Vestiges of Tide Mills

By Matthew Broadhead

Vestiges of Tide Mills

By Matthew Broadhead

“Time moves in one direction, memory in another.”

William Gibson

Vestiges of Tide Mills

Statement

My required visit to the derelict village of Tide Mills stemmed from my re-

search that began with an investigation into rising sea levels. There are vil-

lages and settlements all over the United Kingdom that have been lost to

the sea in times past, and using a flood simulator I can see what parts of the

United Kingdom will be lost in the future as the sea level rises. Some people

say that the sea will rise two meters by 2100. If that is true, low-lying areas

near the coastline will be submerged and lost. This is the case for Tide Mills,

a once thriving place born in the wake of the industrial revolution that has

been abandoned since 1939, during the Second World War. That premise has

evolved since then to become “Vestiges of Tide Mills”.

A vestige is a trace or remnant of something that is disappearing or no longer

exists. The mission of this project to make a statement about how much his-

tory a place can have and subsequently lose rapidly due to a chain of events

in history. For this project I am using text as well as image to create a context

that I perhaps could not achieve with images alone. The language I use in the

text is always in past tense to communicate that what this place once was is

deep in the fabric of time and its current state has no resemblance to what

it was in the past.

From this starting point and looking at artists such as Jonathan Olley, Kai-

Olaf Hesse and Joel Sternfeld as well as Eugène Atget who was a French

flaneur and documentary photography who recorded Paris before it was

changed forever by modernization. This photo-documentary project explores

the notion of the photograph functioning as a historical document with the

premise it gains value and importance over time and gives a window into the

past that is impossible to have otherwise. Much of this project was inspired

by research I made into the history of Tide Mills but is not to be miscon-

strued as a whole truth or scholarly article about Tide Mills. My honest inten-

tion was to undergo an exploration into the concepts and themes that this

spectacle made me contemplate.

I acknowledge The Keep (formerly Lewes Record Office) as the source of rel-

evant Tide Mills material and a publication called “Bishopstone and the lost

village of Tide Mills” by David Lyndhurst that had a detailed history for me

to build my context from.

In Medias Res

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Three West Sussex corn merchants called William Woods, John Challen and John Woods saw the potential of the area and put forward the proposal of a flour producing mill to Thomas Pelham-Holles, the Duke of Newcastle, one of the Pelham families of Laughton. The mill was built in 1761 with a 500 year lease of the creek.

There was a large water mill, mill house and three cottages. These cottages were once occupied by millers, mill workers or farm labourers. They lived a very simple life and at times it was a little primitive. The inhabitants did not have toilets and used earth closets. They emptyed their earth closet recepticles onto the beach at low tide for the sea to deal with.

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Tide Mills once had its own railway station known as Bishopstone Beach Halt. The name then changed to Tide Mills in the 1930’s.

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There was no water inside the houses but there was one tap outside in the yard that served several households. Dustbins were not used, there were large brick pits where all household rubbish was deposited.

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The little cottages were once very attractive. They had lattice work porches and little gardens under the windows bordered with large Sussex plants and flints. Some of them had coal cellars as well. They were built as homes for families when the mill was thriving and the work mens hours were dictated by the tides.

Much of the fuel they used in the homes was from the beach. Lots of debris and wreckages were washed up including numerous tallow candles, timber, masts, shafts and pit props. The winter nights were very dark in Tide Mills because the cottages only contained oil lamps as a source of light.

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There were some lovely gardens with fine walks. These gardens were cultivated well and helped feed the village. They were once the pride of William Catt, who died in 1853. He was a great fruit grower.

In 1893 the trees were still bearing fruit, some of the pear trees grew up the side of the mill to a great height and looked very decorative during the fruit season. The mill itself was a fine building and was probably the largest in Sussex. the mill house with its fine garden in the front also had a lovely greenhouse growing magnificent grapes and lots of shamrock of which Mr Catt must have been a lover.

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There was a merchant that villagers used to refer to as the snow-ball man. He came from Newhaven exhibiting a white bundle on his back. He spread it out on the road and villagers would gather round to buy his wares.

In a small outhouse there was the village mangle. It had 2 rollers of heavy iron wheel. When turning the wheel it would create a terrific din.

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The old mill office for many years was used as a Sunday school and workers meeting room. There was a little concert room attached to the mill house with a small stage that was used by workers. The Sunday school had a well hidden and inconspicuous trapdoor beneath the altar that was built after the First World War. It was designed to lead the folk out of the village in a future emergency.

Early in the history of Tide Mills residents were buried in unmarked graves and recently as the landscape eroded and changed subject to the ocean and the tide, discoveries have been made that are revealing a lot about the distant past.

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The Newhaven Harbur Company bought Tide Mills in 1879. Within 4 years the mill stopped operations and the windmill was blown down damaging the granary in the process. In April 1884 a deal with the Portland Cement Company didn’t work out and the Newhaven Harbour Company filled in the mill ponds with chalk.

During a great storm in 1895 the village and mill were badly flooded and never fully recovered from the damage. Tide Mills flooded again in 1912.

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Fish were plentiful in the mud flats at Tide Mills, on the East side of Tide Mills fish were caught with a rounded hook on the end of a pole. The water was tidal and the spearing could only be done on the last of the ebb. The wash away was netted and in this way mullet and bass was caught.

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In 1890 approval was given to convert the mill and its buildings into a bonded warehouse that was leased to the Café Royal in Regent Street and then used as a meeting place for the literary and artistic lions of London society. The restaurant terminated the lease and in 1901 the mill and warehouse were demolished and most of the railway siding was removed.

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There were never epidemics at Tide Mills as it is so isolated, therefore residents lived to ripe old ages without much trouble. They were self sufficient and ate bread from the mill and fruit from the trees. They breathed in sea air that during the Victorian era was believed to be very healthy.

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Chailey Heritage Craft School took over a admiralty hut in 1924, and it then expanded and became an orthopaedic centre. It gave aftercare and recovery for disabled boys who had undergone surgery. They used spartan conditions and sea bathing to give them strength.

The Chailey Heritage Marine Hospital at Tide Mills became its full title and was formally opened by the Bishop of London. It was in the chapter house of Southwark Cathedral that the guild of the brave poor things, founded by Mrs Grace Kimmins used to meet once a week in the 1890’s. There was also a bungalow for attendant nurses behind the hospital.

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As the threat of German invasion grew all civilians were evacuated by 1939. Most of the cottages were demolished by the army in 1940 to prepare for the defense of Newhaven Harbour. There were a few reasons why Tide Mills fate was sealed. The buildings could either block the defenders field of fire or provide shelter for opposing troops that may come ashore, and by that point it was also deemed unfit for human habitation and was very outmoded.