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Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the
city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
of
Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in response to the development of its eastern neighbour Brighton, and by the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
it was a fully developed town with borough status. Neighbouring parishes such as Aldrington and Hangleton were annexed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The neighbouring urban district of Portslade was merged with Hove in 1974. In 1997, as part of local government reform, the borough merged with Brighton to form the Borough of Brighton and Hove, and this
unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
was granted
city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, city status ...
in 2000.


Name and etymology

Old spellings of Hove include Hou (
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
, 1086), la Houue (1288), Huua (13th century), Houve (13th and 14th centuries), Huve (14th and 15th centuries), Hova (16th century) and Hoova (1675). The etymology was disputed at length during the 20th century as academics offered several competing theories. Suggestions included an
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
word meaning "hall", "sanctuary" or " barrow", in reference to the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
barrow near the present Palmeira Square; an
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
phrase ''æt þæm hofe'' meaning "at the hall"; the Old English ''hufe'' meaning "shelter" or "covering"; and the
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
''hofe'' meaning "anchorage". No other places in Britain are called Hove, and single-syllable names as a whole are rare in Sussex. The modern name was originally pronounced "Hoove" (). The present pronunciation () "is comparatively recent".


Geography and topography

Northern parts of Hove are built on
chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
beds, part of the White Chalk Subgroup found across southeast England. There are also extensive areas of clay and sandy soil: areas of
Woolwich Formation The Woolwich Formation is a Formation (geology), geological formation in southeast England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene Period (geology), period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in England References ...
and
Reading Formation The Reading Formation is a geologic formation in southern England. It dates to the Paleocene period, and is part of the Lambeth Group. It overlies the London Basin and is below the Harwich Formation. The formation is composed of "a series of len ...
clay, pockets of clay embedded with
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
, and a large deposit of
brickearth Brickearth is a term originally used to describe superficial windblown deposits found in southern England. The term has been employed in English-speaking regions to describe similar deposits. Brickearths are periglacial loess, a wind-b ...
in the Aldrington area. Hove's beaches have the characteristics of a
storm beach A storm beach is a beach affected by particularly fierce waves, usually with a very long fetch. The resultant landform is often a very steep beach (up to 45°) composed of rounded cobbles, shingle and occasionally sand. The stones usually have an ...
, and at high tide are entirely shingle, although low tide exposes sand between the sea-defence groynes, varying in extent from beach to beach. The water is then very shallow and suitable for paddling. On spring tides a greater expanse of sand is exposed beyond the end of the sea defences. The mean height above sea level of land in the old parish of Hove varied between and . After Hove became a borough and expanded to incorporate land from neighbouring parishes, the highest point was approximately above sea level. There are no rivers in Hove, but Westbourne Gardens at the western boundary of the old parish is named after the "West Bourne", which was still visible in the 19th century but which now runs underground, and a map of 1588 shows another stream called East Brook. Until the 19th century the parish was mostly agricultural. Three farms—Wick, Goldstone and Long Barn—dominated the area and owned most of the land, which was of good quality: agricultural writer Arthur Young described it as "uncommonly rich". Crops including oats, barley, corn and various vegetables were grown. Only in the 1870s were the last of the market gardens near Hove Street built over, and barley was grown near Eaton Road until the county cricket ground was built. Water was provided by wells west of Hove Street and between the coast road and the sea (the latter was destroyed in the
Great Storm of 1703 The great storm of 1703 was a destructive extratropical cyclone that struck central and southern England on 26 November 1703. High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London and damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Ships wer ...
). The chalybeate spring on the Wick Farm estate was also used, especially by shepherds who drove their sheep between Hove, the South Downs and nearby villages along ancient
drove roads A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ot ...
. Some local shepherds supplemented their income by catching
lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...
s and
northern wheatear The northern wheatear or wheatear (''Oenanthe oenanthe'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It is th ...
s and selling them for their meat; the latter were popular among fashionable visitors to Brighton. The birds were common on the hills and valleys around Hove, such as Goldstone Bottom. The practice died out when wheatears became a protected species in the late 18th century. The urban growth of Hove has shifted sheep-farming to more isolated parts of the South Downs, but several drove roads survive today as roads or footpaths. Hove Street and its northward continuation Sackville Road were originally known as ''Hove Drove'' and led on to the Downs. A long west–east route which crossed West Blatchington, Hove and Preston parishes on its way to Lewes now bears the names The Droveway, The Drove and Preston Drove. The section called The Droveway, on which the Goldstone Waterworks was built in the 1860s, had to be maintained as a right of way when Hove Park was built. A long diagonal footpath once known as Dyer's Drove runs for several miles from Portslade-by-Sea on to the Downs, and Drove Road in Portslade village may have been used since Roman times. A large Sarsen stone called the Goldstone stood on farmland northwest of the village, now part of Hove Park. Links with druids were claimed; and some 19th-century sources stated it was part of a ring of stones similar to Stonehenge, and that the others were buried in a pond at Goldstone Bottom, one of the
coombes Coombes is a hamlet and civil parish in the Adur District of West Sussex, England. The village is in the Adur Valley northwest of Shoreham-by-Sea. Coombes Church is an 11th-century Church of England parish church that has lost its dedicatio ...
(small dry valleys) between the Downs and the sea. The Goldstone was dug up and buried by a farmer, but was unearthed and re-erected in a new position in the park in 1906. Hove has little ancient woodland. Only two small areas survive: one in St Ann's Well Gardens, and The Three Cornered Copse in the Tongdean area. The latter covers and belonged to the Marquess of Abergavenny until Hove Borough Council bought it in January 1935. Trees in the copse include ash, beech, elm and sycamore, although more than 120 mature beech trees were blown down in the Great Storm of 1987. Much of Hove is urbanised, but in 1994 there were of downland—about 37.5% of the total acreage of the then borough. In common with other parts of the South Downs, much of land has been used as sheep pasture, but crop farming also takes place and large areas of land were claimed for military training during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Toads Hole Valley, a triangular site south of the Brighton Bypass, is "the last piece of unspoiled downland in Hove". It has been privately owned since 1937 and has been proposed for urban development for many years: in 2002 it was stated that "controversy rages over the future use of this land".


Acreage


Climate

Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The
Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
subtype for this climate is " Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/ Oceanic climate).


History and development


Pre-Roman evidence

Fossilised remains from the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
era have been found in three locations in Hove: an molar from '' Elephas antiquus'', excavated from the garden of a house in Poplar Avenue; teeth from a juvenile elephant deep in the soil at Ventnor Villas; and a prehistoric horse's tooth in the soil near Hove Street. During building work near Palmeira Square in 1856–57, workmen uncovered a substantial burial mound. A prominent feature of the landscape since 1200 BC, the -high tumulus yielded, among other treasures, the Hove amber cup. Made of translucent red Baltic amber and approximately the same size as a regular china tea cup, the artefact can be seen in the Hove Museum and Art Gallery. Only one other has been found in Britain. Also buried in the coffin in which the amber cup was found were a stone battle-axe, a whetstone and a bronze dagger whose appearance is characteristic of the
Wessex culture The Wessex culture is the predominant prehistoric culture of central and southern Britain during the early Bronze Age, originally defined by the British archaeologist Stuart Piggott in 1938.


Domesday Book

There are entries for Brighton and Portslade (Bristelmestune and Porteslage) and small downland settlements like Hangleton (Hangetone), but nothing for the location of Hove itself.


Middle Ages and Renaissance

The first known settlement in Hove was around the 12th century when
St Andrew's Church was established. Hove remained insignificant for centuries, consisting of just a single street running north–south some 250 m from the church, which by the 16th century was recorded as being in ruins. Hangleton Manor is a well-preserved 16th-century
flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
manor building. It is believed to have been built c. 1540 for Richard Bel(l)ingham, twice
High Sheriff of Sussex The office of Sheriff of Sussex was established before the Norman Conquest. The Office of sheriff remained first in precedence in the counties until the reign of Edward VII when an Order in Council in 1908 gave the Lord-Lieutenant the prime office ...
, whose initials are carved into a fireplace, and whose coat of arms adorns a period plaster ceiling. The Manor is currently serving as a pub-restaurant and whilst it was once on open downland, it is now surrounded by the 20th-century Hangleton housing estate.


