Outside the house of Elm Tree stables, the old house where the Gosden family lived in Lewes from 1948 to 1960. Sally was born in 1950 and her brother John who was born in 1951 and has gone on to be one of this countries top trainers who trained Enable, Palace pier, just to mention just a few. Just inside the main gate in the garden is were the old stable for Sally's first pony was stabled, now a garden shed. Next to her pony stable was the start of the main block of stables which followed round in an L shape, with a few loose boxes on the other side. Towser Gosden also had boxes in other yards around Lewes, to accommodate all his horses. Next to the shed on the left just inside the main gate, is where the muck hill was located.
Sally and Robert her husband with the present owner Guy Thomas who kindly invited Sally, Robert and our club to have a final look around the house and grounds before it is sold.
Sally kindly brought a selection of her family photo's of when she lived in the house with her family for Guy to see, the house was as Sally remembered it and brought back many memories for her.
Guy kindly gave Sally a photo of one of her dad's horses that he trained Charlottown.
The stables were demolished in the 60's not long after the Gosden family moved out and went to Heath House in Lewes.
Sally and Robert sharing a joke at Elm tree stables, holding the picture of Charlottown that was given to them by Guy Thomas.
Charlottown was trained by Towser Gosden as a two year old, unfortunately Towser Gosden had to retire at the end of 1965 due to ill health and Charlottown was then trained by Gorden Smyth who trained the horse at Heath House in Lewes. The horse then went on to win the Derby Stakes in 1966
Sally looks at a list of winners that Barry gave her, of the horses that her dad had in training.
Tintinnbulum was trained by Towser and one of his top horses trained from 1952 winning many races, including the Brighton autum cup with prize money of £1,021.18s which was a lot of money in thoses days, with the average winnings for a race being £200.00 to £300.00 pounds.
Aggressor was his top horse winning the 1957 Solario Stakes at Sandown with a prize money of £1,884.15s in 1958 the horse also won the 2000 Guineas trial stakes at Kempton Park, that year he went on to win the Doonside Stakes at Ayr with a prize of £1,358.10s
The biggest win Aggressor had in 1960 was winning the King Goerge V1 & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot with a prize money of £23,245.00
What A Gift
Guy kindly presented our club with two of the old mangers that came out of two of the old stables and were used as wall planters for nearly 60 years, we had the pleasure of giving one of the mangers to Sally and Robert. The other manger will be shown at our exhibitions.
Both mangers were made of cast iron, one was in amazing condition, which is the one we gave to Sally and the other had a broken corner, but to us is an amazing gift and shows what they looked like when the Gosden family lived here. This will be on show at our next exhibition.
The pictures are of Guy, Sally and Barry putting the manger into Sally's car.
