The western boundary of Aldrington parish was formed by Aldrington Drove, so named in 1884 but now superseded by Station Road (Portslade-by-Sea), Boundary Road, Carlton Terrace and Hangleton Road.[1]
General Hove notes
As Brighton's importance grew in the 19th century, its authorities made frequent attempts to annexe Hove. Parliamentary Bills for this purpose were proposed in 1844, 1854 (when Brighton Borough was incorporated), 1873, 1876 and 1889, when the Borough enthusiastically supported a proposal by a small group of Hove ratepayers to merge the towns. In 1896, when the incorporation of Hove as a borough was proposed, Brighton Borough Council opposed the Bill and appealed unsuccessfully to the Privy Council.[2]
Until the 19th century, Hove was a small and isolated farming and fishing village. Its population in 1801 was 101, mainly living in "a cluster of houses around a single street". Rapid growth started in the second quarter of the century, and by 1900 Hove was an urban district and municipal borough with more than 33,000 residents. Starting in 1893, when Aldrington was annexed, thousands of acres were added to Hove by the absorption of neighbouring parishes. West Blatchington, Hangleton and parts of Preston Rural and Patcham became part of Hove in 1928, followed by Portslade-by-Sea Urban District in 1974.[3]
Light industrial development occurred around the original Hove station (later Holland Road halt)—where a sawmill was built and sidings later served various industries—and north of the present Hove station, where the Dubarry perfumery, a bakery and a coal depot were built.[4] The former sidings at Holland Road halt are now occupied by the Lyon Close trading estate, and the Sackville trading estate is near Hove station.
"The most crucial development in Hove's history [was] the emergence of Cliftonville as a new urban nucleus." (from "Cliftonville, Hove: a Victorian Suburb", Introduction)
H.J. Green & Company, manufacturers of cake mixes, custard and similar products, were founded in 1911 by Hove grocer Horace Green. A three-storey factory in Lorna Road was supplemented soon afterwards by a factory and offices off Portland Road in Aldrington. By 1978, when the facilities closed and production was transferred to Yorkshire, 300 people were employed and more than 5 million cheesecakes were being made every month.[5]
There was "a long tradition in Hove and Portslade" of building parks and recreation grounds on scraps of land considered unusable for housing because of their former uses. The recreation grounds at Aldrington, The Knoll (Hangleton), Mile Oak and Stoneham Road (Poets Corner) and Davis Park, Vale Park (Portslade) and Fox Way Park (Mile Oak) were all built on sites previously used for the extraction of chalk or flint, dumping of rubbish or brickmaking.[6]