The City of Brighton and Hove consists of many districts, a stretch of coast and some downland areas. Just to the south of Brighton and Hove in the
English Channel is the
Rampion Wind Farm, which provides renewable energy to the country.
Brighton Brighton has been the most populous settlement in Sussex since at least the 17th century, and a town hall and evidence of citizen's control over town affairs predates 1580. The original parish of Brighton covered what is today much of central Brighton. The parish border ran from Little Western Street and Boundary Passage in the west, to Whitehawk Road in the east, and roughly followed the Old Shoreham Road and Bear Road to the north. The
Reform Act 1832 created the
parliamentary constituency of Brighton. Brighton obtained a royal charter for incorporation in 1854 and was organised into six wards: Park, Pavilion, Pier, St Nicholas, St Peter, and West. The ward of
Preston was added in 1873, expanding Brighton to the north. In 1889 Brighton attained
county borough status. A final expansion of the town's boundaries was approved in 1968, incorporating reclaimed land from the sea for the
Brighton Marina project. Brighton was split into two parliamentary constituencies in 1950. The first,
Brighton Pavilion, covers the centre and north of the town. The second,
Brighton Kemptown, covers the east of the town. The latter has since expanded further east to include the neighbouring towns of East Saltdean,
Telscombe Cliffs, and
Peacehaven, all of which are administratively within the adjacent
Lewes District. Brighton became a
municipal borough as a result of the
Local Government Act 1972, losing unitary control of town affairs to
East Sussex County Council. In 1873 commissioners from Hove, West Hove and
Brunswick were amalgamated as means to guard against the dominance of Brighton. The first public buildings were completed in the late 19th century, including
the original town hall in 1882. The parish of
Aldrington was annexed by Hove in 1893. It also incorporated the nearby town of
Portslade-by-Sea into the new district. The new boundaries established by the Act remained largely the same until unification with Brighton a quarter of a century later.
Portslade, Portslade Village, and Mile Oak To the west of Brighton and Hove is
Portslade. The area has three distinct centres with different histories, and includes
Portslade-by-Sea,
Portslade Village and
Mile Oak. Each is quite different in character. Portslade-by-Sea is largely an industrial port, with a busy canal area that opens up to the
River Adur and the
English Channel. It has a long history of human settlement and the name came from the Roman port, Novus Portus. Portslade Village has kept more of its antiquity and retains many elements of the downland village it once was. Many of the buildings have their original flint walls, and there are some early manor house ruins, tree-lined parks, a landmark church and a former convent.
Mile Oak is a newer development. Until the 1920s it was only a small group of farm buildings with surrounding corn fields, sheep downs and market gardens. Then, suburban housing started to be built, and there was considerable further development in the 1960s with the construction of bungalows and other private housing. In the 1990s, after the construction of the new
A27 road, Mile Oak's access to the Downs was largely blocked, stopping the spread of development.
Portslade downland To the north of Mile Oak, on the other side of the A27, are a number of downland areas that are still in the Brighton and Hove area. These include the ancient chalk grassland slopes of
Cockroost Hill,
Cockroost Bottom and
Mount Zion. They are all special areas because of the remarkable wildlife still surviving there, including rare downland flowers, orchids, butterflies and rare insects. To the north of the city boundary is
Fulking parish. The final stretch of the
Monarch's Way passes through Mile Oak and Porstlade. It is a long-distance
footpath that runs from
Worcester to
Shoreham.
Aldrington, Hangleton and West Blatchington Aldrington sits between
Portslade-by-Sea to its west and
Hove to its east. For centuries Aldrington was largely countryside, with very few people living there for most of the Middle Ages, but it is now a residential area. Like Aldrington,
West Blatchington was once primarily down and sheep grazing area, but is now built up. West Blatchington manor had various lords over the centuries, but unlike Adrington and Hangleton, it was always associated with lords in the east such
Lewes,
Falmer, and
Patcham. It is now known for its
windmill and secondary school. To the east of West Blatchington is
Westdene.
