Bibliography - S.I.H. 1998 (Issue 28)
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Sussex Industrial History: Journal of the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society, edited by Dr. Brian Austen, published 1998 (issue no. 28, Sussex Industrial History, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

Obituary: Frank William Gregory, 1917-1988, by Joy and Chris Ford, published 1998 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 28, article, pp.2-3, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

Brighton Station - an architectural and historical appraisal, by Keith Leicester and Ron Martin, published 1998 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 28, article, pp.4-11, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

The London and Brighton Railway Act was passed in 1837 authorising the London and Brighton Railway Company to construct a route with branches both to Shoreham in the west and to Lewes and Newhaven in the east. Construction was commenced in 1838 and in July 1841 the track was opened from London to Haywards Heath and extended to Brighton in September 1841. The Shoreham branch had opened earlier in May, 1840 and the branch to Lewes and Newhaven was to open in December, 1847. The London and Brighton Railway Company combined with the London and Croydon Railway Company in 1846 to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR).

Construction of the Secret Tunnels of South Heighton, by Geoffrey Ellis, published 1998 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 28, article, pp.12-18, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

In a previous article (SIH 27 - 1997) the existence, raison d'être, operation and history of H.M.S. Forward, the Royal Naval Headquarters at Newhaven (1941-45) was revealed. Following the cessation of hostilities the establishment was closed down, and all visible military customisation of the Guinness Trust Holiday Home building was removed before the property was handed back to the Guinness Trust. However, the labyrinth of tunnels was not secured at the western entrance, and consequently much looting of the tunnel contents occurred. Nonetheless, the tunnels were officially considered 'secret' for the customary thirty years after the war.

Bevendean Isolation Hospital, Brighton, by Hugh Fermer with a postscript by Pat Bracher, published 1998 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 28, article, pp.19-26, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

The story of Bevendean Hospital, originally called the Brighton Sanatorium, began early in 1881. A letter from the Workhouse Master at Elm Grove dated early in 1881, informed the Sanitary Committee of Brighton Corporation that there was a depressing need for more accommodation for smallpox victims. There were, he said, only five places now available at Elm Grove. This was repeated in a further letter to the Committee in May 1881. On 31 May 1881 the Sanitary Committee resolved that 'The Surveyor do forthwith erect a temporary building to be used as a sanatorium on part of the land acquired by the council as a site for such an establishment.' This resolution went on to say that wards were to be fitted up for not less than forty patients and requested the Medical Officer of Health to report on the staff that he required.
The site referred to in the Sanitary Committee resolution was on the Downs at the back of the town. It was ten acres in extent and 326 feet above sea level and it sloped towards the west and south in the direction of the sea. It was acquired by the Corporation in 1881 for £5,000 subject to restrictions preventing the Corporation from erecting buildings for the infectious sick except on a limited portion of the site.
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The hospital closed on 24 April 1989. The ten acre site was to be sold and the proceeds spent on the new hospital at Hove and a new ward at the Royal Sussex Hospital. The last part of the hospital to close was Willow Ward, the day ward for psycho-geriatrics which was to remain open until a new home for it was found in September 1990. The site was bought by Croudace Housing who planned to build 128 houses and demolition began in April 1993. Nothing is now left of the hospital except the high flint wall which marks the boundary of the housing estate.

Tank Roads on the Downs, by Peter Longstaff-Tyrrell, published 1998 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 28, article, pp.27-32, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

Living and working around the Sussex coast and countryside for over 50 years the author often glances up at the South Downs to ponder upon the old cart tracks and byways that decorate the slopes. These tracks seem legacies of a distant past but are not always that ancient and many date back only to the period of WWII when the Downs were commandeered by the Army for the South Downs Training Area. At this time slumbering Sussex villages and countryside were transformed for all manner of exercises, communications, camps, gunnery practice, prisoner of way camps, emergency airfields, decoy sites, stores and dumps.

Hastings Early Power Supply, by Brian Lawes, published 1998 in Sussex Industrial History (issue no. 28, article, pp.33-39, ISSN: 0263-5151) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506527]   Download PDF

Although today electricity is important in our everyday life, in the 1870s gas was the source of both light and heat. To have a commercial future electricity needed to offer advantages over gas. When the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy produced electric arcs that gave off light, electricity was seen to have a future. A lot of development was undertaken in the 1840s when a number of incandescent lamps were patented. Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was a leading chemist, electrical engineer and inventor. In 1860, he invented an electric lamp using a carbon filament in an evacuated glass bulb. The American inventor Thomas Alva Edison produced his carbon-filament lamp in 1879. The American pioneer in electrical engineering, Charles Francis Brush (1849-1929), produced the first commercially successful arc lamp in 1878. During the following years various arc lamps were introduced.
The first practical arc lamp was installed in the lighthouse at Dungeness, in 1862. Towns along the East Sussex coast must have realised the potential of electric lighting by noting this brilliant new light source a few miles to the East.