The most important factor

After yesterday’s exuberant enjoyment of the city’s beach and bathing facilities (see Feel free to whoop), let us go back 240 years to the 1780s, when there was no lesser craze for salty water, nor any less of a connection between the sea and the town’s fortunes. Here is the introduction to a history of Brighton as found in A History of the County of Sussex. (The image - from the same source - is captioned: Brighton from the East Cliff 1875).

‘The County Borough of Brighton contains 10,503 acres and includes the ancient parishes of Brighton, Preston (part), Patcham, Ovingdean, and Rottingdean. The original parish of Brighton lay on the southern slopes of the Downs near the centre of the bay which stretches westward from Beachy Head to Selsey Bill. It was divided by the valley of the Wellesbourne, now occupied by the Steine and the Level. To the east of the valley the cliffs rise steeply from the sea; the soil is all chalk, but the under-cliff, which has been eroded by the sea, may have been an alluvial deposit. The Downs behind the town rise to some 500 ft above the sea-level and the main roads from London and Lewes crossed them to meet to the north. Many towns in England underwent a great transformation in the 18th century, but in some ways the process at Brighton was unique. The sea has always been the most important factor in the history of the town. It has been from the earliest times both its great enemy and also its chief means of subsistence. The fisheries absorbed the greater part of the population; arable farming was limited, and sheep-farming, though profitable, did not employ many men. In the early 18th century the town passed through a period of great depression, when by a curious stroke of fortune the sea brought back prosperity. In the first place this was due to the fashionable craze for sea-bathing as a cure for innumerable ills, but permanently it was the result of the changed attitude of English men and women towards the sea. A quotation from one of the earliest guide-books to Brighton, published in 1780, marks this change to the modern point of view.’

‘The salubrity of the air, the excellent quality of the water, the pleasing healthful and convenient situation of the town, its moderate distance from the metropolis, the unrivalled beauty of the circumjacent country, and many other advantages, both of nature and art contribute to give Brighthelmston a superiority to the other watering places. . .  On the place called the Clift there is a range of buildings commanding a fine prospect of the sea.’ 

This latter quote comes, originally, from the late 1780s guide, A Description of Brighthelmston and the Adjacent Country or The New Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen using that place of Health and Amusement - this is freely available to view online at Internet Archive. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7 (ed. L F Salzman, 1940) is also available online, at British History Online.