Peacehaven

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Map sources for Peacehaven at grid reference TQ4101

Peacehaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located above the chalk cliffs of the South Downs approximately 6 miles east of Brighton city centre, on the A 259 coast road. Its site coincides with the point where the Greenwich meridian crosses the English south coast.

[edit] Prehistory

There is a Bronze Age barrow (burial mound), currently under investigation by local societies very close to the cliff top. The barrow represents evidence of the occupation of Peacehaven at least 3,500 years ago.

[edit] Modern Peacehaven

Peacehaven has only existed as a settlement since 1916, after its founder, Charles Neville had purchased land in the parish of Piddinghoe; he then set up a company to develop the site. He advertised it by setting up a competition to name the development, although the newspaper concerned - the Daily Express - sued Neville over the competition, holding that it was a scam, since he was offering "free" plots of land in the town as runner-up prizes, but issuing them only on the payment of a conveyancing fee. The newspaper won the case, but the publicity brought the scheme to a large audience. The name chosen - New Anzac-on-Sea - lasted less than a year: the fateful Gallipoli campaign led Neville to rename his development Peacehaven. By 1924 there were 3000 people living in Peacehaven.

The town, apart from the newer development to the west named Telscombe Cliffs, still retains its original shape: rectangular plots of land on both sides of the main road. Original houses were often very temporary affairs (some were old railway carriages). Peacehaven eventually grew to be larger in area than Lewes, the county town and administrative headquarters of the region.

Today there is a leisure centre and the Meridian Shopping Centre; there are also four schools in Peacehaven: Hoddern Junior school; Peacehaven Infants School; Meridian School and Peacehaven Community School; a police station, a dentist, several doctors’ surgeries and a plentiful supply of pubs and restaurants located throughout the town. There are four churches; the parish church is the Church of the Ascension, and serves both Peacehaven and Telscombe Cliffs. There are dance schools, such as Harlequin and Studio 54, as well as numerous football and martial arts clubs.

The beach below the cliffs can be reached by means of a pathway: here is a pebbly beach. There is an area of common land in the town called The Dell, which sits between the A259 and the cliffs. The Dell holds many events during the year from car boot sales and entertainments such as fireworks to fairgrounds, motorhome exhibitions, the Donkey Derby and an annual carnival, though in 2005 the carnival was held on the Joff field located behind the Meridian shopping centre.

Although an independent town, Peacehaven relies heavily on the bordering city of Brighton & Hove. Many local residents commute into work via a regular bus link supplied by Brighton & Hove Buses, most travel into the city for shopping and other leisure activities. Being in such close proximity to Brighton and the relience upon the city for local amenities has led to a considerable "Brighton feel" to the town in which many of the residents consider themselves "from Brighton". Peacehaven is twinned with the French town of Epinay-Sous-Senart and the German town of Isernhagen.

The town plays a part in Graham Greene's 1938 novel Brighton Rock when anti-hero Pinkie Brown intends to throw his girlfriend Rose from the high cliffs which are part of the town. More recently Peacehaven was selected for the site at which Tiffany's ashes were portraid to be cast over the cliffs, in the popular BBC soap "EastEnders" in 1998, with viewers told she had spent happy childhood holidays there[1][2][3]. Filming however, took part in the adjacent town of Seaford.