Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2022)
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| copyright © J.Middleton Unfortunately, this photograph portrays the on-going parking problem rather than the architecture |
Origins
The land on which St Aubyn’s Road was later
built was once part of Red House Farm. In those days Station Road
was a mere farm-track called variously Red House Drove, or Aldrington
Drove. The farmhouse belonging to this farm stood on a site now
occupied by the United Reformed Church plus a piece of land later
covered by St Aubyn’s Road. To the west of Red House Farm there was
a brickfield in the 1870s. A large scale Ordnance Survey map of 1874
shows a mature tree situated near where the corner of St Aubyn’s
Road was later to be.
During the First World War the Peirces, who ran an
ironmonger’s shop in Station Road, had an allotment next door to
the Congregational Church Hall in St Aubyn’s Road. But they found
the allotment very hard work because the ground was so stony. In
fact, they were obliged to remove two cartloads full of flints
before they could even think about tilling the soil. From this
experience the Peirces concluded that their allotment must have been
part of an old track leading to the farmhouse.
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| copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museum,
Brighton & Hove 20 September 1902 advert from the Brighton Herald |
Mr R. R. Berry began to develop the area for
housing in the 1900s. He started off with a modest planning request
to build five houses (undated, unfortunately) and followed it up with
plans for no less than 46 houses in 1902. Presumably, it was Mr Berry
who decided the road should be named after St Aubyn. There was
already a St Aubyns in Hove that began to be developed in the 1880s,
plus a St Aubyn’s Hotel on the coast road and later St Aubyn’s
Mansions fronting the esplanade.
Many of the houses were built in the same style
adopted in St Andrew’s Road. But there were some exceptions.
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| copyright © J.Middleton A rather different style of house is emphasised by yellow paint |
St Aubyn
It is unclear why St Aubyn became a popular name
in Sussex because he had no connection with the county. There are no
churches named after him in the Diocese of Chichester, and only two
in the whole of the British Isles – one in Jersey, and the other in
Devonport.
St Aubyn was born in Brittany of rich
Romano-Gallic parents. He entered a monastery and eventually became
the abbot of it. In AD 529 when he was a venerable 60 years of age,
he was consecrated as the 11th Bishop of Angers. He was known as an
eloquent preacher, and he took a great interest in the plight of
slaves, working to set free as many as possible. In AD 539 at the 3rd
Council of Orleans, he revised an old canon law that excommunicated
those people who married at the 1st and 2nd degree of consanguinity.
It is interesting to note just how far back the science of eugenics
goes. It was an attempt on his part to prevent inbreeding prevalent
in small communities where people never travelled far from their
place of birth. Gregory of Tours recorded the many miracles
attributed to St Aubyn.
Number 36 - Herbert Charles Jay was born in Brighton in 1897 and served as a Private in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment sadely he was fatally injured while in training in a gymnasium in Newhaven on the 19 August 1915, aged 18. He was the son of George Matthias and Emma Elizabeth Jay of 36, St. Aubyns Road, Portslade. He was buried in the Bear Road Cemetery, Brighton.
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| copyright
© Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove Brighton Graphic 26 August 1915 |
His brother Ernest Albert Jay who was born in Shoreham in 1896, served as a Private in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment and was killed just over a month later in action at Hulluch in France on the 13 October 1915, aged 19. The brothers names are listed on the St Andrew's Church War Memorial and also the Portslade War Memorial in Easthill Park.
Portslade Council Planning Approvals
No date – Mr R. R. Berry, five houses
1902 – Mr R. R. Berry, 46 houses (2-46 &
11-35 inclusive)
1903 – Congregation Church Hall
1906 – Mrs Huggett, five houses
1906 – Barnard & Hamper, two semi-detached
houses
1935 – C. J. Smith, sorting office, with office
over
1937 – Alteration to existing sub-station for
Brighton Electricity
Sources
Middleton J, Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Portslade Council Minutes
Copyright © J.Middleton 2019
page layout by D. Sharp