Meads

The ward is currently represented on Eastbourne Borough Council by three councillors – all of whom are Conservative. One of the councillors also represents the Meads division on East Sussex County Council.[5]

View of Meads Street looking south to north from the junction with Darley Road. The pub known as The Ship can be seen on the right of the picture. The boulder-flint boundary wall of the flats to the right is all that remains of a group of cottages which stood on the site until c.1970.

Many of the roads in Meads owe their names to towns and villages in Derbyshire around Chatsworth House, the seat of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, who developed the town in the 19th century. One obvious example is Chatsworth Gardens, the terrace of houses erected in 1891 on King Edward's Parade. Baslow Road dates from 1907 and is named after a village just north of Chatsworth House. Chesterfield Road (1888) owes its name to the important coal and iron town in Derbyshire, and Derwent Road (1895) is a reminder of the River Derwent which flows through the grounds of the Duke's residence. Others in the same category include: Bolsover (1891), Buxton, (1891), Darley (1890), Edensor (1906), Matlock (1897), Rowsley (1903) and Staveley (1890) Roads. Meads Road and Meads Street derive from the name of the original hamlet whose earlier spellings include 'Mades' (1196) and 'Medese' (1316). The hamlet developed around a manor house later known as Colstocks.[11]

Little of significance occurred in Meads during the period of the Phoney War, but with the fall of France in June 1940, many people departed for safety further north. Large houses were shut up as their owners left the anticipated invasion zone and schools were closed.[12] Eastbourne College was evacuated to Radley College in Oxfordshire on 20 June.[13]

The Bf 110 was a twin-engine heavy fighter ('Zerstörer' - German for 'Destroyer'). The one which crashed in Meads on 16 August 1940 (A2 + GL) was the first enemy aircraft to be brought down in the County Borough of Eastbourne.

At about 5.30 pm on Friday 16 August 1940, the first German aircraft to be brought down within what was then the County Borough of Eastbourne crashed in Meads. A Messerschmitt Bf 110 of the Luftwaffe unit known as ZG 2 had left the former French aerodrome at Guyancourt as part of an escort for bombers raiding RAF airfields at Feltham, Heston and Heathrow. Over the South Downs, the Messerschmitt was engaged by a British fighter – almost certainly the Hurricane flown by Pilot Officer H N E Salmon of No. 1 Squadron. The German aircraft broke up in the air, and the pilot, Hauptmann Ernst Hollekamp, was killed when he fell on the roof of Hill Brow School in Gaudick Road, his parachute unopened. Part of the nose fell onto the Royal Eastbourne golf course, close to the end of Gaudick Road. The rear gunner, Feldwebel Richard Schurk, came down in the sea off Holywell and was drowned. The bulk of the aircraft crashed in the grounds of Aldro School in Darley Road — the wreckage was incorrectly identified in the local press as being that of a Heinkel He 111. At the same time, a lorry was hit in Hampden Park by a bomb which had probably been jettisoned by one of the German bombers returning from the raid on RAF airfields. Three Council workmen were killed – two instantly, the other dying the following day from burns.[14]

On 4 May 1942, the first raid on Eastbourne by fighter-bombers took place. One of the casualties was the Meads parish church of St John, which was set ablaze and severely damaged.[15] Until the church was rebuilt in 1957, services were held at the parish hall in Meads Street. The tower, which originally had a steeple, survived the raid but was not attached to the nave when the latter was rebuilt.[7]

At lunchtime on Sunday 7 March 1943, a raid by Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft caught Eastbourne unawares. In what is now known as ‘Upper Meads’, a bomb destroyed 22 - 28 Meads Street and others fell in the gardens of 3 Staveley Road and 41 St John’s Road. There were 14 civilian fatalities; 50 persons were injured.[15] Houses used as billets by the Canadian army were damaged in Milnthorpe Road. The following evening, the German Home Service (not the broadcasts in English by Lord Haw Haw) carried interviews with two pilots who had taken part in the raid. The aircrew vividly described the effects of a bomb on a large block of buildings (“it seemed to disintegrate into a cloud of blue-black smoke”) as they were making for the town.[12]

St Rita’s in Paradise Drive was the headquarters of the Black Watch of Canada for some two months from mid December 1941. An alternative battle HQ was prepared in Paradise Wood, and the Officers’ Mess was at Cloona in Carlisle Road.

The first major influx of Canadian troops to the Eastbourne area was in July 1941 with the arrival of three regiments of the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade: The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, Le Regiment de Maisonneuve, and the Calgary Highlanders. During the course of the war, thousands of Canadians from scores of units would pass through the town.

As far as Meads was concerned, The Black Watch arrived from Willingdon on 18 December 1941. It was, however, a brief stay for they returned to Willingdon in February 1942. Canadian light anti-aircraft units were based in Meads at various times, setting up fixed and mobile gun positions on the Downs and seafront. August 1943 saw the arrival of The 23rd Field Regiment, RCA of the Royal Canadian Artillery with their Sexton self-propelled guns. There were three gun batteries: the 31st was centred on Milnthorpe Road, the 36th and 83rd were around Edensor Road. The HQ battery was located behind the Grand Hotel. The regiment stayed in Meads until it moved to Pippingford Park in March 1944 in preparation for Operation Overlord.

The Canadians were welcomed by the locals, who invited them into their homes and organised entertainment. By the same token, the troops left with happy memories. Approximately 150 Eastbourne girls sailed to Canada as war brides, some of them from Meads.[12]

Meads has an average age of 54.1 and the national average is 39.8, that is a difference of 14.3 years.[20]

[21]

In 1947, a teacher training college opened in Meads, the first students being troops who had recently returned to civilian life.[6] The college was centred on Darley Road at two schools which had evacuated because of the war - Queenwood Ladies' College and Aldro. Also in 1947, Chelsea College of Physical Education moved from London, establishing itself at the former Hill Brow School in Denton Road. In 1966, a new building was opened on the site by the Queen.[6] The buildings and grounds of both the above colleges now form part of the Eastbourne campus (in Meads — Darley Road Site, Hillbrow and Welkin Site) of the University of Brighton.[22]

St Bede’s Preparatory School - one of the two remaining independent schools in 'Upper Meads'.

In Victorian times, Meads became a favoured area for private boarding schools — a tradition which persisted until economic factors brought about their gradual demise. Examples of the latter include Clovelly-Kepplestone girls' school which closed in Meads in 1934[23] and St. Christopher's Girls School which closed the same year.[24]

Pike's Eastbourne Directory of 1911-12[25] shows five 'Ladies' Schools located in Bolsover Road, together with Hill Brow boys' school which subsequently took over the premises of St. Christopher's girls school in Denton Road when that school closed in 1934.

A street directory for 1940 (prepared in 1939) lists ten private schools in 'Upper Meads' alone.[8] However, the war signalled the final phase for private schools, and only eight of those which evacuated from the town returned to Eastbourne.[6] One of the post-war returners was Ascham St Vincent's School, a preparatory school for boys in Meads which subsequently closed in 1977. The site was sold for property development and a merger with St. Andrew's took place. The 'Ascham Memorial Arch' in Carlisle Road commemorates former pupils who lost their lives in the First World War.[26]

Two independent schools now remain in 'Upper Meads' - St Andrew's Prep and St Bede's Preparatory School (now called Bede's Prep School). The public school, Eastbourne College is in 'Lower Meads'.

St. John's Meads is a Church of England Aided Primary School, with approximately 215 children on its roll. Undergoing many additions and changes over the years, the school has been located on its present site for over a century.[27]