The new residents found it hard to adjust to their new homes at first. They had moved from small back-to-back dwellings to brand new houses with all mod-cons.
Many of them had earnt a living as totters or rag and bone men, who owned horses to pull their carts around the old streets. These days cars, vans and lorries are used for businesses.
At the end of the Second World War, housing was short and so in the 1950's Bristol Estate was built with high rise flats. More of this type of housing was built at the northern end of the Whitehawk estate.
Another method of house building, so called self-build schemes, were set up, where people in groups built their own houses. One such scheme was completed in Wilson Avenue. The people concerned would build their houses mainly at weekends and evenings after their normal day jobs were finished.
Brighton Marina.
A harbour scheme for Brighton was first mooted as long ago as 1806 but it wasn't until 1842 that a marina was suggested. However, it was more than a hundred years before any plans were realised.
Brighton Council approved a scheme for a marina to be built at Black Rock. A Parliamentary Bill was then passed allowing the scheme to go ahead. This was a massive project and was the start of enormous change to the area.
New roads were put in linking the Marina to the main coastal roads, several old familiar landmarks were lost including the Black Rock swimming pool, built in 1935 and demolished in 1979. This swimming pool was a great loss to many people, especially the younger ones.
To this day the Brighton Marina is continually changing with new buildings being added, including a hotel. Further buildings are planned like an ice rink, another hotel and more shops and housing.
The Whitehawk Estate
The large council estate was then developed in 1933-37 with close on 1,200 houses, all with large gardens in order to grow vegetables but none with garages. Postwar and in the vicinity of Wilson Avenue, a number of private houses were built. At the end of the valley the Corporation built and opened Swanborough flats in 1967. A census in 1981 showed that the population for Whitehawk and Manor Farm had grown to almost 8,000 people.
The Whitehawk estate was remodelled in 1975 and a collection of drab housing was demolished. This was undertaken by scrapping many of the long roads, which were replaced by small cul-de-sacs, a poor substitute for the Whitehawk of the 1930s. However, this allowed extra housing to be built giving a final total of 1,440 houses, thus increasing the population of Whitehawk once more.
The Lintott Avenue (South) redevelopment was completed in 1988 but financial restrictions slowed up the final part of the project. A major new road, Whitehawk Way, has been constructed along the line of Whitehawk Avenue and Fletching Road, and a new park has been laid over Lintott Avenue.
The original church, the imposing St. Cuthman’s, was constructed in 1937. It was destroyed on August 16, 1943 by a German bomb with the loss of one life. The new church was built in 1951-52. The church hall was sold to the Community Association in 1982 and became the Valley Social Centre.
St. David’s Mission Hall stands at the junction with Whitehawk road and Whitehawk Way and was used before the church opened, and later by the Whitehawk and Manor Farm Boys Club. It has been the centre of Whitehawk life for many years.
The Catholic church of St Louis, King of France, opened on December 20, 1964 on Henley Road. It was constructed of high-alumina cement in modern style but was later declared unsafe and closed in October 1982, being replaced by a block of flats, Henley Court, in 1985-86.
Whitehawk Library opened in 1934, in a building in front of Whitehawk Primary School on Whitehawk Road, but was required for additional classrooms. A temporary library was set up in Rugby House, Rugby place in August 1969.
Princess Alexandra opened a new community centre and library, the largest of Brighton’s branches, on November 9, 1973 in Whitehawk Road. Dame Flora Robson, the well-known actress, opened the toy library, at the same venue three weeks after.
A new school was built in Wilson Avenue in 1976 and originally called the Stanley Deason School, named after a former Brighton Mayor. The community sports hall and squash courts were added in 1984.
East Brighton Park housed the very first Municipal Camping Ground, opened by the mayor, Herbert Hone on May 14, 1938. It incorporated the buildings of the former Newhouse Farm, the farmhouse being used as the warden’s residence, the flint barn as a hall and the stables as a toilet block. These probably date from the late 18th century.
Sheepcote Valley was the site of a rifle range in 1870, being laid out for the training of volunteer soldiers, giving the former Rifle Butt Road its name. In 1916 the tipping of certain types of rubbish commenced and in 1928 household rubbish from Rottingdean was dumped at Sheepcote.
The Brighton Corporation started large scale tipping in 1952 and continued for the next 30 years. It has been deemed that the valley has now been significantly filled and is now levelled for use as playing fields.
A small site for tipping bulky household rubbish remains and is well used. A golf driving range was in operation in 1982-4 but the whole area is scheduled for a large leisure development including dry ski-slopes, a boating lake, riding stables, a wildlife park, a hotel and a swimming pool.
In 1968 parts of the valley became a World War One battlefield, a re-enactment for Richard Attenborough’s film, Oh! What a Lovely War, this included the construction of dozens of trenches complete with live rats.
This second part of the history of Whitehawk was researched and written by David Rowland and Beryl Tucknott of the East Brighton Bygones Reminiscence Group.
Find out more about the group on community history website My Brighton and Hove.
