Bexhill-on-Sea

History

The first reference to Bexhill, or Bexelei as it was originally called, was in a charter granted by King Offa of Mercia in 772 AD. It is recorded that Offa had "defeated the men of Hastings" in 771 AD.

At this time, the term Hastings would have referred to this whole area rather than the town itself as it does today. In the charter, Offa established a church and religious community in Bexhill.

The name Bexhill derives from the Old English byxelēah meaning 'boxtree wood or clearing'.

During the Norman Conquest of 1066, it appears that Bexhill was largely destroyed. The Domesday survey of 1086 records that the manor was worth £20 before the conquest, was "waste" in 1066 and was worth £18 10s in 1086. King William I used the lands he had conquered to reward his knights and gave Bexhill manor to Robert, Count of Eu, with most of the Hastings area. Robert's grandson, John, Count of Eu, gave back the manor to the bishops of Chichester in 1148 and it is probable that the first manor house was built by the bishops at this time. The later manor house, the ruins of which can still be seen at the Manor Gardens in Bexhill Old Town, was built about 1250, probably on the instructions of St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester. St Richard's Catholic College, the local Catholic school, was duly for said Bishop.

The Manor House was the easternmost residence owned by the bishops and would have been used as a place to stay while travelling around or through the eastern part of their diocese. There were often disputes between the Bishops of Chichester and the Abbots of Battle Abbey, usually about land ownership in this area. In 1276 a large portion of Bexhill was made into a park for hunting and in 1447 Bishop Adam de Moleyns was given permission to fortify the Manor House.

In 1561, Queen Elizabeth I took possession of Bexhill Manor and three years later she gave it to Sir Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset. The Earls, later Dukes, of Dorset owned Bexhill until the mid-19th century. Their main residences were Buckhurst Place in Sussex and Knole House in Kent.

In 1804, soldiers of the King's German Legion were stationed in barracks at Bexhill. These troops were Hanoverians who had escaped when their country was overrun by Napoleon's French Army. As King George III was also the Elector of Hanover, he welcomed them and they fought as part of the British Army. At about this time, defensive Martello towers were built along the south east coast, some near Bexhill, in order to repel any French invasion.

Governance

Due to local governance reform in 1974, Bexhill became part of Rother District Council, thereby losing its town council. In its place, Bexhill became a charter trustees town, represented by the Bexhill councillors of Rother District Council. A quarterly forum is held to provide a voice to the community at a local level.

Bexhill Town Hall is the seat of Rother District Council, for which elections are held every four years. In total, thirty-eight councillors are elected for Rother, eighteen coming from Bexhill's nine wards.

In 2017, local campaigners initiated a public consultation on the issue of regaining a town council for Bexhill. 9,227 people participated in the consultation, of whom 93.5% expressed a preference for a town council. The consultation was non-binding and, at a meeting in December 2017, Rother District Councillors voted against the formation of such a council by 18 to 13. The meeting was fully attended. Those who voted against the consultation's outcome mostly expressed concerns about the added burden to local taxpayers that a town council would bring. On 1 April 2021 a civil parish was formed.

At the local elections in May 2013, the Conservatives had a nett loss of fifteen seats, leaving the Rother District Council composed of fourteen Conservatives, thirteen independents, seven Liberal Democrats, one Green, and three Labour councillors. The changes have meant that the issue of a town council for Bexhill has been reopened. The independents, supported by Labour and others, assented to a motion that would have a Bexhill Town Council up and running by 2021.

Above Rother, the next level of government is the East Sussex County Council, with responsibility for education, libraries, social services, highways, civil registration, trading standards, and transport. Elections to the County Council are also held every four years. For these elections, Bexhill is divided into four divisions: North, East, South and West.

The latest county council election was held on 4 May 2017. Following the result of a by-election in 2019, Bexhill has two independent and two Conservative county councillors.

Landmarks

The most notable landmark in Bexhill-on-Sea is the De La Warr Pavilion. The De La Warr Pavilion is a Grade I listed building, located on the seafront at Bexhill-on-Sea. The seafront building was the result of an architectural competition initiated by Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr, after whom the building was named.

The 9th Earl, a committed socialist and Mayor of Bexhill, persuaded Bexhill council to develop the site as a public building. The competition was announced in the Architects' Journal in February 1934, with a programme that specified an entertainment hall to seat at least 1500 people; a 200-seat restaurant; a reading room; and a lounge. Initially, the budget for the project was limited to £50,000, although this was later raised to £80,000. Run by the Royal Institute of British Architects, this competition attracted over 230 entrants, many of them practising in the Modernist style.

Shapes tend towards streamlined, industrially-influenced designs. The architects selected for the project, Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, were leading figures in the Modern Movement.

The aesthetics employed in the International Style proved especially suited to the building, tending towards streamlined, industrially-influenced designs, often with expansive metal-framed windows, and eschewing traditional brick and stonework in favour of concrete and steel construction. Among the building's most innovative features was its use of a welded steel frame construction, pioneered by structural engineer Felix Samuely. Construction of the De La Warr Pavilion began in January 1935.

