Portslade

infobox UK place
country= England
official_name= Portslade
population=
latitude= 50.844
longitude= -0.216
unitary_england= Brighton and Hove
lieutenancy_england= East Sussex
region= South East England

constituency_westminster= Hove
post_town= Brighton
postcode_district= BN41
postcode_area= BN
dial_code= 01273
os_grid_reference= TQ255065

Portslade is the name of an area of the city of Brighton and Hove. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid development of the coastal area and in 1896 the southern part, known as Copperas Gap, was granted urban district status and renamed Portslade-by-Sea, making it distinct from Portslade Village. After World War II the district of Mile Oak was added. Today Portslade is bisected from east to west by the old A27 road between Brighton and Worthing, each part having a distinct character.

Portslade Village, to the north, nestles in a valley of the South Downs and still retains its rural character with flint buildings, a village green and the small parish church of [http://www.stnicolas.standrewportslade.btinternet.co.uk/st_nicolas_church_history_portslade.htm St Nicolas] , which is the second-oldest church in the city, dating from approximately 1150.

Another notable building in the village is Portslade Manor, one of the few surviving ruins of a Norman manor. It was built in the 12th century and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Foredown Tower houses a camera obscura, one of only two in the south of England. It is open to the public.

Portslade-by-Sea, to the south, straddles the small but busy seaport harbour basin of Shoreham-by-Sea harbour and is the industrial centre of Brighton and Hove; the Monarch's Way long-distance footpath follows the seafront west towards Shoreham. Terraced housing dating back to the nineteenth century is interspaced with parks and allotments. Boundary Road is the main shopping area as well as being the location of Portslade railway station, with direct trains to London Victoria with a journey time of about an hour. Boundary Road is, as the name suggests, located at the boundary between Portslade and neighbouring Hove; the street is divided down the middle and while the Hove side is called Boundary Road, the Portslade side is called Station Road and Carlton Terrace. Portslade Station is in fact in Hove.

Portslade in history

Portslade has been identified with the Roman port Novus Portus mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography of the second century AD. Drove Road, in the original Portslade Village, has been linked with the Roman road, "the London to Portslade road" that passes through Patcham valley to Haywards Heath and on to Streatham in London. Roman remains and a Roman burial site were found in Roman Road. The name of the town had been thought to stem from the Roman placename "Portus Adurni" (modern Portchester), but this is based on a misidentification of Shoreham-by-Sea as "Portus Adurni" by Michael Drayton in the 17th century. Indeed, the River Adur, whose mouth has moved many times due to longshore drift and erosion, was also named from this misidentification. The actual etymology of Portslade may be "portus-" + "-ladda", way to the port, where "ladda" is from the Old English for way, but this is conjectural at best.

The old name, Copperas Gap, for Portslade-by-Sea suggests that the coast was used for the production of copperas or green vitriol, a form of ferrous sulphate used extensively in the textile industry. The process took over six years and made use of iron pyrite-rich nodules that could be found in the strata of Sussex greensand stone that emerges at this point in the coast.

A part-finished assembly hall in Portslade became an Odeon Cinema about 1930 when George Coles, one of the Odeon chain's principal architects, adapted the original design.

Portslade-by-Sea was an urban district from the late nineteenth century to 1974, when it became part of the borough of Hove, later to become part of the city of Brighton and Hove. Portslade Town Hall is on Victoria Road, and is used as a venue for various functions.

A notable Portslade resident of the 19th century

Reverend Richard William Enraght [Enquire Within upon Everything (1939) 119th Edition. "Enraght" is pronounced as "en-rowt".] was the Priest in Charge of [http://www.stnicolas.standrewportslade.btinternet.co.uk/standrew_church_history_portslade.htm St Andrew Church] , Portslade, from 1871-74. [Crockford's Clerical Directory (1897)] Fr. Enraght’s belief in the Church of England's Catholic tradition, his promotion of ritualism in worship, and his writings on Catholic worship and church-state relationships, led him into conflict with the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874. While serving as Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham in 1880, he paid the ultimate price under the Act of prosecution and imprisonment in Warwick Prison. [R.W. Enraght (1883) "My Prosecution".] Fr. Enraght became nationally and internationally known as a “prisoner for conscience sake”. [F.C. Ewer (1880) "Sermon on the Imprisonment of English Priests for Conscience Sake" (Preached in St Ignatius Church, New York, on the fourth Sunday in Advent, 1880)] [ William Pitt McCune. (1964) "History of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament in the United States of America"]

In February 2006 the local newspaper, "The Argus", reported that Brighton & Hove City Council had accepted the name of Fr. Enraght, whom they described as a “fighter for religious freedom”, as a candidate for a Blue Plaque to be erected in his memory on his former home in Station Road, Portslade. The date of its installation is yet to be announced.

In September 2006, Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company honoured Fr. Enraght’s memory by naming one of their new fleet buses after him. His name appears in the list of Brighton and Hove buses named after famous people.

Education

5-11
* [http://www.stmarys.brighton-hove.sch.uk/ St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Portslade]
* [http://www.portslade-inf.brighton-hove.sch.uk/ Portslade Infants School]
* St Nicolas' CofE Junior School
* [http://www.benfield.brighton-hove.sch.uk Benfield Junior School]
* [http://www.mileoak.brighton-hove.sch.uk/ Mile Oak Primary School]
* [http://www.gladwin.brighton-hove.sch.uk Peter Gladwin Primary School]

11+
* [http://pcc-web.com/ Portslade Community College]

Special Schools
* [http://www.hillside.brighton-hove.sch.uk/ Hillside School]
* [http://www.downspark.brighton-hove.sch.uk Downs Park School]

Rail transport

Portslade railway station is located on the West Coastway Line west of Aldrington and east of Southwick and Shoreham-by-Sea.

References

External links

* [http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/category_id__126_path__0p114p.aspx Portslade website]
* [http://www.foredown.virtualmuseum.info/ Foredown Tower camera obscura]
* [http://www.emmausbrighton.co.uk Brighton & Hove Emmaus community]
* [http://www.stnicolas.standrewportslade.btinternet.co.uk Website of the Parish of St Nicolas & St Andrew, Portslade]