Tales of the Ancestral Village of Hove.

 

Brighton was growing, but her borders had not yet spread to Hove, which in the reign of King George the Fourth still lay an isolated agricultural and sea-faring village across distant fields. But the westward pressure of Brighton helped to begin the eastern end of Hove when the Regent graced the former town with his royal presence.

 

Nearer Hove village a pretentious fishery had been erected, known as Jack Smith's Rookery, but the undertaking collapsed, and the curing houses were forthwith entered by the inhabitants as dwelling-houses, till the great storm of November, 1824, literally washed them out. Hove would now give a good deal if this page of her history could be re-written, for it was in imitation of the fishery's example that Sergeant James Mills built Mills Terrace a few years later, and thus permanently broke the line of the front.

 

The Regency

 

When the old Duke of Norfolk drove over from Arundel "with his famous equipage of grey horses," to make up his quarrel with the Prince Regent at the Royal Pavilion, and was made so disgracefully drunk for his pains, he probably came by Bramber and the Old Shoreham road, as the lower road was not yet made. If he had looked out of his carriage window as he neared the town he would probably have been able to see across the fields the first houses in Brunswick Terrace (named after Caroline of Brunswick, wife of the Prince Regent, afterwards George the Fourth " that kindly, generous, outraged creature," Thackeray called her) - just beginning to be built.

 

William IV., when he took his daily drive along the new and dusty road by Southwick and Kingston to Shoreham, would have seen them nearing completion, with Adelaide Terrace - named after his queen, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen - rapidly coming into being.

 

Before he died Hove had extended from both ends, and even from the north. Still, as late as 1840 it was possible for a man to lose his way in the fields between Furze Hill and the Wick Inn on a dark night, for there was no spire of St. John the Baptist as a landmark, and no defined road across the pasture. But after 1850 Hove grew rapidly, and had fairly entered into its modern life.

 

Modern Hove

As a modern town Hove had this advantage over its more ancient neighbours, that it was able to plan its front and its streets in accordance with modern notions. Of course, when the town began to see the future that lay before it, the first step was obviously to protect the coastline against the encroachment of the sea.

Under the supervision of Sir John Coode the sea-wall was designed and carried out. The work was begun in 1883, at the estimated cost· of £40,000, and subsequently another £30,000 was spent on groynes, lawns, and improvements. The people of Hove made great sacrifices in order that this work should be properly and thoroughly done, and it will be generally agreed that they have their reward in the excellent result. The sea-wall now extends nearly to Aldrington; the lawns, but for a brief interruption between Medina Terrace and the coast-guard station, extend almost to the basin of Shoreham.

With the exception of the enclosed lawns fronting King's Gardens and Queen's Gardens, which are open only to subscribers, and are owned by the West Brighton Estate Company, all the lawns are the property of the Corporation of Hove, and are open to the public. Church parade on the Brunswick lawns, especially on a bright summer Sunday, was alone worth coming to Hove to see; and the band which played on the same lawns in summer was worth listening to. The prevailing wind at Hove is the soft south-west breeze, which means that one can sit out of doors in the twilight without the discomfort of sea-chill.

Brunswick Terrace

Behind the Brunswick lawns the magnificent front of Brunswick Terrace rises to uphold the credit of domestic building in Regency times. Old Hove began in Hove Street, but new Hove began here; and an Act of Parliament fathered its early years. The terrace, as has been stated, was named after Caroline of Brunswick, George the Fourth's unfortunate wife. It has been suggested that the name was given in honour of Duke Frederick William of Brunswick, who, with his " >Black Brunswickers " (so called from their mourning uniform commemorating their losses - and, in particular, the death of the Duke's father - at Auerstadt) entered the English service in 1809.

 

The Duke fought in the Peninsular War till 1813, and was killed in the action of Quatre Bras in 1815. Waterloo Street, in which is St. Andrew's Chapel of Ease, built in 1828 for the accommodation of the new residents in Brunswick Square, suggests the same idea. But Caroline never lost the sympathy of the people, though she lost that of her husbands friends, and we may reasonably leave this monument to the Queen's unhappy memory.

