Retirement Properties Spotlight in Polegate

Polegate is about four miles north of Eastbourne on a ridge in a gap between the Weald and the South Downs. It remained a small farming community until the coming of the railways when it became an important junction.

Eastbourne is mentioned in Domesday as having a mill, fishery and sixteen salt-houses and no doubt there were salt workings on these coasts since prehistoric times. The Downs from the west come to an abrupt end to the west of Eastbourne and it is the high white cliffs off Beachy Head for which Eastbourne is famous.

The town expanded largely as a result of the Victorians and the fashion for sunny resorts in the nineteenth century. The many beautiful parks and gardens were laid out to absorb the influx of visitors and today they remain as a testament to the Victorians ingenuity for genteel town planning.