Wish You Were Here…..Pevensey Bay has been described as ‘the hidden jewel in the crown of Sussex’. It has a special kind of old fashioned charm that people remember forever and a day.
The attraction of the Bay is embedded in the Great British idea of the trip to the seaside. People were coming to the Bay, carried by horse drawn cabs, before the Railways arrived. Recorded day trips date back as far as the 1820s.
It has been a favourite with painters from the nineteenth century onwards. J.M.W Turner sketched here. Rossetti writes in his diaries of visits to see his sister who was staying in the Eastbourne Road and Val Prinsep, who was one of the leading members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood made his home in the Bay late in life. Roads named to honour Rossetti and Val Prinsep are both in evidence.
In the 1890s when the Bay Hotel was built people arrived by train from as far afield as London. Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson are reputed to have stayed secretly at the Sandcastle Hotel.
Throughout the early part of the twentieth century, Pevensey Bay became a regular yearly pilgrimage for families from London and all over the South East of England. It is not unusual to hear stories about what the grandparents did on their holidays in the Bay, particularly at the time when the first caravan sites appeared in the late forties.
In some cases those treasured memories have been handed down to children and grandchildren, who still come to the Bay for ‘a week by the seaside’.
In the 1950s Peter Sellers would come for summers to a chalet in Norman’s Bay to share time with his young family, enjoying the company on occasion of Spike Milligan, who later also made his home in Sussex.
How many of the Goon Shows were written here will never be known, but one episode most certainly is affectionately titled ‘The Pevensey Bay Disaster’.
Michael Stringer, production designer and art director (1924-2004), whose credits included over 32 major films, such as the Oscar nominated fifties classic Genevieve (1953), was a long term active resident of the Bay in the latter years of his life.
Caravan and camp sites, fish and chip shops, the shingle beach, old groynes, the post office, bakery, village market, restaurants, newsagents, mini-supermarkets, bed and breakfasts and holiday lets. The Bay is ‘a little corner of old Sussex by the Sea’..
A strong sense of community, continuity and creativity ebbs and flows here. There are over thirty thriving locally based organisations.
Many of these groups, together with all their activities, are faithfully recorded in the Parish Pump Magazine, published three times yearly, delivered to every home in the Bay, and a focal point for community life since it was founded in 1967.
Amenities and resources include three churches, a medical centre, pharmacy, library and an award winning information centre in the shape of an upturned boat. All the services are within easy walking reach of the heart of the Bay.
Key events in the calendar year like the Classic Car Meet and in more recent years, Pevfest, see hundreds of people flocking to the Bay to enjoy a different day out.
Added now to the old fashioned feel of the place are some surprises. Club-style entertainment, zumba classes and a tribute-focused weekend music scene. are all part of the fabric of the family friendly locality.
Feed into the mix a new Indian Restaurant getting rave reviews, the Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant and the newly enlarged 1066 stores and Bay Diner and it makes for an interesting village hub.
The locality is a time capsule of some description, but it also evolves.
The local economic climate, like the national economic climate, is tough.
But, a revival of interest in small English seaside resorts seems to be a part of some kind of resurgence and re-alignment.
With a backdrop of Pevensey Castle, and 2000 years of history on the doorstep, and arrival of the Normans somewhere close by, The Bay is a unique location on both the history and the seaside map.
On a sunny day, the Bay is a picture postcard setting.
Two hundred years of shared history and holiday experiences says that there is more to the popularity of Pevensey Bay than meets the eye.
It is not difficult to be Mad about the Bay. Folks fall in love with the place and pitch-up to stay.
Seeing a glorious sunset with the tide out, stepping between the tarnished groynes, simply walking the dog or in conversation with a trusted friend, for many of the people who live here, is about as good as it gets.
Simon Montgomery
editor, Bay Life
January 2013
