The story about a two-storey bungalow
On Wednesday, Lewes District Council gave the go ahead for the land on the corner of Steyne Road and Cricketfield Road to be redeveloped.
This will included the demolition of the house here, number 1, Cricketfield.
This building today looks shabby after years of neglect but when it was built, it was a jewel in the estate of the Seaford Bay Estate Company, which intended to redevelop the whole of the seafront.
The Seaford Bay Estate Company was established in 1886 in order to transform the town into a resort, maybe even to rival Eastbourne and Brighton. That same year the Corporation of Seaford ended after 600 years existence and Seaford became an Urban District Council.
The railway had been extended to Seaford a few years earlier and Seaford College had just been established in nearby Corsica Hall, attracting pupils from all over the empire. There were plans to build a pier and also a golf course.
There must have been a feeling of excitement in the town – a sense of pride and expectation.
The Seaford Bay Company produced a grand plan with twelve roads running inland from the Esplanade. To the west in Pelham Road there were shops (these are now the flats opposite West House), in the centre the imposing Esplanade Hotel and to the east the majestic cliffs of Seaford Head. Around the Cricketfield to the north of the development there were plans for 22 bungalows.
The term 'bungalow' comes from India and literally means 'Bengali' – a house built in the Bengali style. Today we know bungalows as single story buildings but these houses were traditionally grand buildings with a veranda.
The bungalows built in Seaford were at least two stories high, some with veranda's overlooking the cricket field and others with towers. Unusually they were built (at least No1 was) out of pre-cast concrete panels. When No 1 Cricketfield was built in 1892 the use of these pre-cast panels was innovative but unfortunately they could not stand the salt water winds and were therefore covered in pebbledash.
The original owner of 1, Cricketfield was a Mr F. Kirk and it may have been him that named the building 'Sunny Lodge', but soon afterwards the lease was returned to Carew Davies-Gilbert who was the main shareholder in the Seaford Bay Company. By the end of the century the plan was faltering; only the Esplanade Hotel, the shops and nine bungalows were built.
The company tried to make money by selling shingle from the beach and chalk from the cliffs but it was running at a loss and folded. Sunny Lodge was then rented by Davies-Gilbert to a number of tenants including, at the turn of the century, a Mr Green.
He was a director of "Green Brothers" of Hatton Garden, London. They were manufacturers of china and pottery and held the patent to the 'Arctic lamp'
In 1929 the building became an annex to nearby Seaford College and remained so until 1939 when the college left Corsica Hall for Petworth.
Over the past few months local resident and member of the Seaford Museum and Heritage Society, David Swaysland, has taken an interest in this building. He has done much of the research that this item is based on and has been trying to get the building saved.
English Heritage is interested in the building, particularly in respect of those pre-cast concrete panels, however they do not believe that it is of sufficient architectural or historic interest to list it.
David is in the process of ensuring that the building is filmed and recorded before it is demolished and arrangements are in hand for an archaeological survey to be conducted on the land before it is built upon.
This area adjacent to Steyne Road was possibly once part of a harbour inlet from the sea (The word 'Steyne' means sea wall) Who knows, the site may give evidence of something more than just a grand Victorian development scheme!
If you have any further information or pictures of 1, Cricketfield, Seaford I would be happy to pass them on to David.
I can be contacted on kevin@seafordmuseum.co.uk or via the Museum telephone 01323 898222.
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Weather for Lewes
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
