Abandoned village near Seaford built by mill owners

Sitting half-way between Seaford and Newhaven on the East Sussex coast, Tide Mills was a village built for a specific purpose.

As the name suggests, it was there to house workers at a mill, built by three corn merchants in 1761.

Three stone wheels were powered by water from a pair of tidal ponds, controlled by a dam and a sluice gate, producing up to 1,500 sacks of flour a day at its peak.

Advances in technology led to the mill’s closure in 1883, with the community finally leaving during World War Two, and the site slowly returning to nature.

The site still features the platform of Bishopstone Halt, the railway station opened there in 1864.

Ironically that was one of the reasons for the mill’s closure, with grain arriving at Newhaven then able to be taken directly to London to be milled at a much lower cost.

The population of the village struggled on, growing their own food and finding what work they could until, at the outbreak of World War Two, fear of a German invasion led to them being evicted with 48 hours’ notice.

The site was used as a military training ground for the rest of the war, with the buildings then taken down because of fears over their safety, leaving little but the outline of what was once a living, working community.