18th century

In 1723 a traveller, the antiquary John Warburton, wrote, 'I passed through a ruinous village called Hove which the sea is daily eating up and is in a fair way of being quite deserted; but the church being quite large and a good distance from the shore may perhaps escape'. Nevertheless, in around 1702 The Ship Inn had been built at the seaward end of the main street, and was therefore vulnerable to erosion of the coast. In 1724, Daniel Defoe wrote in reference to the south coast, 'I do not find they have any foreign commerce, except it be what we call smuggling and roguing; which I may say, is the reigning commerce of all this part of the English coast, from the mouth of the Thames to the
Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
." The fertile coastal plain west of the Brighton boundary had significant deposits of
brickearth Brickearth is a term originally used to describe superficial windblown deposits found in southern England. The term has been employed in English-speaking regions to describe similar deposits. Brickearths are periglacial loess, a wind-b ...
and by c.1770 a brickfield had been established on the site of what would become Brunswick Square. Later, other brickfields were established further west, remaining until displaced by housing development.


Regency and Victorian developments

The census of 1801 recorded only 101 residents to Brighton's 7,339. By 1821, the year the Prince Regent was crowned George IV, the population had risen to 312,Middleton J. (1983) Hove in old picture postcards, introduction Brighton's too had trebled to 24,429 with the dwellings still clustered on Hove Street, surrounded by an otherwise empty landscape of open farmland. This relative isolated location of Hove, compared to Brighton, was ideal for smuggling and there was considerable illicit activity. Hove smugglers became notorious, with contraband often being stored in the now partially repaired St. Andrew's Church. Tradition has it that The Ship Inn was a favourite rendezvous for the smugglers, and in 1794 soldiers were billeted there. In 1818 there was a pitched battle on Hove beach between revenue men and smugglers, from which the latter emerged as the victors. As part of the concerted drive by Parliament to combat smuggling, a coastguard station was opened at the southern end of Hove Street in 1831, next to The Ship Inn. Also at the bottom of Hove Street was the bull-ring. At a bull-bait in 1810 the bull escaped, scattering spectators before being recaptured and dragged back to the ring. This was the last bull-bait to take place in Hove. In the years following the Coronation of 1821 the Brunswick estate of large
Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
houses boasting a theatre, riding schools and their own police was developed on the seafront near the boundary with Brighton. Although within Hove parish the residents of these elegant houses studiously avoided the name of the impoverished village a mile to the west as an address. Straggling development along the coast loosely connected the estate to fashionable Brighton, so that name was used instead. Dating from 1822, the Brighton to Shoreham turnpike crossed the north of Hove parish along the route of the present Old Shoreham Road. The Brighton General Gas Light Company was formed in 1825. Production of coal gas was notorious for the foul smell it produced, and was only sited in the poorest areas. The company acquired land in the fields between Hove Street and the ruins of St. Andrew's Church, and in 1832 built a gasworks on a two-acre site. The process required substantial tonnage of coal, delivered by horse-drawn cart on the unmade tracks in the vicinity, and removal of by-products including coke, coal tar, sulphur and ammonia by the same means. With a tall chimney and two gasometers next to the churchyard, this industrial site was a considerable intrusion on the impoverished populace of Hove, although not for rapidly growing but still-distant Brighton, which was the main centre of consumption. Being situated in Hove avoided the duty of £1 per 8 tons levied on coal by the Brighton Town Act of 1773. A gasworks built east of Brighton in 1819, and therefore similarly exempt, was supplied by sailing brigs grounding at high tide, the crew tipping the coal down chutes into horse-drawn carts then re-floating on the next tide. This method, risky for the vessel and also inherently dirty and disruptive, may have been used at Hove until eventually superseded. The railway arrived in 1840 whilst several miles along the coast Shoreham Harbour was increasing its coal trade. By 1861 the site had doubled in size and there were now five gasometers, ranging in size from small to large. Due to spiralling demand, in 1871 a large new works was built at Portslade-by-Sea in Shoreham Harbour, and by 1885 all gas manufacture in Brighton and Hove had been transferred there. The Hove site, in a by now primarily residential area, was then used for storage only. By 1831 the development of the eastern end of the parish had increased the population to 1,360 but this brought few economic benefits to Hove village itself, with the historian Thomas Horsfield describing it in 1835 as 'a mean and insignificant assemblage of huts'. St Andrew's Church was reconstructed and enlarged to its present form in 1836, to the design of the architect
George Basevi Elias George Basevi FRS (1 April 1794 – 16 October 1845) was a British architect who worked in both Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles. A pupil of Sir John Soane, his designs included Belgrave Square in London, and the Fitzwilliam Mus ...
(1794–1845), and features prominently in the background of paintings of the period. About this time, a very substantial and tall wall was built between the churchyard and adjoining gasworks, remaining in place to this day. The flat coastal plain was useful for sport as from 1848 to 1871 England's oldest county club, Sussex County Cricket Club, used the Royal Brunswick Ground in Hove, situated roughly on the site of present-day Third and Fourth Avenues. In 1872 the club moved to the present
County Cricket Ground, Hove The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where most Sussex home matches since 1872 ...
. Two further large estates were developed between Hove village and Brunswick, and both avoided using the name Hove: Cliftonville was designed, laid out and initially developed under
Frederick Banister Frederick Dale Banister MICE (15 March 1823 – 22 December 1897), was an English civil engineer, best known for his 35 years as the Chief Engineer of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). Early life Born in London on 15 Marc ...
from the late 1840s; and West Brighton Estate in the 1870s. West of Brunswick, the seafront of West Brighton Estate forms the end of a series of avenues, in numerical order beginning with First Avenue, mostly composed of fine Victorian villas built as another well-integrated housing scheme featuring mews for artisans and service buildings. Grand Avenue, The Drive, and the numbered avenues were developed through the 1870s and 1880s, with many of the buildings constructed by
William Willett William Willett (10 August 1856 – 4 March 1915) was a British builder and a promoter of British Summer Time. Biography Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey, and educated at the Philological School. After some commercial experience, he ente ...
. Hove's wide boulevards contrast with the bustle of Brighton, although many of the grand Regency and Victorian mansions have been converted into flats. Marlborough Court was once the residence of the Duchess of Marlborough, aunt of
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
. The Irish nationalist leader and Home Rule MP Charles Stewart Parnell used to visit his lover, the already married Kitty O'Shea at the house she rented in 1883 in Medina Villas, Hove. In the subsequent divorce action the cook alleged that Captain O’Shea returned home unexpectedly and Parnell beat a hasty retreat by climbing over the balcony and down a rope ladder.Middleton J. (1983) Hove in old picture postcards, p.37 Parnell died at Hove in 1891 after marrying Kitty following her divorce. The Hove Club, a private members' club located at 28 Fourth Avenue, was founded in 1882.The Hove Club: Contact Us


