Whitehawk

History And Development

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

b) HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT: From the late eighteenth century the main attractions of the area were the races run on Whitehawk Down (renamed Race Hill), and the associated White Hawk Fair which was held from 1791 for some years. It was after visiting the fair one day that Editha Elmore, daughter of the squire of Woodingdean, disappeared. She was later said to haunt the area as the 'White Hawk Lady' leaving a cloven footprint behind, but her spirit was not seen again after 1807 when a woman's bones were found {6}. Whitehawk Hill was also the site of a telegraphic station from at least the early nineteenth century, and is now the site of the town's main television and radio transmitter (see "Broadcasting") {108}.
Whitehawk Bottom formed the eastern limit of the parish of Brighton, the boundary running along the former course of Whitehawk Road (including Haybourne Road), but when the East Brighton estate was purchased in September 1913 the area now occupied by the Whitehawk housing estate became corporation property and it became part of the county borough itself on 1 April 1928 when Ovingdean parish was annexed. The south-western most part of Whitehawk Road was developed in the early 1880s, but Whitehawk Bottom contained only a few farm buildings, piggeries, allotments and playing fields until the late 1920s when the corporation erected houses along the western side of Whitehawk Road and in Hervey Road and Whitehawk Crescent. The large council estate was then developed in 1933-7 with nearly 1,200 houses, all with large gardens for growing vegetables but none with garages. Private housing was added near Wilson Avenue post-war, and the corporation's Swanborough flats opened in 1967. In 1981 the population of Whitehawk (together with Manor Farm) was nearly 8,000. {2,83,109,277,305}
In 1975 the rebuilding of Whitehawk and its drab housing began. By radically altering road alignments, many small cul-de-sacs have been created in the Whitehawk Crescent and Whitehawk Avenue areas, increasing the number of houses but making the estate more attractive; the scheme involved 1,440 new houses. By 1988 redevelopment south of Lintott Avenue was complete and work was proceeding on large areas to the north, but financial restrictions had slowed down the project somewhat. A major new road, Whitehawk Way, has been constructed along the line of Whitehawk Avenue and Fletching Road, and a new park has been laid out over Lintott Avenue. {123}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.