 

Famous Inhabitants

 

Both Brunswick Terrace and Brunswick Square have had many notable inhabitants. Prince Metternich, an exile from Austria in consequence of the general overthrow caused by the revolution of 1848, fled from Vienna with an escort of cavalry, and, reaching England, took up his abode in a house in the terrace in the same year.

Here he lived with his third wife, the Countess Melanie Zichy Ferraris, bitter at the fall from political favour which had overtaken the house of Metternich. Sir Horace Rumbold, in his recollections, gives us a peep into the drawing-room at Brunswick Terrace.

'I can hear her now, while she turned over the pages of an album of very interesting lithographic portraits of her friends and acquaintances by that clever artist, Kriehuber (photographs, I need hardly say, were in their infancy), exclaiming, as she came upon one or other of those who had deserted " the good cause'' or shown weakness: "Das war eine Canaille! " "Voila encore un miserable!"

Sir Horace gives us several pleasant pictures of Hove in his day, notably of one of the Duke of Devonshire's dinners, where he met the young Duke of Lucca, the madcap prince who just then had shocked Windsor by turning head over heels in front of Queen Victoria, in order to show how pleased he was.

 

In Brunswick Square lived Madame Basevi, wife of George Basevi, whose sister Maria married Isaac Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield's father. Of the younger George Basevi we shall have occasion to make mention when we explore the old pariah church of St. Andrew, Hove, which he restored. Lord Beaconsfield himself in later years stayed in Brighton.

Admiral Westphal lived for many years at No. 2, Brunswick Square, and Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding, the painter, spent some of the later years of his life at No. 2, Lansdowne Place. Both are buried in the old cemetery, and their story properly belongs to that section, so for the moment we leave them.

 

The Wick

Out of the north side of Brunswick Square, Brunswick Place leads us to Furze Hill and the district known as " the Wick." Old maps show it sometimes as Wick Farm, and sometimes as Week's Farm, but the former has survived, and is probably correct.

 

From the high ground of the Wick you may have once looked across the houses in Brunswick Square to the sea, and get a view of the masts of ships crossing between the points of the bay; two hundred years ago the Wick had an uninterrupted view of brick kilns to the water's edge. Wick Farm was then " a handsome new house built with red brick, built by the late Mr. Scutt,' and was for some time the residence of Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart., of Battle Abbey.

The estate was acquired by Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, who turned the farmhouse into a country mansion and the grounds into a paradise. Sir Isaac was a bullion broker, whose operations were very extensive in Turkey, Portugal, and Brazil, but he was something other than a financier.

 

The main effort of his life was spent in philanthropy. He was the friend of Robert Owen, and collaborated with Mrs. Elizabeth Fry in advocating and carrying out the reform of the brutal penal code then in vogue. Hardly less effort was devoted by him to the cause of Jewish emancipation, in which, later on, he had the assistance of his son, Sir F. H. Goldsmid, who, largely as the result of his fnther's exertions, became the first Jewish barrister and the first Jewish Q.C.

 

ST.Ann's Well

In the grounds of Wick House is the Chalybeate, known now as St. Ann's, Well. The spring was formerly much resorted to by visitors from Brighton, and a succession of doctors gave it a character for the possession of marvellous healing properties.

 

The private laundry of the Wick House, an extensive building in the style of a classic temple, was built over the spring to protect it, and one of the basement rooms was made the well-chamber. The chalybeate water bubbled up through a fissure in the rock, and flowed into a big bowl. All around the mouth of the spring the earth is coated with a layer of rusty deposit, left there by the action of the water.

 

Wick House Gardens

The old gardens of Wick House were acquired by the Hove Corporation, to be laid out as a public pleasure garden. Great chestnut and fir trees lined the winding paths, and threw their pleasant shade in natural arbours.

Parallel with Brunswick Place on the eastern sitle is Cambridge Road, in which is St. Patrick's Church, founded in 1850 by Dr. O'Brien. Its decorations include a good painting of the Adoration on the three chancel walls, presented to the church in 1892.

