Shelley the Lifeboat Labrador (7 page)

I remember once staying at The Farness Hotel in Thanet.  I had rather taken to staying there.  It was situated on the cliff tops by the North Foreland lighthouse near Broadstairs.  My late parents lived in Thanet when they first met and I had many happy holidays in my childhood staying with my grandparents at St Peters. When my father met my mother he was so in love that he cycled from Walton on Thames to Broadstairs (over 120 miles each way) most weekends. How’s that for true love? 

The hotel was run by a person called Lee Silcox whom I had known when living at Hythe in Kent.  He was a great character full of life and could engage in long Gin and Tonic sessions when given the right opportunity.  I recall on several occasions still being at the bar when the milkman was delivering the early morning milk.  At any opportunity I would always find an excuse to work the Thanet patch and stay at the hotel.  I always had the same room overlooking the channel. Shelley was always made welcome and I became part of the family. Another advantage was that Lee always wrote my bills out by hand to suit my requirements re my company expenses. What days they were!

On one occasion I stayed up rather too late and made my way to bed about 2am.  Lee had locked up and gone home to his house up the road.  I managed to get to my room with Shelley helping me and got undressed and climbed into bed.  About an hour later I decided I needed to spend a penny and went to the bathroom.  A couple of minutes later I realised I had gone out of my room into the hall and the door had closed behind me.  There I was naked with Shelley by my feet looking up in the dark in a daze wondering what to do. 

After a while I found the store room and linen cupboard combined and decided it would be best to climb into the linen basket and go to sleep as it was cold and the middle of winter.  Shelley joined me – the next thing we knew was a loud gruff voice asking what had happened.  It was Kay the housekeeper; she was a wonderful kind lady who did the work more out of pleasure than anything else.  Having been given a towel to attire my-self she kindly   opened the bedroom door and Shelley and myself closed it behind us.   Needless to say the hotel dined out on this story for many years.  More about the Fairness later!

Life in Shoreham was becoming a real enjoyment and I was spending a lot of time with several members of the Lifeboat Crew.  Every Sunday morning we all met down the boathouse for a chat and to do work. This was then followed by a visit to The Lighthouse Club which was situated near the boathouse.  It was a sort of beach club with a nice bar.  I think the crew used it because they got their drinks cheaper and sometimes ones drinking hours were extended.  Frankly it was not my favourite place and I preferred using the Royal Sovereign Pub in Shoreham.  As it happened several years later the son of the owner of the Lighthouse club went a little over the top and murdered his parents there – it of course made national news!

The Royal Sovereign became the crew’s watering hole. It was a small pub tucked down a side street and there was a car park next to it so if we had a shout for the lifeboat we could make our way down there quickly.  The pub was run by Ron and Judy Binstead – what a magic couple.  The walls were adorned by cartoons of the locals all drawn by a local artist called Griff (or Gordon) as he preferred to be called.  It was a well run establishment and everyone seemed to know each other.  There were the airport types, the commuters, the all day drinkers and us the lifeboat crew.                                           

Stories that one could write about this establishment would fill a book and one never knew what was going to happen or who one was going to meet. I recall the Actor Oliver Reed coming into the bar one day with his son and drinking very large doubles. 

I remember walking in one day and seeing Brian and Joyce Patterson from Langford’s in Hove only to find out that they had moved to Shoreham Beach. This resulted in an influx of visitors from my Langford’s days most Saturday lunchtimes.  It was paradise for Shelley and she was treated like royalty.  All knew her and she found a regular little hideaway tucked under one of the bar stools.  Sunday was her favourite time as Ron and Judy always put cheese portions, biscuits and hot roast potatoes out for the customers. As far as Shelley was concerned she was the most important regular which at times resulted in her overstepping her limitations.                                                                                                                                          

By then the crew had all been given bleepers and if there was a shout the bleepers went off.  One day unknown to us there was a fireman sitting at the bar and he had a bleeper that was not linked to our network. Suddenly a bleeper went off and before we knew it Peter Lowe, Mike Fox ,Chris Fox and myself with Shelley in tow all made a dash for the door leaving our pints and running down to the bottom of the road to stop the traffic hoping to get a lift to the boathouse at Southwick.

The breathalyser had come into being by then so driving was out of the question.  On arrival at the boathouse there was no one apart for the on duty ILB crew for that weekend and there had been no call.  We were kindly driven back to the Sovereign and greeted by a round of applause by all and sundry.  Shelley loved the shouts and I think got as much pleasure out of them as we did  - not knowing what car she was going in – not knowing who she was going to meet in the process and what was going to happen next.

I made some great friends in the crew and to this day we are still close.  One thing about the RNLI is that you become a family and once accepted (which can take a while) you are then made part of it.                                                                                                                               

End of Chapter Nine

EARLY LIFEBOAT DAYS AT SHOREHAM – CHAPTER 10

The time had arrived for us to make a move from Ted and Joan’s bungalow.  It had been fun but Ted had now retired and their impromptu parties and drinking was now becoming more than one could sadly cope with. They really meant well but their lifestyle had changed and I felt it was time to find a place that I could call my own.  I still could not afford to purchase anything. 

A friend phoned me to say there was a nice lady in her late seventies who lived in Shoreham and she wanted to rent the upstairs of her house.  It had already been turned into a small self contained flat with bedroom, lounge, and Kitchen.  She loved dog’s having had one of her own for many years.

