History of Brighton
The history of Brighton is that of an ancient fishing village which emerged as a health resort in the 18th century and grew into one of the largest towns in England by the 20th century.
Etymology
The etymology of the name of Brighton lies in the Old English Beorhthelmes tūn. This name has evolved through Bristelmestune, Brichtelmeston, Brighthelmeston,Brighthemston and Brighthelmston. Brighton came into common use in the early 19th century.
Prehistoric period
Palaeolithic
The western section of the cliffs at Black Rock, near Brighton Marina are an unusual outcropping of Palaeolithic Coombe Rock, revealing in section a paleocliff cut into Cretaceous Chalk. These rocks were formerly known as the "Elephant Beds" in reference to the fossilised material recovered by geologists and palaeontologists. 200,000 years ago the beach was significantly higher and this clear strata can be observed preserved in the cliff. Protohumans hunted various animals including mammoth along the shore. The preservation of this raised beach and associated evidence of a coastal paleolandscape has led to protected status for the cliff. This section can be seen directly behind the car-park of supermarket Asda.Neolithic period
is an early Neolithic causewayed enclosure c. 3500 BC. The centre is some way towards the transmitter on the south side of Manor Road, opposite the Brighton Racecourse grandstand. Archaeological enquiry have determined four concentric circles of ditches and mounds, broken or "causewayed" in many places. Significant vestiges of the mounds remain and their arc can be traced by eye.The building of a new housing estate in the early 1990s over the southeastern portion of the enclosure damaged the archaeology and caused the loss of the ancient panoramic view.
The fate of a Neolithic long barrow at Waldegrave Road is recorded. It was used as hardcore during the building of Balfour Road and workmen were regularly disturbed by the concentrations of human remains poking through their foundations.
More of pre-historic Brighton and Hove can be seen just north of the small retail park on Old Shoreham Road, built in the late 1990s over the site of Brighton's football ground. Here one can visit The Goldstone. This is believed to have been ceremonial, and there are suggestions that it, together with now-vanished stones, may have formed an ancient circle. In the early 19th century a local farmer, fed up with romantic tourists, had the largest stone buried. It was exhumed in 1900.
Bronze Age
After a scholarly review, the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity noted, "there are a concentration of Beaker burials on the fringes of the central chalklands around Brighton, and a later cluster of Early and Middle Bronze Age 'rich graves' in the same area."Iron Age
An important pre-Roman site is Hollingbury Castle. Commanding panoramic views over the city, this Celtic Iron Age encampment is circumscribed by substantial earthwork outer walls with a diameter of approximately 300 metres. It is one of numerous hillforts found across southern Britain. Cissbury Ring, roughly from Hollingbury, is suggested to have been the tribal "capital".Romano-British period
The Romans built villas throughout Sussex, including a villa at Brighton. At the time of its construction in the late 1st or 2nd century AD there was a stream running along what is now London Road. The villa was sited more or less at the water's edge, immediately south of Preston Park. The villa was excavated in the 1930s, prior to the building of a garage on the site.In Brighton museum, within the new Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society display, visitors can view two Roman figurines unearthed from the Brighton Roman Villa. Rocky Clump, in Stanmer Park, to the north of the city, was a Romano-British farming settlement.
A Roman road leads from Shoreham-by-Sea through Hove to Brighton, where it turns and leads north to Hassocks, a Roman industrial centre. No significant Roman settlement has been found in Brighton or Hove. However the presence of the Roman roads, the high number of Roman artefacts, and significant changes in geography could mean that any possible settlement is either buried or may have been washed away by the sea.
Despite the Romano-British construction of numerous shore forts along the south coast the battle to ward off Saxon raiders was eventually lost after the official withdrawal of Roman resources in AD 410.
Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon period
After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, Saxons arrived in and around Brighton and the area became part of the Kingdom of Sussex. From around 827 Sussex was annexed by the neighbouring Kingdom of Wessex, which evolved into the Kingdom of England. The placename of Brighton means "Beorhthelm's farm", and this placename and those of neighbouring places date from this era. A 6th-7th century Saxon burial area has been excavated around the Seven Dials area.Like other settlements on the coast of south-east England, Brighton appears to have developed as a landing-place for boats; the early function of the landing-place as a fishing centre is reflected in payment from one manorial holding of a rent of 4,000 herrings recorded in
Domesday Book shortly after the end of the Saxon period in 1086. There is no suggestion in Domesday Book, however, that Brighton was a town – the manors were inhabited by villagers and smallholders, not burgesses. The Domesday Book also records that at the close of the Saxon period, Brighton was held by Earl Godwin, who was probably from Sussex and was one of the most powerful earls in England. Godwin had extensive land holdings in Sussex and was the father of King Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.
Norman Conquest
After the Norman Conquest, King William I conferred the barony of Lewes to his son-in-law William de Warenne. The Domesday Book of 1086 contains the first documentary evidence of a settlement on the modern site of Brighton. Located in the rape of Lewes and in the Welesmere hundred, the settlement was made up of three manors, the first being described as Bristelmestune.12th century
Brighton had probably acquired a town-like status by the 12th century, although it would not have had the facilities of longer established Sussex boroughs such as Lewes or Steyning.Established by the monks at the mother church of St Pancras Priory, Lewes between 1120 and 1147, St Bartholomew's Priory stood on the site of the present town hall. The consonant structure of the placename Brighthelmston may have suggested the dedication of the priory to St Bartholomew. This small dispatchment of Cluniacs established the monastery submitting themselves to a regular life under the Rule of St Benedict.. The 12th-century font in Brighton's old parish church of St Nicholas is described by Pevsner as "the best piece of Norman carving in Sussex". The font suggests that St Nicholas Church was also originally built in the 12th century, although the current structure dates mainly from the 13th century. The church was also held by Lewes Priory.
Two elm trees in the grounds of Preston Manor are the oldest English elms in the world. They are thought to be c.850 years old, which would date their origin to the mid 12th century.
14th century
The regular planning of the town as it existed from at least the 15th century suggests that Brighton was deliberately laid out around 1300, possibly under the influence of the planned new town of Winchelsea some to the east. In 1312 King Edward II granted market rights to the village and the right to hold an annual fair on the eve, day and morrow of St. Bartholomew 23, 24 and 25 August, although it is likely that grant simply formalised a market that was already in existence by this time.St Peter's Church at Preston Village, Brighton, currently under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, is 14th century. A medieval fresco depicting the murder of Thomas Becket was discovered under paint following a fire in the early 20th century. The fresco is among the oldest art in Brighton.
Early modern period
In June 1514, the fishing village was burnt to the ground by the French as part of a war which began as a result of the Treaty of Westminster. Subsequently in 1545 the residents of the town petitioned the monarch for defensive cannon. Their petition featured an illustrated map showing the French raid, a copy of which can be seen in Hove Museum.This map is the earliest known picture of Brighton. It shows a site laid out in a rectangular shape about a quarter of a mile square. The lower town of houses on the foreshore can be seen with a series of sloping ways rising eastwards up the cliff. Middle Street came into existence during the 16th century and West Street, North Street and East Street were fully developed by the 16th century. However the interior between Middle Street and East Street remained undeveloped and was known as the Hempshares.
The lower town on the foreshore suffered from sea erosion. In 1665 there were 113 houses out of a former 135. However, as only 24 of these houses paid Hearth Tax in that year, it is suspected that many of these dwellings were mere hovels. By the 1640s Brighthelmstone had a population of over 4,000 and was the largest settlement in Sussex. Its economy was dominated by the fishing industry.
Deryk Carver, a Flemish brewer whose premises were on Black Lion Street, was arrested by the Sheriff, Edward Gage, for heresy. Carver had rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and what he saw as its continuing role as an instrument of state power. Carver and others were dispatched for trial in London and ultimately executed at the county town of Lewes. Carver was stood in a barrel of pitch and burned alive.
After his defeat at the Battle of Worcester, Charles II escaped to France through Brighton and finally Shoreham-by-Sea. This event is remembered annually by the Royal Escape yacht race, now organised by Sussex Yacht Club.
The tomb of the boat-owner who was instrumental in the escape of Charles II, Nicholas Tettersell, is to be seen in St Nicholas churchyard, Brighton.