 

Palmeira Square

At the western end of Brunswick Terrace, where the wall of the facade drops to the embankment of a garden, is Adelaide Crescent, the two sides of which lead northward into Palmeira Square. Most of this square was in the property of the Wick Estate; the name is derived from the foreign title of Sir I. L. Goldsmid, who in 1846 was created Baron Palmeira by the Queen of Portugal for financial services to the Portuguese nation.

 

The Countess of Munster lived at No. 23, still occupied by the present Earl of Munster. The title, " Earl of Munster," was first bestowed upon King William the Fourth, who conferred it upon Georrge Fitz-Clarence, the son of himself and Mrs. Jordan, the actress. The countess referred to above, herself a granddaughter of William IV., married one of his grandsons, she gives in her reminiscences an interesting account of the " Sailor King " at Brighton, and of her own presentation to him one morning on the old chain pier.

 

While on the subject of the Royal family at Hove and Brighton, it would be as well to say here that the church in which, Mrs. Fitzherbert, the first wife of George the Fourth, was buried is not St. John the Baptist at the corner of Palmeira Square, but the Roman Catholic chapel of St. John the Baptist in Bristol Road, Kemp Town. This church of St. John the Baptist in Palmeira Square was not built till 1852, and Mrs. Fitz herbert died in 1837; but the mistake is nevertheless frequently made.

 

The garden of Palmeira Square lay for many years a waste of old iron and buckled girders, the last remains of the Antheum, the palace of flowers that was put up in 1833 by Mr. Henry Phillips, a well-known botanist of the day. Under his guidance a huge dome of iron framework and glass, exceeding in size that of St. Peter's at Rome, was built by Mr. English, an architect of considerable reputation.

 

Thousands visited it on the day of opening, but hardly had the last visitor left the building in the evening of the second day,when the whole structure collapsed. It is said that Phillips, on hearing the news, received such a shock that he shortly afterwards became blind.

 

Hove Avenues

Beyond Brunswick Lawns are the Queen's Gardens Lawns, once belonging to the West Brighton Estate Company. King's Gardens, Queen's Gardens, and AdeIaide Mansions, terraces of imposing modern mansions, overlook them, and mark the corners of the five broad avenues which, with its lawns are the glory of Hove - the broad Grand Avenue in the centre, with the Second and First to the east, and the Third and Fourth to the west of it. No. 7, Queen's Gardens, once the home of Mr. Reuben Sassoon, entertained King Edward when he was Prince of Wales, and the late Shah of Persia stayed there in 1889.

 

At the marine end of Grand Avenue is a statue of Queen Victoria in her robes of state; it was executed by Mr. Thomas Brock, R.A., and was unveiled in 1901.

In the Third Avenue, at the north-west corner, Hove Public Library had its temporary home. The library was founded in 1891, and has now a collection of over 18,000 books. A new library building was in the course of erection, the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, costing £10,000.

 

Cricket Annals

Selborne Road, the continuation of First Avenue, leads to the entrance gates of the Sussex County Cricket Ground, which had its origin in the old Brighton Club, founded in 1849. The Brunswick Cricket Ground was opened in 1848, " close to the sea ," says Mr. E. V. Lucas, " into which the ball was occasionally hit by Mr. C. I. Thornton ."

 

But Hove has a place in the annals of cricket long anterior to this. Lillywhite, the pioneer of bowling, was at one time foreman at the brick-kilns which lay between the Wick and the sea. An old print shows him playing on a stretch of turf before his cottage, with old Hove Church, not then rebuilt, in the background. He played principally on the Montpellier Ground, where Montpellier Crescent now stands, and when his cricketing was over he became landlord of the " Royal Sovereign " public-house in Preston Street. Box, the famous wicket-keeper, was for some years proprietor of the Royal Brunswick Cricket Ground, before he retired in 1863 to the proprietorship of a tavern near Leicester Square, in London. The present ground was laid out in 1871.

