He accepts the avenue could once have been the main entrance to Uckfield House, accessed from the then most important road in town, which ran along Church Street and Hempstead Road as part of the Pilgrims’ Way between Chichester and Canterbury.
But in his day, as he grew up in Hempstead Gardens, the youngest of 11 children, the avenue led only to Uckfield House Farm in the area of today’s Downsview Crescent.
The northern section still had its trees but was little used. At the end was Uckfield House.
The main access to the manor, home of Lord Rupert Nevill, was along Browns Lane past the water tower with the house sitting in the area of the present day shops.
‘It was quite an ordinary entrance with open fields left and right,’ said Ray, 65, who lives at Cherry Barn Cottage in Hempstead Road and has a shop at the top of Uckfield High Street.
Royal visitors
He remembers going to Uckfield House when he was a greengrocer’s delivery lad. He knew the Queen was a visitor as were Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend.
The equivalent of today’s paparazzi were interested in the house as a result of the royal connection and Ray remembers playing in the street one day when a photographer pulled up in a car and asked if he knew a way to get to the big house where a picture could be taken discreetly.
Ray was about 12 and took the photographer up Lime Tree Avenue, slipped through into a field he knew and found a perfect view of the main entrance. He earned £1 for his trouble.
Community College
When a start was made, in the 50s, on building what is now the Uckfield Community Technology College the avenue was closed to all traffic except that accessing the college site, first of all builders and then college staff and students.
Farm traffic began using an access in the area of what is now Streatfield House, sheltered accommodation for the elderly, in Southview Drive, which was also the access to a nursery with a greenhouse where carnations were grown.
Ray went into Uckfield House every Christmas Eve with the Uckfield Town Band to play for their patron, Lord Rupert, and guests who assembled in the foyer.
Ray played the cornet and remembers the guests as ‘toffs wearing smoking jackets’. Among them usually was the Marquis of Abergavenny, brother of Lord Rupert, who lived at Eridge Castle.
After carols, Ray said, he would be given a soft drink while the men were given a glass of wine. Lord Rupert was very good to the band and in those days was well liked by Uckfield townspeople.
Lovely view
Ray wasn’t impressed by Uckfield House. It was big but had no special features, he said. In the entrance hall where the band played was a big staircase but no impressive galleries leading off it. The best thing, he reckons, was the lovely view across Hempstead Farm.
He remembers the lime trees being well cared for by the estate with the leaves swept up as soon as they fell in the autumn. ‘The avenue was always beautifully clean.’
The lodge at the bottom of Lime Tree Avenue used to be a cowman’s cottage and Ray remembers the cowman walking up the avenue with a canister of milk after milking.
He also remembers a cottage on the corner of Browns Lane on the left, now tucked in behind a wall, being home of the butler.