Tide Mills, East Sussex

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Tide Mills
Tide Mills, East Sussex (East Sussex)
Tide Mills, East Sussex

Tide Mills shown within East Sussex
OS grid reference TQ459002
District Lewes
Shire county East Sussex
Region South East
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Police Sussex
Fire East Sussex
Ambulance South East Coast
European Parliament South East England
List of places: UK • England • East Sussex

Coordinates: 50°46′58″N 0°04′14″E / 50.782865, 0.0706

Plaque of Tide Mills Time-Line
Plaque of Tide Mills Time-Line
The derelict mill race sluice, from the mill pond side
The derelict mill race sluice, from the mill pond side
The derelict mill race sluice, from the seaward side
The derelict mill race sluice, from the seaward side

Tide Mills is a derelict village in East Sussex, England. It lies about 2 km southeast of Newhaven and 4 km northwest of Seaford and is near both Bishopstone and East Blatchington.

Contents

[edit] The old village

The village consisted of a large tide mill and numerous workers' cottages, housing about 100 workers. The tide mill at Bishopstone[1] was erected in 1761 by the Duke of Newcastle[2], and was later owned and operated by William Catt (1770-1853) and his family.

The Sussex Archaeological Society[3] started a long-term project in April 2006 to record the entire East Beach site: Mills, Railway Station, Nurses Home, Hospital, RNAS Station and the later holiday homes and the Marconi Radio station (1904). Apart from the dig, it will evolve into a huge collection of film, video, recollections and photographs logging the decline of the area.

The mill stopped in around 1900, the village was condemned as unfit for habitation in 1936 with the last residents forcibly removed in 1939. The area was in part cleared to give fields of fire and also used for street fighting training.

The area accommodated vast numbers of Canadian troops during the Second World War.

There are the remains of a station[4][5] on the Newhaven to Seaford line at grid reference TQ460003. It started life as either Bishopstone Station (the Victorian OS map of 1879 shows it as this together with a short branch line to the mills[6]) or Tide Mills Halt, but became Bishopstone Beach Halt in 1939 before its closure in 1942. This is different from today's Bishopstone railway station at grid reference TV469998.

[edit] Mill complex

Photograph showing a windmill in addition to the tide mill complex
Photograph showing a windmill in addition to the tide mill complex

Old photographs and paintings, together with a poem show that the tide mill complex included a windmill.[7]

[edit] Access

Access is either via Mill Drove, an insignificant single track road which runs south west from the Newhaven and Seaford roads at approximately the point where one changes into the other grid reference TQ463005 (very limited parking, and access is via a pedestrian railway crossing at Bishopstone Beach Halt); or along the beach to the east of Newhaven Harbour.

[edit] Untrue myths

A couple of myths destroyed (source Newhaven Local & Maritime Museum)

  • William Catt did not develop the Williams pear
  • The site was not used for target practice by Newhaven Fort Artillery, though this story is common locally

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bishopstone, the Largest Tide Mill in Sussex
  2. ^ Newhaven Local & Maritime Museum - A Selection of Local Subjects
  3. ^ The Sussex Archaeological Society Tide Mills archeology project
  4. ^ The train now standing at Bishopstone Beach
  5. ^ Bishopstone Beach Halt station
  6. ^ The Victorian OS map of 1879
  7. ^ Source- plaques on the site for visitors

[edit] External links