Photo miscellany

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• When I was a teenager I loved this place where the Undercliff Walk started. Black Rock was a beautiful place before they built the Marina, which should have been built at Portslade. One summer’s night in 1964, myself and my girlfriend were walking along the start of the Undercliff when we saw lots of black darting objects before our eyes on the ground. It took us a while to realise that these objects were rats coming off the beach as the tide was coming in. They had been foraging on the beach for whatever there was to eat. My Jack Russell bitch at the time was in her element. After this episode it was a regular thing, rat catching down by the beach. My dog used to run along and sniff every drainage hole until she came to one where a rat was hiding, then I would poke the rat out from the beach side with a stick and the dog would dispose of it in one bite. There used to be a light by the bottom of the slope and I would put about ten or so rats sitting up around this lamp in a circle. One day I was talking to a Mr. Scrace who lived in Rugby Place and was the local street cleaner. He remarked about these rats sitting up around this lamp. I told him that it was me that put them there. He was OK with this as he didn’t have to pick them up from the floor. I have enjoyed rat catching with my Jack Russells ever since.

  By Mick Peirson (Romney Marsh) (13/11/2006)

• You can see a No.44 trolleybus top right and also the line of poles supporting the wires that ran out onto the seafront and back inland again in a loop. This is where the 44 route ended and the trolleybuses turned round for the run back into town via the Racecourse and Elm Grove.   This dates the picture to at least 1939 at the earliest.

  By Adrian Baron (25/01/2007)

• I loved this swimming pool, used to get the No 44 from Preston Circus mostly on Saturdays. I dived off the top board when I was 12, it felt like you were flying. Sorry it’s gone. I went there in the 50s and 60s it was great!

  By Anne Newman (13/10/2010)

• Black Rock was a wonderful place for children. When I lived in Brighton in t early 1959 I often visited Black Rock with my mum and dad. I loved peering into the numerous rock pools and looking at the sea life they contained and catching crabs. I also remember it being very green (just like the picture), very slimy and slippery and I would often trip on rocks or slip on the slime. Wonderful childhood memories but, alas the area is now gone. I also remember the Peter Plan Playground where the Volks Railway used to stop which was about the midway point on the railway – again, back in the 1950s a trip to Peter Pan was a real treat but it would probably not be appreciated by today’s kids.

  By Rose Russell (14/11/2011)

• This photo is a very obvious fake – the man’s size is out of proportion and the crane would not work.

  By Jeremy (30/01/2013)

• This photo was almost certainly taken after Sunday 3rd March 1946, as that was the day Trolleybus route 44 was extended to Black Rock. The Trolleybus in the photo was one of eight such vehicles purchased in 1939 by Brighton Hove & District Omnibus Company (BH&D) to be used on the proposed extension to the Trolleybus system from Race Hill to Black Rock. However, because of wartime restrictions the extension was not completed until peacetime returned. During the years of WW2 all eight vehicles were stored in the Company`s garage at Whitehawk and were to become affectionately known as “The Sleeping Trolley Buses”.

  By Chris Wrapson (10/10/2013)

• What memories of my time in Whitehawk, I lived in Nuthurst Road and had so many great times with friends, life was hard but we made our own fun out of nothing, no expensive presents, but we were happy.

  By Janet (21/01/2022)