187 High Street, Lewes - 01273 483 448 lewes.tic@lewes.gov.uk

Newhaven lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, in the valley the river has cut through the South Downs. Over the centuries the river has migrated between Newhaven and Seaford in response to the growth and decay of a shingle spit (shoal) at its mouth.

There was a Bronze Age fort on what is now Castle Hill.

In about 480AD the Saxon people established a village near where Newhaven now stands, which they named "Meeching" (variously known as "Myching" or "Mitching").

Throughout the Middle Ages the main outlet and port of the Ouse was at Seaford (one of the Cinque Ports).

The growth of the shingle spit hindered the outflow of the river, which consequently flooded the Levels upstream and hindered access to the port. Therefore a channel through the shingle spit was cut in the mid-16th century below Castle Hill, creating access to a sheltered harbour, better than that at Seaford. This was the origin of modern Newhaven.

However, shingle continued to accumulate and so the mouth of the Ouse began to migrate eastwards again. Under the Ouse Navigation Act (1790) a western breakwater was constructed to arrest longshore drift and so cut off the supply of shingle to the spit. A new outlet (The Cut) was built on the river’s present course, below Castle Hill. At that time the settlement began to be known as the 'new haven'. The present breakwater was built in 1890.

From the port of Newhaven, international ferries run to the French ports of Dieppe (Transmanche Ferries); and to Le Havre, (LD Lines). Although there are some derelict signs of the one-time train ferry operations, the harbour still sees a great deal of freight and passengers movement, with both the ferries running from this port being under three years old.

The village was of little maritime importance until the opening of the railway line to Lewes in 1847. The London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) constructed their own wharf and facilities on the east side of the river, and opened the Newhaven harbour railway station. The railway also funded the dredging of the channel and other improvements to the harbour between 1850 and 1878, to enable it to be used by cross chanel ferries, and in 1863 the LB&SCR and the Chemin de Fer de l‘Ouest introduced the Newhaven-Dieppe passenger service. The harbour was officially recognised as 'The Port of Newhaven' in 1882. Imports then included French farm products and manufactures, timber, granite and slates.

Newhaven harbour was designated as the principal port for the movement of men and materiel to the European continent during World War I and was taken over by the military authorities and the ferries requisitioned for the duration of the war. Between 22 September 1916 and 2 December 1918, the port and town of Newhaven were designated a 'Special Military Area' under the 'Defence of the Realm Regulations', and the Harbour station was closed to the public. The port and harbour facilities, rail sidings and warehousing were greatly enlarged at this time and electric lighting installed to allow for 24-hour operation.

During World War II large numbers of Canadian troops were stationed at Newhaven, and the ill-fated Dieppe Raid in 1942 was largely launched from the harbour.

The Newhaven Lifeboat, the first of which was commissioned in 1803, is among the oldest in Britain. Newhaven also has one of the Watch stations of the National Coastwatch Institution.

To the east, in the neighbouring parish of Seaford was the village of Tide Mills, built in 1761, and now derelict. Here are the remains of workers' cottages, the tide mill itself, and a large saline lagoon which was the storage pond for high water to power the mills on the outgoing tide.

The Newhaven Marconi Radio Station was established in 1904, and started running in 1905. The station was owned and operated by the Marconi Radio Company and achieved regular ship to shore radio communications in approximately 1912.

The Heritage Marine Hospital was built in 1924 to cater for disabled boys who had undergone surgery. It became a casualty of wartime defence work during World War II.

Today the Denton Island Business Park lies to the north of the town on the east bank of the river.

Newhaven Fort, one of the Palmerston Forts, was built on Castle Hill on the recommendation of the 1859 Royal Commission to defend the growing harbour It was the largest defence work ever built in Sussex and is now open as a museum.

The adjacent village of Tide Mills was the site of an experimental seaplane base at the head of the beach. The first formation of No. 242 Squadron RAF was on 15 August 1918 from numbers 408, 409 and 514 Flights at the seaplane station at Newhaven, Sussex. Operating from there and the nearby airfield at Telscombe Cliffs, it was equipped with Short Type 184 seaplanes and carried out anti-submarine patrols over the English Channel until the end of the First World War. Surveys carried out in 2006 have exposed part of the slipway, concrete aprons to both hangars with door tracks and several other slabs presumed to be workshops. Sussex Archaeological Society started a dig in April 2006 to catalogue the entire East Beach site.