Hangleton is to the north of Aldrington and sits between Portslade Village and West Blatchington. The manors of Hangleton and Aldrington formed part of the Fishersgate
Half Hundred, together with the neighbouring manor of Portslade. The lords of the Hangleton manor from 1291 to 1446 were the de Poynings, a Sussex gentry family that gave their name to the present parish of
Poynings. Hangeton was a medieval downland village in the 13th century, and by the early 14th century it had a population of about 200. Later, the village was abandoned for around six hundred years. It started to grow again in the 1950s with other areas of Brighton and is now popular for its views of the sea and green spaces.
Hangleton and West Blatchingham downland Between
Hangleton and
Westdene, south of the A27, is
Toads Hole Valley. Its west slope, below Downland Drive, was once an unspoilt place for wildlife and still home to threatened species such as
dormice,
hedgehogs, and
adders. The valley has been unmanaged for many years and the area has turned to scrub. It has now been designated for development and up to three hundred homes are planned to be built on the site. To the north of the A27 are two golf courses, the West Hove and Brighton and Hove Golf courses. The two are divided by the
Old Dyke Railway Trail which follows part of the route taken by the old Dyke Railway Branch Line. The line opened in September 1887 and took people from
Hove to the popular downland beauty spot of
Devil's Dyke. When the railway closed in December 1938, the line lay unused until the Dyke Railway Trail was created in 1988. There are a number of ways through Hangleton to a bridge over the A27 bypass where the trail begins, but the original route took you from
Aldrington railway station and above the Hove cemetery. Much of the trail across the Downs is on a hard surface. There are many archaic Down pastures in the area. To the west is
Benfield Hill (), a
Local Nature Reserve which is famous for its
glowworm displays on midsummer evenings. On the steep east side of the hill there is
large thyme,
autumn gentian and many butterflies.
Bee orchids can be also found in some years. Even an
Archbishop of Canterbury, John Pecham, came from the village. The area still has many old flint cottages, big allotment sites and winding twittens. There is
Patcham Place and Park. The best cluster of buildings comprise its
Norman church (which has kept part of its medieval wall paintings) and the old buildings of Patcham Court Farm, with a 17th-century flint farmhouse and dovecot. The areas of Withdean and Westdene were historically farmland but have been developed, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s, with a mix of detached, semi-detached and mid-rise flats. The Withdean manor was originally the property of the great
Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras at Lewes, until 1537. This was then given to
Anne of Cleves in 1541 by
Henry VIII. The manor was demolished in 1936. Westdene sits to the north of
Brighton, east of
West Blatchington and north of Withdean.
Withdean Park is to the east of the London Road, and is home to the national collection of
lilacs with over 250 varieties. Collections of
berberis,
cotoneaster and
viburnum can also be found here.
Withdean Woods is next to Withdean stadium and is a wooded hillside nature reserve approximately 2.47 acres (1 ha) in size. It is the home of several woodland birds including the
great spotted woodpecker,
tawny owl,
goldcrest, firecrest, and in winter the
stinking hellebore.
Waterhall downland To the west of the A23 and north of Westdene and the A27 is
Waterhall (), and its lost 18th century farm is now the site of football and rugby pitches. The Waterhall Golf Course has just been given over to a version of rewilding which involves the restoration of species-rich chalk grassland There is still a significant population of adders. By the bridlepath just downhill of the old clubhouse there are the damaged remains of a
Bronze Age round barrow () which has long acted as a marker on the old parish boundaries. Since the cessation of golf play
harebell,
scabious,
cowslip,
rockrose,
betony,
Sussex rampion and
horseshoe vetch have flowered ebulliently. There are large old anthills and
chalkhill,
small and
adonis blue and
brown argus butterflies, and all three species of Forester moth. At the corner of the Saddlescombe Road and the turn-off to the golf clubhouse, there is a sarsen stone () marking this point in the medieval boundary between
Patcham and
West Blatchington parishes. Over 300 people walked from Waterhall, Brighton, to Pangdean Bottom in protest. The public are actively discouraged from walking in the area and scrub has been allowed to grow on the pristine downland, whilst other parts have been ploughed out. To the north of the city boundary in this area is the
Pycombe parish.
Patcham downland The Downland to the north of Patcham leads up to
Ditchling Beacon and the western end of the
Clayton to Offham Escarpment.
