Bibliography - History: {1918-1939} - Interwar
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Settlement in Sussex, 1840-1940, by W.H. Parker, published March 1950 in Geography (vol. 35, no. 1, article, pp.9-20)

Three Sussex ports, 1850-1950, by H.C. Brookfield, published 1955 in Journal of Transport History (vol. 2, no. 1, article, p.35)

Modern houses in Britain, 1919-1939 (Architectural history monographs), by Jeremy Gould, published 1977 (65 pp., Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9024] & West Sussex Libraries

Inter-war housing policy: a study of Brighton, by P. Dickens and P. Gilbert, published 1981 in Southern History (vol. 3, article, pp.201-231)

Midhurst Common in the Thirties, by Thelma Pearce, published July 1993 in Midhurst Magazine (Volume 5 Number 4, article, pp.25-27, Summer 1993) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15968]

Extract from a letter to the Chairman of the Campaign to Save Midhurst Common. Description of the Common in the 1930s and 1940s including the housing of prisoners of war.

A Chat with Mr and Mrs Purdew, by F J-D [Mrs D.V.F Johnson-Davies], published October 1995 in Midhurst Magazine (Volume 8 Number 1, article, pp.16-21, Autumn 1995) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15968]

The memories of Alfie and Mary Purdew of Sussex in the inter-war years, and into the 1940s.

The Willow Herb Walk, published July 1997 in Midhurst Magazine (Volume 9 Number 4, article, pp.25-26, Summer 1997) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15969]

Guide of a walk in Midhurst taken from 'Walks around Midhurst' published by Rev. Frank Tatchell in 1934.

One Salute Too Many, by J F Ainsworth, published October 1997 in Midhurst Magazine (Volume 10 Number 1, article, pp.31-33, Autumn 1997) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15969]

Memories of a visit to Germany in 1936, and observing first hand the impact of Hitler's rise to power. Mr Ainsworth was a teenager in 1936.

From soldier to peasant ? The land settlement scheme in East Sussex, 1919-1939, by Carol A. Lockwood, published 1998 in Albion (vol. 30, no. 3, article, pp.439-462)

Common Meeting Places and the Brightening of Rural Life: Local Debates on Village Halls in Sussex after the First World War, by Keith Grieves, published October 1999 in Rural History (vol. 10, issue 2, article, pp.171-192, ISSN: 0956-7933)   View Online

In the burgeoning literature on war memorials and the commemoration of the war dead in Britain after 1918, the growth of village halls in rural areas has not been extensively analysed. K.S. Inglis has alerted us to the dichotomy of monuments to mourn the dead and amenities to serve the living. He noted that where a preference was made for utility over monumentality, local war memorial committees did not confine their attention to commemorating those who died on active service and made the Great Sacrifice, but also had in mind those who served and returned. The complex locally-determined processes of negotiating ways which would bring solace or comfort to the bereaved, through the creation of an object of mourning, has been examined with great care and detail, but analysis of urban-centred initiatives predominates.
Consequently, the linkage which might be made between the experience of war and the participation of ex-servicemen in village war memorial debates, the demise of old elites and the quest for improved social and material conditions in rural areas, the diminishing support for parish churches as the focal point of community life and the emergence of undenominational social centres, all point towards the need for further examination of the proceedings of local committees, where parish records allow. As British participation in the Great War contained the powerful rhetoric of a religious crusade and was not connected to the improvement of social conditions until the publication of war aims in January 1918, many committees gave priority to the creation of sacred objects of mourning, with much use of exhortatory moral language and Christian iconography.

Investigating local war memorial committees: demobilised soldiers, the bereaved and expressions of local pride in Sussex villages, 1918-1921, by Keith Grieves, published 2000 in Local Historian (vol. 30, no. 1, article, pp.39-58)   View Online

Six case-studies: Slinfold, Warnham, Ashurst, Salehurst, East Chiltington and Angmering.

Hastings voices: Local people talking about their lives in Hastings and St Leonards before the Second World War, by Hastings Local History Group, published 1 January 2002 (2nd edition, 64 pp., Hastings, ISBN-10: 0952976641 & ISBN-13: 9780952976646) accessible at: British Library & East Sussex Libraries

A Rye childhood in the 1920s: the personal story of life and times in the small historically interesting town of Rye in the years 1923-1932, by Noel C.A. Care, published 2003 (Hastings: Hastings and Rother Family History Society) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries