BEXHILL-ON-SEA

'Bexhill-on-Sea' (often simply 'Bexhill') is a town and seaside resort in the county of East Sussex, in the south of England within the Rother District Council area. It has a population of approximately 40,000. The Anglo-Saxon name for the settlement was ''Bexelei'' from ''leah'' a glade, where box grows.

Contents

Early history

Bexhill as a seaside resort

Noted individuals associated with Bexhill

Cultural references

Miscellaneous

External links

References

Early history

The earliest known occupation of the site come from the discovery of primitive boats at Egerton Park. The town came into official existence with the Charter of 772. In this charter, King Offa II, King of Mercia, granted to Bishop Oswald land to build a church. Three hundred years later around 1066, William the Conqueror gave the ''Rape of Hastings'', including the captured town of Bexhill to Robert, Count of Eu as the spoils of victory.
The church owned Bexhill Manor until Queen Elizabeth I acquired it in 1590 and granted it to Thomas Sackville, then Baron Buckhurst. Thomas became the first Earl of Dorset in 1603. In 1813, when the male line of the earldom had died out, Elizabeth Sackville married the fifth Earl De La Warr and she and her husband inherited Bexhill. This early history can still be seen in street names, with Sackville Road, Buckhurst Road, De La Warr Parade, and King Offa Way being some of the most significant roads in the town.
Smuggling was rife in the area in the early nineteenth century: in 1828 the local Little Common Gang were involved in what was known as the ''Battle of Sidley Green'', a nearby hamlet.

Bexhill as a seaside resort

The 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.
The railway built by the ''Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway'' (later part of the London, Brighton and 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: the line closed on 15 June 1964.
Bexhill was the location for the first motor race in the United Kingdom, in 1902. This was celebrated by the Bexhill 100 Festival of Motoring that successfully ran from 1990 to 2002 along the same seafront 'track'. It has now moved to The Polegrove and will take place on the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2007. Bexhill was the site of the "first mixed bathing" in the UK--men and women could finally swim at the same beach. It is also the location of The De La Warr Pavilion, the brainchild of the ninth Earl De La Warr and opened in 1935, the first example of modern architecture in a British public building. It closed for major restoration work in December 2003 and reopened in October of 2005.
During the Second World War, Bexhill was named as a point to attack as part of Operation Sealion 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 caters for more mature residents, having the highest retired population of any UK town.

Noted individuals associated with Bexhill

★ Comedian Eddie Izzard spent part of his childhood years in Bexhill-on-Sea

★ Dramatist David Hare comes from Bexhill

★ Desmond Llewelyn, the James Bond actor (as 'Q') who lived in the town until his death in 1999.

★ Spike Milligan was stationed in Bexhill while in the army during the Second World War, and most of the first volume of his war memoirs takes place there.

★ John Logie Baird, inventor of the television, resided in a house by the station toward the end of his life.

★ The up-and-coming indie-rock band Mumm-Ra come from Bexhill. The topic of their hometown frequently comes up in interviews.

★ Peter Katin Concert pianist, recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist has made Bexhill his home.

★ Zac Hewitt; Professional BMX rider, rides for local clothing company 'shuffle bmx clothing'

★ Ollie Thompson Britain's Strongest Man 2006 winner, lives and works in Bexhill.

★ Fanny Cradock and Johnnie Cradock lived in Cooden Drive, Bexhill.

★ Hayley Okines - Progeria sufferer

Cultural references

★ The second murder in Agatha Christie's ''The A.B.C. Murders'' takes place in Bexhill-on-Sea.

★ The town inspired the Goon Show episode ''The Dreaded Batter-Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea''.

★ The dystopian 2006 film ''Children of Men'' portrays a shattered Bexhill as a government-quarantined refugee camp for immigrants awaiting deportation.

Miscellaneous

★ On the 20th May 1729, a waterspout came ashore, became a tornado and travelled 12 miles inland to Battle and Linkhill. Nine farms and properties received serious damage.^[1]

★ Is the hometown Of L.I.T.V, where Bands such as Mumm-Ra and Safe 13 started their musical careers.

External links

★ Bexhill-on-Sea Web Site Local Tourism & Community Web Site

★ Around-Bexhill.co.uk The guide to local independent shops and businesses

★ De La Warr Pavilion

★ Bexhill Today local news

★ Bexhill International Folk Dance Group

★ Bexhill Sailing Club

★ The Castle Pub (now known as Bar One London Road

★ Bexhill Museum

★ Bexhill Psychotherapy & Counselling

★ St Richard's Catholic College

References

1. Gallery of Natural Phenomena