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Greetings Post card of 15 The Avenue, Eastbourne around 1907. The name "Lulworth" is visible on the gatepost.

Ellen I Gilbert (widow of David Gilbert junior (1861-1902) and her children moved to "Lulworth" 15 The Avenue, Eastbourne on 7 January 1903.

The family of David (junior) and Ellen Isabel Gilbert

Ellen Isabel Gilbert (1857-1951) and her 6 children moved to this address on 7 January 1903, after the death of her husband David (1861-1902), and Ellen had decided not to run the bakery business herself.

Gilbert's Bakery, Eastbourne

Robert Morris's (Uckfield) diary for 21 March 1903 notes "Mrs.Gilbert has moved into 15 The Avenue."

At the time the house was named "Lulworth". It had three floors plus a basement, and was (and still is) about half way up The Avenue, on the south side of the road close to the junction with St. Anne's Road.

A watercolour of the garden of 15 The Avenue painted by Mary Gilbert (1889-1976) in 1904 when she was 15.
The original is in the archive of the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne.

The family stayed there for six years, then moved to 5 Old Orchard Road, Eastbourne on 24 November 1909. In a nature notebook for 1908-1910 kept by the youngest of the six children (Richard Gilbert 1894-1988) an entry for 24 November 1909 reads "Left 15 The Avenue".

According to the Eastbourne 'Blue Book' for 1933-34, No.15 and No.16 next door were run as a nursing home at that time, by a Miss Fowler. By the 1960s Nos.15 and 16 were owned separately again, and 15 was recorded in Kelly's street directory as being run as the "Lynville Guest House".

The front of the house remained largely unchanged when photographed (above) by H R Gilbert in 1994, although the house name had changed, and the front railings, chimneys and gate had gone. The name "Lynville" was painted on a glass panel over the front door.

In 1909 the family moved to 5 Old Orchard Road, Eastbourne.

5 Old Orchard Road, Eastbourne