Editing Peacehaven (section)

==History==
There is a [[Bronze Age]] [[tumulus|barrow]] (burial mound) near the cliff top, which has been under investigation by local societies.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.gos.gov.uk/gose/news/687560/ |title=Peacehaven's Ancient Mound reveals hidden secrets of prehistoric past |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081007231948/http://www.gos.gov.uk/gose/news/687560/ |archive-date=7 October 2008 |work=Events Diary |publisher=[[Government Offices for the English Regions|Government Office for the South East]] |date=12 May 2008 |access-date=16 October 2009}}</ref> The barrow is evidence of human occupation at Peacehaven at least 3,500 years ago. A 2007 excavation of the new [[Bovis Homes Group|Bovis Homes]] site west of [[Peacehaven Community School]]'s playing fields unearthed evidence for a [[prehistory|prehistoric]] settlement throughout the Bronze and [[Iron Age]]s.

Peacehaven was founded in 1916 by entrepreneur Charles Neville, who bought land in the parish of [[Piddinghoe]]. He founded a company to develop the site, and also eventually built nearby town of [[Saltdean]] and parts of [[Rottingdean]]).<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.saltdean.info/begsaltdean.htm |title=Beginning of Saltdean Today |access-date=12 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130102171400/http://www.saltdean.info/begsaltdean.htm |archive-date=2 January 2013}}</ref> He advertised it by setting up a competition in virtually every newspaper in England to name the development. The name of the winners who chose the name 'New Anzac-on-Sea' (to commemorate the [[Australian and New Zealand Army Corps|ANZAC]]'s involvement in the [[Gallipoli campaign|Battle of Gallipoli]])<ref>{{cite book |first=Justin |last=Hopper |title=The Old Weird Albion |publisher=Penned in the Margins |place=London |page=46 |date=2017 |isbn=978-1908058379}}</ref> were Mr West of [[Ilford]], Essex and Mr Kemp of [[Maidstone]], Kent.

The ''[[Daily Express]]'' later sued Neville over the competition, holding that it was a scam, since he was offering "free" plots of land in the town as runner-up prizes but issuing them only on the payment of a [[conveyancing]] fee. The ''Express'' won the case, but the publicity brought the scheme to a large audience. The idea was then to sell plots of land cheaply for people to build on themselves.

Initially, the town was New Anzac-on-Sea, but less than a year later, on 12 February 1917, it was renamed Peacehaven.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernard |first=Stanley |year=2018 |title=A True History of the Two Nearly New Towns of Peacehaven and Telscombe |place=Storrington |publisher=Country Books |isbn=978-1910489628}}</ref>

In 1927, the directors of Peacehaven Estates Ltd, of South Coast Road, Peacehaven, and 7, [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]], [[Westminster]], were [[Henry Roper-Curzon, 18th Baron Teynham|Lord Teynham]] (Chairman), CW Neville (managing director), and [[G. Kay Green]].<ref>{{cite book |year=1927 |title=The Directory of Directors for 1927 |place= |publisher=Thomas Skinner & Co |page=625}}</ref>

Although it has been claimed that the town was originally formed for retiring [[World War I]] veterans in order for them to escape and recover from the effects of the war, this is not proven. Mr Neville's publicity promoted the town as being an idyllic setting; sea air and simple lifestyle were thought to have aided good health. The land was also cheap and, as a result, working-class families from the city started to buy plots and gradually build makeshift homes for weekends and holidays. This movement of frontier-style buildings made with whatever materials were available at the time was called the [[Plotlands (land development)|plotlands movement]]. Inhabitants felt a sense of freedom in living off what they needed and enjoying a simpler life away from the busy, polluted city. The plotlands provided the working class an opportunity that might not have been available otherwise.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hardy |first1=D |last2=Ward |first2=C |year=1984 |title=Arcadia for All: The Legacy of Makeshift Landscape |place=London |publisher=Mansell Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-0720116793}}{{page needed|date=February 2025}}</ref>

By 1924, there were 3,000 people living in Peacehaven. Original houses were often very temporary affairs (some were old [[Coach (rail)|railway carriages]]). Others were constructed from former army huts, brought from North Camp near [[Seaford, East Sussex|Seaford]], a few of these still survive, having been given an outer concrete block wall (they can be identified by their oblong shape that tends to be end-on to the road). Eventually the local council invested in water and electrical services and so people started to build more substantial houses. After [[World War II]], the local council introduced a zoning scheme in order to distinguish areas for improvement along the coast road. In 1974 the ''Town Centre Map and Action Plan'' was formed to aid development.

There are two listed farmsteads in the town: Halcombe Farm House, built in the 17th century; and Hoddern Farm House, from the 18th century. Another old building is the Shepherds Cot; now part of a private house in The Compts in north Peacehaven. This tiny cabin was built in the 1880s to shelter shepherds in the lambing season.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

The popular singer and comedian [[Gracie Fields]] in 1933 set up at Peacehaven the Gracie Fields Children's Home and Orphanage, for children of those in the theatre profession who could not look after their children. She kept this until 1967, when the home was no longer needed. This was near her own home in [[Telscombe]], and Fields often visited, with the children all calling her 'Aunty Grace'.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091117190143/http://www.peacehavencouncil.co.uk/index.php/historic-peacehaven/famous-residents "Famous Residents"], Peacehaven Council</ref>