History of Combe Valley & Bulverhythe Harbour - 1501 to present
1601 - A barn is built at Upper Wilting Farm, Crowhurst - and its remaining structure can still be seen.
1682 - The ancient Saxon manor house at Filsham manor is rebuilt and part of it still remains today at Harley Shute.
1700 - Bulverhythe harbour was important as an export port for the Wealden Iron industry until the late 1700s, shipping the manufactured cannons and other iron goods from the Ashburnham forge and foundry.
1735 - Upper Wilting Farmhouse is built - it is still standing.
1748 - On 14th January 1748, a Dutch East Indiaman, the Amsterdam ran ashore about 1/2 mile from Bulverhythe. This was a new ship of about 700 tons armed with 52 guns and with an original crew of 333 men. The ship was on its way from Amsterdam to Batavia with a cargo of silver, and had taken 2 months to get from Amsterdam to Beachy Head, where she had lost her rudder and all control. She was cast up on the low tide sands near Glyne Gap directly opposite what is now called ‘Bridge Way’. The crew had lost about 100 men to plague sickness in this time. During the 1980s, the wreck has been thoroughly excavated. The whole wreck is soon to be take to Holland to a special underwater museum.
1800 - One of the great Martello Towers was built at Bulverhythe in the 1800s as a defense against Napoleon.
1806 - Cannons were installed in the Bulverhythe Martello Tower and the first gunner was in place in March 1806. He was a Scottish gunner who had been invalided from the Duke of Wellington's army that was then doing battle in Europe.
1823 – In the area called Bulverhythe Salts – a set of horse races were held annually. This race track area is now called Bulverhythe Recreation Ground.
1841 – The new Brighton to Hastings Railway terminated at Bulverhythe Salts.
1846 – The railway line was extended from Bulverhythe Salts station to St Leonards-on-Sea.
1843 - The tithe map for this year show that a Coach Road had been built by Colonel Pelham from Crowhurst Park Farm via Upper Wilting Farm to St Mary's Chapel Abbey Drive, next to the old location of Bulverhythe Harbour. The Coach Road went down the hillside via Park Farm, then down to Pebsham Farm and ended up at Abbey Drive - quite a ride in a bumpy coach. The road then continued to Galley Hill where Pelham had one of his houses.
1899 – The Crowhurst Viaduct (locally called the 17 Arches) owned by Crowhurst, Sidley & Bexhill Railway carrying the railway across Combe Valley, was being built by engineer Lt Col A J Barry at a cost of £244,000.
1902 – First train runs across the viaduct on test. The viaduct is 416 yards long and 67 feet above the marsh of Combe Valley and the Combe Haven river - but the marshy ground meant that the plinths that supports the arches were 30 feet down into the marsh – set on massive concrete rafts. It is still possible to walk along the old railway track on either side of the Valley. Trains made the viaduct sway.
1906 – On 9th April the second electric tramway began to run from Bulverhythe to St Leonards, turning on the tramway loop at the Bull Inn. By 28th July in this year the line was extended to Cooden Beach.
1907 – On 12th January the second independent section of the electric tramway was connected to the first independent section which began at Silverhill and the two lines became one service.
1925 – Local councils failed to buy the Hastings Tramway Co. in 1925 causing it to consider closing down.
1929 – The tramway closed on 15th May and was replaced by electric trolley buses. The owner of the private right of way across the bottom of Combe Valley called Pebsham Marsh refused to permit them through.
1930 - Sir Alan Cobham, supported by famous flyer Amy Johnson, asks Hastings Borough Council to consider building an aerodrome for cross-Channel freight and passenger air traffic at Bulverhythe. Nothing is done for many years. Eventually the area at the back of Bulverhythe Recreation Ground becomes Pebsham aerodrome - but for a few years only - see below. A Norman longboat with a Dacian wolfhead prow is dug up and quickly reburied as Hastings Council is scared of Air Ace Sir Alan Cobham's wrath. The longboat still there underground. Artefacts dated to 066 have been found in the upper harbour area.
