Brighton & Hove

Richard has lived in Worthing almost all his life and has always been passionate about history and old buildings. This passion together with a realisation that much of the history of a building lies in its construction, led him to do a course at the University of Oxford studying Vernacular Architecture and by studying for a BA in Landscape Studies at the University of Sussex, graduating in 2011. He has written articles for a number of local and national publications and is currently contributing a regular feature on historic buildings for the West Sussex Gazette. His talk covers the economic importance of Lime, particularly in the 18th/19th centuries.

In this talk, local historian Christopher Horlock charts the changing face of Brighton from the end of the Victorian era to the present day, giving us a portrait of a city and a way of life that has radically changed or disappeared today, showing not just the buildings, streets and industries that have gone or changed but also a way of life. 

The fascinating history and expansion of cinema and cinema-going from the early pioneers who lived and filmed in Brighton, Hove and Shoreham (where cinema experiments started) to the 'Rock 'N' Roll' era of the Fifties where the youth of Brighton congregated round the Clock Tower and The Regent - both cinema and ballroom. Relive those nostalgic memories of cinema-going in Brighton.

An exploration of some of the most significant objects in our material world, that we use all the time, but rarely notice and which are loaded with symbolic meanings and folkloric associations. Doors also reveal much about the life and character of their owners!

David will provide an insight into the history of one of Brighton’s biggest employers in the 19^th century, and tell how researching family history led to writing a fascinating local history.

The spectre of the workhouse haunted the old, the sick, the unemployed, the young and the vulnerable.  Its buildings were not symbols of civic pride to adorn urban centres, but were cheap, bleak, grimly austere and oppressive to the poor, and usually on the edge of town, much like the last standing Brighton workhouse in Elm Grove (now Brighton General Hospital).  It superseded the workhouse at Church Hill, north of St Nicholas’s church.  From 1862 Brighton’s pauper children were sent to Warren Farm Industrial Schools in Woodingdean – so isolated an area that contemporaries referred to it as “East America”.  

James Gardner will present the history of Brighton’s workhouses and give a voice to those men, women and children who found themselves as inmates.

Most people are unaware that there are still over 80 remains of the 900+ mills that have been recorded in Sussex during the past 8 centuries.  Many changes have occurred over the past 100 years or so.  Some magnificent mills have completely disappeared from the landscape whilst others have been transformed from dereliction to fully restored and operative mills or simply to highly desirable residences.

Tonight’s talk is a light-hearted introduction to these magnificent monuments to our industrial past, their history and those that are still to be found in the county.

Brighton is generally associated with being a seaside resort with the Royal Pavilion as its centre piece.  Dr Geoffrey Mead’s talk looks at Brighton before leisure pursuits and the royal family stamped that image on the place; a town of fishermen and small farmers on an unforgiving storm-wracked coast with steep hills as its backdrop.  He will look at the physical landscape of chalk downlands and shingle shorelines and why, even pre-George IV it was an important town.

Picture: Brighton 1779 (credit: Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove)

Lady Teviot provides a look back over the years seeing how research has changed, whether for better or for worse and what changes are still to come. Over many years of doing other people’s research, she will present some of her experiences and thoughts.

Lady Teviot and her company are well known for undertaking research into family history, probate and media research featured in the very successful BBC programme “Heir Hunters”.

Photo: Falmer Hill c1905 (credit: Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove)

Central to Sussex farming in past centuries and to the economy of the area, were the thousands of sheep that grazed on the Downs.  The shepherds, who spent their solitary lives caring for their flocks, were a familiar part of the local countryside. Ian Everest tells their story.