie Swaysland

Emily Temple (1811-1874) was our earliest Burgess Hill benefactress. She was only a resident of Burgess Hill for 12 years around the 1860s, living first on Fairplace Hill until her large, graceful house, St John’s House, was built on a large corner plot at the western end of Leylands Road. This was, sadly, knocked down in the 1960s. She was a very successful businesswoman, having shops in Regent Street, London and East Street, Brighton. Originally she was an artist and modeller of wax flowers. This business must have flourished for soon she was advertising her shops as selling, among other things, “the finest Dresden and Limoges china, Bohemian vases, bronzes, bisque figures, work and glove boxes in ormolu”.

Like other newcomers to the area, she became involved with the community life of the new town. Her first gift to the town was £100 towards the building of St John’s Church in the early 1860s. She had been a great friend of General Hall who had been a leading light in getting the new St. John’s Institute set up before it had its own premises. After his death she continued his work by dedicating the Burgess Hill land she seems to have inherited from him, to the townspeople for all time. She then spent over £1,000, a very large sum in those days, on building the new meeting place for the St. John’s Institute, now known as the Park Centre.

Emily Temple’s biggest personal legacy was the care she took to make sure that Burgess Hill should continue to benefit from her benefaction after her death. The various parts of the growing young town were still thought of separately, Fairplace, St. John’s Common, Worlds End and (the hill area) Burgess Hill. She therefore took care to be inclusive by referring to it all as St. John’s Common and its neighbourhood.  She therefore specified that    …. the new Reading Room and buildings connected therewith called the St. John’s Institute, which I have built in loving memory of the late General John Hall of the 19^th Hussars, with the appurtenances and all furniture and effects….[shall be held by trustees] …in trust that [they] and the survivors of them……. shall for ever after my decease hold  [the same] and shall for ever after my decease hold and permit [them] to be used and enjoyed, and also to keep up, improve, manage …… such hereditaments and premises, and every part thereof,  as a Public Park and Recreation Ground, Museum and Reading Room, and Refreshment Rooms, for the benefit of the inhabitants and visitors of St. John’s Common aforesaid and its neighbourhood, or for purposes connected therewith …

Madam Temple died on 24th August, 1874. Her funeral cortege was formed of a plumed hearse drawn by four horses, followed by four mourning coaches carrying members of her family and her Burgess Hill friends, including the Crundens of Oak Hall Park and Colonel Holden Rose.

The images below show: First, Emily Temple’s home, St John’s House from the back gardens. Its ground occupied the entire plot between St. John’s Avenue, Leyland’s Road, London Road and the Park. Second, the Park Centre (refaced), with the adjacent houses still showing their distinctive brickwork and third, the Green Circle memorial.

By Heather Warne

A.H. Gregory in his The Story of Burgess Hill, mentions that Emily Temple lived with General John Hall. The 1871 Census does name him as being at her house, at St. John’s House in Leylands Road on the Census date but simply calls him a ‘visitor’ there. Knowing the level of his involvement in Burgess Hill, it does seem likely that he would have been a frequent visitor. He was not from Sussex but was born in a village in Cambridgeshire, the second son of a family with land and position in their community. His body was returned for burial to the family home in Cambridgeshire after his death. As second son he had been trained for a military career and although he became his father’s heir when his elder brother died in 1812, he pursued his military path anyway. Later, from 1845 to 1848, he became the M.P. for Buckingham borough. His personal residence was in London and in the years that he was associated with Burgess Hill he was a widower.  There is a potted history of him on p. 11 of  “A Burgess Hill Benefactress below”.

Madame Temple, running her businesses under her own name, comes across as a very modern woman. Whatever the nature of her relationship with General Hall, it would not have raised eyebrows today. However, I believe that in previous accounts of her benefactions, his role in the founding of St. John’s Institute has been discreetly downplayed, which is a shame and perhaps not what she would have wanted. I hope I have made amends for that in the piece on Simeon Norman, where we see John Hall getting stuck into fundraising for the new ‘Institute’.  It was also he who owned the ‘cricket field’ which formed the initial gift to the Town as a public park. For Emily Temple, having inherited his Burgess Hill possessions at his death, it was clearly an urgent priority for her to donate them to the  town in his name.

