Viva Lewes June 2015 Issue #105

Photo by Emma Chaplin
my newhaven
brian newbury
Are you local? I’ve been living in Iford since
1985, working in Newhaven the whole time. I
was brought up on a dairy farm in West Sussex,
where my grandfather was tenant farmer. I moved
to Burgess Hill to become a car mechanic in 1970,
then began work for Dronhaven Motors in this
very building. But, after the petrol crisis in 1975,
they ceased trading. I did a sideways step into
marine engineering, working for Metrec, as crew
on tugs and salvage work. In 1982 I started doing
welding repairs for the fishing fleet and in 1990
I took on John Robbins boat-building company,
and I’ve been here ever since. With three members
of staff I’ve built 55 steel boats: 48 fishing
boats – trawlers and cockle dredgers, two yachts
and five workboats. Our last boat was a steel yacht
for the opera singer Emily Turton, ‘Huskyan’, Orcadian
for ‘strong one’. It’s now in Orkney. I’m
retiring at the end of May.
What will retirement hold? I’ll get odd jobs
done at home and catch up with things I should
have been doing: shed mending and painting, and
decorating. I’ll take on some gardening jobs. I also
enjoy fishing and shooting, but just for the pot.
What have you most enjoyed about boat building?
The satisfaction of producing a working
craft for mainly owner/skippers. The really exciting
bit of boat building is forming the basic hull,
but the small details at the end get a bit tedious.
What’s your local? The Abergavenny Arms in
Rodmell. It’s cheered up in recent years. I like
their steak, and my wife Jan (who is also our company
secretary) likes their veggie stuff.
What’s your poison? Harvey’s Best.
What do you like about Iford? I love the Flower
Show (Saturday 11 July this year) – I’ve been entering
veg for the last 25 years. My onions were
Best in Show! I make cider too, and every autumn
we hold an Apple Festival in the village, pressing
local apples into juice.
What do you like about Newhaven? I love
Newhaven. I’ve been here a long time. I knew it
when it was a bustling port. Fifty fishing vessels
and regular cargo ships carrying meat and veg
from Argentina and the Canaries in the harbour.
Anything you don’t like? I’ve seen it change
over the years. They turned the town into a huge
roundabout when they put the ring road in. We
don’t even have a bank here now. Brighton dumps
its rubbish here via the incinerator, as well as their
sewage in Peacehaven.
How would you spend a perfect Sunday? A
nice trip to the pub with Jan. A bit of socialising
with friends. We both like cooking - I smoke my
own salmon. We also both like walking, anywhere
different really. Interview by Emma Chaplin
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