Newhaven, East Sussex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the Sussex Coast, and is a car ferry port for services across the English Channel to Dieppe in Normandy. The port handles industrial traffic and there is also a small marina.
The town is linked to Lewes by rail; there are two stations: Newhaven Town and Newhaven Harbour. The line terminates at nearby Seaford. The port of Newhaven is now entirely owned by the French authorities.
The huge Newhaven Fort, built on Castle Hill in the 1860s, is only the last of several built here since Bronze Age times. It is now a visitor attraction.
Whilst the commercial and industrial communities of Newhaven have declined, the town has been granted quite extensive regeneration programmes for several years, to varying degrees of success. These have included a huge increase in properties built in the town over the past decade or so. Recent developments have sought to increase economic prosperity in the area, but have on the whole failed, with the recent closure of several of the town's major shops. One of the business closures was, in part, a protest at the mismanagement of the town.
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[edit] Etymology
Newhaven used to be named Meeching until the 16th century when a great storm diverted the course of the Sussex Ouse so forming a New Haven.
Newhaven is the postal town of the nearby villages of South Heighton & Denton.
[edit] Archaeological Sites
To the east of Newhaven is the derelict village of Tide Mills which is the remains of workers' cottages, a tide mill, and a large saline lagoon which was the storage pond for high water to power the mill on the outgoing tide.
Almost within the same site is the set of foundations for the Heritage Marine Hospital[1][2] which was founded in the mid-19th century to cater for disabled boys who had undergone surgery.
Tide Mills is also associated with the pioneering Newhaven Seaplane Base[3]
[edit] Intrigue
When Lord Lucan vanished in 1974, his car was found in Newhaven, in Norman Road, with two types of blood in it.
[edit] Harbour
Newhaven Harbour houses Transmanche Ferries between Newhaven and Dieppe. The ferry line has however recently been bought out by EDF, which aims to extend the ferry service to Le Havre. There are fears that this may upset the Portsmouth link to Le Havre, however. For more information on the ferry service, click here.
It has been a harbour since the 19th century, when the river Ouse used to flow through Seaford. Unfortunately, the flow of the river stopped when there was a tempest in the early 19th century. As a solution to this problem, engineers performed 'the cut' at what is now known as Newhaven. They managed to cut a channel down to what is now Newhaven Harbour, and join up with the river further inland than Seaford. This meant that Newhaven then prospered as a harbour town. The Harbour Arm at Newhaven was added later on when people from the Channel Islands migrated to Newhaven, and built the Arm.
The harbour then became very useful during the first and second World Wars, as it was the fastest way to reach Dieppe (France). At this time the town benefited greatly from the Navy being at Newhaven.
Today, the harbour's main function is as a commercial liner harbour. (See above for details on the ferry link with Dieppe and Le Havre.) However, the harbour has seen better days, and the decrepit east side of the harbour proves this. It was not always so, though, and the 'London & Paris' hotel that used to be part of the east side at Newhaven harbour shows this. So does the 'Marine Station', now abandoned, also on the east side that used to serve the London & Paris hotel.
Famous residents have included the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo casino, the author of tThe Graduate and J. Scott Roderick.
