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The Bine water mill, a windmill, farmland and the property in West Street, Storrington, that Henry and Jane JOYES took over in 1855 had previously been owned by Jane's grandfather George HARDS and managed by her father William Henry MARSHALL. When Henry and Jane moved from Ewhurst to Storrington they already had three young children, Jane, Henry Marshall and John, a baby of six months. A further seven children were born at the West Street house: Rosa [died in infancy] Ellen, Albert William, Edgar Walter, Matilda, Hugh, Emma.
Besides being a miller and farmer Henry JOYES was a wood and coal merchant. He had a large barn in West Street by the house which was a storage depot for wood, coal and corn. A small donkey carried laden sacks between the mill on Bine common and the barn and a narrow walled lane leading to West Street became known as Donkey Lane or Joyes Twitten.
In 1871, the windmill, which had been left running overnight, caught fire and was completely destroyed. It was an event long remembered by the local inhabitants. In 1875 the eldest daughter Jane married Thomas Cameron,a draper of Peckham.
The eldest son Henry Marshall JOYES was apprenticed to an iron monger. Later he bought an iron mongery and grocery shop in Storrington Square. It was here that he and his wife Alice BIRD [from Hemel Hempstead] lived with their young children, Elsie, Arthur and Rupert. Alice died after the birth of another son who did not survive either. Henry Marshall remarried, to Jane DOWNER the daughter of a Kirdford farmer. A daughter Una was born and a year later he sold the business to James GREENFIELD and moved to larger premises at Pulborough.
When the father Henry JOYES moved his milling business to Fittleworth his second son John took over the Storrington properties. He and his wife Ellen [West] had two children, a son Frank Edward and a daughter Kathleen Mary known as Kitty. John JOYES took an active role in the affairs of Storrington and served as a councillor.
John Joyes' cart outside his barn at the end of the street,
next to the Joyes house and bakery.
John JOYES recalls
In 1929 John JOYES, then an old man, contributed notes on the village and its inhabitants for a booklet on Storrington by Maude D Petre. He was able to recall the time when the daily post was brought from a depot at Hurstpierpoint to Storrington, hauled on a sledge by dogs. It saddened him that items crafted by the local shoemaker, cooper, glove-maker etc were being replaced by factory made ware.
He described a time when fairs were held in the village in May and November. "The square used to be full of tents selling toys, sweets and other things, shooting galleries etc." "When our late King Edward was married, I think it was March 1863 [I was nine years old] a celebration took place in almost all the villages. I can so well remember it , feeling so proud of being a torch-bearer and marching in procession to the top of the Downs, where a big fire was lighted and the people amused themselves by singing and dancing around it, and you could see fires burning for miles around". He also recalled that there had been sixty working windmills within a radius of ten miles; but not one still in use by 1929.
Like his father Frank JOYES became a miller. He married Alice SHORT a farmer's daughter from Findon. They had two sons, John Albert, 'Jack', and Richard, 'Dick'. [Dick JOYES emigrated to Australia] Frank served as the treasurer of the Storrington Cricket Club. His wife Alice ran a little seed shop in High Street. Years later the widowed Alice and her sister in law Kitty shared two semi-detached houses built in West Street on the site of the old barn.
The graves of John, Ellen, Frank and Kathleen are in the Storrington churchyard. There is also a headstone for Henry Marshall and his first wife Alice and two of Henry Marshall's infant sons from his two marriages.
The Bakery, West Street
At some stage a little bakery shop had been built out from the front of the West street house.
William H Marshall, Henry Joyes' father-in-law, who previously ran the Bine water and wind mills, was named as a baker in 1840. William Marshall had married the daughter of George Hards, the owner of the mills and residence in West Street.
In 1850 William Marshall's own daughter Jane married Henry Joyes. Five years later they acquired the Storrington properties with a legacy left to Jane from her grandfather George Hards.
Another business enterprise generated from milling was the making of malt. The JOYES family used the malt house in Back Lane in Storrington and one between Brewers Yard and the mill pond according to Florence M. Greenfield in her book "Round about Old Storrington"
Florence Greenfield was one of the few Storringtonians at the end of the 1900s, who could remember some of the JOYES family members. As a child she liked to watch through the low malthouse windows as the maltster carefully turned the barley grain spread across the damp malthouse floor, using a broad wooden shovel, to ensure even germination. At the right stage of growth the grain was moved to the end of the building where it was gradually heated in the kiln before being screened and stored for later use in brewing beer.
The old village brew house in Brewers Yard was no longer in use for its original purpose, but rather as a coach house, when Brewers Yard was purchased by Henry Marshall JOYES in 1880. The brewhouse and surrounding cottages have all been refurbished and are now desirable residences in the heart of the village.
Cricket on Ice
Storringtonians loved the game of cricket and during winters, when the village ponds froze, fun games of cricket were sometimes held. On 7th January 1891 such a game was played on the Chantry mill pond and reported in The Sporting Life. There were two teams of fifteen a side, led by the miller Henry Crowshurst and Ernest Hammond, proprietor of the White Horse Hotel. On this occasion all players were required to wear top hats which added to the fun. [John JOYES made 7 runs for the Hammond team] At the conclusion of the game the Storrington band headed the cricket players as they marched to the White Horse for an evening of conviviality.
Here are the match statistics for that game. Were any of your ancestors playing that day?