First World War

Over 600 men from Hove were killed in the First World War. After the armistice, the town established a war memorial committee to decide on commemoration of the dead. The committee commissioned
Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...
, the architect responsible for
the Cenotaph The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the British and Commonwealth dead of the First World War, was rededicated in 19 ...
on London's Whitehall which became the focus of
national remembrance National memory is a form of collective memory defined by shared experiences and culture. It is an integral part to national identity. It represents one specific form of cultural memory, which makes an essential contribution to national group coh ...
services. Lutyens proposed a similar cenotaph for Hove and went as far as constructing a wooden mock-up which was displayed on Hove Lawns but the committee rejected the design. The eventual result was a statue of Saint George atop a column, situated in the centre of Grand Avenue. The memorial does not contain the names of the fallen, which are instead recorded on a bronze plaque in Hove Library.


Second World War

At the outbreak of war, the recently completed Hove Marina leisure centre was immediately requisitioned as a training base for new officers of the
Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original R ...
(RNVR) and was given the title . The establishment opened on 11 September 1939 and later expanded into
Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...
. By the end of the war, the base had trained 22,508 British, Commonwealth and allied officers for active sea service. On 22 September 1939, the second
Anglo-French Supreme War Council The Anglo-French Supreme War Council (SWC) was established to oversee joint military strategy at the start of the Second World War. Most of its deliberations took place during the period of the Phoney War, with its first meeting at Abbeville on ...
was held at Hove Town Hall to discuss the progress of the war and define future strategy. The British delegation included the
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
, Neville Chamberlain and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, while the French party was led by the
Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
and Prime Minister of France, Édouard Daladier and Commander-in-Chief of the Armies, Maurice Gamelin. Also present was Sir
Alexander Cadogan Sir Alexander Montagu George Cadogan (25 November 1884 – 9 July 1968) was a British diplomat and civil servant. He was Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1938 to 1946. His long tenure of the Permanent Secretary's office makes ...
who related that the town hall staff had only been told to expect some government officials, with the result that the prime minister was greeted with the exclamation; "Chamberlain! Cor Blimey!". The Brighton and Hove area was subjected to heavy bombing by the ''
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
'' between 1940 and 1944, known collectively as the " Brighton Blitz", which resulted in the deaths of 198 civilians.


