REVIEW: Where the grass is always greener 

There is one modest oasis of green among the baked yellow-brown lawns which lie dormant under the relentless sun.  

The grass at Motcombe Gardens is still the correct English summer green. It is a startling sight to drought-weary visitors as a hosepipe ban comes into force. 

I only noticed this verdant phenomenon, pictured below, when looking round after a history talk about the gardens at the weekend. 

But below these gardens in the Old Town is the source of the Bourne stream, the life-giving water from which the town of Eastbourne gets its name. That stream is, presumably, still helping the blades of grass look ‘normal’ during drought conditions.  

On another sweltering August day, a small group gathered in the shade of a gazebo on Saturday to listen to Helen Warren of the Eastbourne Natural History and Archaeological Society recount the history of the gardens and the historic dovecote. 

These small but perfectly formed gardens have a bowling green, with the outline of St Mary’s Church tower visible behind, a large duck pond, the flint dovecote and the green grass with plenty of play and picnic space beneath graceful trees swaying in the breeze. 

But until the 19^th century, the gardens were covered in a large lake which wild birds visited. They came in such numbers that the 9^th Duke of Devonshire, who owned the area, organised shooting parties. The participants would take aim through a gap in the wall near the bowling green, still visible behind the plants.  

The duke, an important landowner in Eastbourne, gifted the gardens to the town in 1908. Just before that, in 1905, Motcombe Baths opened on the other side of the road. 

During the mid-19th century, the government said that cleaning facilities must be made available to the largely unwashed masses. Slipper baths, with a high back and a towel draped across them for modesty, were installed at the baths. 

Helen explained that they were available right up until the 1950s when more houses were built with indoor bathrooms. The cost for a wash and brush-up was 4d or 6d (today’s equivalent of about £1.30 or £1.96). 

She also noted that there was a rule, shocking in the 21st century, which decreed that ‘persons of weak intellect’ were not allowed in the baths under any circumstances unless under medical advice.  

The modern-day Motcombe Pool (above) has been closed since the first Covid lockdown. Eastbourne Borough Council has formed a community interest company to co-ordinate fundraising and grant applications in a bid to raise more than £1 million which is needed to restore the Edwardian building. 

At the western end of the gardens stands the round flint dovecote, dated possibly from the 1400s. This would, said Helen, would have been full of pigeons.  

The young birds were there to be eaten when food was scarce in the winter and their eggs provided further nourishment. The nesting holes ranged (below right) around the domed interior would have housed about 500 birds.

The heart of Motcombe in Crown Street, tucked away near the traffic of the A259 and modern-day Waitrose, still has the distinct feel of a village. What were shops selling haberdashery and provisions to the Victorians are now hairdressers, a takeaway or are in the process of renovation (below right). 

But St Mary’s Church tower and The Lamb, a 12th Century inn to the south (above left), give the area an unmistakeable community feel.

Motcombe Gardens itself would probably take just three minutes to walk around. But it merits a much longer visit to imagine, think – and admire the green green grass. 

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