Portslade
Encyclopedia
Portslade is the name of an area of the city
of Brighton and Hove, England
. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid development of the coastal area and in 1896 the southern part, known as Copperas Gap, was granted urban district status and renamed Portslade-by-Sea, making it distinct from Portslade Village. After World War II
the district of Mile Oak
was added. Today Portslade is bisected from east to west by the old A27 road
(now the A270) between Brighton
and Worthing
, each part having a distinct character.
Portslade Village, to the north, nestles in a valley of the South Downs
and still retains its rural character with flint buildings, a village green and the small parish church of St Nicolas
, which is the second-oldest church in the city, dating from approximately 1150.
Another notable building in the village is Portslade Manor
, one of the few surviving ruins of a Norman
manor. It was built in the 12th century and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument
. Foredown Tower
houses a camera obscura
, one of only two in the south of England. It is open to the public.
Portslade-by-Sea, to the south, straddles the small but busy seaport harbour basin of Shoreham
harbour and is the industrial centre of Brighton and Hove; the Monarch's Way
long-distance footpath follows the seafront west towards Shoreham. Terraced housing
dating back to the 19th century is interspaced with parks and allotments
. Boundary Road is the main shopping area as well as being the location of Portslade railway station
, with direct trains to London Victoria with a journey time of about an hour. Boundary Road is, as the name suggests, located at the boundary between Portslade and neighbouring Hove; the street is divided down the middle and while the Hove side is called Boundary Road, the Portslade side is called Station Road and Carlton Terrace. Portslade Station is in fact in Hove.
Portslade is the boundary town with West Sussex and the dividing line is a footpath extending from the seafront up on to the South Downs. The adjacent areas of West Sussex are Southwick and Fishersgate with Fishersgate occurring south of the railway line. Fishersgate has its own railway station and like the " Portslade " Station actually occurs at the boundary.
Portslade has been suggested as being the Roman
port Novus Portus mentioned in Ptolemy
's Geography of the 2nd century AD. Drove Road, in the original Portslade Village, has been linked with the Roman road
, "the London to Portslade road" that passes through Patcham
valley to Haywards Heath
and on to Streatham
in London. The Old Shoreham Road is thought to form part of the Chichester
(Noviomagus Reginorum
) to Portslade Roman road. Roman remains and a Roman burial site were found in Roman Road. The name of the town had been thought to stem from the Roman placename Portus Adurni (modern Portchester
), but this is based on a misidentification of Shoreham-by-Sea as Portus Adurni by Michael Drayton
in the 17th century. Indeed, the River Adur, whose mouth has moved many times due to longshore drift
and erosion, was also named from this misidentification. The actual etymology of Portslade may be portus- + -ladda, way to the port, where ladda is from the Old English for way, but this is conjectural at best.
The old name, Copperas Gap, for Portslade-by-Sea suggests that the coast was used for the production of copperas or green vitriol, a form of ferrous sulphate used extensively in the textile industry. The process took over six years and made use of iron pyrite-rich nodules that could be found in the strata of Sussex greensand
stone that emerges at this point in the coast.
A part-finished assembly hall in Portslade became an Odeon Cinema
about 1930 when George Coles, one of the Odeon chain's principal architects, adapted the original design.
Portslade-by-Sea was an urban district
from the late 19th century to 1974, when it became part of the borough of Hove
, later to become part of the city of Brighton and Hove. Portslade Town Hall is on Victoria Road, and is used as a venue for various functions.
Revd Richard William Enraght
(1837–1898) was the Priest in Charge of St Andrew Church, Portslade, from 1871-74. Fr. Enraght’s belief in the Church of England's Catholic tradition, his promotion of ritualism in worship, and his writings on Catholic worship and church-state relationships, led him into conflict with the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874
. While serving as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham in 1880, he paid the maximum price under the Act of prosecution and imprisonment in Warwick Prison. Fr. Enraght became nationally and internationally known as a “prisoner for conscience sake”.
In February 2006 the local newspaper, The Argus
, reported that Brighton & Hove
City Council had accepted the name of Fr. Enraght, whom they described as a “fighter for religious freedom”, as a candidate for a Blue Plaque
to be erected in his memory on his former home in Station Road, Portslade. The date of its installation is yet to be announced.