The building was opened on 12 December of the same year by the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). During World War II, the De La Warr Pavilion was used by the military. Bexhill and Sussex in general were vulnerable if the Germans decided to mount an invasion (Operation Sea Lion). Among those who served at the Pavilion during the War was Spike Milligan, later a noted comedian. The building suffered minor damage to its foundations when the Metropole Hotel adjacent to the building's western side was destroyed by German bombers.

After the war, management of the Pavilion was taken over by Bexhill Corporation (which later became Rother District Council). Changes were made to the building, many of which were inconsistent with the original design and aesthetic of the building. Lack of funds also resulted in an ongoing degradation of the building's fabric.

Areas

Central ward

The main part of Bexhill. There are several roads with a variety of shops, a railway station, a library and the De La Warr Pavilion on the seafront.:

Old Town

The original town on the hill, chartered by King Offa in 772.

Sidley

Residential area to the north, with its own high street.

Pebsham

A developing residential area to the east of town.

Glyne Gap

Easterly low-lying land separating Bexhill from Hastings, its most prominent feature is Ravenside Retail & Leisure Park.

Collington

A residential area near Cooden.

Little Common

A small village to the west, with various independent shops.

Cooden

In the south-west, plays host to a large hotel, golf and tennis clubs.

The Highlands

A small suburb at the towns highest elevation. Bordered by Turkey Road, Ninfield Road and Bexhill Cemetery.

Barnhorn

An area far west of Bexhill; its name survives in Barnhorne Manor and Barnhorn Road (a section of the A259). The name was recorded in AD 772 in an Anglo-Saxon charter as Berna horna. A new residential development site called Barnhorn Green sets to grow this area significantly.

Economy

Reginald Sackville, seventh Earl De La Warr, decided to transform what was then a village on a hill around its church into an exclusive seaside resort, which he named Bexhill-on-Sea. He was instrumental in building a sea wall south of the village, and the road above it was then named De La Warr Parade. Large houses were built inland from there, and the new town began.

In 1890, the luxurious Sackville Hotel was built.

Bexhill was the location for the first motor race in the United Kingdom, in May 1902. Signs at the town's outskirts have the text "Birthplace of British Motor Racing" appended below the town's name. The Bexhill 100 Festival of Motoring, held on Bexhill's seafront, celebrated this important milestone in motoring history from 1990 until 2002. This final festival commemorated the Centenary of the original "Races". During the life of the festival, in 1999, the organisers launched the Bexhill 100 Motoring Club, so although the Festival no longer exists, the club still exists, and their committee organises each year, the Bexhill 100 Motoring Club Classic Car Show held on August bank holiday Monday in the Polegrove, Bexhill.

The De La Warr Pavilion, brainchild of the ninth Earl De La Warr, opened in 1935 as one of the earliest examples of Modern architecture in a major British public building. It closed for major restoration work in December 2003 and reopened in October 2005.

During the Second World War, Bexhill was named as a point to attack as part of Operation Sea Lion by Nazi Germany.

The town, like many other English seaside resorts, is now much more a settled community. Although there is a small entertainment area on the seafront, it now has a large retired population, like much of the south coast. Efforts are being made to increase tourism in Bexhill, including annual events such as the 'Festival of the Sea' and, formerly, 'Roaring Twenties Day', each held during the summer.

The last remaining cinema was sold to the Wetherspoon pub chain on 1 December 2014.

Transport

Bexhill is on the A259 road which forms the coast road between Folkestone and Brighton. Plans of an A259 Bexhill and Hastings bypass have repeatedly been postponed over the past 40 years but the plans were cancelled due to environmental concerns.

A new road was approved in 2012 and completed in 2016 at a cost of £100m.

The town is served by the coastal railway line between Ashford and Brighton and has three railway stations, including Cooden Beach, Collington, and Bexhill. Regular trains run to Ashford, Brighton and London Victoria.

Bexhill is served by 13 bus routes including school routes which serve the surrounding areas like Hastings, Battle, Conquest Hospital, Eastbourne and Pevensey Bay Asda (Free bus on Wednesdays). The area with the most bus services is between Sidley and Bexhill which has the route 2 (Asda free bus), 95, 97 & 98.

The railway built by the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway (later part of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway) arrived on 27 June 1846, although the present station was not built until 1891, when the town had become popular as a resort. A second line, this time built by the South Eastern Railway and approaching the town from the north, was a branch line from Crowhurst via an intermediate station at Sidley to a terminus at Bexhill West. The line opened on 1 June 1902 and closed on 15 June 1964. The branch was also closed temporarily between 1 January 1917 and 1 March 1919 as an economy measure during the First World War.

