History of Brighthelmston; or, Brighton as I View it and Others Knew It: With a Chronological Table of Local EventsErredge, John Ackerson
History
History of Brighthelmston; or, Brighton as I View it and Others Knew It: With a Chronological Table of Local Events
Erredge, John Ackerson
Brighton (England) -- History
The land granted was on the Cliff between Black-lion street and Ship
street, and about 215 yards westward of East street. The Block-house was
circular, about fifty feet in diameter, and the walls were about eight
feet in thickness, and eighteen feet in height. Several arched
apartments in its thick walls were depositories for the powder and other
ammunition for the defence of the town. In front of it, towards the sea,
was a little battery called the Gun Garden, on which were mounted four
pieces of large iron ordnance. Adjoining the Block-house, on the east,
stood the Town-house, with a dungeon under it for malefactors; and on the
summit of this building rose a turret, on which the town clock was fixed.
At the same time with the Block-house, were erected four gates of
freestone, (three of which were arched) leading from the Cliff to that
part of the town which lay under it, namely, the East Gate at the bottom
of East street; the Portal, which was called the Porter’s Gate, and was
less than any of the others; it stood next the East Gate; the Middle
Gate, opposite the end of Middle street, commonly called the Gate of All
Nations; and the West Gate, which stood at the end of West street. From
the East Gate, westward, there was, at the same time, a wall built about
fifteen feet high, and four hundred feet long, where the Cliff was most
easy of ascent: and from the termination of that wall, a parapet three
feet high, was continued on the verge of the Cliff to the West Gate, with
embrasures for cannon. The Block-house was built at the expense of the
mariners of the town; but the gates and walls were erected partly if not
wholly by the government.
The south of the town was thus effectually secured. For the security,
then, of the other three sides, on any emergency, trenches might be cut
at the end of the streets which led into the town, or the entrances might
be barred to the enemy by lumber carriages and household furniture, while
the inhabitants annoyed them from every quarter. The “Magna Britannia,”
in addition, says, “The town contains seven streets, and as many lanes,
but the most spacious of them is devoured by the Ocean,” alluding to
South street, under the cliff, which it is supposed formed the sea front
of the town.
The town book, under the date 1580, has the following inventory of the
“great ordnance, and other munition and furniture in Brighthelmston,”
viz., four iron pieces delivered out of the tower, on the bond of John
Slutter, together with powder and shot delivered with the same, two
pieces of great ordnance, and ten “qualivers with their flasks and touch
boxes,” and a drum belonging to the town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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