Shoreham’s Disappearing Public Hards.
Shoreham is blessed with streets and rights of way down to the river right in the centre of town. These public hards are the stumps of old Norman streets that extended much further south but were eroded by sea and river action. These hards are treasures in Shoreham’s townscape.
But a perfect storm of disinterested local planners, new sea defence walls and unscrupulous special interest groups has lead to these hards facing increasing threats. They are taken as car parks, blocked off by new developments and used as dining spaces. The name signs have disappeared and no provision for parking boat trailers has made some perfectly usable hards, in effect, useless as river launch sites.
A Shoreham Society talk by Kim Matthews
Kim Matthews is well-known to the Shoreham Society as author of Down Channel and as a popular speaker at events in Shoreham. In this talk, Kim will explore the origins of these ancient rights of way and how a thriving harbour community used them commercially or for leisure right up until the recent past. It is not too late to preserve them if we act now.
Shoreham Centre, 7.00pm Friday 17th February 2023
(£2 members, £3 non-members, on the door)
Header Image © Acabashi; Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0; Source: Wikimedia Commons
