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"Rosebank", Church Lane, Boreham Street in 1952. Bought by Charlotte Gilbert around 1926.
This view has barely changed today.

David Gilbert (1861-1902) and his wife Ellen Isabel Gilbert (1857-1951) lived at Gilberts Bakery in Seaside Road, Eastbourne. All their six children (Ellen, Charlotte, David Jnr, Mary, William and Richard) were born there.

Details of Gilbert's Bakery, Eastbourne.

When David senior died in 1902, Ellen decided not to take over the bakery business, but to sell up and move elsewhere, so she rented 15 The Avenue, Eastbourne in January 1903 to be the new family home, although they actually only stayed there for 6 years.

The south side of "Rosebank" in December 1940, showing the upper floor window added probably in the 1930s.
Photo by Charlotte Gilbert's brother William.

But Ellen also acquired a newly-built house in Uckfield in 1905 in order to have another base near the home of her aged (and widowed) mother, Mary Sophia Morris. Ellen named the Uckfield house "Ryderswell", after a property in Ringmer of the same name that had previously belonged to her family. Her mother died in 1916 and the Uckfield house thereafter became unnecessary and little used. But Ellen still appreciated the idea of a 'bolt hole' to get away from Eastbourne occasionally and enjoy some peace in the country. Accordingly she sold "Ryderswell" in 1923 and, in its place, bought a small cottage in Ballsocks Lane, Vines Cross, Horam, East Sussex, named "Lilac Cottage". She moved in on 17 May 1923 and renamed the house "Ryderswell Cottage".

Interior of Rosebank in December 1940, photographed by William Gilbert, presumably when it was in use as a retreat from wartime Eastbourne. The willow-pattern bowl on the left (and possibly the chair) is still in the family's possession, while the oil lamp on the table suggests that there was still no electricity, or a lot of wartime power cuts!

Around 1926 her daughter Charlotte Isobel Gilbert (1886-1976), living 'on private means', also decided to buy a cottage as a retreat from the Eastbourne family home which, by that time, was at 22 Upper Avenue. The property she chose was "Rosebank" in Church Lane, Boreham Street, East Sussex. Church Lane has subsequently been renamed Boreham Lane. Early photographs show the name painted on the front gate as two words - "Rose Bank", but it was always referred to as "Rosebank" within the family. It's likely that it didn't have electricity at the time.

Charlotte Gilbert around 1952.

More details of Charlotte and her family

An upper floor bedroom window was added to the south wall around the 1930s. The cottage clearly became useful during World War 2 when Eastbourne was being bombed regularly, and members of the family often stayed there, or at Ryderswell Cottage (or both) if things became particularly dangerous on the coast. Electricity (and presumably mains drainage) appears to have been installed soon after the end of the war. My brother David sometimes stayed there from the 1940s, and I did too from the 1950s.

That's me, leaning on the gate at Rosebank in 1952. The name is clearly one word by this time.
The light over the front door shows that electricity had now been installed.

From the diary of Mary Gilbert (1889-1976), Charlotte's sister;
16 August 1962; "Went to Boreham Street (Charlotte staying there at Rosebank)."
1 September 1962; "Charlotte fell in her cottage garden (Boreham Street) cutting the grass. I had to help her off with her clothes when she got home."

By the 1950s the home had become 101 Enys Road, Eastbourne, occupied by the three sisters Ellen, Charlotte and Mary, along with their mother Ellen Isabel Gilbert until her death in 1951. Maintaining Rosebank cottage at arms length from Eastbourne eventually became too much for the ageing Charlotte, and she sold it in the 1960s.

Church Lane, Boreham Street, looking north. From a post card sent by Charlotte to me on my 5th birthday in 1952.
Rosebank is the small cottage on the left with the distinctly sloping roof.
It is now called "Rosebank Cottage", and Church Lane has now been renamed as Boreham Lane.