It is a shame that we have no portrait of Madame Temple because we might have glimpsed something of an independent nature, prepared to tread her own path despite the mores of the age. All credit to the artist who created as her memorial the charming Victorian lady in formal dress on the Green Circle Art Trail. It serves as a reminder that the spirited self-determination of many Victorian women had to lie masked on the surface by the sheer formality of their dress.

(For the Green Circle Art trail, see also: Royal visits)

This account is based upon C. D. Meads (‘Historicus’) Historical Notes of Burgess Hill from 1828-1891 and on Pat Farrell & Shirley Penny, Occasional paper no.1, Emily Temple, A Burgess Hill Benefactress (BHLHS, 2005).

By Stephanie Swaysland and Fred Avery

John Charles Bee-Mason MBE (1874-1957) filmmaker, explorer and naturalist moved to Burgess Hill in the 1920s, living first in Inholmes Park Road and then at Queensmead, Folders Lane. In retirement he moved to Santos, no. 20 Junction Road, and finally ended his days at Dene Hollow Hotel in London Road.

During the First World War he became a war photographer travelling to France, Belgium and Russia. He joined Shackleton’s final voyage to the Antarctic in 1921-2, Oxford University’s Arctic Expedition in 1924 and Algarsson-Worsley’s British Arctic Expedition in 1925-6. Also in 1926, during the General Strike, he volunteered to help out on the railways and was sent to man the signal box at Portslade. In a spot of bother with the local Strike Committee, he was completely undaunted and defended himself by brandishing his 10-inch seal expedition knife! Then in 1927 he joined the ‘Green Hell’ expedition across the Bolivian jungles.

In the early 1900s he had developed an interest in cinematography and he became a bee-keeper. His earliest films were devoted to bees. One of his most famous, The Bee’s Eviction (1909) shows him, unprotected, releasing swarms of bees. Another film made in 1911 The Life of Honey Bees showed the inner workings of a hive.   At this time he was living in Suffolk.  He was an advocate for the curative properties of honey and legally changed his name to Bee-Mason. He even did an act on the Music halls covered in his beloved bees. During the Second World War, now living in Burgess Hill, he was engaged by the Admiralty to supply honey to the submarine crews – hundred-weights at first, but later in 1943 he supplied tons. In 1943 he got all his bee-keeping friends to help donate 14 cwt. and for this he was awarded the M.B.E.

After the War, starting with 50 hives, he kept his bees on the land on which the Oakhall Park housing estate now stands. In 1949, he was invited to stand in the Burgess Hill local elections and became an independent councillor. In April 1953, then aged 78, alleging corruption in the allocation of Council houses, he demanded to be speak but was refused on the grounds it was a ‘private’, not a Council matter.  Local historian, Mark Dudeney (see below) cites a national newspaper report of the day‘….. passers-by were startled to see one of their elected members being physically ejected from the chambers by an officer of the law and then marched up to the police station where he was charged with disorderly behaviour….’  But he subsequently refused to be silenced and spent 3 spells in prison. During his last time in prison his health deteriorated and he was transferred to hospital where he died, age 82.  In 1017 a beautiful mosaic celebrating his life was installed in Hammonds Ridge meadow on the south section of the town’s ‘Green Circle’ route.

The following images show: First, Bee Mason during his time as a councillor. Second, as a beekeeper, happy amid a swarm of bees. (Source, A. H. Gregory, The Story of Burgess Hill and Mid Sussex through the Ages: Charles Clarke, 1933 & 1938). The third, taken at the unveiling ceremony in 2017, shows artist, Alan Potter explaining how his mosaic represents the story of Mason’s life.

This account is based on details in John Bray, The Life and times of J.C. Mason, MBE  (Burgess Hill, Private publication), 2009. For some of the details of the rumpus in the Council Chamber which led to his arrest, see Mason’s life in M. Dudeney and E. Hallett, Byegone Days in Burgess Hill, (Mid Sussex Books, Burgess Hill 2003), pp. 29-31

By Heather Warne

The firm ‘Norris Brothers’ of Burgess Hill is remembered today for designing the ‘Bluebird’ super-fast car and boats which broke the land and water speed records.  It was Kenneth and Lewis Norris born in 1921 and 1924 respectively, generally known as Ken and Lew, who took the step of setting up their own business after forming a working friendship with Donald Campbell when he was intent on breaking the World water speed record.

