The first ‘Brightonians’ were a people of Mediterranean stock: not tourists, conference delegates or language students, but Neolithic immigrants who may even have had cannibalistic tendencies! Unlike the aboriginal hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras they were settlers rather than nomads. On Whitehawk Hill, on the narrow ridge just to the north of the actual summit, they built a great causewayed camp, typical of the Neolithic or New Stone Age. Modern radio carbon dating indicates that it was probably built during the early Neolithic period in the fourth millennium B.C. (4000-3000 B.C.). This is earlier than previously thought, although it may not have been in continuous occupation. It comprised four roughly concentric earthworks in an oval formation covering some 12 acres, the greatest dimension from north to south being about 900 ft. The earthworks were interrupted in several places by causeways providing access for the inhabitants and their animals. Many present-day Brightonians who use Manor Hill Road to cross the open ridge between the Whitehawk Estate and the Elm Grove area may not realise that they are passing through one of the oldest settlement sites in Britain. The ditches are silted up and the ramparts eroded, so that the earthworks are hard to trace amidst the rough grass and scrub. Even the ‘pulling up’ ground of Brighton Racecourse penetrates this scheduled ancient monument.

Archaeological research has shown that the inhabitants of Whitehawk Camp not only domesticated animals but also practised some primitive cultivation on the hillsides. They had brought the manufacture of tools and weapons from flint and other hard stones to a fine art and also had knowledge of basic crafts such as pottery and weaving. From the summit of Whitehawk Hill, at a height of about 400 ft., the settlers would have commanded a panoramic view to the west across the downland ridges and valleys that in ages to come would be the site of Brighton, the ‘Queen of Watering Places’, and its sister town of Hove. Beyond, some 12 miles away, they would have been able to see Cissbury Hill where some of the best flint was mined. On a clear day they would glimpse the hump of St Boniface Down on the Isle of Wight, some 40 miles away. Of course, we know not what names, if any, the settlers gave these landmarks, nor if they had any appreciation of a landscape that is held in such esteem today.

In Neolithic times the climate was warmer and wetter and much of the chalk downs would have been covered in scrub or light forest. Springs high in the valleys fed streams that reached the sea a mile or so to the south of the present shoreline. One of the largest was the Wellesbourne in the valley immediately to the west of Whitehawk Hill, which now brings the London Road into Brighton. It may even have had a significant tidal estuary. It now runs underground, although in the torrential rains of 1960 and 2000 it came to the surface, flowing relentlessly across Mill Road and flooding houses in Patcham. Hove, too, had its main stream, the Westbourne, which flowed down the Goldstone Valley, veering westward as it reached the coastal plain to flow into the sea at Aldrington. The main river valleys of the Adur and Ouse further to the west and east were in those ancient times wide inlets of the sea as far as present-day Bramber and Lewes respectively, so that the block of downland in between, bounded on the north by the steep escarpment, was somewhat isolated.

The prehistoric settlers were skilled mariners. Most of the Neolithic immigrants would have sailed from the Mediterranean, braving the turbulent waters of the Western Approaches to make an initial landfall in the West of England and Ireland. Boat building is one of the most ancient of crafts, again developing from intelligent adaptation. It is known that the Ancient Egyptians built ships apparently constructed of planks, propelled by oars and sails, but it is unlikely that the Neolithic immigrants would have had such an advanced technology. In 1972 the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl tested a theory that the Ancient Egyptians could have sailed to the Americas in a papyrus boat. He successfully sailed such a vessel, Ra 2, from Africa to Barbados. It is more likely that the people of the New Stone Age reached the British Isles by such means and reed boats might once have been a familiar sight in the broad estuaries of the Adur and Ouse—and even in the mouth of Brighton’s own Wellesbourne.

In the second millennium B.C. the Bronze Age, accompanied by a colder and drier climate, gradually superseded the New Stone Age. More continental immigrants arrived, generally known today as the ‘Beaker Folk’ from their characteristic flat-bottomed, decorated storage jars and cremation urns. They were altogether more sophisticated, and bracelets of gold and silver have even been unearthed on the Downs at Patcham. They knew how to combine copper and tin with other additives to produce bronze, from which they fashioned more advanced tools and weapons, although flint continued in use at least until the second half of the millennium.