Sport and leisure

Bexhill has three non-league football clubs: Bexhill United F.C., who play at The Polegrove, and Little Common F.C., who play at Little Common Recreation Ground, both in the Southern Combination Premier Division, in the 9th tier of English football; and Sidley United F.C., who play at Hooe Recreation Ground in Hooe, in the East Sussex Premier Division, in the 12th tier of English football.

Bexhill United share The Polegrove with Bexhill Cricket Club, whose 1st XI play in the Sussex Cricket League Division 3 East. Other cricket teams in the area include Bexhill Strikers C.C., at Bexhill Down; Sidley C.C., at St Mary's Recreation Ground; and Little Common Ramblers C.C., at Little Common Recreation Ground. The 'Ramblers' have 3 adult teams playing in the East Sussex Cricket League. In 2018, the Ramblers 1st XI was promoted to the Sussex County League for the first time in its history.

Bexhill has a rugby union club, Hastings & Bexhill R.F.C., which is shared with neighbouring Hastings. They play at ARK William Parker Academy.

Bexhill-on-Sea Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1890. It closed at the time of WW2.

Bexhill-on-Sea also has a sports and social club - Bexhill Amateur Athletic Community Association. This club is located on Little Common Road, and also has a football club, judo and Keepfit classes, and a fully equipped gym.

Bexhill is home to a detachment of the Sussex Army Cadet Force, a volunteer youth organisation, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence, which accepts cadets aged between 12 and 18 years of age.

Bexhill-on-Sea is also the home of Rother Swim Academy, offering swimming lessons to children. Founded in 1990 and family run.

Marina Court Garden officially opened on 6 July 2015 with the Bexhill Rotary Club Wheel Coin collector (Bexhill Observer). The open space on the Marina, next to the De la Warr Pavilion will provide an area to sit and relax. Rother District Council Chairman opened the Garden and President Raouf Oderuth of Bexhill Rotary Club unveiled the Coin Collector. The proceeds will fund local nominated Charities.

Culture

In 2013, the BBC conducted a survey into 'Englishness'. The results of this survey for the Rother area, in which Bexhill is found, revealed that 68% of people living in Rother were 'proud to be English' - 11% above the national average of 57%.

Bexhill also holds the world record for the greatest number of mermaids in one area (325), a feat achieved in September 2017 at the annual 'Festival of the Sea'. The town also held the record for the largest Charleston dance, which took place as part of the 'Bexhill Roaring 20s' festival, formerly held every summer, though it was overtaken by Shrewsbury in 2018.

Climate

As with the rest of the British Isles and Southern England, Bexhill experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. In terms of the local climate, Bexhill is on the eastern edge of what is, on average, the sunniest part of the UK, the stretch of coast from the Isle of Wight to the Hastings area.

Notable people

Hertha Marks Ayrton, engineer, mathematician, physicist, and inventor who was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water.

John Logie Baird, (1888-1946), Scottish inventor of television, resided in a house by the station towards the end of his life.

James Beeching (1788–1858), shipbuilder and inventor of the self-righting lifeboat.

Joyce Lankester Brisley (1896–1978), writer of the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories, etc. – exact place of birth unidentified.

Georgina Fanny Cheffins (1863–1932), militant suffragette, lived here in her later years.

Michael Cowpland, founder of high-tech companies Mitel, Corel, and ZIM, lived in Bexhill and went to Bexhill College until he was 18.

Fanny Cradock and Johnnie Cradock, chef-broadcasters, lived in Cooden Drive, Bexhill.

Max Faulkner, professional golfer and Open champion in 1951.

Norman Franks, aviation historian and author of over 120 books on military aviation.

William Kelsey Fry (1889-1963), dental and plastic surgeon.

Ruth Gipps, composer and music impresario, founder of London Repertoire Orchestra.

Jimmy Glover (1861–1931), an Irish composer and conductor, was Mayor of Bexhill-on-Sea for 1906–07.

Freedom of the Town

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Bexhill-on-Sea.

Individuals

The Rt. Hon. Lord Brassey: 28 October 1907.

John Alexander Paton: 29 March 1920.

William Nicolson Cuthbert: 25 January 1943.

Christina Isabella Meads: 5 March 1952.

Ernest William Cantley Bowrey: 5 March 1952.

Richard Cecil Sewell: 5 March 1952.

Frances Henrietta Burrows: 29 January 1958.

Claude Pycroft: 27 September 1962.

Joyce Oliver Alexander: 2 October 1968.

Harry Riley: 2 October 1968.

Ian James Allen: 29 July 2009.

Matthew Richard Hellier: 29 July 2009.

Nicholas Patrick McCorry: 29 July 2009.

Phil James McCorry: 29 July 2009.

Stuart Earl: 13 October 2019.

Margaret Jones: 4 March 2020.

Christopher Ashford: 4 March 2020.

Alexis Markwick: 11 May 2022.

Christopher Speck: 8 March 2023.

James Carroll: 6 March 2024.

Lynn Langlands: 26 March 2025.