Rodney Castleden
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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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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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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…
Celebrating Seaford 