Travel and transport

Louis Victor Lacroix – Brighton Police Fire Brigade Superintendent

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What brought Edouard Victor Lacroix and his French wife, Mary, from Jersey to settle in Brighton? In Jersey, Edouard had been a locksmith and then a tin smith.  Mary dealt in local produce.  When the couple arrived in Brighton in the very early 1860s, the town was burgeoning.  There must have been plenty of work for a man with Edouard’s skills, and yet by the end of the decade he had adopted his wife’s trade and settled with her and their expanding brood of children at 12 Bartholomews.

BARTHOLOMEWS

12, Bartholomews (middle house) now vanished under the north side of the Leonardo Hotel. Image courtesy of the Regency Society (James Gray Collection) JG_09_047

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An Illegal Immigrant – 1814

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The Napoleonic Wars had cost the lives of many tens of thousands of British soldiers between 1803 and 1814.  Even before the Battle of Waterloo, prisoners from both sides of the war were being repatriated.  Writing about the boats bringing these suffering men across the channel, the Journal de Paris published the following snippet on 10 May 1814:

Il en est arrivé six le 4 de ce mois à Cherbourg, avec 284 prisonniers de guerre.  Le six, une gabarre française est partie du même port pour l’Angleterre, avec 400 prisonniers anglais.

[Six such boats carrying 284 prisoners arrived in Cherbourg on the 4th of this month.  On the 6th, a French river barge left the same port for England, with 400 English prisoners.]

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Brighton seen by Albert Millaud – 1873

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When Albert Millaud boarded the ferry in Dieppe bound for Newhaven he found that: sur le bateau où je me suis embarqué, tout le monde était anglaise. [everyone on my boat was English.]

PS_Alexandra_63

Paddle Steamer Alexandra sailed the Dieppe-Newhaven route from 1863 until 1883. Millaud would have travelled on P.S. Alexandra or P.S. Paris.  Image courtesy of “Our Newhaven” / Derek Longly / Del White.

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Caen Stone: Part Two – 19th century

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In the 11th century, the honey-coloured French limestone used in Sussex may well have come from quarries beneath the centre of the town of Caen itself. William of Normandy had his own quarry at the foot of his castle in the town.  Other quarries opened and closed over the centuries. 

Today there are over 250 hectares (600 acres) of mined galleries beneath the streets of Caen and its suburbs. In a somewhat unpatriotic statement, an inhabitant of the town has compared the area to a certain Swiss cheese: Le sous-sol de Caen est devenu un véritable gruyère constellé d’anciennes carrières. [Underground Caen has become a veritable gruyere cheese, with its constellation of ancient quarries.]

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Caen Stone: Part One – Mediaeval

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You have taken off in a small private plane from Brighton City Airport at Shoreham-by-Sea.  The plane heads directly due south.  About 40 minutes and 177 km later you pass over the coast of France at Ouistreham.  Your pilot follows the course of the river Orne.  Below you, you spot a white gash amid the pattern of green fields. 

L'Ourc Google image

The port of Ouistreham, the Orne river and its canal. In the bottom left-hand corner, the modern outskirts of Caen. (c) Google

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The French Honorary Consul 1821 and 2021

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Early in 2021 Frederic Laloux was appointed French Honorary Consul for Brighton and Newhaven.  M. Laloux is the most recent incumbent of an official post reaching back to at least 1821. This post is unpaid, apart from expenses.  It occasionally carries the title Vice-Consul as the local consuls (there are about 30 across the UK) report to the Consul Général in London.

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Brighton as the first Honorary French Consul would have known it in the 1820s. Image (c) Regency Society / Society of Brighton Print Collectors

 

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Seajet 1979-1980

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« Mesdames et messieurs, nous venons FOILBORNE »

This was the triumphant announcement heard on 29 April 1979 in Brighton Marina.  The English translation which followed might not have been much more enlightening:

“Ladies and gentlemen we are FOILBORNE”

The announcement was made on the first voyage of the Seajet hydrofoil service between Brighton and Dieppe.  This was an exciting new adventure setting out from an exciting new marina.  The high-speed vessel, the Normandy Princess, was underway.

Courtesty of The Keep, Brighton ACC 12085
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