James Gray: A photograph of May 1939, showing sheep folded in the field just below Ditchling Road, running along the top of the photograph. The lower road is the present Carden Avenue, approaching Old Boat Corner. The area is the intervening valley is where the Hollingbury Industrial estate was built after the War. jgc_20_168
2018: After nearly 80 years visibility from the original image is impeded. The new image is taken from a different angle looking over Hollingbury Industrial Road, just above the Bramble Way flats.
James Gray: Units of the East Surrey Volunteer Infantry Brigade marching to their lines in Hollingbury Camp on 6 August 1904. At that period there were few houses beyond Osborne Road, other than Boundary House and Hollingbury Court about which controversy is now (1961) raging. This area of Ditchling Road was then outside Brighton and in Patcham Parish. jgc_20_191
James Gray: Not so very long ago this was just a country lane some distance away from Brighton. It served the dual purpose of linking the Ditchling Road and Lewes Road and leading to Coldean Farm that was situated midway between these two roads. In 1936 private builders began the development of Park Road and West Drive, and in 1927 the Hikers’ Rest was erected. Only a few houses were built before the 1939-1945 war, however, and the area did not really develop until 1947 when Brighton Corporation commenced the building of the Parkside housing estate. The purpose of these photographs is to show Coldean Lane as it was. At this period the area lay outside the municipal boundaries and it was not until 1951 that it was absorbed into the Brighton borough. With the completion of the estate and school, increasing traffic and the use of buses made widening of the narrow country lane a necessity and in 1954 it was decided to widen Coldean Lane throughout. This view is of Old Boat Corner, at the Ditchling Road end of the lane. jgc_28_204
2022: This junction between Ditchling Road and Coldean Lane is still known as Old Boat Corner, allegedly named after an upturned boat once used as a shelter for a shepherd or possibly a toll-keeper.(Photographer: Ron Fitton)