Portslade History Trail. 1000 years of history in a one mile walk

19th Century Portslade

In 1801 Portslade was on stand-by for war. The deputy Lord Lieutenant of Lewes enquired about Portslade’s ability to contribute to the war effort with France, as the coastline was vulnerable to an invasion. Only 22 men volunteered but were never required to take up arms with their axes and shovels. The inhabitants would be on alert until Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815.

Portslade was essentially rural and a desirable location for wealthy landowners and their tenant farmers. Tenant farmers managed all the high acreage farms, which covered the area from the Downs to the sea. A familiar sight was the Southdown sheep, a breed which had been developed to thrive in the local environment. They were commended for their high yield of meat and their fleece, which produced warm, if a little itchy, cloth and cross breeding qualities to improve other sheep varieties. Sheep-washing and shearing were annual practices which connected the community with old traditions, but the reality was that those without land to work were very poor.

Farmland was more valuable if there was clay which could be excavated for brick making. The process of digging deep pits for excavation and washing the clay left the land in devastation, but opportunity for recreation areas; Victoria Park and Vale Park in Portslade are situated on previous brick fields.

The development of seaside entertainment along the coast created a greater demand for food and housing-a perfect financial incentive to develop more market gardening and brickworks but at the expense of agricultural land and jobs.

In the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1814, Portslade was noted for its fine houses in their Downs setting. This included the new Manor House (now Emmaus) built in 1806. Later in the century, Easthill House, Sellaby House, Whychcote and Loxdale would complete the rural charm. The latter two were built by the Mews brothers, who owned Portslade’s award-winning brewery.

Around 1808, the Old Manor became an Almshouse for the poor, reliant on charity from other Portslade residents. At some point before 1840, much of the Manor was dismantled. Many of the walls and the castle folly within the Emmaus grounds are from the flints of the destructed Manor.

The canal at Copperas Gap in south Portslade, once known only for fishing and smuggling, enabled coal and timber to be brought in. The arrival of the steam railway system in 1840 improved on this, creating a more readily available power source; Britannia Flour Mills and the Star Laundry at the end of Church Road took advantage of this in the 1850s. The notably smelly Gasworks were built in1874 and able to supply power to the neighbouring areas.

The Portslade population increased dramatically from 358 in 1801, to more than 4000 in 1891. Copperas Gap became the urban district of Portslade-by-Sea in 1897 as the workforce continued to gravitate to where they could work and live.

Researched & Written by Pat Liddell

Pictured:

1. Napoleon Bonaparte. 1769 to 1821.

2. A Southdown sheep

3. Victoria Rec, shortly after it opened in 1902.

4. Loxdale House, Locks Hill, Portslade

5. Architects plans of Portslade Brewery.

6. Portslade Canal

7. Portslade railway station

8. Portslade Gas Works

9. Boundary Road/Station Road, Portslade, looking south from the railway line.

Pictures 3 to 9 by kind permission of Gary Osborne.