Shoreham Film Heritage Trail

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Discover the glitz and glamour that lies behind this sleepy seaside town which was once the hub of the British film industry - our very own Tinsel Town by the Sea !

Follow the footsteps of stars of a bygone age to discover the hidden past of the Hollywood of West Sussex. Wander through "Bungalow Town" and picture the hustle and bustle that was once the place to live if you were an up and coming actor or actress in the early days of film. From 1914 to 1923 it became a hive of activity after one of the earliest film studios was started at the Old Fort before a new studio complex was built at the Church of the Good Shepherd where famous films such as Little Dorrit and The Mayor of Casterbridge were filmed.

Your nostalgic journey through Hollywood ends at Marlipins – time to look at the facts and grab some refreshments!

Shoreham Fort

Of the many small forts and gun batteries built along the coast of Southern England during the past few centuries only two survive in anything like their original form. Shoreham Fort, also known as Kingston or Shoreham Redoubt, was completed in June 1857. In the 1850s, when the intentions of the French military was causing apprehension, it was then decided to man and defend the harbour mouth with a permanent fort. The newly constructed harbour entrance, as it was then, was selected as the site for Shoreham Fort – just on the wide shingle spit immediately to the west. This was so that the guns could defend and command the harbour entrance, its approaches and the beach. The fort was built to accommodate two Officers, one Master Gunner and 35 NCO’s and Privates all housed in the barracks. Soon after the fort was completed it was proposed that the fort should be remodelled after criticism in parliament that Shoreham Fort alone would find it difficult to protect the harbour. This criticism seems to have been justified and lead to a new inquiry in about 1859 and three additional fortification expansion works were generously proposed. Although this work never happened the fort was still manned by the volunteers until at least 1896, although the regiment were still in Shoreham until after 1906 and at least one cannon stayed until after 1918, so the fort was manned for a period of roughly 49 years and used for longer. In the Second World War a battery of six-inch guns was erected on the fort, but these have since been removed and only part of the footings survive. The Barrack Block was variously used as a film studio and private dwelling before being demolished in 1959.

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Marlipins

The Marlipins Museum is housed in one of the oldest Norman buildings in Sussex. Behind its striking chequerboard flint and Caen limestone facade the museum tells the story of Shoreham’s maritime and local history from prehistoric to medieval times. Two unexpected local industries, illustrated by the museum’s collection of historic photographs, are Shoreham airport and Shoreham Beach film industry. For a brief period from 1914 – 1923 Shoreham was the centre of the UK’s silent movie industry. The museum is the holder of archive material showcasing this unique piece of film history. The Friends of Marlipins Museum actively seek volunteers and funds to keep this Museum open. The Sussex Archaeological Society curate the exhibitions along with volunteers from the Museum.

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Shoreham Airport

In the early months of 1910, London based artist Harold Piffard set himself up on a piece of grazing land across the river from Shoreham, and so started the story of Shoreham Airport. In 1930 the municipal authorities of Brighton, Hove and Worthing formed a joint committee to establish Shoreham as the municipal airport for three towns. Construction on the Terminal Building began in November 1934.

During 1935 the Croydon based company Olley Air Services Ltd., was appointed to manage the aerodrome and a service, Croydon-Shoreham-Deauville was started on the 13th July. On the 13th June 1936 this exquisite Art-Deco terminal building was officially opened by the Mayors of Brighton, Hove and Worthing. The building remains today very much in its original shape and, as always, is still very much open to the public.

Given its art deco architecture it has appeared in many period films and TV shows including three episode of ITV’s Poirot and major Hollywood blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Woman in Gold (2015). Its appearance in the latter caused some controversies as visitors to the airport to commemorate the 2014 D-Day celebrations found the site festooned in Nazi flags in preparation for its doubling a Vienna Airport during the second world war.

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Church of the Good Shepherd

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Shoreham Beach may be some 800 years newer than the three Norman Churches in Shoreham but its history, whilst shorter, is no less colourful. Following a Beach Mission in 1912, it was decided to build a church in what was then commonly called "Bungalow Town". By February 1913 the site was selected and the plans drawn. Five months later the Church was built and, on 16 July 1913, it was dedicated by the Rt. Revd Charles Ridgeway, the Bishop of Chichester. Almost side by side, in 1914 the Sunny South Film Company started making films on Shoreham Beach. In 1915 Lyndhurst (without his initial collaborators) relocated from the Fort to a site in Kings Gap, just a few metres north-west of the Church of the Good Shepherd. With an £10,00 investment he launched Sealight Film Company and built the glasshouse studio (above). Financial and personal difficulties led to him defaulting on his mortgage, and in 1916 he sold out to the Olympic Kine Trading Company having only made one film. The studios lay dormant until 1919 when the Manchester based Progress Film Company began production under the helm of Sidney Morgan. Over the next three years Progress made more than 20 films, at least 15 at Shoreham, many starring his daughter Joan Morgan. They also developed the site, making Shoreham one of the first studio complexes in Britain with people actors and crew living and working on site. Of their films A Lowland Cinderella (1921) survives in full and fragments remain of their literary adaptations of Mayor of Casterbridge (1921) and Little Dorrit (1920) – the hunt is still on the find the rest! Fire destroyed many of the studio buildings (but not the glasshouse) in 1922 and Progress decided not to return in 1923.

In 1923 film producer Walter West shot two films at Shoreham starring the Vitagraph Girl, Florence Turner. And thus ended Shoreham’s place within the British silent film industry.

At the outbreak of the Second World War much of Bungalow Town was demolished to deter enemy invasion, the Glasshouse survived until 1963. The history of the studios is commemorated in the church by a BFI plaque mounted in 1996 as part of the 100 years of cinema celebrations and an information board.

1922: Bungalow Town on fire newsreel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RT-gC5r8Ks

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