Falmer

A potted history and photo gallery

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

In 1086 the manor of Falmer was held by the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes, but in 1776 it was sold to Thomas Pelham, later the Earl of Chichester, and was part of the Stanmer estate of 4,958 acres acquired by Brighton Corporation in 1947. Therefore, although Falmer lies just outside the borough boundary, much of the village and parish, including the pond, the green and many of the old cottages, is now the property of Brighton Council. Domesday also records a population of around 300 and a church at Falmer, but the present Church of St Laurence was rebuilt in about 1850 in Norman style. The inappropriately named 'Falmer Diversion' A27 road scheme was completed in 1981, splitting the village in two, but it was in fact the second diversion of the main road which originally ran on the northern side of the village along Mill Street until the late eighteenth century.

The parish of Falmer, a member of the Newhaven Union and later Newhaven Rural District, covered a large area to the east and south-west of the village, with a detached portion of 242 acres known as Patchway in the Old Boat Corner area. On 1 April 1928 Brighton annexed 781 acres of Falmer, including the areas around East and North Moulsecoomb , Bevendean and Falmer School. In 1934 Patchway was transferred to Stanmer, and on 1 April 1952 a further 1,028 acres were annexed by Brighton, including the lower part of Stanmer Park , the sites of the university and polytechnic campuses , and a large area of downland on Falmer Hill. At the same time Falmer, by then in Chailey rural district, absorbed that part of Stanmer parish not similarly transferred. It is now a parish of 3,122 acres under Lewes District Council.

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.

The following resource(s) is quoted as a general source for the information above: {1,84,123,279,305}