⇐ S.I.H. June 1972 (No. 4)S.I.H. 1973 (No. 6) ⇒
Sussex Industrial History: Journal of the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Study Group, edited by John Farrant, published December 1972 (No. 5, Sussex Industrial History) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/5] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
East Sussex Milestones: A Survey, by Brian Austen and John Upton, published December 1972 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 5, article, pp.2-13) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/5] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:No doubt the earliest Sussex milestones were erected during the Roman occupation of Britain but none from the county have come to light, though the probable locations of the 61 milestones flanking Stane Street have been calculated by S.E. Winbolt. Direction posts and milestones were again in use by the 16th and 17th centuries in the adjoining county of Kent, and authority was given in 1697 to the County Justices in Special Highway Session to direct highway surveyors to erect direction posts or stones at cross roads.
Most existing milestones however owe their existence to turnpike trusts. The setting up of milestones was not made mandatory on all trusts until the General Turnpike Act of 1760 but most individual turnpike acts from the early 1740s required the trustees to measure their roads and set up posts, stones or marks every mile beside the road 'denoting the Distance of any one Town or Place from any other Town or Place'! Initially turnpike trusts must have been at considerable expense to place the highway in a satisfactory state of repair and the erection of mileposts was probably looked upon as an unwelcome charge on their funds. Some trusts may have attempted to economise by erecting painted wooden posts. Amongst papers relating to the Flimwell and Hastings trust (1762) there is an estimate dated 13 April 1761 for such wooden posts to cost 12s. each.
Some milestones were erected within towns by municipal authorities where roads were not under the control of turnpike trustees, and private individuals might also be responsible for their erection.
By the last quarter of the 19th century milestones must have been virtually universal on the turnpike roads in Sussex, and the 1st edition of the 6 in. Ordnance Survey maps issued for the county in the late 1870s show this to be so. There were however even at this date a few surprising omissions. No milestones are marked on the line of the Newchapel and Brighton trust (1770) which did not finally expire until 1 November 1884, while the Hodges (Mayfield) to Cuckfield trust (1771) shows a similar lack. With the gradual demise of the turnpike trusts, mostly in the 1870s and 1880s, the maintenance of the roads, and hence the milestones, passed briefly to local highway authorities and then from 1888 to the newly established County Councils.
Most existing milestones however owe their existence to turnpike trusts. The setting up of milestones was not made mandatory on all trusts until the General Turnpike Act of 1760 but most individual turnpike acts from the early 1740s required the trustees to measure their roads and set up posts, stones or marks every mile beside the road 'denoting the Distance of any one Town or Place from any other Town or Place'! Initially turnpike trusts must have been at considerable expense to place the highway in a satisfactory state of repair and the erection of mileposts was probably looked upon as an unwelcome charge on their funds. Some trusts may have attempted to economise by erecting painted wooden posts. Amongst papers relating to the Flimwell and Hastings trust (1762) there is an estimate dated 13 April 1761 for such wooden posts to cost 12s. each.
Some milestones were erected within towns by municipal authorities where roads were not under the control of turnpike trustees, and private individuals might also be responsible for their erection.
By the last quarter of the 19th century milestones must have been virtually universal on the turnpike roads in Sussex, and the 1st edition of the 6 in. Ordnance Survey maps issued for the county in the late 1870s show this to be so. There were however even at this date a few surprising omissions. No milestones are marked on the line of the Newchapel and Brighton trust (1770) which did not finally expire until 1 November 1884, while the Hodges (Mayfield) to Cuckfield trust (1771) shows a similar lack. With the gradual demise of the turnpike trusts, mostly in the 1870s and 1880s, the maintenance of the roads, and hence the milestones, passed briefly to local highway authorities and then from 1888 to the newly established County Councils.
The West Brighton Estate: Hove. A Study in Victorian Urban Expansion, by Wliiam F. Pickering, published December 1972 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 5, article, pp.14-30) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/5] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:That part of Hove which was known as the West Brighton Estate lies between Church Road and the sea, from First Avenue to Fourth Avenue. Today, it is a comfortably dull district of architectural mediocrities in unco-ordinated styles. It is hard to recapture the enthusiasm of contemporaries for this 'Belgravia-sur-mer', praised for its 'magnificent avenues after the style of those in Berlin' and called the 'finest suburb in the parliamentary borough'. Yet this area set the pattern for the later development of Hove and was a symbol of civic pride in the period of Hove's most boastful self-awareness. It was a monument to status, respectability and quiet ostentation.
Hove is not part of Brighton, nor has it ever been. For long they were physically separated, and when the towns eventually grew together to form a single urban area, they remained apart in other ways. Throughout the 19th century, even after it had become an ordinary seaside resort town, Brighton retained something of its air of Regency rakishness. From the beginning, Hove saw itself as a contrast to Brighton, and cultivated the image of solid middle-class respectability it retains today.
Hove is not part of Brighton, nor has it ever been. For long they were physically separated, and when the towns eventually grew together to form a single urban area, they remained apart in other ways. Throughout the 19th century, even after it had become an ordinary seaside resort town, Brighton retained something of its air of Regency rakishness. From the beginning, Hove saw itself as a contrast to Brighton, and cultivated the image of solid middle-class respectability it retains today.
A Bridge for Littlehampton 1821-2, by John H. Farrant, published December 1972 in Sussex Industrial History (No. 5, article, pp.31-33) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16389/5] & The Keep [LIB/506524] Download PDF
Abstract:The Arun was the last of the rivers through the South Downs to be bridged below the natural and ancient bridging point, at the gap in the Downs. At Newhaven, on the Ouse, a drawbridge was built in 1784, while Old Shoreham bridge over the Adur was built in 1782; but it was the railway which first bridged the Arun, at Ford in 1846, and not until 1908 did Littlehampton acquire a road bridge. With the Iatter's replacement under construction half a mile up stream, it is particularly appropriate to recall the earliest plans for a bridge at Littlehampton, the design for which appears on the cover of this number of S.I.H.