Balsdean

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Balsdean is a deserted hamlet in a remote downland valley east of Brighton, Sussex, England, on record since about 1100. It was formerly a chapelry of the parish of Rottingdean, and its territory touched that of the mother parish only at a single point. Despite its remoteness, it falls within the boundaries of the city of Brighton and Hove.

Balsdean consisted of two farms, Norton and Sutton. It was inhabited until the Second World War, when the population was evacuated and the buildings were used for target practice by Allied artillery. These buildings, including the medieval chapel by then used as a barn, were never rebuilt and the people never returned. The only standing building in the valley now is a derelict post-war barn complex.

The manor-house of Sutton was used as a lunatic asylum (as it was called at the time) in the early nineteenth century.

There is a modern farm of the same name on the fringe of Rottingdean, and from there most of the ancient farmlands of Balsdean are still worked. Much of the former sheepdown, however, is now the site of the Brighton suburb of Woodingdean, the building of which started around 1918.

[edit] Main source

Carder, Tim (1991) The encyclopaedia of Brighton. Lewes: East Sussex County Council.