Conservation & History
From the 1870s onwards opportunistic local farmers sold off agricultural land for building on the edges of Seaford. This development quickly became a threat to Blatchington’s identity as new housing spread northwards and surrounded the village. In the Edwardian period East Blatchington was still a distinct village, separate from Seaford. Now, a hundred years later, the village is in the middle of a large built-up area, engulfed by Seaford’s twentieth century growth, its village streets carrying volumes of traffic for which they were never designed.
The need for conservation at East Blatchington was recognized as early as 1925. A newspaper piece headed ‘Village of peace gets conservation itch’ described Blatchington as a vision of leafy rural peace in the heart of built-up Seaford. It pointed out that Blatchington had been a self-contained community high on its hill a mile from the centre of Seaford - long before semi-detached suburbia arrived.
The distinctive super-rustic character given to many of the village houses and farm buildings in the 1920s and 30s make-over, and the creation of Alces Place, Pound and Sanctuary, made people increasingly aware that this was a village-scape that had to be nurtured and protected.
The East Blatchington Conservation Area was finally set up in February 1976 by Lewes District Council’s Chief Planning Officer, Michael Francis. He and his Planning Committee set out guiding policies for maintaining the new Conservation Area;
1) The existing character of the area should be preserved and enhanced. The existing uses of the area should remain undisturbed and substantial new development should not be permitted.
2) Any alterations to existing buildings should be sympathetic, and use materials similar to those existing, to harmonize with and enhance the historic character of the Conservation Area.
3) Any new building should respect the character of the environment, and not prejudice the dominance of the existing buildings.
4) The treatment of spaces round the buildings, for example hard surfaces, walls and planting, must accord with the character of the Conservation Area.
5) All trees within the area should be protected. When existing trees are removed or die they should be replaced.
6) The undergrounding of existing overhead wires will be encouraged; any proposal to extend existing overhead wires or install new ones will be resisted.
There have been serious challenges to these guiding principles, such as the 1985 proposal to build a church hall in the churchyard. The community mounted a campaign against this, on several grounds: 1) it violated the principles of the Conservation Area, 2) 17 marked graves would be desecrated, 3) at least 7 mature trees would be lost, 4) there was an alternative solution. The campaign was successful and the redundant chapel of Blatchington Court School was instead converted to create the church hall.
That was a battle won by the residents of East Blatchington, but we have to be ready to resist even small inroads into the Conservation Area. Every mature tree felled, every old wall knocked down, every unsympathetic window replacement damages and weakens the character of the old village.
It is a very old village, too. Its name shows that it existed as long ago as the sixth century, and pagan cremations on the site of the church show that people were living here in the second century – a thousand years before the building of the medieval church that we now see. This is a piece of old England with a distinct history of its own. Because it is surrounded by urban development it is especially vulnerable. It needs the protection of its Conservation Area status – and it needs the active support of its residents.
