^35 



The destruction of the underdifif town of Brighton, which was 

 commenced by this storm, was completed by another storm on August 

 I2th, 1705, as the following extract from Lee's " History of Lewes and 

 Brighthelmstone " shews : — 



" Another dreadful storm reached this town about one o'clock in 

 the morning, but raged not with its greatest fury till after three, and 

 then continued with unremitting violence till the hour of eight. It 

 destroyed a great many houses in the town, and blew off most of the 

 church leads. Every habitation under the Cliff was utterly demolished, 

 and its very site concealed from the owner's knowledge beneath a 

 mound of beach." 



He might then remark that there was a very prevalent idea that 

 the town of Brighton formerly stood about as far from the shore as the 

 Chain Pier Head was. From a careful study of the plans, Court rolls, 

 &c., he was convinced that this was an erroneous idea, and he thought 

 that within the historic period the coast line was not more than 200 feet 

 from the present line. Another exploded notion was that the Block 

 House stood in the centre of the town. Horsfield stated that in 1734 

 " the Gun Garden adjoined the Block House." The Burrell MSS. 

 recorded in January, 1749 — " By reason of extraordinary high tides the 

 sea broke in at Brighthelmstone, washed away part of the Block House 

 and the farm lands called Salts, and did considerable damage to the 

 land adjacent." On January 30th, 1775, a portion of the Battery at 

 the end of East Street was washed away, and on November 30th, 1786, 

 its destruction was completed. 



The storm of 1705 having destroyed 130 houses, the town of 

 Brighton was almost ruined, and a few years after the inhabitants 

 began to take steps for preventing further encroachments of the 

 sea. This was the first time in the history of the County that we found 

 any record of an attempt to keep back the sea. " Magna Brittannia" 

 (published in 1738), says that at a moderate computation the damage 

 sustained by the town was ;/^4o,ooo. It was found that the tendency 

 of the tide was Lo roll the beach from west to east, and it was deter- 

 mined to erect wooden barriers (called groynes) stretching from the 

 cliff to low water mark. The origin of the term groyne was very 

 obscure. The inhabitants accordingly, being too poor to provide the 

 money for erecting groynes, in 1722, by virtue of Letters Patent under 

 the Great Seal, issued briefs by which collections were made in the 