I popped over to see Molly (as she was known) and all seemed ideal to me.  It was not the best of flats but was comfortable and had a garden out the back for Shelley.  I decided to move and before I realised it one of the lifeboat crew a Roger Grant had all my belongings loaded into his van helping me settle in.  One of the things I was to find out being part of the team at Shoreham was that they all helped each other!

Molly really took to Shelley and it was not long before they had formed a bond. I think this was mostly due to goodies.  Molly was one of those people who had enjoyed a life having come from a theatrical background and was very well known in Shoreham being one of its characters.  For some reason everyone I met seemed to like a drink or two and Molly was no exception.  Her pals were close to her and she was never short of company.  There were many pubs in Shoreham and she had her regular haunts. She did not drink a lot but went out to meet people and Shoreham was the place to do just that. We both settled into our hew abode which was to become our home for the next two years.

My work was going well but like most things there were changes happening and new ideas meant new bosses which in the long term resulted in new rules. Sadly, some of which I did not approve of.  I have often wondered why it is that so many companies alter things when new management arrives.         

All was going well and there was a great team there. The changes caused frustration which in the long term resulted in staff leaving and moving to new posts with different organisations.                                                                      

I have seen it happen many times and as is often the case the changes don’t work out which results in the company loses some well respected and established staff and is never the same again.  Things seemed to go from good to bad and it was not long before I was headhunted and joined another company.

The new company had a first class team and was part of an American group. The management were fun and showed respect for what one did.  My boss was a chap called Keith Barrett and he helped me out over the years proving that friendship was also important (we are still good friends now and Keith lives in Australia).

The lifeboat was now becoming a part of everyday life.  My friendship with Chris and Mike Fox and their cousin Peter Lowe grew.  One thing as I mentioned earlier is that lifeboat crews often are steeped in family tradition.  Mike and Chris were well respected crew members and their late father was Coxswain of the boat for many years.  Our social life was around the lifeboat and if we were not down the boathouse we were out for a drink together.  Raising funds for the RNLI also played an important part in our life so we used to go to a lot of events.

Once a year the RNLI had a ‘Flag Day’ and we used to set off in Shoreham with the idea of visiting every pub to collect money.  Shelley loved this because it gave her an opportunity to meet a lot of people and do her crisp party trick.  She even partook of the odd saucer of best British ale!

The idea of this one epic day was to see who could collect the most in their lifeboat box.  We all signed in at the community centre were we were given the boxes and sent off by all the fundraising team.  It became a free for all when we got into each pub with each of us trying hard to get the most customers and the most money.  I had a little head start due to Shelley who used her charms to the full with a collecting box attached to her collar.  There was also the promise that we had to have a drink in each pub set up by Peter Lowe.

It was fine till about 2pm then things began to catch up on most of us. As was often the case we lost each other on route. My weak bladder meant I spent more time in the toilet than out. This resulted in Shelley having a lot of new owners and me having to try and find which pub they had gone into next.  Mike Fox loved his Guinness and once he became a little merry he started to    stutter hence his requests for money to go into his box took longer than most! 

We ended up at the Sussex Yacht Club where we were made most welcome.  Being a lifeboat crew member gave one free membership to the club which was very useful as the drinks were a lot cheaper than in other places and it had a great view across the river.  By the time we left to take our boxes back to be counted it was opening time again so we diverted into the Royal Sovereign.  It was then decided whoever was the most sober had to take the boxes back to the community centre whilst we waited for the result. As expected it was always Peter Lowe who collected the most.  He had a way with landlords and even more so with their wives that we did not. 

As normal Mike Fox would fall asleep on his brother’s shoulder. I would try to start a bit of a sing song which always fell on deaf ears whilst the others would creep off one by one or wait to be collected by their wives (who always dreaded this day every year).  Yes! On reflection it was fun, a lot of money was raised, the hangovers seemed to last for days and it resulted in some good editorial for the local Shoreham Herald.  As for Shelley she for some reason found her favourite place in the Sovereign under the chair snoring from time to time with an air of complete contentment. What more could one ask for?                                                                                               

Every time there was a lifeboat call I went. Sometimes if it was night time I knew Shelley would be fine back at Molly’s and if it was day time she always came with me.  Being more involved in the launching of the Off Shore boat our time was spent back at the boathouse. This was ideal for her to swim at the foot of the slipway or retrieve her sticks bringing them back into the crew room; spraying all and sundry. 

As time went on I became a crew member of the inshore lifeboat so spent a lot of weekends on standby at the boathouse.  It was ideal once again for us both as most of the day was spent on the beach or in the crew room.  If we had a shout I could leave Shelley back in the crew room without any worries. She had got to know most of the crew by then so any that turned up to see what was happening were always greeted by her. 

The car was a delight for Shelley and she was a good traveller spending any time she could on the back seat, either looking out of the window or fast asleep.  It always amazed me wherever we went that once we were about a mile from home she would wake up and her tail would wag and a wine of excitement would echo from the back seat.  It was the same when we drove to the boathouse when we were about 200 yards from it she knew where she was.  The door of the car would open and off she would go to the foot of the slip to retrieve more sticks or prove to us that she had been brave enough to go and get her feet wet.