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| Toads Hole Cottages and Barn, the farm track would eventually become George VI Avenue in later years. |
Background
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| An alarming 1865 account of the capture of a lark at Toads Hole, which later in 1874 would be displayed in a cabinet in the Booth's Bird Museum, Dyke Road, Brighton. (this text is from A. F. Griffith's 1909 Catalogue of Cases of Birds) |
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| Frederick Whitehouse writing in the 1879 Hark Away, reported on a hare hunt at Toads Hole by the Brighton Harriers, (the hunt lost the hare on the Downs at Portslade) |
Toads Hole Valley consists of 42 hectares. The group of farm buildings belonged to West Blatchington Manor, and formed part of Court Farm, the land being owned by the Marquis of Abergavenny,
The 1891 census recorded the following occupants of Toads Hole Cottages:
Number 1 – H. Upton, shepherd, aged 28, wife, son and daughter.
Number 2 – William Berry, farm labourer, aged 58, wife, daughter, son, and two grand-children. The cottage also contained two lodgers – another farm labourer, and a groom.
The measurements of the garden used by the occupants of the two cottages were as follows; the apex of the triangular-shaped garden was around 84-ft, situated to the north of the earth closet; the earth closet was around 60-ft north of the cottages. In addition, there was a garden in front of the cottages, and the residents also made use of a portion of the bank formed by the new road (later called King George VI Avenue) which they used as a kitchen garden.
At Toads Hole, and north-east of the same, the
old highway still remained with a piece of land between it and the
new footpaths and new road.
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| copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove A 1911 map showing the location of Toads Hole north of St Peter's Church, to the right is the Three Cornered Copse and the Goldstone Water Works. |
Ownership
In 1937 the building firm B. W. Cook (Brighton) Ltd purchased Toads Hole Valley from the Abergavenny Estate. The cottage residents said they would be quite happy to release part of their garden from 29 September 1937 because then they would not have so much land to cultivate.
In around 1955 the cottages were destroyed by fire.
In 1999 it transpired that the valley was owned jointly by Peter and Claudia Cook, who were Canadian citizens, in the name of Pecla Investments Ltd based in Guernsey, and by a trust fund for the Cook family in England.
Second World War
On 22 September 1940 three high-explosive bombs, and one oil bomb, were dropped on Toads Hole Valley.
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| copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove This 1943 map shows the locations of bombs dropped, all missing their target of the Goldstone Water Works. |
Valuable Land
The land is still privately owned. But the scarcity of land to build on at Hove has meant that this area of open land, much appreciated by nearby residents, has come under continued pressure for redevelopment.
This began in the 1960s, and is still on-going in 2023.
In October 1965 East Sussex County Council submitted to the Secretary of State for Education and Science an application to authorise the compulsory purchase of 24.6 acres on the north-west side of King George VI Avenue. The land could provide playing fields for Cottesmore St Mary Roman Catholic School, Nevill County Secondary School, and the proposed new primary school in Woodland Avenue. The owners Cook opposed the move and there were two long Public Enquiries held at Hove Town Hall.
Nothing happened then, but in 1974 it was reported that there were still plans for school playing fields in the valley.
Brighton By-Pass Impact
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| copyright © D. Sharp A view of Toads Hole Valley from the Brighton By-Pass in November 2023. On the left is King George VI Avenue, in the distance the cranes involved in the building of flats in Sackville Road can be seen. |
Work on the by-pass started in August 1989, and Southwick Tunnel was officially opened on 18 April 1996. The final cost of the 8.5 mile road came to a staggering £78 million.
Naturally, it had an impact on the valley because it had been proclaimed that the Downland north of the by-pass was destined to remain green, while the valley earned the unwelcome distinction of being the largest potential development land south of the by-pass.
Opposition
In July 1992 it was reported that Wyncote Developments were looking at the possibility of building a sports centre and football ground there, but such a scheme would only be viable if some commercial development were to be allowed too. Hove Council was sympathetic to the sports package suggestion, but baulked at the idea of commercial activities in the area. Many people were opposed to any redevelopment of the valley, including the following:
The Society of Sussex Downsmen
Council for the Protection of Rural England
South Downs Conservation Board
Goldstone Valley Residents’ Association
Hove Environmental Forum
In December 1993 Hove planners warned potential developers that the valley was not up for grabs.
Developers promptly appealed to the government, but in July 1995 came news that the government upheld Hove’s policy of protecting this stretch of Downland.
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club
In October 1995 it was revealed that Brighton & Hove Albion F. C. were again considering the valley as a possible site for their new stadium.
Opponents stated that the valley was a wild-life haven with 30 species of birds, besides deer, rabbits and foxes.
On 21 December 1995 Albion’s chief executive, David Bellotti, announced ambitious plans for a £22 million stadium and sports complex with commercial development to help pay for it. The club claimed they had an agreement to purchase a 90-acre site from Cook’s.
In February 1996 Hove Council received a statutory directive notice from the Highways Agency that meant the council were obliged to refuse Albion’s plans on highway grounds.