Governance and politics


Former Hove borough

The ancient parish of Hove originally consisted of only and in 1801 had a population of just 101. In 1829, local landowners petitioned parliament for powers to improve the Brunswick Town area of Hove with paving, lighting and drainage, resulting in the appointment of a body known as the Brunswick Commissioners in the following year. Subsequently, further commissioners were appointed for West Hove and to administer the Hove Police, all three bodies being united by the Hove Commissioners Act of 1873. In 1893 the civil parish of Aldrington was joined to Hove and in 1894, the Hove Commissioners were replaced by an Urban District Council. Finally in 1898 the
Municipal Borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...
of Hove received its
royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...
. This was enlarged in 1927 by the addition of the parishes of Preston Rural and Hangleton along with parts of West Blatchington and
Patcham Patcham () is an area of the city of Brighton & Hove, about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. ...
. The corporation consisted of a
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
, ten
aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members the ...
, and thirty
councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
s, elected from ten
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
s. The first town hall was built in 1882. On 1 April 1997 Brighton Borough Council and Hove Borough Council were merged to form Brighton and Hove City Council.


Coat of arms

While it was still a separate entity, Hove had its own coat of arms. The escutcheon's official heraldic description is "Tierced in pairle: 1. Or a
saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltatori ...
azure voided
argent In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to ...
; 2. Gules two pairs of leg-irons interlaced argent; 3. Checky or and azure three
martlet A martlet in English heraldry is a mythical bird without feet that never roosts from the moment of its drop-birth until its death fall; martlets are proposed to be continuously on the wing. It is a compelling allegory for continuous effort, expre ...
s or, all in a
border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
ermine charged with six martlets or". The design incorporates several features relevant to Hove's history. The ships of the French raiders who repeatedly attacked the coast in the Brighton and Hove area in the 16th century are represented by the crest. The
saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French ''sautoir'', Medieval Latin ''saltatori ...
of Saint Andrew and the leg-shackles of Leonard of Noblac refer to the ancient
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
es of Hove and Aldrington, St Andrew's and St Leonard's respectively. William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey held land in the Rape of Lewes at the time of the Norman Conquest including the territory covered by Hove; his colours were blue and gold, represented by the chequerboard pattern in the background of the shield.


Commercial

The town centre received substantial renovation in the late 1990s when the popular George Street was pedestrianised. Some concern about the pedestrianisation and its impact (supposedly killing trade) was expressed by residents, the local newspaper '' The Argus'', and small locally owned shops. However these fears proved unfounded. In 2003 these small shops were joined by the centre's first large supermarket (a Tesco), built on the site of a former gasometer.


