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record of this event is preserved in the tower of the church beneath the bell storey, on the wall of which is nailed a tablet of sheet lead measuring 4ft. 6in. by 2ft. 6in., taken from the roof of this sacred edifice on the restoration of the church in 1853. It is inscribed in raised cast characters Richard Masters, Richard Tuppen, John Masters, Churchwardens, 1705. Irrespective of the 40 acres swallowed up by the sea from the years 1260 to 1340, the adjoining parishes of Hove, Aldrington and Portslade suffered considerably more, the first to the extent of 150 acres, Aldrington 40, and Portslade 60.
In Magna Britannia published in 1720, it is stated that " Hove had been a considerable place but is now almost swallowed up by the sea." As regards Aldrington it is stated by Camden, Stillingfleet, and other antiquarians to be " the Portus-Adurni of the Romans, or Port of the River," and was no doubt a place of considerable importance. It has still the ruins of a church,:; but for many years had not a single inhabitant excepting the toll-keeper at the gate, on the high road from Brighton to Shoreham. With reference to Portslade, this village derives its name from Slade or way to the Port. As regards the inroads of the sea, Dr. Mantell remarks that " at Brighton they have been very extensive, and the whole of the ancient town was situated on the spot now covered by the sands, and the present Cliffs were behind the town like those of Dover." Mr Lyell in his Principles of Geology, says, " the sea has merely resumed its position at the base of the Cliffs, the site of the old town having been a beach which had for ages been abandoned by the ocean."
The town consisted, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of seven streets and as many laines. The most spacious of them, " South Street," devoured by the ocean, it is supposed formed the sea front of the town under the Cliff. At the
* The Living of Aldrington is worth £100 per year, and every successor to the curacy, on his induction, preaches once on a temporary pulpit; the Church being a heap of ruins. |
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