IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Chesterfield Road, EASTBOURNE, BN20 7NU

Hodeslea, number 10 Staveley Road, is a red brick villa built in 1890 for Thomas Huxley. Listed, for historical reasons, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1293707 Eastbourne is a town and seaside resort on the south coast of East Sussex, some 54 miles south of London and about 19 miles east of Brighton. Although there is evidence of settlement from the Stone Age onwards, Eastbourne remained an area of small rural settlements until the railway arrived in 1849. A resort, built "for gentlemen by gentlemen", was planned and the town's growth accelerated from a population of less than 4,000 in 1851 to nearly 35,000 by 1891. Tourism is a large and important part of the economy of the town.

Buses in the blue and cream colours could be found until recently when the council ran its own bus services. However, these were taken over by Stagecoach a few years ago and the colours are now only seen on preserved examples such as this that run on Bank Holiday weekends.

The photo shows a southerly view of Milnthorpe Road in Eastbourne as viewed from near its junction with Chesterfield Road. Sir Ernest Shackleton stayed at 14 Minlthorpe Road between 1916 and 1922 (though he was often away in Antarctica), while George Mallory boarded at Glengorse Preparatory School on Chesterfield Road between 1896 and 1900. Although these two famous explorers and adventurers would not have known each other at that time, each went on to achieve world acclaim and near-mythic status. Shackleton, who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, was one of the main figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, while Mallory’s three British expeditions to Mt. Everest are of similar status in the field of human endeavour and achievement. While pursuing the limits of what was possible, both men died young in the places they loved, with Shackleton dying at the age of 47 and Mallory dying a few days short of his 38th birthday.

The end of the 100 or so miles of the South Downs Way at the pier, seen here from almost at the foot of the last last hill of the journey from Winchester