Landmarks and attractions


Places of worship

Ecclesiastically, Hove was part of a joint parish with Preston between 1531 and 1879. The newly separate parish of Hove was then split several times in the late 19th and 20th centuries as the population grew and more Anglican churches were built. St Andrew's Church near the top end of Hove Street was the ancient
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
but was in ruins by the 1830s, when it was rebuilt in a
Neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style. St Helen's Church at Hangleton, lightly restored in the 1870s, retains the style of a simple Sussex downland church. St Peter's Church was abandoned and fell to ruins in the 17th century when West Blatchington became depopulated, but it was rebuilt in the 1890s. St Leonard's, the parish church of Aldrington, was also ruinous until 1878 when local population growth necessitated its restoration. A second church dedicated to St Andrew opened on the Brunswick estate in 1828. St John the Baptist's was built on Palmeira Square in 1852, followed by St Patrick's nearby in 1858 and Holy Trinity in central Hove in 1864.
St Barnabas Barnabas (; arc, ܒܪܢܒܐ; grc, Βαρνάβας), born Joseph () or Joses (), was according to tradition an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Name ...
served the poorer areas around Sackville Road from 1883; All Saints on Eaton Road dates from 1889 to 1891; St Philip's was built in 1895 as a second church for Aldrington, and opened a mission hall (now Holy Cross Church) in the Poets' Corner area in 1903; St Thomas the Apostle opened on Davigdor Road in 1909; St Agnes was built north of Hove station in 1913;
Bishop Hannington Memorial Church Bishop Hannington Memorial Church is an Anglicanism, Anglican church in the West Blatchington area of Hove, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built between 1938 and 1939, it commemorates James Hannington, first Bishop of East Equatorial ...
opened in West Blatchington in 1939; and The Knoll estate has been served by St Richard's Church since 1961, replacing an 1930s church hall. Four of these churches have closed: St Agnes in 1977, St Andrew's in Brunswick Town in 1990, St Thomas in 1993 and Holy Trinity in 2007. All Saints Church, a Grade I-listed building by John Loughborough Pearson, became the parish church of Hove in 1892. The Church of the Sacred Heart was Hove's first Roman Catholic church. It was founded in 1876 by St Mary Magdalen's Church in Brighton, whose first priest left money in his will for a church in Hove. Work was delayed by disputes over the site, but after land on Norton Road was secured construction started in 1880 and the west end was finished in 1887. The Sacred Heart in turn founded a mission church in 1902 to serve the Aldrington and Portland Road areas of Hove. St Peter's Hall was used until the "startling"
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...
-style red-brick St Peter's Church was opened in 1915.
Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
was said in Hangleton from the 1940s in a hall and at the Grenadier pub, but in the 1950s land on Court Farm Road was bought for a church and St George's Church opened in 1968. It serves West Blatchington and Hangleton, and is now part of a joint parish with Southwick and Portslade. Hove was included in the Lewes and Brighton
Methodist Circuit The organisation of the Methodist Church of Great Britain is based on the principle of connexionalism. This means that British Methodism, from its inception under John Wesley (1703–1791), has always laid strong emphasis on mutual support, in ...
from 1808, although at times during the 19th century no Methodists ( Wesleyan, Primitive or
Bible Christian The Bible Christian Church was a Methodist denomination founded by William O’Bryan, a Wesleyan Methodist local preacher, on 18 October 1815 in North Cornwall. The first society, consisting of just 22 members, met at Lake Farm in Shebbea ...
) lived in the area. A secondhand tin tabernacle was erected on Portland Road for Wesleyans in 1883, and the present Hove Methodist Church was built on the site in 1896. A Bible Christian chapel was built in 1905 on Old Shoreham Road but never thrived; it closed in 1947 and was sold to a charity. Primitive Methodists worshipped at a large chapel on Goldstone Villas from 1878 until 1933. It was converted into offices in 1968. Hove's
General Baptist General Baptists are Baptists who hold the ''general'' or unlimited atonement view, the belief that Jesus Christ died for the entire world and not just for the chosen elect. General Baptists are theologically Arminian, which distinguishes them from ...
congregation developed in the 1870s and met in a gymnasium and a tin tabernacle until Holland Road Baptist Church opened in 1887. A deacon from the church started holding Baptist meetings in a new church building on the Hangleton estate in 1957. It now has the name Oasis Church. A former
Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
mission hall in Aldrington, built in 1900, is home to the Baptist-aligned New Life Christian Church. Stoneham Road Baptist Church was founded in 1904 by the Holland Road church to serve the Poets' Corner area. It closed and was demolished in 2008. Baptists also met in Connaught Terrace from 1879, and Strict Baptists worshipped at Providence Chapel on Haddington Street from 1880 until 1908. A
Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
chapel was built on Ventnor Villas in 1870, and 41 years later St Cuthbert's Presbyterian Church opened on Holland Road. After the two denominations merged in 1972 to form the
United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...
, the congregations came together in 1980 at the Ventnor Villas premises. These were renamed Central United Reformed Church and continue to serve as the main centre for that denomination in Hove. St Cuthbert's was demolished in 1984. In 1938 trustees of the Congregational chapel founded another on the Hangleton estate. Hounsom Memorial Church is also now part of the United Reformed Church.
The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...
have worshipped in Hove since 1882 and occupy a citadel built in 1890 on Sackville Road. Jehovah's Witnesses meet in Aldrington at a
Kingdom Hall A Kingdom Hall is a place of worship used by Jehovah's Witnesses. The term was first suggested in 1935 by Joseph Franklin Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, for a building in Hawaii. Rutherford's reasoning was that these bui ...
which was built in 1999 to replace a hall of 1950. A non-denominational gospel hall stands on Edward Avenue in the Goldstone Valley area. The Christian Arabic Evangelical Church meets in a converted bungalow on Old Shoreham Road in Aldrington. A former Anglican church of 1909 on Davigdor Road has served Coptic Orthodox Christians from a wide area since 1994, when it was rededicated as St Mary and St Abraam Church by
Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria Pope Shenouda III (; cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅   '; ar, بابا الإسكندرية شنودة الثالث '; 3 August 1923 – 17 March 2012) was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See ...
. Buddhists have a cultural centre and place of worship at a former convent near Furze Hill. Other former churches in Hove include an Elim Pentecostal chapel (in use 1929–1994) on Portland Road, the
Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...
chapel on Hove Place, whose congregation now meet at Hove Methodist Church, and a former mission hall in the Poets' Corner area which was used until 1981 as a chapel for the local Society of Dependants sect.


