Rustington Parishioner of the Year tells of her dedication to tracing items from the village’s past

For around 15 years, she has been the curator for Rustington Heritage Association and her ‘dedicated hard work and efforts to preserve the history of the village for the benefit of its community and the generations to come’ has been recognised with the 2020 Parishioners’ Award from Rustington Parish Council.

Sheila, who was announced as this year’s winner earlier this week, said: “It is nice to be recognised. I am only doing something that I thoroughly enjoy.

“I keep my eye on eBay and auction sites and have bought things to bring them back home to Rustington, paintings and pictures from artists who have lived here and all sorts of strange bits. It is my hobby.”

Born in London, Sheila and her husband come to Rustington in 1992 because of his job. They had young children at the time and it was through the Mod Mums coffee club that she later became involved with the heritage association.

She explained: “Harry Clark, the chairman, was due to give a talk and as he lived around the corner from me, I was detailed to give him a lift. We got talking and he said he was looking for a curator and asked if I would be interested.

“I wasn’t a curator, so I was a bit apprehensive but I did a course, which helped. I am still the curator but as the collection is now on loan to the museum, it is really their responsibility.

“Rustington Heritage Association used to have its own exhibition centre and museum, and I was involved in that for a long while.

“The association was founded in 1983 by Mary Taylor but the collection of artefacts really started about 1989. Mary and her husband Bev had an enormous collection of their own and they really started it.

“Then Rustington Parish Council wanted to open its own museum and they used the heritage association collection, so I worked with them on the opening of the museum in 2009.”

Sheila and her husband did move away from Rustington for a year but came back because they missed Rustington.

Jessica Petit took the role of curator for a while but Sheila is now back at the helm and is also the association’s chairman, having taken over from Harry in April last year.

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