In September 2006, Brighton & Hove honoured Fr. Enraght’s memory by naming one of their new fleet buses after him. His name appears in the list of Brighton & Hove bus names.
Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy
QC
(1819–1880)., was an Irish born barrister
,writer and poet who lived in Wellington Road, Portslade with his wife and eleven children from the 1850s until the mid 1870's. Kenealy commuted to London and Oxford for his law practice but returned at weekends and other times to be with his family.
He chose Portslade because of his love of the sea, of which he wrote:- "Oh, how I am delighted with this sea-scenery and with my little marine hut ! The musical waves, the ethereal atmosphere, all make me feel as in the olden golden days when I was a boy and dreamed of Heaven". While living in Portslade he wrote the greater portion of his theological works.
Kenealy came to national prominence in 1874 when he acted as leading counsel for the Tichborne Claimant
, which became one of the most notorious trials in 19th century British legal history, leading to Kenealy being disbarred from his profession. In 1875 Kenealy became Member of Parliament
for Stoke-on-Trent
, which held until he lost his seat in the General Election
of March 1880. Edward Kenealy died on the 16 April 1880 and was buried in St Helen’s churchyard Hangleton, at the time of his death St Nicolas’ Portslade
and St Helen’s Hangleton
were united as one Parish
under the care of the Vicar of Portslade.
11+
Special Schools
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
of Brighton and Hove, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid development of the coastal area and in 1896 the southern part, known as Copperas Gap, was granted urban district status and renamed Portslade-by-Sea, making it distinct from Portslade Village. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the district of Mile Oak
Mile Oak
Mile Oak is a locality forming the northern part of the former parish of Portslade in the north-west corner of the city of Brighton and Hove, England....
was added. Today Portslade is bisected from east to west by the old A27 road
A27 road
The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish in the county of Wiltshire. It closely parallels the south coast, where it passes through West Sussex and terminates at Pevensey in East Sussex.Between Portsmouth and Lewes, it is one of the busiest trunk...
(now the A270) between Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, each part having a distinct character.
Portslade Village, to the north, nestles in a valley of the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
and still retains its rural character with flint buildings, a village green and the small parish church of St Nicolas
St Nicolas Church, Portslade
St Nicolas Church is an Anglican church in the Portslade area of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has 12th-century origins, and serves the old village of Portslade, inland from the mostly 19th-century Portslade-by-Sea area.-History:...
, which is the second-oldest church in the city, dating from approximately 1150.
Another notable building in the village is Portslade Manor
Portslade Manor
Portslade Old Manor is one of a very few examples of Norman manor houses that still exist in England. It has been deemed a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a Grade II* listed building.In the Domesday Book there are two references to Portslade:...
, one of the few surviving ruins of a Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
manor. It was built in the 12th century and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
. Foredown Tower
Foredown Tower
Foredown Tower is a former water tower in Portslade, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England, that now contains one of only two operational camera obscuras in southeast England....
houses a camera obscura
Camera obscura
The camera obscura is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. It is used in drawing and for entertainment, and was one of the inventions that led to photography. The device consists of a box or room with a hole in one side...
, one of only two in the south of England. It is open to the public.
Portslade-by-Sea, to the south, straddles the small but busy seaport harbour basin of Shoreham
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
harbour and is the industrial centre of Brighton and Hove; the Monarch's Way
Monarch's Way
The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester.Most of the footpath is waymarked...
long-distance footpath follows the seafront west towards Shoreham. Terraced housing
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
dating back to the 19th century is interspaced with parks and allotments
Allotment (gardening)
An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
. Boundary Road is the main shopping area as well as being the location of Portslade railway station
Portslade railway station
Portslade railway station is a railway station serving the town of Portslade-by-Sea in East Sussex, but located on the western fringes of the village of Aldrington ....
, with direct trains to London Victoria with a journey time of about an hour. Boundary Road is, as the name suggests, located at the boundary between Portslade and neighbouring Hove; the street is divided down the middle and while the Hove side is called Boundary Road, the Portslade side is called Station Road and Carlton Terrace. Portslade Station is in fact in Hove.