Hove Museum and Art Gallery

Hove Museum and Art Gallery houses a permanent collection of toys, contemporary crafts, fine art and local history artefacts, as well as holding temporary exhibitions of contemporary crafts.


Education

Hove is home to around eight primary schools: West Blatchington Primary and Nursery School, St. Andrew's CE School, Hove Junior School, Benfield Junior School, Goldstone Primary School, Hangleton Junior School, Cottesmore St Mary's Catholic School, Mile Oak Primary School
Bilingual Primary School
Brunswick Primary School and well as Aldrington CE School. There are four secondary schools serving the area: Blatchington Mill School, Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Hove Park School and King's School. Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC), formerly Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School, is a dedicated place of further education, along with the Connaught Centre, Hove Park Sixth Form Centre and Blatchington Mill Sixth Form College. Brighton is also home to private colleges such a
Hove College
Founded in 1977, Hove College is a non-profit private higher education institution and offers accredited courses b
OCN London
Hove College neighbors with British Study Centres and kindergarten schools. Hove College is 5 to 10 mins of walking distance from Palmeria Square. Hove is also the location of a number of
independent schools An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
including Deepdene School, Lancing College Preparatory School (formerly Mowden School) The Montessori Place,
The Drive Prep School The Drive Prep School is a mixed private school located in Hove in the English county of East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to t ...
and St Christopher's School (now part of Brighton College). Hove is also home for several schools for foreign students of the English language.


Sport and leisure

The home of Sussex County Cricket Club is at
County Cricket Ground, Hove The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where most Sussex home matches since 1872 ...
. It is used for county, national and international matches, music concerts, fireworks displays, and has found resurgent popularity with the introduction of
Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...
. Until 1997 Hove was home to the Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.'s
Goldstone Ground The Goldstone Ground (or The Goldstone) was a football stadium in Hove, East Sussex that was the home ground of Brighton & Hove Albion between 1902 and 1997. History The Goldstone Ground stood on Old Shoreham Road, Hove, opposite Hove Park ...
. In September 2007, planning permission was confirmed for the club's new ground, at
Falmer Falmer is a small village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England, lying between Brighton and Lewes, approximately five miles (8 km) north-east of the former. It is also the site of Brighton & Hove Albion's Falmer ...
, still within the city limits but on the Brighton side. The new stadium started development in late 2008, with the first game being played in August 2011. Brighton & Hove Hockey Club is a
field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
club and its home ground is based in Hove. There are a number of parks in Hove including Hove Park and St. Anne's Well Gardens. The King Alfred Centre which is currently a leisure centre with swimming pool and a couple of gyms on the seafront. In March 2007 Brighton and Hove City Council gave planning permission for a £290 million pound development designed by Frank Gehry. This project was scrapped in January 2009 when the developer pulled out. Hove Promenade parkrun, situated by Hove Lawns started in July 2015 and is one of five such free, timed 5 km runs across the city. The
Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Su ...
long-distance footpath threads south-eastwards across the town from the Downs, before heading west along the seafront towards its terminus at Shoreham-by-Sea. The Hove Lagoon Model Yacht Club was formed in 1929 and still actively sailing model yachts on the lagoon today. There is also sailing and windsurfing on the lagoon.


