Tide Mills, East Sussex facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tide Mills |
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 The derelict mill race sluice, from the seaward side |
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 Tide Mills
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| OS grid reference | TQ459002 |
| • London | 50 miles (80 km) N |
| Civil parish | |
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| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Sussex |
| Fire | East Sussex |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament |
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Tide Mills is a derelict village in East Sussex, England. It lies about two kilometres (1.2 miles) south-east of Newhaven and four kilometres (2.5 miles) north-west of Seaford and is near both Bishopstone and East Blatchington. The village was condemned as unfit for habitation in 1936 and abandoned in 1939.
Contents
History
Thomas Pelham, the politician and prime minister who also held the title Duke of Newcastle, owned land at Bishopstone, and obtained an Act of Parliament which allowed him to use the foreshore of this land for the site of a tide mill. Construction began in 1761, but Pelham died in 1768, and it was not completed until 1788. Three years later, it was advertised for sale in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser, and at the time contained five pairs of mill stones, which could produce 130 quarters (1.65 tonnes) of wheat each week. The exposed location was often a problem, and in 1792 large quantities of flour and wheat were destroyed when the site was hit by a violent storm.
Thomas Barton bought the mill site, and embarked on a series of improvements to make the mill more efficient. He constructed a new three-storey mill building, to house 16 pairs of stones, with which he was able to produce 1,500 sacks (190 tonnes) of flour per week. Ownership changed as a series of partnerships were created and then dissolved. Barton was in partnership with Edmund Catt just prior to 1800, but the London Gazette in 1801 announced that the agreement was no longer in place. Catt then entered into an agreement with his cousin William Catt (1770–1853), but William dissolved this in 1807. William Catt was part of a family who had many farming and milling interests in Robertsbridge and Buxted, and was a keen businessman. He managed the mill well, and it became very profitable, despite the occasional storm damage, such as that in 1820 which damaged the mill building, and washed away some of the mill dam.
According to the census data from 1851, there were 60 men working at the mill, and most of them lived in cottages which Catt had built around the site. He also built a school to educate the children, and although the conditions were rather rudimentary, a thriving community developed. The workers appreciated the facilities provided for their families, at a time when such provision was not common. After the railway line from Newhaven to Seaford was opened, a siding was constructed, which ran between the cottages, enabling large quantities of flour to be transported to Newhaven, from where much of it was shipped to London by sea.
The Mill closed in 1883 and was used as bonded warehouses until it was pulled down in 1901. 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 site was not used for target practice by Newhaven Fort Artillery, though this story is common locally. The area accommodated vast numbers of Canadian troops during the Second World War.
There are the remains of a station on the Newhaven to Seaford line at . It started life as either Bishopstone Station (the Victorian OS map of 1874 shows it as this together with a short branch line to the mills) 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 .
The Sussex Archaeological Society 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 large collection of film, video, recollections and photographs logging the decline of the area.
Mill complex
Old photographs and paintings, together with a poem, show that the Tide Mill complex included a windmill.
Access
Access is via either Mill Drove, an insignificant single-track road that runs south-west from the Newhaven and Seaford roads at approximately the point where one changes into the other (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. Network Rail plans to build a new footbridge across the railway to replace the existing crossing.
The Tide Mills Project
In 2020, LYT Productions launched a community arts and heritage project exploring the history of Tide Mills. The project is being jointly funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, South Downs National Park Authority, Arts Council England, LYT Productions and other local organisations. The project is working to research the social history of Tide Mills to share with a wider audience, as well as creating online learning resources and hosting a Heritage Celebration Week in September 2021.
