Eversfield House Hotel

use to work there in my school days in the 50's

Mrd Doyle owned it then

I remember the rather austere Mrs Doyle, the proprietor, in the 1950s who had a private apartment at the back of the hotel. Mr Dennis Hookey was the manager and in the 1960s he became the owner. Colin Stanton worked in the kitchen and Janet was the housekeeper. The chambermaid was Sadie and she brought a cup of tea and sugar cubes to our rooms first thing in the morning. Ten minutes before lunch and dinner a gong would be struck and Janet would invite the children of guests to strike it with gusto. At four o’clock there would be afternoon tea in the lounge where it was not unusual to find the hotel cat sitting on your lap. On the ground floor at the back was the TV Room where only BBC and ITV in black and white could be received via a very early cable system. It was necessary to negotiate with other guests which channel would be chosen! Looking back I can see a gentle and old fashioned hotel - alas it’s glory days had ended by the 1970s

How lovely to see the pics and read Bob’s write up. I never visited inside, my Grandparents (The Doyle family that owned the Hotel) had retired before I was born. But I remember Doug and Heather Hookey. And we loved hearing stories from my father Brian and Aunt Brenda about Christmas’s and special times they shared growing up at the Hotel. Every old house has a horde of stories to be told and it was a treat to see this. Thanks Bob!

I’m the daughter of Mrs Violet Doyle who, with my father Joe, owned the hotel. My father still worked in the Midland Bank in Eastbourne so my mother was in charge of running the hotel. They purchase it in 1946/7 when I was 12. It was in a sorry state after the war and the family including my brother Brian (age 14) worked slavishly scrubbing and staining floors and preparing for our first guests. In my memory the purchase price was £7,500 and our summer guests paid up to £7.50 per week full board.
In the latter 1940s and in the 1950s We had year round “residents” who were all old widows and spinsters who, of course, paid far less than the summer visitors. I remember Miss Pownal who gave my mother two beautifully carved Indian lions and an elephant which I have inherited. I assume her life had been in India. Another resident was Mrs Willis who had a “box” in the Albert Hall and she would lend this “box” to my musical brother Brian during the “Proms”. Mrs Simpson had just one son who had been blinded during the war and she visited his care home for the blind in Brighton. My mother was very helpful and caring of the “ residents “ who’s last years were spent in the Eversfield House Hotel.