The people of the Bronze Age settled and farmed extensively on the dip-slopes of the Downs, rather than on the hilltops, although there is evidence that Whitehawk Camp was again occupied during this period. One of the most important village sites is on Plumpton Plain north of Falmer, but a very interesting hut site was excavated only recently at Coldean in advance of the construction of the Brighton by-pass. There, stake and postholes indicated a round hut that would have had walls of wattle and a thatched roof, and evidence was found of a double wall, similar to a modern cavity wall, on the side facing the prevailing wind!

Bronze-Age people were responsible for most of the mystical stone and wood circles on the chalk of southern England known as henges. A henge site was discovered at Mile Oak, Portslade in another rescue dig in advance of the construction of the by-pass; the indications were that the henge itself was of wood and not stone. The most numerous of the Bronze-Age remains are the round barrows or burial mounds. There are many on the ridges and spurs of the Downs north of Brighton and Hove, but one of the largest and most famous, about 12 ft. in height and 86 ft. in diameter, was situated on the coastal plain at Hove. It was the focus of a traditional Good Friday celebration until it was removed in 1856/7 prior to the construction of Palmeira Avenue. About 9 ft. below the surface was found the remains of an oak coffin with decayed bone fragments and a number of grave goods, the most important being a beautiful red amber cup.

Prehistoric man managed to transport quite heavy loads, such as flints, pottery clay, timber, agricultural produce and, later, iron ore from the depths of the Wealden forest. The wheel was not known in Britain, however, until the late Bronze Age. It may well have developed from the use of a type of sledge on log rollers to transport henge stones: by intelligent adaptation solid slices of log would be attached rigidly to an axle on a crude cart drawn by oxen. Later, wheels revolving on a fixed axle by means of hub naves were in use. A further advance brought lighter wheels with spokes and, during the succeeding Iron Age, horses were commonly used to haul carts and chariots. It is interesting to surmise how prehistoric man might have carried heavy loads before the development of the wheel during what has been called ‘the Great Bronze-Age Revolution’. Clues to such puzzles can sometimes be obtained by studying the methods of so-called primitive societies. For example, North American Indians not only transported loads in back-packs but used a travois drawn by dog or horse: this consisted of two poles attached at one end to a harness with the other ends trailing on the ground, the load being carried on a frame between the poles.

In the first millennium B.C. there was a gradual infiltration of Celtic immigrants from across the Channel. They knew how to smelt and forge iron, and thus produce more advanced tools and weapons. The Celts practised arable farming on a much wider scale than hitherto, and Celtic fields separated by banks or lynchets are still a common feature of the dip-slopes of the Downs, as on the slopes of Tegdown Hill north of Patcham. The Celts had a tribal organisation and built forts on prominent hilltops, particularly for refuge in time of conflict. The earthworks of such forts, which were once surmounted by wooden palisades, are still a feature of heights forming an arc around the city, particularly Hollingbury Hill, Ditchling Beacon, Wolstonbury, Devil’s Dyke and Thundersbarrow Hill.

In the first century B.C. there was a further immigration of cultured people of Celtic/German stock generally known as the Belgae. They had an aptitude for government and organised the native tribal society into kingdoms. There were some thirty Iron-Age settlements between the Rivers Adur and Ouse, and when the Romans invaded in A.D. 43 under Claudius the Downs from Brighton westwards were part of a Belgic kingdom under Cogidumnus, who founded Chichester as his capital. His subjects were nothing like the woad-painted, uncouth Ancient Britons of folklore; their costumes and jewellery would have pleased any of today’s ethnic dressers!

In the course of three millennia the prehistoric settlers of the Brighton and Hove area established a network of trackways serving the villages, hillforts and field systems. Some are still in use as footpaths and bridleways, in particular the downland ridgeways and the hollow-ways that descend the steep northern escarpment to the Weald below. Some of the modern roads out of Brighton, such as Dyke Road and Ditchling Road, undoubtedly follow these ancient trackways. Access tracks through the Celtic fields can still be traced by double-lynchets, a good example being on Round Hill at Hangleton.

In the late Iron Age wooden ships would have been common along the Sussex coast. There was a shipbuilding industry at Chichester and an extensive trade with the eastern Mediterranean from the Manhood Peninsula, furs and skins being exported in exchange for fabrics and precious metals. Dugout canoes, specimens of which have been found preserved in river beds, including one at South Stoke in West Sussex, were probably still used locally for river transport.