Travellers
In June 1999 a group of travellers gained access to the valley by smashing their way through a five-bar gate; some of them had previously been evicted from Waterhall. At first there just twenty caravans plus a quantity of dogs; but soon the number rose some forty vans and trucks.
However, serving eviction notices was not straightforward. This was because the council did not own the land, and therefore could not legally take action. The landowners had first to be contacted to satisfy legals requirements. At length the travellers were moved on, leaving great piles of rubbish as a parting gift.
Barely one week later, another group of travellers arrived from Bournemouth and Lewes. Ivor Caplin commented ‘this episode highlights how vulnerable the valley has become.’ On 24 June 1999 notice was served under section 61 of the Criminal and Public Order Act 1994.After the travellers had left the scene, an earth bank and ditch were created to prevent further trespass.
Bikers
By July 1999 residents were complaining about groups of bikers who were tearing around the valley, practising stunts and scarring the Downland; some of the participants came from as far away as Seaford. Police said that they had no powers to prevent motor-cycling on private land.
In the Argus (21 October 1999) Adam Trimingham wrote that the valley was a scruffy stretch of land used mainly by bikers, and because of the by-pass development was inevitable.
In March 2000 Brighton & Hove City Council served notice on the site owners that motor-bikes and quad-bikes must stop their unofficial racing by 1 May under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act. The bikers disregarded the action, and six days later were roaring around the site as usual. They even had the audacity to use the trench as an additional obstacle while also using the warning notices as bridges.
Just after 6 p.m. on 12 September 1999 two Fiat Uno cars were set alight in the valley; the resulting huge cloud of smoke meant that part of the Brighton by-pass had to be closed.
In May 2001 the bikers were back in the valley as usual.
1999 Report
In October 1999 a report stated that although Toads Hole Valley was classified as farmland, no crops had been grown there for seven years. The report stated that the floor of the valley ought to be used as a business park, or housing, or both. It also recommended that a study should be carried out to find out if there were an economic case for developing the valley.
Friends of the Earth were horrified at the proposal.
Widow Maria Town of Beeding Avenue said it would be wrong to develop the valley – just the other day she had seen a deer there, and there were also many larks, besides wrens and house martins.
Mark Barnard, Hangleton councillor, said that people should band together, and put forward a case for rights-of-way because he claimed that if people had habitually walked across the valley for more than twenty years, then rights-of-way could be claimed.
Suggestions in 2000
In August 2000 Stiles Harold Williams and architects Lyons Sleeman Hoare sent brochures to local councillors setting out what might be done for the valley, which was still owned by the Cook family. The suggestion was for a modern science and office research park with well-designed low-rise buildings. Such a development could create some 2,000 jobs but only take up one-third of the valley.
Ivor Caplin was sceptical about the plan because
there were other sites he thought more suitable for a science park.
In his opinion, the whole valley ought to be offered to the council.
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| copyright © D. Sharp A view of Toads Hole Valley looking west to Hangleton |
More Recent Plans
In 2018 a plan was produced for a huge re-development of the valley. If approved there is no doubt that the green space would be grossly over-developed. People wonder about the narrow road access, and the infrastructure to go with such a scheme, bearing in mind that such an influx of people would put a strain on local services when already there is difficultly in seeing a doctor or a dentist, and never mind the extra water required. The plan was as follows:
Around 880 new homes
A secondary school
Community and sports facilities
A Doctor’s surgery
Enhanced local wild life
Quite how the latter will be managed is open to doubt, with all the noise and disruption of building works.
A duplicate of the above plan also went to the council in 2001.
Then there was a bit of re-think in relation to the proposed school. Apparently, the birth rate is falling in Brighton and Hove because young parents find it is much too expensive to live here. Gone are the days in the 1960s when Mile Oak was such a magnet for young families that it was popularly known as Nappy Valley. The houses were the most affordable in the area because Portslade was an independent urban district council, before being subsumed into Hove, and finally absorbed into the City of Brighton and Hove.
On 8 March 2023 Brighton & Hove City Council approved an application concerning the part of the site relevant to the school, which was not needed because there was space enough for more children in existing schools. Instead, the space would be given to an additional 182 homes of which 40 per cent would supposedly be affordable. However, some items were retained from the previous plans such as:
A 3G Sports Pitch
Multi-use games area
Community centre, including an indoor badminton court
Objections were made by the following:
Brighton & Hove Wildlife Forum
Hove Civic Society
Goldstone Valley Residents’ Association
Sussex Wildlife Trust
Some 33 objections were submitted. There were two letters of support, and the committee claimed the scheme would provide vital housing.
However, Vanessa Brown and Samer Bagaeen, councillors for Hove Park, claimed it would bring the proposed number of houses to over one thousand – an over-development by any standards. It is apparent that the vaunted biodiversity might not even be in the valley but somewhere else entirely.
There was one abstention but committee members voted five to two in favour of approving the new plan.
Sources
Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Hovarian (April 2023)
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Copyright © J.Middleton 2023
page layout by D.Sharp