1940 – Adolf Hitler turns his attentions to invading Britain, forming Operation Sealion, so south coast defensive works are begun with anti-tank blocks along the coast especially at Galley Hill. Combe Valley is bombed extensively because the Nazi aircrews returning home from failed missions often dropped their bombs in the countryside before crossing the Channel coast. Many craters can still be seen.
1942-43 – A ‘doodlebug’ Nazi winged V1 rocket lands in Pebsham Lake and another crashes next to Sheepwash Bridge on the A259 and stays there until at least 1951, growing ever more rusty. A USAAF Liberator bomber nicknamed 'Unstable Mabel' comes back from bombing Nazi wolfpack submarine pens on the coast of France and crashes into Bulverhythe Recreation Ground sports pavilion on 31 December 1943. Part of the wreckage is still there. Squadron Leader Tony Douglas-Beveridge kindly contacted me to explain that his wife's family lived at 412 Bexhill Road when the crash happened. her parents heard the crash. The bomber hit the pavilion then swung into the garden of number 338 Bexhill Road, a house owned by Mr & Mrs Sealey. The crew of the bomber, all survived and even trooped into the Sealey's home for tea! Later, the bomber crew made mementoes of the incident using the aircraft crash material.
1944 – Operation Driver – 4 40mm Bofors Guns are positioned on beach at back of anti-tank blocks near Galley Hill.
1946 – Part of a very old boat and half a sword are found in Combe Valley – but sadly the local authority destroys them both as being ‘of no useful purpose’. Another large ancient boat is found but reburied under a water treatment works. A further small ancient boat is found in reeds by the A259 at Sheepwash Bridge and can be seen during times of flood when it 'rises up' like a ghost ship.
1950 – Pebsham Aerodrome active – see photos:
http://www.1066online.co.uk/gallery/old-photos/pebsham-aerodrome-1950
Squadron Leader Tony Douglas-Beveridge has sent memories of Pebsham airfield. His wife, Lyn and her brother used to help Mr Lush who owned a vintage Klemm monoplane based at Pebsham airfield. A ticket office sold trips in an Auster. The office was marked as Queue Here for Flights (10 shilling and sixpence). Tony had a trip in the Auster, flying over a US Battleship anchored off Hastings. Tony eventually married the ticket office girl - Lyn!
(Photo of Tony and Lyn at the ticket office to follow.)
1956 - Hastings Borough Council has started an uncontrolled rubbish tip at Pebsham inside Combe Valley and when the airfield is formed they scrape the rubbish into a flat surface for the aircraft to take off on. A report is sent as follows:
For the British Transport Commission to acquire the Pebsham Air Strip for Development of specialised Freight Traffic to and from the Continent.
1. This air strip lies between Hastings and Bexhill parallel with the road and rail routes and in close proximity to them.
2. The aeronautical conditions such as prevailing wind, atmosphere, nearness to France, rail, road, ports are complementary; so is the ground configuration.
3. The ground is owned at present by the Hastings Corporation, and is being gradually elevated by the deposite (sic) of selected refuse from the area around which is proving ideal from an engineer point of view.
4. It's (sic) use by aircraft at present is negligible, but it could probably accommodate without much difficulty Dakota type Freight Aircraft.
5. In the light of modernisation or the possible revival of Railway Air Services I suggest the B.T.C. consider early acquisition before say the Silver City Air Lines or others, operating already from Rochford, Croydon or Lydd take up a vulnerable position prejudicing our traffic through our Channel Ports.
6. The air-freight traffic I have in mind (rail-air-rail) is valuables, fresh meat, froxen (sic) or fresh fruit.
7. Kindly acknowledge receipt.
Yours truly,
G. Burns
1956 – 57 – An application was made to turn the Pebsham Airfield into a motor racing circuit.
1964 – The Bexhill West railway line to Crowhurst is closed on 15th June. The viaduct is dynamited but only part of the 9 million bricks collapse, so another attempt it made.
In 1969 – the remaining sections of the Crowhurst Viaduct are blown up during May and June of that year and all debris removed.
2017 – Two electric tramcars survive, 48 and 56, being under restoration by the Hastings Tramway Club.