SEEING a copy of the front page of The Argus from May 1964 brought back some lovely memories to me.

It was in some ways happy memories of a weekend which at times was difficult but at the same time a lot of fun. This was the May Bank Holiday 1964.

A few things which the public might not know. We have to go back to Easter 1964. The mods and rockers invaded Margate, causing a lot of damage to shops and other property.

This included police vehicles and the damage was to almost three quarters of the police fleet, which were off the road for a few weeks.

Between Easter and the May Bank Holiday police intelligence was received that the mods’ next destination was Brighton. Luckily the police were informed in plenty of time to make plans.

The police and the magistrates decided that anyone arrested would be severely punished and it would deter them from coming to Brighton again.

It was also agreed to take the police cars off the road for the weekend. In their place the police took over vans owned by the local waterworks department. These vans were taken to Maidstone and fitted with police radios.

Come the weekend, the police arrangements and plans were in place. All police officers had to work 12-hour shifts, either 6am to 6pm or 6pm to 6am.

The mods were so surprised when a waterworks van stopped and a group of policemen alighted. It was a master stroke by our bosses.

On one day over that weekend 75 youths were arrested, overwhelming the two jailers at the cell block (these cells can now be viewed at the Police Museum at the Brighton Town Hall, free entry).

With some very good police drivers, the police got to the hot spots quickly and safely. During the night times the mods made their way to Black Rock for sleep.

The night shift woke them up every 20 minutes or so asking them for their details.

Once they had settled down another group of police officers would wake them up and ask the same questions, the idea being that they would be unable to fight the next day as they would be too tired.

When any of them appeared in court, the magistrates remanded many of them to a week in prison.

When they next appeared in court they were then sent to prison, many of them cried in court.

There was an allegation that some national reporters had paid money for staged fights.

I was heading for the sun terrace where a deckchair fight was in progress and several rockers jumped from the sun terrace.

There taking photos was a photographer and nearby a reporter scribbling in a notebook. Was that staged?

Well, who knows but it was rather strange I thought that they were at the scene of a well-documented incident. Perhaps they had been lucky?

Come the Monday, the last day of the bank holiday, it started to rain about midday and the mods left the beach.

They were then herded into a huge queue by dozens of police officers and sent up North Road to the station, hundreds of them. Everyone was put on a train to London, wherever they came from, even if they lived in Brighton.

They were met at Victoria by the Metropolitan Police with their dogs and horses.

They never ever came back to Brighton to cause so much trouble.

David Rowland (Ex PC 127, Brighton Borough Police) Harvest Close Telscombe Cliffs