In the Court Rolls, according to the Burrell MSS., 1st April, 1645, there are the following records:—
Homage present Willm. Gallan, jun., for not paying to Rd. Cook, lord’s reeve, for his lady nets fishing, according to ye ancient custom, 4d, give him time to pay it to the said R.C., at or before St. Jn. Baptist next, on payn of 5s.
25 Aug., 1648. We present Nichs. Payne for building his new house and shop under the cliffs, upon the bank of the cliff, to the hurt and annoyance of the whole towne, if we shd have any occasion to use the ordnance, or that there shd be any invasion by a foreign enemy.
25 Aug., 1654. We present Nics. Payne for encroaching on the lord’s waste, and building of his walls 14 feet, or thereabout, more than he is admitted to, to ye cliffe side, before ye place where ye great guns path doth stand, to the great annoyance and hindrance of ye whole towne and country, and we fine him for it.
In the year 1658, John Pullat, a Quaker, for speaking to the priest and people in the Steeple-house (the church), was put prisoner into the Block-house, which, at that time, was the place of confinement for malefactors.
In the course of the encroachments of the sea during severe storms in 1703 and 1705, the Blockhouse and Gun-garden, wall and gates, were gradually sapped, and at last so completely destroyed, that in the course of thirty years afterwards, scarcely any of their ruins were perceptible. The following is the record of these storms in the Brighton town-book:—
Memorand.—November 27th, 1703, there was a very great and remarkable tempest, [67] which begun after midnight, and continued in its violence till about 8 in the morning, being Saturday. Many houses in town were damnified, two wind-mills in the east blown over, several of the church leads turned up, and several vessells belonging to the town were Shipwracked, to the great impoverishment of the place.
Another storm, 11th of August, 1705, did equal damage.
The Burrell MSS. record, Jan., 1748–9, that by reason of extraordinary high tides the sea broke in at Brighthelmston, washed away part of the Block-house, and the farm lands called Salts, and did considerable damage to the lands adjacent.
On digging out the shingle for the purpose of laying in the foundation of the wall which forms the south boundary of the King’s Road, the ruins of the Block-house were discovered in so compact and firm a state that much difficulty was experienced in excavating them and breaking them up. Less than ninety years since at low water, the well of the old town was visible off the Old Ship Tavern, its steined form standing somewhat high above the sand and shingle.
Lord Macaulay, in his history of England, speaking of the time of Charles II., says:—“Brighton was then described as a place which had once been thriving, which had possessed many small fishing barks, and which had, when at the height of prosperity, contained about two thousand inhabitants; but which was sinking fast into decay. The sea was gradually gaining on the buildings, which at length almost entirely disappeared. Ninety years ago the ruins of an old fort were to be seen lying among the pebbles and sea-weed on the beach, and ancient men could still point out the traces of foundations on a spot where a street of more than a hundred huts had been swallowed up by the waves. So desolate was the place after this calamity that the vicarage was thought scarcely worth having. A few poor fishermen, however, still continued to dry their nets on those cliffs, on which now a town, twice as large and populous as the Bristol of the Stuarts, presents, mile after mile, its gay and fantastic front to the sea.” The Rev. William Gilpin, prebendary of Salisbury, and vicar of Boldre, near Lymington, in “Observations on the Coasts of Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent, made in the Summer of 1774,” states:—“The cliff on which Brighthelmston stands, is composed of a mouldering clay; and the sea has gained upon it, at least fifty yards in the memory of man. A fort which stood on the edge of the cliff, gave way in the year 1761, and was shattered into a ruin; but it is now taken entirely down.” This, probably, refers to some portion of the old fortifications of the town, which stood to the east of the Block-house.
About the year 1761, a battery, with an arched room under it for ammunition, was erected at the bottom of East (great) Street, not far from the site of the ancient East Gate. A letter dated Brighthelmston, August 12th, 1782, states:—“About seven o’clock yesterday morning, I was awaked by the firing of guns, which made me rise sooner than I should otherwise have done, and upon going to the beach, was informed that a French privateer, of 16 or 18 guns, and about 130 men, had just taken a collier close to the shore. After having turned the collier’s men in their own boat on shore,—they only wanting the vessel,—the Frenchmen put on board the collier from the privateer, ten stout fellows, and then sailed away with their prize. This being observed from the ramparts, signal was given to a cutter, which happened luckily to be near, and it directly made sail after the collier, and in about an hour and a half retook her, and sent the Frenchmen on shore.” The ramparts alluded to were those of the East Street battery, which was wholly unprotected by any groyne, and was completely undermined by the sea on the 17th of November, 1786, and fell to the ground. There were at the time seventeen barrels of gunpowder in the magazine below; but fortunately none of them took fire amidst the crash of the ruins. Dunvan [69] states that this battery mounted 12 twenty-four pounders; but on the platform as represented in a map of Brighton, 1779, eight guns only are placed. The eight guns were deposited on the Steine, and remained there for several weeks.
The condition of these guns and the value of the battery will be better gleaned from the following memorandum, made Thursday, September 23rd, 1779:—“Some French privateers are said to be hovering about the offing, and we hear now and then a report of firing. Provoking!—They will not come within reach of the only four guns that may be fired with safety—I mean, when properly loaded with powder and ball—a salute is nothing. The rest are all well known to be honey-combed. The small craft, then, may be cut off with impunity. What a pity that a couple of light six-pounders cannot be spared by the Board of Ordnance, to protect the coast! Those with men or horses, might be dragged along the Clift, and prevent every sort of mischief to be dreaded from such despicable picaroons;—instead whereof, two horse soldiers, in long scarlet cloaks, ride along the coast, making their utility to be understood by no one.”