According to their granddaughter Pauline Wilson, Horace and Sarah Luff came to Steep Village Stores in the early 1930s. They had previously been at Loxwood in West Sussex. They came when their daughter Audrey Luff gained a place at Petersfield High School for Girls.
Horace Edward Luff had been born on 13th September 1879 in the Fernhurst district of Sussex, the son of Edward and Elizabeth Luff. In 1881 Horace’s father Edward Luff (born 1853 in Fernhurst) was 28 years old and a farmer of a sizeable farm of 180 acres employing 3 men and 2 boys. Horace’s mother Elizabeth had been born in 1860 in Kirdford/Plaistow. The couple were living with their young children, Horace and his sister Lilian, at Bridgeland House in Fernhurst.
Ten years later Horace’s family had moved to Fox Street in Kirdford in the Petworth district. By then, they had five children and his father Edward was a stockman on a farm. Horace was at school. By the age of 20 years in 1901, Horace had left home and was living with the family of his uncle Walter Pennecard aged 56, at Plaistow Common. Walter was a grocer and draper and his nephew Horace had become a baker and bread maker. No doubt he was producing supplies for his uncle’s shop.
Perhaps it was with this family that Horace acquired knowledge of the skills of bakery and running a grocery business, which he would later use at Steep Village Stores.
During WW1 Horace served in the army as a private, at first with the Royal Fusiliers and then with the Labour Corps. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
Sarah Randall had been born around 1894 in Plaistow in Sussex. In 1914 she married Ernest G. Elsey in the Horsham district. Sarah and Ernest had two sons, (William) Gordon born in 1914 and Ernest Henry George born in 1917. Very sadly, like millions of others, husband and father Ernest became a casualty of WW1 and was killed, leaving the young Sarah a widow and the little boys fatherless.
On 30th October 1920 Horace Edward Luff, grocer and bachelor of Lodsworth, aged 40 years, married the widowed Sarah. They married at St John the Baptist church at Loxwood. Horace’s brother Archibald was one of the witnesses, along with Ernest Randall.
By 1921 Horace and Sarah were together with the two young boys at the grocer’s shop in the High Street at Lodsworth in Sussex. Soon after this they had a daughter named Audrey who was born on 14th January 1922. And by the time Audrey was old enough for secondary school, the Luff family had moved to Steep Village Stores in the early 1930s. She attended Petersfield High School for Girls. Her step brother (William) Gordon was privately educated at Seven Oaks School; he later worked for the Nat West bank for all his life and never married.
The Luff family were still at Steep Village shop in 1939. Horace was the grocer and baker. His stepson, 22 year old Ernest Elsey, was a roundsman and 17 year old Audrey was a dressmaker. Pauline also records that her mother Audrey used to deliver bread and groceries locally in a three wheeler van.
It is interesting to note that at this time there seem to have been two shops in Steep, for 67 year old Florence Green was still operating as a general shop keeper from the house next to the Cricketers Inn. Older villagers remember going to buy sweets from ‘Ma Green’.
On 24th November 1945 twenty three year old Audrey Luff married post office engineer Ronald Wilson aged 25 years at Steep church. Audrey’s mother Sarah was one of the witnesses. The young couple at first lived at Steep Village Stores with Audrey’s parents. Their daughter Pauline Wilson was born in 1947. In the early 1950s Audrey and Ron Wilson lived at the new Hays Cottages in Steep. Pauline remembers going into her grandparents shop on the way home from Steep School. Granddad would give her a few raisins and currants in a cone of brown paper. He used to hand wrap butter, sugar, flour etc – all the perishables, in blue paper, so folded to make a bag [kind of origami] and tied with string.
The baker who worked in the building behind Steep Village Stores was called George. Pauline believes that the bakery oven was a rare wood burning type and given to Bedales school when the bakery shut down.
Audrey and Ron Wilson moved to Chichester in 1955. Their daughter Pauline regretted no long being able to pop into Steep Village shop. She remembers that internally and externally the shop looked very much like the pictures on the History of Steep website. Audrey and Ron Wilson were great cyclists, they had a tandem at one point with a ‘wicker’ baby side carriage for Pauline. Her father would cycle 20+ miles to a race, compete it, then cycle home. He had even started a cycling club in Italy during WW2. He came home with a rucksack full of Italian bike parts [best in the world], her mother was expecting Italian fabric for dressmaking!
Ernest Elsey continued to live in Steep. After marrying Margaret in 1939, he lived with his family at Ivy Cottage in Ridge Common Lane. At various points, he was a carpet fitter, a Royal Mail postman and a caretaker at Bedales School. He was also a very good gardener. A number of locals remember their son Dave Elsey who was a good sportsman and great supporter of Steep cricket.
Horace Luff sold Steep Village Stores to the Pretty family in 1954. In his late seventies, he retired with his wife Sarah to live at the bottom of Bell Hill, in Lynton Road in Petersfield. Horace Luff died aged 88 years in 1968. He was recorded as still living in Lynton Road at his death. Sarah Luff died in 1980 aged 86 years.
I am grateful to Pauline Wilson for getting in touch through the History of Steep website and for sharing memories of Steep and her family’s time at Steep Village Stores.
Fran Box February 2024
Sources:
Pauline Wilson’s memories of Steep and her family.
Steep church registers
England and Wales birth, marriage and death records
Hampshire and Sussex parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials
UK Census records