Tegdown Hill is the next hill to the west of the downland Ditchling Road. A remarkable "ring barrow" survives () on its brow, together with the slight mounds of two other bowl barrows. Tegdown ring barrow has been described as "probably the best of this type in the county". It consists of a circular bank with a ditch and a flattish interior. It lies just south of a big dried up dew pond. From Tegdown you can see the three
Iron Age camps of
Hollingbury Castle,
Ditchling Beacon, and the
Devil's Dyke. To the north of the city boundary is the long
Ditchling parish. The Mid Sussex track of the Sussex Border Path starts at the A27 roundabout and the eastern track takes you up
Ewebottom Hiil leaving
Scare Hill to its west, passing the
Chattri to the east and on to
Holt Hill and the
Pyecombe parish. The western track takes you to Waterhall across the A23. Those walking from
Patcham towards Standean farm descend the hill into
Ewe Bottom and have the pleasure of the intact, old Tegdown pastures to their right, where the steepest slope and the lynchets have fine chalk downland flowers. Opposite the slope is the mouth of
Deep Bottom (), the southerly slope of which is a colourful old pasture site with abundant rockrose and which rises up to the
Chattri. In autumn there are
boletes and several old meadow
waxcaps and a
fairy club fungus. of
Iron Age date, whilst the four mounded
round barrows within its ramparts are made by
Bronze Age people, who held this place sacred. There are thickets of gorse which shine yellow in spring and are home to
linnets and goldfinch.
European stonechat is a familiar bird, too, and the rarer
whinchat and
redstart are seen regularly on passage to and from their breeding grounds. The soil within and around the camp has a layer of superficial acidity, with
sorrel,
bent-grass, and
tormentil growing there. Bevendean is in a valley nestled between
Bevendean Down and Heath Hill. Moulsecoomb is on the other side of the
Lewes Road and backs on to Falmer Hill, and is home to the
University of Brighton's Moulsecoomb campus and
Moulsecoomb Place. North of Moulsecoomb is the
Falmer train station,
University of Brighton's Falmer campus, and
Falmer Stadium.
Stanmer village and Stanmer park In this area to the north east of Coldean are two further valleys. The first is occupied by
Stanmer village (), a village with much historical value. The upper village street has eighteen flint cottages, with colourful gardens. The church was reconstructed in 1838, but the date of the original church can be guessed from the two huge and knotty
yews in the churchyard. Next to the church is a pond, which although often unkempt, is probably the reason why Stanmer is so called, as "stan mere" is likely to derive from the Saxon "stony pool".:312 Between the church and the barn is a Tudor well 252 feet deep and a wooden donkey wheel, like that at Saddlescombe, contained within a flint well-house. The well was in use until mains water was installed in 1900.
Stanmer Woods were transformed in the 18th century after the Pelhams, later Earls of Chichester, had bought them. They planted a circle of woods along the hill-tops surrounding the dry valley in which the village lay and more shaws and clumps were scattered within. In 2007 the City Council took the initiative after the recent retirement of the Park's farming tenant and opened up all the closed woods and pasture fields to public access. and on the lawns behind the House is a gigantic
Blue Atlas Cedar with several slighter companions. The next valley is occupied by the
University of Sussex, which opened in 1961. In 2021, it is the place of study of over 16,000 students. The Brighton and Hove City border is surrounded by the large
Falmer parish in this area.
Bevendean Down and Falmer Hill Bevendean Down () is a local nature reserve (LNR). Its hot, south-facing slopes and as a result is home to lizards and many butterflies. The area is well looked after by local people in cooperation with the tenant farmer and the Council rangers. There is a dew pond where
swallows and
house martins skim the water.
Chalkhill and
adonis blue and
brown argus butterflies are found in numbers in the area.
Hogtrough Bottom () has a mixture of taller grassland, short
sheep's fescue turf, and scrub. On the shorter ground some years are large swarms of
autumn ladies tresses. There are lots of scarce species such as
bastard toadflax,
waxcap, and
webcap fungi,
four-spot orb-weaver and
purseweb spiders, but the tapestry of summer colours is the main delight which come from the purple
knapweed and
felwort, blue
scabious, yellow
hawkbit, and
rockrose. On the southern side of Bevendean is
Heath Hill which runs up to Warren Road and two horse pasture smallholdings, Southdown Riding Stables () and Inglesíde Stables to the east. Neither receive any agro-chemicals and consequently have gathered rich wildlife in the past half century.
