Tide Mills

The spaniel and I are left to our own devices for five days as Mrs L and daughter are away looking at prospective universities. We went for one of our all too infrequent visits to the coast, walking from Newhaven to Seaford and back via the abandoned village of Tide Mills. In the mid 18th century there was a large tide-powered mill here and housing for the workers. In later years it had a railway halt (Newhaven to Seaford trains still pass between its platforms), the Chailey Heritage Marine Hospital, a first world war seaplane base and a Marconi radio station. By the mid 1930s it was condemned as unfit for habitation and the last residents were forcibly removed in 1939 when much of the area was cleared to give better fields of fire in the event of a German coastal assault and the remains of the buildings were apparently used for street fighting training.

I believe these are the foundations of the Chailey Heritage Marine Hospital, built in 1924 to provide a place for boys with physical disabilities to recover after an operation.

The location featured in the novel A Kind of Vanishing by Lesley Thomson. Which links to a bit of news: one of my images was shortlisted as the cover for 'A Beautiful Mystery' by Louise Penny. In the end it wasn't selected but it was nice to be asked and, having seen the chosen cover I think they made the right choice. I haven't read any of her novels but Mrs L has a few of them so was quite interested by this news.