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A Brief History of Bexhill on Sea. Bexhill-on-Sea is a medium sized sea-side town with a population of 40,000. It is in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between the towns of Eastbourne and Hastings. Although Bexhill did not really start to grow until the building of a sea wall in 1882, its history probably dates back to the Bronze Age. The evidence for this being Bronze Age instruments discovered in Normans Bay, not far from Bexhill. Whoever did first live here would, almost certainly, have inhabited the hill on which Bexhill Old Town now stands. Here also stands St Peter’s Church, built on land granted to Bishop Oswald by King Offa in 772AD Also built on this land was a Manor House and farm, sadly, the Manor was demolished in the 1960s, the only remains being the barn and gardens, and some small bits of the original walls. One of the greatest effects on the town, then a hamlet of about 500 people, must have been the arrival of 5,000 Hanoverian troops of the King's German Legion, when from 1804 until 1814 Bexhill was to be their base. Also at this time, Martello towers were built along the coast, all to protect England from any invasion mounted by Napoleon. In 1882 the seventh Earl De La Warr, had a seawall built to protect the low-lying marsh lands and eastern sector of the town, and from then the town started to develop rapidly. During
the Edwardian period Bexhill became the playground of the aristocracy and in
1901 was the first resort to allow mixed bathing! No record of Bexhill's history can go without mentioning the De La Warr Pavilion, world famous for it's daring “modernist” architecture. Earl De La Warr, the mayor of Bexhill since 1933, held a competition to design an entertainment centre to lure visitors to the town. The rules stipulated that the building must contain a concert hall, restaurant and conference rooms; the cost to be no more than £80,000. The winning design was by Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, Their design was to be the first large building constructed with a welded steel frame. The Pavilion was built during 1934/35, and was officially opened on 12th December 1935. The opening ceremony was performed by The Duke and Duchess of York, (the Duke later became King George VI.) The De La Warr Pavilion is a listed Grade I building and is a unique piece of architecture. It has recently had a lot of refurbishment work, but there is still much to be done.
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