Welcome to Balsdean

Balsdean was situated in what is now a secluded valley bottom three quarters of a mile due east of the top of Balsdean Road in Woodingdean, Brighton. Until 1974 it could be reached on a direct footpath that continued the line of Balsdean Road over the top of Bullock Hill, and at that time it had not been many years since the signpost to it at the Downs Hotel crossroads had been removed. The estate originally reached as far west as the Warren Way shops.

Located in the old Younsmere Hundred and originally in the parish of Rottingdean, Balsdean originated as a Saxon settlement, expanded into a hamlet or small village complete with its own chapel of ease and later shrank back to an active working farm. During the second world war the valley in which it lies was taken over as a military training area. Initially the Balsdean buildings were used for military purposes, but later the farm buildings were used for realistic training and finished by being destroyed by mortar and shell fire.

The final stages of Balsdean Farm before, during and after the war, were comprehensively recorded in photographs, some of which were also sold in locally as postcards, and these give a comprehensive picture of its appearance in later years. While the remains of the buildings were bulldozed into piles or used as hardcore for track maintance, the bases of the buildings are still visible today (2018) for all to see.

The author moved to Woodingdean as a young child in 1959 and has visited and studied the site since the mid 1960s, keeping comprehensive field notes and a detailed map and taking regular photographs, especially under favourable conditions of drought or lighting. By 1970 he had written a small book - "Balsdean, a study of a mediaeval village", a few copies of which are still around, notably with the Rottingdean Preservation Society and in the Brighton Reference Library. This has been revised constantly over the years, with three more editions since, the most recent completed as an up-to-date 2018 draft that I've put on line here, substantially larger and more comprehensive than the original edition.

I am grateful for the contributions and support of many people over the years. In the late 1970s I was invited to display material relating to Balsdean at annual services conducted on the site of the chapel by the Rev. Canon Walters, then Rector of Rottingdean. The Canon and one of his churchwardens, Fawdry Thomas, were kind enough at the time to pass on some of their researches and give me access to the 1839 Rottingdean Tithe Map in the vicarage. The staff at the County Records Office in Lewes and now The Keep, Falmer, and Peter Wilkinson, deputy archivist at the West Sussex Records Office have been unfailingly helpful and supportive.

The purpose of this website is to make some of this material available to others, both out of interest for our local heritage and in the hope that others will be inspired join the research and help expand our collected knowledge of the area. My own research continues and I have several more chapters in the making, some almost ready to publish here.

Next chapter
Chapter 1: Introduction to Balsdean