 

All Saints Church

The Grand Avenue, after it crosses Eaton Road, becomes The Drive. All Saints' Church, which occupies the north-eastern corner of the crossing, is the new parish church of Hove. The first stone was laid by Dr. Durnford, Bishop of Chichester, on April 25, 1889, and the church, though not complete, was consecrated on May 1, 1891. When finished, it was the largest parish church in Sussex; it is built of Sussex stone in the Early Decorated style, from the designs of Mr. J. L. Pearson, R.A., the architect of Truro Cathedral.

 

The nave, chancel, transepts, and aisles are finished, and the design also provides for a tower of two storeys at the south-west corner of the nave, and for a west porch. The east window is a memorial to the late Stephen Ralli and his sons Augustus and Antonio; the rose window in the north transept was given anonymously at the Church Congress held in Brighton in 1901, and the late Mr. George B. Woodruff, first Mayor of Hove, gave £10,000 to be devoted to the erection of the tower:

 

Local Government

Hove Town Hall was situated in Church Road, opposite and between the northern terminations of Third and Fourth Avenues. In 1830, while Hove village continued under its patriarchal administration, the new area of Brunswick Terrace was placed under a body created for the purpose, and called the Brunswick Square and Terrace Commissioners.

In 1858 Hove village had begun to expand, and was placed under a body called the West Hove Commissioners. As the two ends of Hove grew and met, so in 1874 the two administrations were combined under the general title of The Hove Commissioners. It was about this time that the adjoining town of Brighton made a strong effort to incorporate her growing neighbour; but the scheme met with an even stronger opposition on the part of Hove, with the result that it did not succeed.

 

In 1894 the Commissioners were abolished, and an Urban District Council was formed; the wards were rearranged, and the town continued to be governed under the Local aovernment Act till 1898, when the charter was granted. The government of the town was thenceforward vested in the mayor and a corporation consisting of ten aldermen and thirty councillors.

 

The Town Hall

A handsome Perpendicular building in red brick and terracotta, was built during the rule of the Hove Commissioners in 1882. It was designed by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R. A., and cost over £49,000 to build. The great hall contained a fine organ, and held about two thousand persons. There are also banqueting and reception rooms, with proper dressing-room accommodation, etc. Those were in constant use, particularly during the winter season, when bazaars, lectures, concerts, theatrical performances, private " at homes," receptions, and dances were held.

 

A scale of fees was to be obtained on application to the town clerk at the Town Hall. The tower had a clock which strikes the Cambridge chimes, and a carillon of twelve bells worked by it mechanical contrivance. This comes into play once in every three hours, and varied the tunes as follows:

Sunday: " Hanover." "The Sicilian Mariners' Hymn."

Monday: " Home,Sweet Home." "God bless the Prince of Wales."

Tuesday: " Blue Bells of Scotland." "There's nae Luck aboot the House."

Wednesday: " The Harp that Once through Tara's Halls." "The Last Rose of Summer."

Thursday: " March of the Men of Harlech." "Auld Lang Syne."

Friday: " The Anchor's Weighed." "Tom Bowling."

Saturday " Rule Britannia." "God Save the King."

There was a keyboard by which a carillon performer could play any tune at will, as was sometimes done in Dutch and Flemish towns. The hour bell, weighing 36cwt., was named the Howlett bell, after Alderman J. W. Howlett, J.P., who laid the first stone of the Town Hall, in 1880.

Westward of Queen's Gardens' Lawns the line of the sea-wall is interrupted by a series of buildings extending to the gap at the bottom of Hove Street. This is where the fishery was started which proved so disastrous to its shareholders and subsequent inmates.

 

The district is known as Medina; it was then in private hands, and the chance of an unbroken range of lawns from Brighton to the harbour was gone for ever. Mills Terrace followed in the wake of the fishery, and since then the land has been extensively built over. Fortunately, building operations extended no further than the coastguard station, and the handsome front of Hove Baths did much to atone for the broken line of lawns.

 

 

 

 

Previous Page                      Next Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top of Page       main page:  www.yeoldesussexpages.com