Buildings and bombs on busy Brooklyn Road
The recent demolition of the old bus garage, latterly the repository for the 'Old House' in Claremont Road, now gives a good view along the narrow but busy Brooklyn Road.
If you stand on the main road between the Esso petrol station and VR Flowers you can look down Brooklyn Road and see the downs in the distance – a view that will be lost when the area is redeveloped.
The road was previously occupied by a row of houses called 'Cornfield Terrace', named after the fields which once stood here. These were shown in a H. H. Evans picture of the area dated 1870.
A stream ran down the centre of what is now Brooklyn Road. Known as the River Damm or Damm Brook it flowed rather sluggishly along Sutton Drove and filled East Blatchington Pond and the lily pond on the other side of the road (now the old Elm Court Centre). It then passed under Claremont Road and the railway into the Salts.
I believe it was this stream that gave its name to Dane Road. In 1900 numbers 1 and 2 Cornfield Terrace were occupied by William and Thomas Woolgar who ran an ironmongers at 1, Clinton Place.
In about 1905 Seaford's first cinema was erected at the end of Brooklyn Road. The cinema would have been very basic with benches and chairs instead of proper seats.
Film of course was still in its infancy, the Brighton based pioneer film-maker George Smith only made his first film in 1900, so not only the cinema, but also the films would have been elementary with hand-cranked reels being shown to a small audience.
The cinema was run by a Mr and Mrs Roberts and they hired a young man to sell chocolate bars to the audience. The building can still be seen at the end of the road.
In November 1906, Seaford Urban District Council brokered an agreement with Mr George Green to make up Brooklyn Road. Mr Green had already had contracts with the council for paving and installing drainage for parts of the seafront. He also supplied flints to the council and, for several years, provided them with a horse and cart for general council duties.
In 1909 parts of the road were sold to the Seaford Builder, Mr Moorling and terraced housing was built. The Hurrell family moved into number 8 and an early family photograph of Winifred (Funnell), Marjorie (Davis) and Lillian (Chatfield) is shown. Shortly after it was built one of the houses at the Cinema end was subject of a fire which burned through the roof.
By 1910, the cinema had apparently closed and the building was shown as a skating rink and concert hall. At the other end of the road a hall was built, shortly after 1916, to house the Women's Institute, which was formed that year.
Their first president was Miss Comfort and their longest serving president was Miss Witherington, who performed the role between 1920 and 1940. When she died in 1955 a plaque was erected inside the hall in her memory.
Another plaque records the members of the Seaford WI who were killed in the war. Jessie Andrews, Kathleen Borrisow, Fanny and Mary Buck and Clara Smith were all were killed on Sunday, October 25, 1942, when a single German aircraft dropped bombs and strafed the town with machine-gun fire.
It was the sad duty of the local WI president, Mrs C. Nash to report the deaths of five of their members at the next meeting.
Today, nearly a century later the WI are still meeting at their HQ in Brooklyn Road, which is still a mixture of Edwardian terracing with light industrial units at the end where the cinema once pulled in the crowds.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Lewes
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -6 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
