Seaford

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Seaford
Sussex

Seaford Bay
Location
Grid reference: TV482990
Location: 50°46’12"N, -0°6’0"E
Data
Population: 22,826  (2001)
Post town: Seaford
Postcode: BN25
Dialling code: 01323
Local Government
Council: Lewes
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Lewes
Website: Seaford Town Council

Seaford is a small, coastal town of Sussex, lying east of Newhaven and Brighton and west of Eastbourne.

In the Middle Ages, Seaford was one of the main ports serving he English Channel coast, but the town's fortunes declined due to coastal sedimentation silting up its harbour and persistent raids by French pirates.

The coastal confederation of Cinque Ports during its mediæval period consisted of a confederation of 42 towns and villages in all. This included Seaford under the 'Limb' of Hastings.[1] Between 1350 and 1550, the French burned down the town several times. In the 16th century the people of Seaford were known as the "cormorants" or "shags" because of their enthusiasm for looting ships wrecked in the bay.

Seaford's fortunes revived in the 19th century with the arrival of the railway connecting the town to Lewes and London. It became a small seaside resort town, and more recently a commuter town for the nearby larger towns of Eastbourne and Brighton, as well as for London.

Geography

The town lies on the coast near Seaford Head, roughly equidistant between the mouths of the River Ouse and the Cuckmere. The Ouse valley was a wide tidal estuary with its mouth nearly closed by a shingle bar, but the tidal mudflats and salt marshes have been "inned" (protected from the tidal river by dykes) to form grassy freshwater marshes (grazing marsh). To the north the town faces the chalk downland of the South Downs, and along the coast to the east are the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs, and Beachy Head.

This stretch of coast is notified for its geological and ecological features as the "Seaford to Beachy Head Site of Special Scientific Interest".[2]

The River Ouse used to run parallel to the shore behind the shingle bar, entering the sea close to Seaford. However, a major storm in the 16th century broke through the bar at its western end, creating a new river mouth close to the village then called Meeching but renamed Newhaven. Part of the former channel of the river remains as a brackish lagoon.

The town formerly had excellent beaches, which were supplied by longshore drift constantly moving sand along the coast from west to east. However, in the early 20th century a large breakwater was constructed at Newhaven Harbour and the harbour entrance was regularly dredged. These works cut off the supply of fresh sand to the beach. By the 1980s the beach at Seaford had all but vanished, the shoreline becoming steep, narrow and largely composed of small boulders. This made Seaford attractive to watersports enthusiasts (since water visibility was good and there was a rapid drop-off into deep water) but it discouraged more general seaside visitors. So in 1987 a massive beach replenishment operation was carried out, in which around 1 million tons of material was dredged from sandbanks out to sea and deposited on the shore. During a severe storm in October of the same year a substantial amount of the deposited material on the upper part of the beach was washed out past low tide level, leading to questions in the House of Commons. The beach has been topped up several times since then, giving the town a broad beach of sand and shingle.[3][4]

The Seven Sisters east of Seaford
Seaford Beach with Seaford Head behind

History

In 1620 and 1624, the sheriff and jurat of Seaford was William Levett, of an Anglo-Norman family long seated in Sussex.[5] William Levett of Seaford owned the Bunces and Stonehouse manors in Warbleton, probably inheriting them from his father John Levett, who died in 1607. Levett sold the estates in 1628 and died in 1635, his will being filed in Hastings.[6]

The Levett family intermarried with other Sussex families, including the Gildredges, the Eversfields, the Popes, the Ashburnhams, the Adams, and the Chaloners. A seal with his arms belonging to John de Livet, Lord of Firle, was found at Eastbourne in 1851.[7]

Seaford has the westernmost of the South Coast Martello Towers, number 74, now a local history museum.

Sport

  • Bowling: Seaford Bowling Club, The Crouch Bowling Club
  • Cricket: Seaford Cricket Club, who play at Salts Recreation Ground
  • Football: Seaford Town FC, who play at the Crouch Playing Field
  • Golf: Seaford Golf Club and Seaford Head Golf Course
  • Rugby: Seaford Rugby Football Club, who play at Salts Recreation Ground

The Wave Leisure centre in Seaford and its surrounds offer a range of sports and pastimes, including badminton, indoor bowls, children's disco dancing, line-dancing and fitness classes.[8] Wave Leisure is a not for profit organisation that operates a number of local leisure facilities including the Downs Leisure Centre in Seaford.

Swimming facilities are provided for the town at Seaford Head Swimming Pool, run by Wave Leisure.[9]

Towards the western end of Seaford Bay lies Newhaven and Seaford Sailing Club. Founded in 1952 by a group of sailing enthusiasts, the club now has two sites - racing off Seaford Beach and sailing at Piddinghoe Lake near Newhaven where the RYA accredited Sailing School is located.[10]

Churches

St Leonard's Church

The parish church is St Leonard's, a Norman church of the 11th century.[11] The north and south arcades and most of the clerestory windows are Early English Gothic.[11] The tower is 14th century and its upper part is Perpendicular Gothic.[11] The transepts and polygonal apse are Gothic Revival additions designed by John Billing and built in 1861–82.[11] There is some modern stained glass.[12][13] The church is a Grade I listed building.[14]

St Luke's Church, opened in 1959 and built of flint and brick, serves the Chyngton and Sutton suburbs of the town.

Churches of the town include:

  • Church of England:
    • St Leonard
    • St Luke
  • Baptist
  • Evangelical: The Seaford Community Church
  • Methodist: Cross Way Church - Gothic Revival red brick (1894).
  • United Reformed Church: Cross Way Clinton Centre, a Gothic Revival built as a Congregationalist chapel in 1877.
  • Roman Catholic: St Thomas More (1935)

Outside links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.villagenet.co.uk/history/1155-cinqueports.php
  2. ↑ (PDF) SSSI Citation — Seaford to Beachy Head. Natural England. http://www.english-nature.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1002008.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-13. 
  3. ↑ Sand management
  4. ↑ Sand management
  5. ↑ Sussex Archaeological Collections, Sussex Archaeological Society, Vol. VII, John Russell Smith, London, 1854
  6. ↑ Additional Manuscripts, East Sussex Record Office, Lewes, nationalarchives.gov.uk
  7. ↑ A Handbook for East-Bourne and Seaford, and the Neighbourhood, George F. Chambers, Edward Stanford, London, 1885
  8. ↑ Wave Leisure :website
  9. ↑ Seaford Head swimming pool :website
  10. ↑ [1]
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Nairn, Ian; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1965). Sussex. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 603. ISBN 0-14-071028-0. 
  12. ↑ Eberhard, Robert (September 2011). "Stained Glass Windows at St. Leonard, Seaford, Sussex". Stained Glass Records website. Robert Eberhard. http://www.stainedglassrecords.org.uk/Ch.asp?ChId=22033. Retrieved 16 February 2012. 
  13. ↑ Allen, John (11 April 2011). "Seaford – (1) St Leonard and (2) St Luke". Sussex Parish Churches website. Sussex Parish Churches (www.sussexparishchurches.org). http://www.sussexparishchurches.org/content/view/36/34/. Retrieved 16 February 2012. 
  14. ↑ National Heritage List 1352955: The Parish Church of St Leonard
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