By the statute of Winchester, 13th Edward I., the borough of Brighthelmston had a constable appointed for itself exclusively, an indication of its respectability at that period. According to Alfred’s division, the hundred to which Brighthelmston belonged, contained, besides that borough, those of Ovingdean and Rottingdean, called in Domesday, _Welesmere_. The boroughs of Preston (Prestetune) and Patcham (Patchame), which were originally hundreds of themselves, were, under Edward I., united to the borough of Brighthelmston, and composed a new hundred, called _Wellsbourne_, since corrupted into Whalesbone. The boroughs of Ovingdean and Rottingdean were then united to the small hundred of Falmer, under the name of _Evensmere_. Wellsbourne took its name from a stream which till within the last few years ran, in the winter time, nearly the whole length of the hundred. It rose near the upper end of Patcham street, and entered the sea at the Pool,—Pool Valley,—in Brighthelmston. Within the last thirty years it burst out with so large a current as to inundate the Level to the north of the town, and even the greatest part of the Stein. In the spring of 1806 it laid the north of the town under water. After the last inundation, in the winter of 1827–8, a large sewer, called the Northern Drain, was laid down from the northern boundary of the London Road, to the sea, its outlet being in front of the Albion Hotel. The source of this stream or bourne, being the well at Patcham, it had its name from that circumstance, and lent it to the said hundred.