Whitehawk Hill Camp, is a scheduled ancient monument, was inhabited circa 2700 BC. It covers 12 acres and was excavated in January 1929, 1932-3 and again in 1935 when Manor Hill was laid out over the site.

The whole camp measures 950 feet north to south and approximately 700 feet east to west and has four concentric ditches, the innermost three-feet deep and the outer one almost seven-feet deep. These are interrupted by a number of causeways. The ditches of the camp were centred at the junction of Manor Hill and Whitehawk Road.

From the late eighteenth century the main attraction was the horseraces that were run on Whitehawk Down, later renamed Race Hill, which still exists today. Another old attraction was the White Hawk fair, which was held for a few years from 1791.

The boundary running along the former course of Whitehawk Road and including Haybourne Road, known as Whitehawk Bottom, formed the eastern limits of the Parish of Brighton. However when the East Brighton estate was purchased in 1913 the area occupied by Whitehawk housing estate became Corporation property. It naturally followed that, on April 1, 1928, the estate became part of the County Borough itself when Ovingdean Parish was annexed.

The south-western part of Whitehawk Road was developed in the early 1880's when Whitehawk Bottom contained only a few farm buildings, piggeries, allotments and playing fields. In the late 1920's the Corporation erected houses along the western side of Whitehawk Road, then Hervey road and Whitehawk Crescent.

This first part of the history of Whitehawk was researched and written by David Rowland and Beryl Tucknott of the East Brighton Bygones Reminiscence Group.

Whitehawk from the 1920s onwards.

Between 1920 and 1931 demolition was carried out on the slums of Brighton, especially in the Carlton Hill district. New housing estates, including Whitehawk and Manor Farm were then built to house the new residents. Before the building of these estates the area had consisted of small-holdings, pig farms and allotments.

The new residents found it hard to adjust to their new homes at first. They had moved from small back-to-back dwellings to brand new houses with all mod-cons. Many of them had earnt a living as totters or rag and bone men, who owned horses to pull their carts around the old streets. These days cars, vans and lorries are used for businesses.

At the end of the Second World War, housing was short and so in the 1950's Bristol Estate was built with high rise flats. More of this type of housing was built at the northern end of the Whitehawk estate.

Another method of house building, so called self-build schemes, were set up, where people in groups built their own houses. One such scheme was completed in Wilson Avenue. The people concerned would build their houses mainly at weekends and evenings after their normal day jobs were finished.

The Whitehawk Estate

The large council estate was then developed in 1933-37 with close on 1,200 houses, all with large gardens in order to grow vegetables but none with garages. Postwar and in the vicinity of Wilson Avenue, a number of private houses were built. At the end of the valley the Corporation built and opened Swanborough flats in 1967. A census in 1981 showed that the population for Whitehawk and Manor Farm had grown to almost 8,000 people.

The Whitehawk estate was remodelled in 1975 and a collection of drab housing was demolished. This was undertaken by scrapping many of the long roads, which were replaced by small cul-de-sacs, a poor substitute for the Whitehawk of the 1930s. However, this allowed extra housing to be built giving a final total of 1,440 houses, thus increasing the population of Whitehawk once more.

The Lintott Avenue (South) redevelopment was completed in 1988 but financial restrictions slowed up the final part of the project. A major new road, Whitehawk Way, has been constructed along the line of Whitehawk Avenue and Fletching Road, and a new park has been laid over Lintott Avenue.

The original church, the imposing St. Cuthman's, was constructed in 1937. It was destroyed on August 16, 1943 by a German bomb with the loss of one life. The new church was built in 1951-52. The church hall was sold to the Community Association in 1982 and became the Valley Social Centre.