Ken and Lew were the two youngest of eight children born to William and Florence Norris (née Purchall), who had met in London when William was a gas fitter. After moving to Burgess Hill, he became the manager of the Gas works in Leylands Road, and they at first lived in the house on the gas works site but later moved to the house called Mill Rise, near the bottom of Mill Road. The older boys, Walter, Eric, Leslie and Philip were all educated at Brighton and Hove Grammar School, (now the Brighton and Hove 6^th Form College) but Ken and Lew, went to Lewes County School for Boys. During World War II, three of the older brothers were actively engaged in military service. One of them, Philip had already learnt to fly in his spare time at Shoreham Aerodrome, so, at the age of 22, he was automatically enlisted when war broke out. He flew Hurricanes with great success in 213 Squadron in the Battle of Britain but, sadly, he was shot down and killed over Portland Bill in Dorset. After his body was recovered, he was buried in the Military Cemetery at Etaples, Pas de Calais, France. Sixty years later he was honoured in a special service held at Burgess Hill to remember all those who had served in the Battle of Britain.  Two of the eight children were girls, Bertha (Birdie) and Joan and they also received good educations at Brighton Technical College and Varndean School in Brighton.

On leaving school in 1938, Ken joined the firm Armstrong and Whitworth Aircraft in Coventry and later went on to Imperial College, London where he qualified in aeronautical engineering in 1951. Around this time, encouraged by his oldest brother Walter, he was drawn towards motor engine design.  Lew leant rather toward boat design.  He had trained in marine engineering and then worked for Harland and Wolfe in the east end of London as a mechanical engineer.  Moving to Kine Engineering in Surrey, he was introduced by the owner of the firm, Ted Meldrum, to one of the directors, Donald Campbell.  Campbell was then working on his unsuccessful attempt on the water speed record and Lew assisted with some of the design work for his speed boat. At this time Campbell was aiming for what he called ‘the 200 mph. water barrier’.

Lew then proposed to Ken that they should make a proper go of motor engineering and set up their own company, at which point their and their elder brother Eric, a professionally-trained accountant, decided to join them. He had also worked at Kine Engineering and he knew Donald Campbell.  Thus it was that the original Norris Brothers partnership was established in 1949. In 1952 their engineering consultancy called Norris Brothers Ltd. was first established in offices above the old auction rooms in Haywards Heath but soon moved to a suite above the Mid Sussex Building Society, in Church Walk, Burgess Hill (more recently the T.S.B). At a party thrown by Donald Campbell, it is said that he turned to them and said, ‘Now that you’re together, how about designing me a car?’  it was this that was designed in Burgess Hill. Their friend Bob Gilchrist, Secretary of the Building Society, recalled that, once the project was under way, he often saw Donald Campbell walk in and up the stairs to the office. Ken also designed the miniature Pye Micro Switch which became a World leader, from household appliances up to large passenger aircraft.

Between them, the Norris brothers were skilled enough to tackle both for land- and water-based designs.  Between 1955 and 1964, when Campbell was trying to improve his water-speed records, they created the jet-powered hydroplane, Bluebird K7 to this end. The team subsequently achieved 7 water speed records altogether. The first was at Lake Ullswater (202.15 mph.), then at Lake Mead (216.20 mph.). By modifying the tail fin, to reduce hydrodynamic lift, they achieved four more records at 225 mph. in 1955, 239 in 1957, 248 in 1958 and 260 in 1958, all at Coniston Water.

Campbell then turned his attention to the land-speed record, relying for the design on Ken Norris who produced hundreds of detailed hand-drawn plans. The resulting car was the gas turbine-powered Proteus CN7. It was designed to aircraft standards and its unique ‘honeycomb sandwich’ structure in aluminium was designed with driver safety in mind. It is still the basis of crash protection in the Formula 1 racing cars.  In September 1960 Bluebird had crashed at 300+mph., flying through the air and bouncing three times, from which Campbell emerged with only minor injuries.  And eventually on 17^th July 1964, after two frustrating years in adverse conditions in the Australian deserts, he found success on the dry bed of Lake Eyre, at 403.1mph., breaking the land speed record.

