This elegant villa in Powis Villas was once the home of the Misses Fuggle Academy for Girls, the Fuggles in question being Sarah & Eva, two of the five daughters of Thomas Fuggle, b.1839 and Margaret b.1841. There were no sons.
At the outbreak of WW2 Sarah will have been about 72, Eva about 64. On Empire Day the whole school would file out of the front door, circle a flagpole sporting the Union Flag in the garden, salute one of the Miss Fuggles, who I can only remember as a mountain of fustian topped by a grey head, and pass back into the school by the french window. Which Miss Fuggle took the salute I had no idea, no idea even that the Fuggles were plural.
My other abiding memory is of the maths class taken by a Miss Paste. Presumably because numbers attending the school were fairly low, all ages were taught together. As a consequence I gained a knowledge of the mechanics of long multiplication long before understanding the theory. Miss Paste seemed to suffer from perennial rhinitis and had frequent recourse to a dainty handkerchief which she conveniently kept tucked into the leg elastic of her directoire knickers.
The Misses Fuggle, who must have been comfortably off, lived just down the road at 25 Clifton Terrace.
By 1958 just one Miss Fuggle was living there, apparently the only Brighton 'Fuggle' left.
I used to live in this house 2008-2009 and was one of the last residents before the most recent work on the building. It had previously been a McDonalds house for families with children at the nearby hospital. The building had been split into two houses at some point, but by the time I lived there the central wall had been demolished and two houses reconnected. There was a bizarre set up, where you'd go up one set of stairs and come down another straight away! By this time the house had fallen into partial disrepair and whatever work has been done since had been greatly needed.
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