Spot the Dog
An old shaggy dog story
By Sue Craig
Postcard
Unknown
Cliffs between Brighton and Rottingdean
Carol Thomson
The Cliffs, Brighton
Vic Lander
Study of a road near Rottingdean by Sir Edward C. Burne-Jones
The Virtual Museum
Man with dog at Black Rock
Sue Craig
Blow up from Black Rock postcard
Sue Craig
Man with dog at Rottingdean
Rottingdean in old postcards
Landslip at Black Rock
Step Back in Time
Landslip at Black Rock (again!)
Step Back in Time
The Cowley family outside their dairy
Douglas d'Enno
Duke's Mound
Chris Horlock
One of the most challenging sheets to assemble for the East Brighton Seen Exhibition we held in May 2007 was the section on Black Rock. There were SO many similar old postcards that I had difficulty remembering which photos I'd printed and which I hadn't!
Printing out page after page of Landslip at Black Rock, I got quite excited when I first recognised the same dog in these first two postcards. One of the postcards had so obviously been hand-coloured and yet the scene it depicted - a chap wearing a flat cap and tie, perhaps a shepherd with his dog - looks convincing. The other view, however, does not! Although it does not appear to have been retouched the man sporting a bow tie and a bowler hat looks a little ill at ease. What's going on?
Imagine my delight when Vic Lander brought in this third postcard today. I thought it might possibly be Edward Burne-Jones, as he had lived in Rottingdean for many years. I googled him and discovered a painting entitled Study of a Road near Rottingdean which COULD be the same cottage seen from the east. See for yourself by following this link to the virtual museum.
I also followed a link to the My Brighton and Hove website and discovered that Burne-Jones was no admirer of Volk's Daddy Long Legs, which used to run between Paston Place and Rottingdean. Apparently he was pleased when Pioneer was smashed to pieces at Rottingdean by the storm that destroyed the Chain Pier on 5th December 1896. Magnus Volk refused to allow the raging sea to dampen his spirit, however, and he rebuilt the Pioneer. The Daddy Long-Legs resumed its slow journeys to and from Brighton and Rottingdean and remained in service until January 1901.
Continuing to search for images of Burne-Jones at work, I came across this site with a number of wonderful old views of Rottingdean and, indeed, Pioneer. And guess what else? You got it - the same dog. Check out this link and scroll down to the 5th image to see which man is holding the lead.
August update: at the end of May, I was contacted by a postcard dealer who said she had recently acquired a postcard of the same dog, this time at Black Rock, which she was planning to sell on eBay. In the event the postcard did not sell, so I bought it myself! If you look very closely to the left of the centre, you can just make out a tripod with a chap sitting near it. Could this be Mr Cloth Cap? If it is, it would seem that all of these photographs were taken on the same day, on a journey along the cliffs from Black Rock to Rottingdean, or, as Mr Cloth Cap is sitting down at Black Rock, maybe the journey was the other way around. But when? And why?
In an attempt to discover more about the dog (was it perhaps the photographer's own, or his assistant's?), I visited Step Back in Time in Queen's Road and searched through hundreds of images. I found these two postcards showing 'Landslip at Black Rock Brighton showing Farmhouse 2 feet from edge of cliffs'. I'm fairly sure this is the same building, but must be earlier because it shows a farmhouse which has gone (fallen into the sea?) before the photographs with the dog were taken. Also, if you look closely, you can see that Roedean School is in the background which would date the photographs at later than 1897.
I had recently been sent this wonderful old photograph of the Cowley Dairy which was at Black Rock Farm. According to John Davies, who has written an extraordinarily detailed historical gazetteer of Ovingdean Parish, available at the East Sussex Records Office, the farmhouse in our photographs is Roedean Farmhouse, built some time after 1824 which slid into the sea some time between 1909 and 1928. If our photographs do indeed feature this farm, then our journey must surely have been in 1909. This would mean that the crane visible in the Rottingdean photograph is in the process of demolishing, rather than constructing, the pier.
If you look closely at the photos and compare the farmhouse with the Cowley Dairy, you'll notice that the houses are of very similar construction, particularly the roof and the chimneys - one black and white. Possibly the same builder erected both buildings. Or, is it possible that Roedean Farm and Blackrock Farm are one and the same? Describing the Blackrock farm, John Davies writes: "The farmhouse stood on the cliff edge, about 300 metres from the gasometers, in a plot to the east of and adjoining what is now Marine Gate. My earliest record of Blackrock farm is 1839 when Charles and William Cowley were farming and dairying... Blackrock farm disappeared between 1882 and 1909, possibly c1887."
Interestingly, I have come across some deeds of another Black Rock farm in East Brighton. William Hallett, who leased a quantity of land from the Marquess of Bristol, built a farm in the mid 1850s. He also built himself a house which he called the Manor House. The deeds show that his farm was called "Black Rock or Manor" Farm, and the name lives on in the Manor Farm estate. But isn't it unusual to have two properties in such close proximity with the same name?
And, finally, do you think this is the same dog in the photograph of Duke's Mound and the Kemp Town enclosures? Or was this the final photograph taken on the same journey? We'll probably never know, but it's been great fun trying to find out!
This page was added on 11/05/2007.