Peacehaven

It was at this time that father decided mother should not return to Wing's Place, and with Granny's help purchased a piece of land and an ex-army hut. This was in 1922.

The land was purchased from the Dumbrell Estate, and was a turning off the Lewes Road, down a track known as Shady Lane. There was a white field gate at the road end with a heave stile near the eastern side of Lexden House, and another gate and heave stile at the bottom end of the lane.

The army hut was bought as the army was selling off its surplus stock. With the aid of two friends and one of the Grainger boys, they went to Seaford with a horse and waggon and brought it back in sections to our own plot of land.

The excitement was great. We children were brought home to see the last piece erected, and to see it divided into a kitchen, scullery, sitting-room and three bedrooms - one for mother and father, one for Rex and one for us three girls.
Doris Hall - Growing up in Ditchling

Many men who had been told they were fighting and dying for an England which was at its very best in the countryside, naturally wanted something better on their return from the war than the life many of them had left behind in the urban slums.

The end of the war, and the failure of Governments' 'Homes for Heroes' campaign was the impetus for many of those who could afford it to buy a stake in the land they had been fighting for. It is not surprising that many of them rejected the controlled tenancy of small holdings, and chose instead to purchase a stake in the land which was most accessible to them; the plotland developments.

Although to its inhabitants Peacehaven may have seemed the rural idyll they had been searching for, to its attackers it was one of the worst developments of the modern age, encroaching on a part of rural England which was central to ideas of Englishness, and symbolising the lack of social control and breakdown of order which seemed to typify the post-war age.

In a competition to choose a name for the new estate, "New Anzac-on-Sea" was chosen as the winner; but as a result of representations that Anzac was almost a sacred word, following the tragic events of Gallipoli, it was not a name which could suitably be used to advertise a new seaside place, so this was later changed to Peacehaven.

In the original plan, dated 1916, for Anzac-on-Sea many of the streets were named after first World War battles: Louvain, Marne, Mons, Loos, Festubert, Salonica and Ypres Avenues. These were later changed to: Gladys, Sunview, Vernon, Southdown, Seaview and Friars Avenues.

It was obviously not possible to sell plots of land on avenues bearing names which reminded people of the tragedies of these First World War battles.

...two main strands [run] through the ... promotion of Peacehaven: the health giving properties of life on the South Downs, and the freedom which ownership of a plot of land gave to the plotholder... the healthiness of life on the Downs was a major selling point... and life in Peacehaven was often compared favourably to life in the towns; a cartoon published in 1921 showed "types of people not found in healthy Peacehaven", whilst a comparison with the nearest large town stated that in "Brighton, they are always saying good health, up here we are always having it." (Peacehaven Post October 1921).

However, this very egalitarianism of Peacehaven could be a drawback as well as selling point. Many of the plotholders could afford to buy plots of land but could not afford to build on them ... this resulted in many of the plots remaining vacant, eventually leaving the development with a scattered, haphazard appearance.

Many plotholders who could afford to build could do so only with the cheapest materials, creating a landscape of caravans, wooden shacks and half-finished bungalows, interspaced with the grander villas which wealthier plotholders had been able to build.

This shanty-town appearance was further enhanced by Neville's policy of selling plots without services, which left the town with one made-up road and the distressing lack of a sewerage system. All this was a very far cry from the 'Garden City by the Sea' which Neville had intended to build, and which he continued to advertise Peacehaven as.
Blighty Brighton