"Hove, Actually"

A well-known reply by residents of Hove, usually humorous, when asked if they live in Brighton is "Hove, actually" thus maintaining a distinction with their less genteel neighbour.For example, "Hove Actually, as the place is often known because this is the way its residents distance themselves from the inhabitants of its racy, raunchy twin Brighton ..."
The light young things
, Paul Weaver,''The Guardian'', 3 August 1999; p. 24.
One source has identified the locally resident actor Laurence Olivier (who lived in Brighton) as the origin of the phrase.Cally Law, "Time for a change of scene", ''Sunday Times'', 2 March 2003, p. 4. In the 1990s the Hove borough council used the slogan "Hove, actually" to promote the town for tourism.Alex Bellos, "Town sees red over shotgun marriage", ''The Guardian'', 24 March 1995, p. 6.


Transport

Hove has a comprehensive public transport system including buses to all districts, a bus monitoring system accessible via the internet and with displays at some bus stops (a system integrated with Brighton), and taxis which are able to pick up across the city of Brighton and Hove. Hove has three railway stations. Hove railway station has direct access to the
Brighton Main Line The Brighton Main Line (also known as the South Central Main Line) is a major railway line in the United Kingdom that links Brighton, on the south coast of England, with central London. In London the line has two branches, out of and station ...
to London via a loop eliminating the need to go through Brighton. Hove is on the West Coastway Line, as are Aldrington and Portslade and West Hove stations. A 'halt' stop at Holland Road, between Hove and Brighton, was in operation from 1905 to 1956. Direct train journeys to London take just over an hour, and to Brighton, a few minutes. Branching off close to Aldrington was formerly a branch line to Devil's Dyke which closed in 1938. The route of the line may be followed along a path alongside West Hove golf club; the path leads all the way to Devil's Dyke, and railway sleepers once used under the tracks may be seen to either side of the path, plus the remains of two of the stations still exist in places but are on private land.


Notable residents

Those known to have lived in Hove include: *
Luigi Arditi Luigi Arditi (16 July 1822 – 1 May 1903) was an Italian violinist, composer and conductor. Life Arditi was born in Crescentino, Piemonte (Italy). He began his musical career as a violinist, and studied music at the Milan Conservatory under ...
(1822-1903), Italian composer. *
Jonathan Bailey Jonathan Stuart Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is an English actor. Known for his comedic, dramatic, and musical roles on stage and screen, he is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award and a nomination for a Evening Standard Theatre Award. Ba ...
(born 1988), actor * Charles Busby (1786-1834), architect. *Rear Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh (1785-1860), naval officer and first Governor of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. *Sir Jack Hobbs (1882-1963), cricketer. * Mary-Belle Kirschner (Belle Delphine) (born 1999), Internet celebrity and model. * Charley Mitchell (1861-1918), boxer. * Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891),
Irish Nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
politician. * Anthony Trafford, Baron Trafford (1932-1989), physician and
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
politician.


See also

* Grade I listed buildings in Brighton and Hove *
List of conservation areas in Brighton and Hove , there are 34 conservation areas in the city of Brighton and Hove, a seaside resort on the English Channel coast in southeast England. The definition of a conservation area is a principally urban area "of special architectural or historic int ...
* List of landmarks and notable buildings of Brighton and Hove * List of people from Brighton and Hove * List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove * Hove Borough Council elections for the political history of the former borough council which governed the town from 1974 to 1997.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * Glynn, Mark (2019) ‘Hove: The fall and rise and rise and fall.’ * * * * *


External links


''Brighton & Hove – delivering 24hr city council services''
official website
Official City Transport site
with live bus times, car parks, and further information
Map Of Brighton & Hove
Interactive map of Brighton & Hove, with locations of businesses and other points of interest
Brighton and Hove News
{{Authority control Towns in East Sussex Populated coastal places in East Sussex Former non-metropolitan districts of East Sussex Beaches of East Sussex Unparished areas in East Sussex Former boroughs in England Brighton and Hove