wrote on 30 August 2013
at
2:09 pm
An add on was a mention of the colourful man Dave Milham who kicked Isfield off. A very funny,dodgy articulate, charasmatic 'geezer'who I thoroughly liked unlike some others!! His version, one of many stories I could relay,of the day of the auction of the derelict Isfield stn, he'd gone along with his wife just to have a day out, and no purpose to buy.He said to her, what price would you pay for it?and she said whimsically £50000? When the bidding reached that figure, he said, 'well, go on then', she put her hand up in a reactionary way, and to her relief was outbid for £50500, 'one more' he said, and one very run down stn, and a mile of track was owned. Dave and his family sat in the 'Fish' pub next door, and with glazed expressions they all said 'what the f*^~*"g hell are we going to do now? Build houses? Wait and sell it as an investment? Live there? His son said turn it into a preserved railway? Even though Dave knew nothing about railways local history was born. A locomotive from Turkey , and a pullman coach were bought amongst other artefacts.Unfortunately not with us anymore, I miss his character. Regards again Rich