Portslade is the boundary town with West Sussex and the dividing line is a footpath extending from the seafront up on to the South Downs. The adjacent areas of West Sussex are Southwick and Fishersgate with Fishersgate occurring south of the railway line. Fishersgate has its own railway station and like the " Portslade " Station actually occurs at the boundary.
Portslade in history
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
port Novus Portus mentioned in Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
's Geography of the 2nd century AD. Drove Road, in the original Portslade Village, has been linked with the Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
, "the London to Portslade road" that passes through Patcham
Patcham
Patcham is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove. It is approximately north of the city centre, bounded by the A27 to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west...
valley to Haywards Heath
Haywards Heath
-Climate:Haywards Heath experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Rail:Haywards Heath railway station is a major station on the Brighton Main Line...
and on to Streatham
Streatham
Streatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
in London. The Old Shoreham Road is thought to form part of the Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
(Noviomagus Reginorum
Noviomagus Reginorum
Noviomagus Reginorum was the Roman town which is today called Chichester, situated in the modern English county of West Sussex. Alternative versions of the name include Noviomagus Regnorum, Regnentium and Regentium..-Development:...
) to Portslade Roman road. Roman remains and a Roman burial site were found in Roman Road. The name of the town had been thought to stem from the Roman placename Portus Adurni (modern Portchester
Portchester
Portchester is a locality and suburb 10km northwest of Portsmouth, England. It is part of the borough of Fareham in Hampshire. Once a small village, Portchester is now a busy part of the expanding conurbation between Portsmouth and Southampton, on the A27 main thoroughfare...
), but this is based on a misidentification of Shoreham-by-Sea as Portus Adurni by Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
in the 17th century. Indeed, the River Adur, whose mouth has moved many times due to longshore drift
Longshore drift
Longshore drift consists of the transportation of sediments along a coast at an angle to the shoreline, which is dependent on prevailing wind direction, swash and backwash. This process occurs in the littoral zone, and in or within close proximity to the surf zone...
and erosion, was also named from this misidentification. The actual etymology of Portslade may be portus- + -ladda, way to the port, where ladda is from the Old English for way, but this is conjectural at best.
The old name, Copperas Gap, for Portslade-by-Sea suggests that the coast was used for the production of copperas or green vitriol, a form of ferrous sulphate used extensively in the textile industry. The process took over six years and made use of iron pyrite-rich nodules that could be found in the strata of Sussex greensand
Greensand
Greensand or Green sand is either a sand or sandstone, which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment, that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called glauconies and consist of a mixture of mixed-layer clay...
stone that emerges at this point in the coast.
A part-finished assembly hall in Portslade became an Odeon Cinema
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas is a British chain of cinemas, one of the largest in Europe. It is owned by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group whose ultimate parent is Terra Firma Capital Partners.-History:Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch...
about 1930 when George Coles, one of the Odeon chain's principal architects, adapted the original design.
Portslade-by-Sea was an urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
from the late 19th century to 1974, when it became part of the borough of Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
, later to become part of the city of Brighton and Hove. Portslade Town Hall is on Victoria Road, and is used as a venue for various functions.
Notable Portslade residents of the 19th century
Richard William Enraght
Richard William Enraght SSC was an Irish-born Church of England priest of the late nineteenth century. He was influenced by the Oxford Movement and was included amongst the priests commonly called “Second Generation” Anglo-Catholics.Fr...
(1837–1898) was the Priest in Charge of St Andrew Church, Portslade, from 1871-74. Fr. Enraght’s belief in the Church of England's Catholic tradition, his promotion of ritualism in worship, and his writings on Catholic worship and church-state relationships, led him into conflict with the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874
Public Worship Regulation Act 1874
The Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Campbell Tait, to limit what he perceived as the growing ritualism of Anglo-Catholicism and the Oxford Movement within the Church...
. While serving as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham in 1880, he paid the maximum price under the Act of prosecution and imprisonment in Warwick Prison. Fr. Enraght became nationally and internationally known as a “prisoner for conscience sake”.
