History and Memories
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Seaford’s Stone Age Axe Factory
By Rodney Castleden In 2014 a prehistoric industrial site was discovered, by chance and completely unexpectedly, right in the heart of Seaford. Ahead of redevelopment, the archaeologist Greg Priestley-Bell arrived with a team from Archaeology South East to excavate the Victorian school playground in Steyne Road. Behind the old school building was the former playground,…
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The Seaford Axe Hoard
By Rodney Castleden The town of Seaford had its beginnings quite late, after the Norman Conquest, as a port to serve Lewes. What was here at Seaford before 1066? Because there are several settlements in the area with Saxon names – Bishopstone, Blatchington, Sutton and Chyngton to name the nearest – it’s often assumed that…
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Constable’s drawing of Seaford – Part 2.
by Rodney Castleden I expect some of you will, like me, be fans of Fiona Bruce and her ‘Fake or Fortune’ programmes. If so, you will perhaps be concerned that in the earlier piece I made the connection between the 1824 pencil drawing of Seaford and John Constable’s visit to Brighton that same year too…
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Seaford, drawn in 1824
Article by Rodney Castleden Two hundred years ago, an artist walked up Belgrave Road, which was then a road crossing open farmland, and opposite the end of Carlton Road he turned down the twitten to the right. This was an open field path, a right of way between the fields, Guard Ale to the east…
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Battling the elements
Chris Conil, a local video producer has very kindly allowed me to share some of his productions. If you have not already come across Chris Conil’s YouTube channel it is definitely worth subscribing to. As we are currently dismantling a shed destroyed in the last storm I thought this a very appropriate video to share!…
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A Winter’s Tale – Seaford, December 1967
Do you remember the South Coast Blizzard in early December 1967, when much of the country experienced severe snowy weather? It has vivid memories for me, working at Seaford College of Education (Corsica Hall), in my first job. The students were training to be home economics teachers and were lively young women about my own…
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The Blatchington Village Stocks
By Rodney Castleden From 1351 onwards, every town and village in England had to have stocks. They were the standard instruments of punishment for minor offences. The stocks were part of the texture of English village life in the late middle ages and early modern period, along with the ducking stool, the pillory and the…
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What’s that lump of concrete over there – is it something to do with the war?
Article kindly submitted by Seaford Museum and Heritage Society Well, yes, no and maybe. Which war, anyway? The ‘lump of concrete’ in question is the Martello Tower that now stands on Seaford Esplanade. It’s not concrete of course, but brickwork later covered in stucco. This photo was taken in May 2023 when the Tower was…
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The Seaford Jug
Do you visit Seaford Post Office and hurry through the entrance to see if there is a long queue? I remember the old Post Office site in Broad Street and then the excavations, as a new location was prepared in Church Street. During the preparations in 1976, a dig was undertaken by a team from…
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A Journey Through Time: Southdown buses
Submitted by Bill Who remembers the distinctive apple green and cream buses of Southdown Motor Services, (SMS) which ran through Seaford on their way between Eastbourne and Brighton and connected Seaford with the download villages and the Wealden towns to the North? Their livery always seemed to be at one with the downland landscape. Memories…
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A Distant Sound
It is easy to take everyday objects around you for granted. I have looked again at two of these and seen the connection between them. The first is a framed watercolour above our fireplace. The scene shows a striking Seaford cliff-scape, painted in meticulous detail, with Seaford Head as it was in the nineteenth century.…
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A Medievel Lighthouse on Seaford Head
By Rodney Castleden The Romans built lighthouses. They were usually stone towers, square or round in plan, and built close to the approach to a harbour. Modern lighthouses, like the one at Beachy Head, are usually round. Lighthouses were built during the middle ages too, but most of them have gone. The entrance to Seaford’s…
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Alces Place, an Arts & Crafts masterpiece
What’s the connection between a property in Firle Road, the French resistance in WW2 and James Bond?
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My Mother and Madame Pomme
I have a tattered, faded photograph that I treasure. It shows a young girl in a black tunic, black stockings and laced boots, standing in a shop doorway. The windows display 1920s dresses beneath signs announcing the shop name ‘Pomme’. The young girl is my mother, the year probably 1928 and the place is Broad…
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Seaford’s Medieval Market Square
Seaford’s medieval market square Do you know where Seaford’s medieval market cross one stood? Would it help if I said it used to be near Hangman’s Way? No! Well how about if I said it is close to where the sarsen stone stands (surely you know Seaford has a sarsen stone), does that help? If…
Celebrating Seaford 