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Bat & Ball

Photos: then and now

51 Ditchling Road

Photo: Illustrative image for the 'Bat & Ball' page

Image reproduced with permission from Brighton History Centre

Bat & Ball

Photo by Mike Snewin

Added to the site on 08-12-04

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments about this page

This pub has two different pub signs; one in each street. The left hand one in Ditchling Road is the more accurate. The pub takes its name from the old Sussex game 'Bat and Trap' which is depicted on that sign and was played on the Level opposite. For a while back in the 80s this pub changed its name to Lords Bar, no doubt trying to create a [false] cricketing link. It is fitting that it should have reverted to its original in an era of stupidly changed tavern names.

By Geoffrey Mead (27/02/2006)

The landlord of this pub was John Farnam for many years, he was my landlord in Hove. What a lovely Irish gent .

By Julie Annets (04/04/2007)

I think you will find the Bat and Ball was named after the Brighton cricket ground which was on the Level. Prior to the formation of Sussex county cricket club in the 19th century. Bat and trap was a comparitively new innovation! I used the pub a lot in the seventies and eighties when Leo Caldicott was the licensee. It was one of the immaculate pubs in the town.

By Richard J. Szypulski (02/10/2011)