History of Brighthelmston or, Brighton as I View It and Others Knew It

Erredge, John Ackerson, -1862Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
927K words
Chapters
93

Tags

English Originals Historical GeographyWorld History Local HistoryAnecdote RecordTown TransformationCity MemorySeaside TownLocal Customs

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.History of Brighthelmston; or, Brighton as I View it and Others Knew It by ErredgeAuthor: Erredge, John Ackerson, -1862,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Nov 25, 2015

Editor's review

This book is a local history of the English seaside town of Brighton. Its author, John Ackerson Erredge, writes from the dual perspective of eyewitness and compiler, recording the urban changes, personal anecdotes, and local scenery of Brighthelmston (Brighton's older name). The title's phrase "Brighton as I View It and Others Knew It" signals that the book combines personal observation with a compilation of historical sources. For local history enthusiasts, its value lies in preserving details of social life, changes in the urban landscape, and folk memory in Brighton around the nineteenth century, and its prose carries the narrative style of Victorian local chronicles. Since the author died in 1862, the contents reflect an earlier period and can serve as reference material for research on the development of English seaside towns and local memory. It is best read as a period-flavored local chronicle rather than a modern urban history monograph.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Begin by browsing the table of contents and chapter titles to locate topics of interest such as urban landscape personalities, or events.
  2. Read alongside maps or historical photographs of Brighton to better understand place names and spatial changes in the book.
  3. Distinguish the author's personal observations from cited historical sources, noting the period bias of local chronicle writing.
  4. Use it as a lead-in book for local history research, following up on names and places mentioned in the text.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93

FAQ

Does this book describe Brighton as it is today? The book describes the historical face of Brighthelmston, Brighton's older name. The author died in 1862, and the contents reflect an earlier period. It is quite distant from present-day Brighton and should not be used as a travel guide.
What do "I" and "others" in the title mean? The title signals that the book combines the author's personal observations with a compilation of sources known to others—both "Brighton as I view it" and "Brighton as others knew it." While reading, note which passages are eyewitness accounts and which are quotations or compilations.
Is it suitable as a historical source for academic papers? It can serve as supplementary material for local history research, but note that it is Victorian-era local chronicle writing with personal viewpoints and period limitations. When citing it, compare it with other sources and do not rely on it alone as core evidence.
What background knowledge is needed to read this book? No specialized background is required, but familiarity with the general development of English seaside towns in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will make it easier to understand the accounts of urban change and local life.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Erredge, John Ackerson, -1862 Author · British

John Ackerson Erredge (d. 1862) was an English antiquary who died in 1862. Public information about his life is very limited: his birth year, birthplace, education and professional career are not clearly recorded. What can be confirmed is his interest in local history, especially the seaside town of Brighton in southern England. His surviving work, History of Brighthelmston or, Brighton as I View it and Others Knew It, is an important early source for the town's local history. Taking the old name "Brighthelmston" as its subject, the book combines antiquarian research with personal observation, tracing the town's historical development while recording the familiar street life of his time, and thus preserving valuable material for later understanding of Brighton's social changes. Only this one work is held in the collection, and its research value lies mainly in this local history.