He had one more success in Australia, breaking the water speed record on 31 December 1964 where he did three runs at 269. 3, 276.3 and 283.3 mph., completing the last one at 2 hours before midnight. This made him the only person to achieve both the water and the land speed record in the same year. The record itself meant that the Norris brothers had contributed to 8 World speed records on land and water. The final attempt was on 4^th January 1967, in which Bluebird became airborne and crashed, causing Donald Campbell’s death. Attempts to find a firm cause for the accident were inconclusive but it was judged not to have been a design flaw in the boat itself.  It was rather the choppy conditions of that day, which made the boat judder from side to side in a skewed motion and caused Campbell instinctively to throttle back. But it was this loss of speed in itself which set the fatal lift in motion and rendered the safety water-brake useless, as the boat was already in the air.

As well as designing the Bluebird car in which Donald Campbell achieved the land speed record they also worked on other developments. They invented the ‘inertia reel principle’, that causes car seat belts to spring back into their holster when released, rather than just trailing on the floor as the earlier products had done. However, they lost their rights of ‘intellectual property’ in the design and it went into production by the firm which had commercially produced the plans, a loss they always bitterly regretted.

In retirement Ken contributed material for the book by Arthur Knowles and Graham Beech, The Bluebird Years: the pursuit of speed. He died on the 1st October 2005 aged 83 years.  Lew retired to Alderney in the Channel Islands but regularly flew himself back to Sussex via Shoreham airport. He died on the 13th February 2009, aged 84 years.

Personal recollections from those who worked for Norris Brothers in the firm’s heyday remember it as a ‘paternalistic’ company who cared about their staff. Annual free trips to the local pantomimes for the families of the staff are fondly remembered. Burgess Hill resident, Michael Pepper, who was taken on as an apprentice aged 16, on the strength of liking Meccano and having built a garden shed in the summer holidays, remained with them all his working life. He went on to be their sales rep. throughout the world – that rare and invaluable type of rep. who thoroughly understands the scientific properties of what is being sold.

Despite achieving great fame for their designs, their admirers were at pains to stress that success had by no means gone to their heads. As one account ran…If the designer Ken Norris was one of the modest, unsung heroes of land and water record breaking, his brother Lewis was even more self-effacing.  And, completing the picture…Neither brother went in for self-aggrandisement and their sense of humour was reflected in their choice of personal car. Ken had a blue Ford Consul company car and Lew chose pink!  Burgess Hill Town Council has commemorated their achievements by installing a Blue Plaque on the wall of their former office in Church Walk. There is also a modern art installation representing the Bluebird car in the Green Circle Public Art Trail. (west side north of the cemetery) which, though it lacks the fluidity of the real car, will nevertheless help to keep the memory of the firm’s achievements alive.

The following images show: first, the family at home, Ken and Lew sitting on the floor. Second, the house in Mill Road. Third, Norris Brothers and staff with the model car – a wind tunnel model, and fourth, Donald Campbell with Bluebird in Australia.

My thanks are due to Philip and Angela Norris of Burgess Hill and to a third Norris relative, Sally Bannister for their information and help.  The speed record details were found on the web site, Independent.c.ul/obituaries  – but they did contradict each other in a few places. However, this text has now been agreed, with additions (which I have encorporated), by Donald Stevens, a lifelong employee of the firm. He mentions that he himself suggested some of the critical design modifications which were applied to the car between 1955 and 1964. His book on the ‘Bluebird CN7 is published by Veloce. Expanded copies are available from him via email from brindles@uwclub.net.

Michael Pepper, a Burgess Hill resident, has also shared with us his personal reflections as a life-time employee of Norris Brothers. These reveal that the firm went on to market many more of their own inventions. We hope that he may be able to publish these memoirs in the future; and finally, my Burgess Hill electrician Jo Sobkowiak whose father was an employee of Norris Brothers, recalled that the Christmas pantomimes were a happy and memorable part of his childhood!