ABSTRACT
The presence of royalty and a host of England’s leading aristocrats meant that the Lewes and Brighthelmston are growing quickly at the end of the eighteenth century, despite being at war with France. The parish of Brighthelmston is bounded on the east by the parishes of Ovingdene and Rottingdene, on the north by Preston, on the west by Hove, and on the south by the English Channel. There was formerly a cave or cavern in the cliff near Blackrock, called Hun’s Stable, which formed the southern point of division between the two parishes of Brighthelmston and Rottingdene. The parish-church of Brighthelmston stands nearly on the summit of a hill about two hundred yards from the northern extremity of the town. It is a structure of considerable antiquity, and commands such a prospect of the buildings beneath, the sea, and the highly variegated country around, as would make a church-goer even of an infidel.
