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Bear Road, Brighton history

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At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, the parishes of Patcham and Preston were part of the Hundred of Preston in the Rape of Lewes. The boundaries of the hundred were later changed to cover Preston and Hove parishes, and they remained in this form until 1833 or later. The parish of Preston itself was broadly rectangular, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from east to west and 1 mile (1.6 km) north to south, but it “[sent] a long tongue eastwards along the boundary of [Brighton parish] to the summit of the Race Hill”. North of this “tongue” of land was the parish of Patcham, which like Preston parish became part of the Borough of Brighton in 1928. The tithe map of Preston parish before it became urbanised shows most of the northeast part of the parish, including all the land now covered by the Bear Road area, was owned by George Harrington and farmed by Bartholomew Smithers. There were five principal fields, a pond, some farm buildings next to Lewes Road and a windmill. Bear Mill was built in about 1810 and survived until 1903; it stood on the site of number 89 Ladysmith Road. It was a post mill with cloth sails and a white-painted roundhouse. A similar mill, the Race Hill Mill, stood at the top of Bear Road on Race Hill between January 1862 and May 1913, when it collapsed after several years of disuse. Originally known as Park Mill when it stood on Albion Hill, it was moved to its new site over a three-week period in 1861–62. Meanwhile, much of the land south of Bear Road was part of the arable land belonging to Scabe’s Castle Farm, whose buildings were on Hartington Road. The name of Bear Road comes from the Bear Inn at the foot of the hill, facing the junction with Lewes Road. A pub of that name still occupies the site, but the original building dated from the 18th century and was associated with bear- and badger-baiting at that time. Lewes Road was turnpiked in 1770, but development was slow: the first buildings were the Percy and Wagner Almshouses (1795) south of Elm Grove. Housing reached Bear Road in the 1860s, and in the 1890s and 1900s development spread further north into Preston parish as far as the Patcham parish boundary. At the same time, the steep hillside to the east began to be laid out with working-class housing. Between 1895 and 1899, the north side of Bear Road was lined with houses, and Coombe Terrace became the first new road of housing beyond the two main roads. Between 1900 and 1909, Buller Road, Dewe Road, Ewhurst Road, Ladysmith Road, Nesbitt Road, Redvers Road and Riley Road were laid out in their entirety, and Coombe Road, Milner Road and Natal Road were partly completed. Between 1910 and World War I, Kimberley Road and Mafeking Road were added. Apart from later infill development, the suburb was complete by 1924 with the laying out of Baden Road, Canfield Road, Crayford Road, Eastbourne Road, Carlyle Avenue and the remaining parts of Coombe, Milner and Natal Roads. Canfield Close was built in 1956–59, and the Meadowview area was developed from the 1960s starting with Jevington Drive. When the area north of Bear Road still consisted of open land, it was a popular site for travelling circuses and fairs. During one fair in the late 19th century, an elephant died and had to be disposed of. A large grave was dug on the hillside and it was buried there. The site was later built over: it is at the junction of the present Natal and Nesbitt Roads (click for image). The fairs ceased when rapid urbanisation started: between 1873 and 1900, the number of houses in the part of Preston parish east of Lewes Road rose from about 450 to more than 4,000. South of Bear Road, about 100 acres (40 ha) of the land formerly belonging to Scabe’s Castle Farm is now covered by cemeteries. The Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery is the earliest: it was founded in 1850 by the Brighton Extra Mural Company, which was set up by four eminent Brightonians who were concerned about the lack of burial space in the growing town and the implications for public health. Nonconformist minister John Nelson Goulty, his son the architect Horatio Nelson Goulty, fellow architect Amon Henry Wilds and doctor and politician John Cordy Burrows bought an initial 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land and laid out a private cemetery for Anglican, Roman Catholic and Nonconformist burials. The cemetery now covers 16.5 acres (6.7 ha) and is maintained by Brighton and Hove City Council. In 1857, the Brighton Parochial Cemetery was founded on 20-acre (8.1 ha) of land adjoining the Extra Mural Cemetery; it is now called the Woodvale Cemetery and also has Sussex’s first crematorium—the Woodvale Crematorium—which opened in 1930. A third cemetery opened north of Bear Road and opposite the Extra Mural Cemetery in 1868: it covers 31.5 acres (12.7 ha) and is known as City Cemetery or Bear Road Cemetery. In 1886, a fourth cemetery—again privately operated, a status which it still retains—opened on 30 acres (12 ha) of land southeast of the Woodvale Cemetery. It is called the Brighton and Preston Cemetery and also has a crematorium. In 1919, the new Meadowview Jewish Cemetery (replacing a 19th-century facility on Ditchling Road in Round Hill) was laid out on land between the Bear Road Cemetery and the Meadowview estate. The 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) site was extended in 1978 when 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) was added to the northeast. Bear Road was featured as the final climb on the seventh stage of the 2014 Tour of Britain from Camberley to Brighton.

  

Bear Road, Brighton map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Bear Road, Brighton Map

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