Local History Week- The French Connection

Talk 1: “1377 - Why Rottingdean?” (John Cumming)    0930 - 1045

In the various written histories, there are many differing explanations of who was responsible for Raising the Village of Rottingdean to the Ground. That they were French is not in doubt. But were they Pirates, small forces of Cut-throats, Raiders or was it a Commando Raid? This talk examines what really occurred and why.

Talk 2: A Village Vocation- Smuggling! (Mike Laslett)    1115 - 1230

This talk will commence with a brief look at historic smuggling – what was it, where was it and why was it carried out?  This gives us the background to the extensive smuggling activity in Rottingdean. Then we will visit the places familiar to the smugglers: the large houses with their cellars and tunnels, the Windmill, The Black Horse, the Customs House and the Coastguard Cottages. We will also meet the colourful characters in the village associated with this trade, Captain Dunk, Rev Dr. Hooker, Trunky Thomas, The Revenue Men and their families. This will be followed by discovering the routes from Saltdean Gap to the village and on to Lewes and London. 

We will end by looking at other profitable salvage activities in the village and hearing Kipling’s evocative poem ‘Smugglers’ Song’.

John Cumming: I was born in Hove and regularly travelled through Rottingdean village in my youth. Whilst serving in the Royal Air Force, I met my wife Bernice in Singapore; her father was also serving in the Army there. On retirement from the RAF, I worked for British Telecom and relocated to Rottingdean, where two of our 3 daughters went to the Village Schools. Finally, I supported the IT department at the Sussex University by lecturing on their in-house systems. In retirement, I have researched many aspects of the history of Rottingdean, St Margaret’s Church and the Rottingdean Preparatory School.

Mike Laslett: Mike was frightened away from history by American and European political history at school, so he became a Geography teacher instead. However, his field trips always seem to lead to a priory, castle or monument of historic significance, thus his first series of rural rambles for West and East Sussex County Councils tended to be to places like Lewes, Lindfield, Bramber and Steyning. On moving to central Brighton his interests took him to guiding at churches, Brighton Festival walks, Brighton Greeter tours and The Old Cells Police Museum.
On moving to Saltdean a monthly local history article in the Deans magazine led to an offer to become Archivist at Rottingdean Heritage and sort out the archives, then residing in a large number of boxes and carrier bags! Having sorted them to some degree it was then possible to create a local history display in the south room at The Grange together with associated talks and tours. Two scrapbooks containing the best of the Dean’s articles and a guide to the Churchyard have been published and most recently the RH online archive has been created with many thousands of pictures and documents.