Windmill Farm
I grew up at 11 Bellevue Cottages, the last house on the dead end (and still unpaved) street at the top of Bear Road above the cemetery. My grandfather, George H. Hillman and my Uncle Jim had Windmill Farm; this stretched from the top of Bear Road to Bevendean. Before this my grandfather managed Bevendean Farm in the valley. He moved to Bolney when they banned the keeping of pigs on the Race Hill in 1960; the farm buildings were demolished and the council let the land to horse people.
Cottages built circa 1880s
I moved back to the house I spent my early years in with Mum & family when Uncle left. I went to Coombe Road School as did my Mum, Sylvia Hillman, who was raised in the house her father bought in 1908. The houses, we were told by Uncle Ern, were built at the same time as Brighton General Hospital (1866) for workers there, but I later researched and could not date them before the 1880s.
A close community
They were originally semi-detached with outside loo and no bathroom. There were three older and smaller cottages at the end of the street facing Bear Road that were demolished in the 1930s. My Mum remembered these, as well as a shepherd’s hut built into the cemetery wall at the top of Bear Road. Growing up there was fun, but somewhat isolated with few other children on our street. Everybody knew each other on the street of only eleven houses, but we never had street parties.
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Hi David, I answered a query on these cottages a few years ago and this is essentially what I found out about them. The plans to build Belle Vue Cottages were submitted on May 18th 1880, but that does not necessarily mean that they were commenced immediately afterwards. Brighton Borough Sanatorium was built between 1881 and 1898, initially as a temporary building. This tends to imply that Belle Vue Cottages pre-dates the hospital, which was built in response to a smallpox epidemic in 1881. It had been contended that the cottages were built using leftover materials from Brighton Sanatorium but I could not shed any light on whether this was actually the case (it looks unlikely due to my earlier remarks). IMHO, there is a greater possibility that the building of the cottages was more to do with the construction of the underground reservoir, which lays behind the cottages. Directories tend to only record the existence of the cottages but not their occupants around the turn of the century. In 1917 and throughout the 1920’s Nutley occupied numbers 3,4 & 6 and Hillman 10 & 11. By 1931 Nutley also occupied number 8. By the mid 1940’s Hillman also occupied number 9. By 1960, numbers 6 and 10 had been relinquished to other occupants. By 1972 this had declined further, with number 11 also being relinquished. It may well have been that Nutley/Hillman were owner occupiers and the other residents were tenants, albeit I have nothing that would positively confirm this. I hope this sheds some light on the origin and occupation of the cottages. Regards, Andy
Hi Andy. The Nutley’s that you speak of living at Belle View are part of my family tree – I would be interested in any information you have and can be contacted at stephenntly@hotmail.com Regards Stephen Nutley.
Hi Stephen, The occurrence of the Nutley family in Belle Vue Cottages was purely coincidental to the article and I regret I have no connection to, or special information about them. Nutley was not an uncommon name in Brighton, there being around a score listed in the 1920’s and the ones in Belle Vue Cottages were Robert (#3), Frederick (#4) and a Mrs (#6). Regards, Andy
I did not realize the Brighton General sanatorium was built as late as that. Some people on the street thought it strange the houses were built in such an exposed location at top of hill when there was plenty of open land closer into Brighton at that time. The ownership of the street itself has been questioned but never decided, though it never belonged to the Town (now City) Council. Sylvia Hillman married Fred Maplesden of Brighton in 1953 (my parents) and some of the houses at Bellevue Cottages that were Hillman owned, were later owned by Maplesden names. Vi Nutley lived at #3 when I was young and I don’t remember her husband Bill Nutley who died earlier, but he had assembled the homes on the street owned by Nutley. He was I think a builder by trade. His brother and sister-in-law lived at #8 (I don’t remember their first names just Mr. & Mrs. Nutley). Vi’s sister Dolly Moon lived at #1 and another brother Fred Nutley lived at #4. Bill Nutley’s sister Mrs. Ford lived at number 6 and her daughter Phylis Ford remained there after she died. Phyllis died about 2008 in a nursing home. Vi Nutley died around 2000 I think. I believe some of her relatives lived at #3 for a while after she died and sold it a few years ago.
I have a note that after the Race Hill collapsed in September 1908 some of the beams were used in the construction of a nearby house. Of which house I have no clue but could it have been one of the Belle View cottages?
I recall that my dad’s cousin (uncle Jim) lived in the last cottage in the row and ran the farm down the hill towards Moulescombe when I was a lad in 1950.
He had two white shire horses and the whole family turned out to get the wheat harvest in each Summer.The old fashioned harvester made the sheaves of cut corn which it was my job to help put them into piles which we called “stooks”
They cut the wheat in a circular so that the rabbits were slowly concentrated into the middle allowing my family to shoot them for much needed meat.
Coming late to this, but in case helpful, the 1890 Page’s Directory lists 10 numbered houses in Belle Vue Cottages. They are in the ‘suburban section’ of the directory, alongside Race Hill Cottages, Bear Mill Cottages and the Bear Road “Sanatorium” (sic).
The Bear Road Sanitorium became Bevendean Hospital, not to be confused with Brighton General Hospital in Elm Grove. Aside from being requisitioned as a military hospital in WW1, Brighton General was still the town workhouse until 1930.
The occupants of nos. 1-9 Belle Vue Cottages in 1890 were Messrs Wright, Nichols, Daughtree, Matthews, Weller, Hicks, Gearing, Bailey, Thompsett. No. 11 was occupied by Mrs Hogg and Mr Woolvin. No mention of no. 10.
George Nichols at no. 2 is identified as the East Sussex Sanitary Inspector. This is a public health role, so I wonder if it is significant that he lived near the sanitorium – as Andy wrote, the sanitorium was built to accommodate victims of smallpox; it quickly became the isolation hospital for a wide range of deadly infections, including typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, TB. So it had a public health purpose rather than a purely medical one.
Curiously, the May 1880 building plan for Belle Vue Cottages that Andy found seems to have anticipated a development of 32 houses. It may be that this larger development was scuppered by the plan to build the sanitorium – the land for which was purchased in October 1880.
Sources: http://www.mhms.org.uk/directories
Building Plan at The Keep DB/D/7/1847a
Bevendean History Group http://www.bevendeanhistory.org.uk/estate/bevendean_hospital_1.html
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