Swallows and
swifts,
bats and
dung beetles,
rooks and
woodpecker and the
hornet robberfly all survive on the rich supply of insects attracted by the pony dung.
Falmer Hill () gives great views across to
Hollingbury Castle and
Stanmer Park and the higher Downs beyond. The Hill's top remained unploughed till the last World War. It had a cluster of about ten probably Saxon
barrows and a couple of
round barrows. Nothing remains now except white smears of chalk and flint on the ploughed earth, where the barrows were. To its east is
East Brighton Golf Course () with extensive roughs, scrub thickets, and woodland. In winter,
short-eared owls often reside in the area. Below the course is Roedean Bottom (). It sits between Roedean School and a pitch and putt golf course. On the east slope of the Bottom there is a little piece of aboriginal Downland turf, where in late summer
autumn ladies tresses orchid grow, with
carline thistle and
hairy violet. Tiny moss snail in the turf demonstrates the site's antiquity. East again from the Golf Course (and southwest of Woodingdean) is
Wick Bottom (). This peaceful dean takes its name from the medieval farm on the Falmer Road, now long-gone. The name 'wick' may denote a far more ancient, perhaps Roman, farmstead. In modern times it has been a place of arable stubbles, but there be a good array of chalk loving plants such as
night flowering catchfly,
henbit deadnettle,
field madder,
round-leaved fluellen, and
common fumitory.
Woodingdean is north of Ovingdean and east of the
Brighton Racecourse. It was extensively developed during the 1950s and 1960s when most of the roads in the north-eastern and southern ends of the village were built. The name Woodingdean came from Woodendean (i.e. wooded valley) Farm which was situated in the south end of what is now Ovingdean. This farm existed from before 1714 until 1979. Perhaps the earliest farming settlement to be identified in the area was situated in Wick Bottom. It was here that the Wick Farm, later Warren Farm was situated.
East Brighton downland and undercliff path Between the
Brighton Marina and
Saltdean is the
undercliff path. It passes cafes at Ovingdean and Rottingdean. Many people use the path to walk, run or cycle either for amusement or to reach their destinations avoiding the up and down of the busy road above. The entire stretch of beach provides excellent home to rock pool loving species and sea and wading birds take advantage.
Fulmars,
peregrine falcons,
ravens and
rock pipits are just some of the bird life that nest in the chalk cliffs. This area is the only place on these southern cliffs that
sea stock is native.
Sea lavender also clings to the cliff ledges. Occasionally one can find
samphire, too.
The Brighton and Hove boundary From west to east the administrative boundary of Brighton and Hove begins on the coast at Gate 4 of Shoreham Port. It crosses the
Southwick Ship Canal and the
A259 between Brambledean Road and St Richard's Road in
Portslade. From here, the border joins Eastbrook Road, and runs north up St Aubrey's Crescent. It then runs along the
Sussex Border Path, through
Fishersgate Station, separating Portslade from the neighbouring town of
Southwick. Running west of
Mile Oak, the border crosses the
A27 skirting Mile Oak Farm and continues towards
Devil's Dyke, before turning east over the
Downs. The border then extends north from Tydell Farm to the outskirts of
Pyecombe – its most northerly point. It crosses the
A23 at the
Patcham Pylons, which signifies the border for incoming traffic. Continuing east, the border runs north of the
Chattri and Standean Farm, before crossing Ditchling Road at the Upper Lodges and running along the northerly limits of
Stanmer Park and
Stanmer Village. At this point, the border turns south and runs to the eastern edge of the
University of Sussex campus, re-crossing the A27 along The Drove and passing east of
Falmer Stadium. It continues along The Drove and Falmer Road to
Woodingdean. Running north of Woodingdean, the border then heads southeast through
Balsdean before adjoining to a footpath which enters
Saltdean at the top of Longridge Avenue. The border runs down Longridge Avenue to the junction with Lynwood Road, where it turns south over houses and back across the A259 before returning the coastline at the eastern end of Saltdean Beach. ==Governance==