Hollingbury

Hollingbury is an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The area sits high on a hillside across the north of the city above Patcham which lies in a valley to the west, Coldean in a valley to the east, and the A27 bypass forming the northern limit. To the south it blends into leafy Surrenden and the busy Fiveways shopping area.

Hollingbury Hill itself reaches an elevation of 584 feet above sea level and on the summit is Hollingbury Castle Camp, an Iron Age Hillfort [ [http://matt.pope.users.btopenworld.com/hollin/Hollinhome.htm Hollingbury Hillfort] ] dating from around the sixth century B.C. It is where Triangulation Point (or Trigpoint) TP3970 [ [http://www.trigpointinguk.com/trigs/trig-details.php?t=3970 Trigpoint TP3970 Details] ] used for the 1936 Ordnance Survey mapping of Great Britain is located.

The Hillfort is located within Hollingbury Park, an area of approx 240 acres most of which is occupied by the municipal golf course [http://www.hollingburyparkgolf.org.uk Hollingbury Park Golf Course] ] . The park also contains some football pitches, tennis courts and a children’s playground. For many years, the park was known by locals as 'The Rocket Park' on account of the rocket-shaped climbing frame in the playground but this was removed and the playground extended in the early 1980's. An area towards the northern end of the park is fenced off and contains a weather station and underground reservoir. Adjacent to the park is an area of woodland planted in the nineteenth century but sadly the majority of this was destroyed in the Great Storm of October 1987 [ [http://www.fhbw.org.uk/index.htm Friends of Hollingbury and Burstead Woods] ] . The local council maintains an Easy Access trail through the woodland [ [http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/downloads/bhcc/countryside/C.S_Hollingbury_2007(lowres).pdf Hollingbury Woods Easy Access Trail Guide (PDF)] ] .

The building of Hollingbury housing estate, located on the north-western slopes of the hill, commenced in 1946. The properties are a mixture of bungalows, flats and houses with most of the earlier properties having large gardens. Some properties were originally owned by the local authority and some were privately owned although a large number of the local authority properties have since been sold. Some roads (Westfield Crescent for example) contained clusters of properties for use as armed forces or police service housing. One again, most of these have been sold and are now privately owned.

Small parades of local shops are located throughout the estate along with some public houses. There is a small branch library [http://www.citylibraries.info/libraries/hollingbury.asp Hollingbury Library] ] housed in a pre-fabricated building which opened in 1962. The main primary school for the area is Carden, [http://www.carden.brighton-hove.sch.uk/ Carden School Website (Brighton and Hove schools domain)] ] [http://www.carden.ik.org/ Alternative Carden School website] ] built in the late 1940's and one of the first schools to be completed in the post-war period. The classrooms all have doors which open out onto patio areas leading to the belief that the building was originally designed to be used as a hospital in the event of further hostilities [ [http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__5501_path__0p115p206p887p.aspx Recollections of Carden School] ] .

Hollingbury industrial estate, located in the north-east of the estate near the borders with Stanmer, Coldean and Patcham occupies around 18 acres of land and was developed by the local authority from 1950. The factories on the estate employed 8,000 local people at one time but most of the manufacturing companies had closed down or moved out by the 1980's when fewer than 1,000 people were employed. The area then saw a revival in 1987 with the building of a new Asda superstore followed by a number of other retail units. It was further boosted when the offices and printing presses of the local newspaper The Argus moved from the town centre onto the Industrial Estate.

Places of Interest

* Hollingbury Camp, an Iron Age hillfort on part of which a golf course is located.

References

* Carder, Tim (1990). "The Encyclopaedia of Brighton", East Sussex County Council, ISBN 978-0861473151
* [http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk My Brighton and Hove]

External links

* [http://www.citylibraries.info/pictures/subplace_search.asp?Search=Place&Place=HOLLINGBURY&PlaceID=15 Pictures of Hollingbury]