In February 2006 the local newspaper, The Argus
The Argus (Brighton)
The Argus is a local newspaper based in Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, with editions serving the city of Brighton and Hove and the other parts of both East and West Sussex.-History:...
, reported that Brighton & Hove
Brighton & Hove
Brighton and Hove is a unitary authority area and city on the south coast of England. It is England's most populous seaside resort.In 1997 Brighton and Hove were joined to form the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove, which was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the millennium...
City Council had accepted the name of Fr. Enraght, whom they described as a “fighter for religious freedom”, as a candidate for a Blue Plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
to be erected in his memory on his former home in Station Road, Portslade. The date of its installation is yet to be announced.
In September 2006, Brighton & Hove honoured Fr. Enraght’s memory by naming one of their new fleet buses after him. His name appears in the list of Brighton & Hove bus names.
Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy
Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy
Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy QC , was an Irish barrister and writer. He is best remembered as counsel for the Tichborne claimant and the eccentric and disturbed conduct of the trial that led to his ruin.-Early life:...
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
(1819–1880)., was an Irish born barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
,writer and poet who lived in Wellington Road, Portslade with his wife and eleven children from the 1850s until the mid 1870's. Kenealy commuted to London and Oxford for his law practice but returned at weekends and other times to be with his family.
He chose Portslade because of his love of the sea, of which he wrote:- "Oh, how I am delighted with this sea-scenery and with my little marine hut ! The musical waves, the ethereal atmosphere, all make me feel as in the olden golden days when I was a boy and dreamed of Heaven". While living in Portslade he wrote the greater portion of his theological works.
Kenealy came to national prominence in 1874 when he acted as leading counsel for the Tichborne Claimant
Tichborne Case
The affair of the Tichborne claimant was the celebrated 19th-century legal case in the United Kingdom of Arthur Orton , an imposter who claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne , the missing heir to the Tichborne Baronetcy....
, which became one of the most notorious trials in 19th century British legal history, leading to Kenealy being disbarred from his profession. In 1875 Kenealy became Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, which held until he lost his seat in the General Election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
of March 1880. Edward Kenealy died on the 16 April 1880 and was buried in St Helen’s churchyard Hangleton, at the time of his death St Nicolas’ Portslade
St Nicolas Church, Portslade
St Nicolas Church is an Anglican church in the Portslade area of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has 12th-century origins, and serves the old village of Portslade, inland from the mostly 19th-century Portslade-by-Sea area.-History:...
and St Helen’s Hangleton
St Helen's Church, Hangleton
St Helen's Church, an Anglican church in the Hangleton area of Hove, is the oldest surviving building in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is the ancient parish church of Hangleton—an isolated downland village which was abandoned by the Middle Ages and consisted of open farmland until the...
were united as one Parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
under the care of the Vicar of Portslade.
Education
5-11- St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Portslade
- Portslade Infants School
- St Nicolas CofE Junior School
- Benfield Junior School
- Mile Oak Primary School
- Peter Gladwin Primary School
11+
- Portslade Community College (PCC)Portslade Community CollegePortslade Community College is a comprehensive school and community college situated in Portslade, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is due to be replaced as from September 2011 by a new entity, Portslade Aldridge Community Academy...
Special Schools
- Hillside School
- Downs Park School
Rail transport
- Portslade railway stationPortslade railway stationPortslade railway station is a railway station serving the town of Portslade-by-Sea in East Sussex, but located on the western fringes of the village of Aldrington ....
is located on the West Coastway LineWest Coastway LineThe West Coastway Line is a railway line in England, along the south coast of West Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton, plus the short branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis....
west of AldringtonAldrington railway stationAldrington railway station, sometimes known by its former names of Aldrington Halt and Dyke Junction, is a railway station in Hove, in East Sussex, England...
and east of SouthwickSouthwick railway stationSouthwick railway station is a railway station serving the village of Southwick in West Sussex, England. It is located on the West Coastway Line 7 km west of Brighton towards Southampton.-Services:Typical off-peak service is:...
and Shoreham-by-SeaShoreham-by-Sea railway stationShoreham-by-Sea railway station serves the town of Shoreham-by-Sea in the county of West Sussex, and also serves the nearby Shoreham Airport. The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Southern...
.