IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cliff Close, SEAFORD, BN25 1BN

The view is from unmetalled Cliff Road. In the centre of the photo are the apartment blocks of the town centre; chalk cliffs beyond Newhaven catch the sun.

Cliff Road is an unmade road which links Corsica Road and Gerald Road. It is close to Seaford Head Golf Course. This is a view looking towards East Blatchington.

Seen from the public footpath up on to Seaford Head. Going by old maps, nearby Cliff Road, Corsica Road, Gerald Road and Maurice Road were shown laid out in 1910 but by 1927 were only partly developed with houses. Cliff Close was built between 1963 and 1974.

The base of Seaford Head Cliff on a winter's day.

Beyond the wall is Gerald Road, turning right at the top of Cliff Road Image The flat roofs of Cliff Close houses can be seen to the left of the pillar. Old maps show that between 1899, before Cliff Road was developed, and 1950 there was a property on the cliff some way behind the camera, named on a 1927 map as Cliff Cottage. By 1963 it had gone; there was just a drive. There seems no reason to doubt that this was the entrance to the property. The location is now an informal piece of ground leading to a viewpoint and the lower slopes of Seaford Head.

The view in the photo shows a former entrance drive with two brick pillars and an adjoining arch that led from Cliff Road to Cliff Cottage. These features were not present at the time of the original owner, Maria Fleming Baxter, during the early 1900’s but were added later, probably in the 1920’s. Although there was a plan to develop the site in the 1960s by building thirty garages in the area of the grassy drive, those plans did not materialize. Corsica Hall can be seen in direct line of sight through the entrance pillars.

Cliff Road is one of a number of named roads locally, lined with substantial houses, but apparently unadopted by the highway authority, hence unmetalled. The cream-painted block of flats left of centre is referred to on a streetmap as The Lodge but by estate agents' websites as Corsica Hall.

Gerald Road is one of a number of named but unmetalled roads in the southern corner of the town. Tamarisk in shadow on the right.

It's not clear what Southern Water does to sewage here: whether they treat it in some way, or pump it elsewhere (such as Newhaven). Behind the Esplanade and below Cliff Close, this plant is at possibly the lowest point in the town; there is a sewage outfall to the sea across the road at Splash Point. Seaford was among the south coast towns where there were protests following the release of sewage into the sea in the summer of 2023. The device intended to monitor such events did not work. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-66421686 Photo number 7622491.

The foot of Seaford Head is a strange hotch-potch.