2 weeks Ago
In Brighton and Hove we are blessed by having on our doorstep such wonderful natural beauty, be it the South Downs National Park, Devil’s Dyke, the Hove seafront and, my personal favourite, the Undercliff Walk between the Marina and Saltdean, constructed between 1931 and 1935. The true magnificence of the white chalk cliffs can only truly be appreciated when seen from the Undercliff Walk, towering as they do above ones head. I first discovered the Undercliff Walk in the early 1980s when working at St Dunstan’s, the home for blind ex-servicemen.
I worked at their home in Abbey Road, Pearson House. There was one veteran, Stan, who arrived at Pearson House having been given just a week to live. He had had much of his stomach cut away because of cancer.
But Stan was a stubborn old goat. He refused to die and began struggling around the building while hanging on to the hand rails that lined all corridors at Pearson House. Slowly he build up his strength and within six months I was taking him on five-mile walks along the seafront and the Undercliff Walk to Rottingdean and back.
To put it more accurately, he took me on these walks. I became his ‘dog’ on a short leash while he race-walked with me striding, if not jogging, alongside. We entered two race walks, one in the Blind Olympics, I think they called it, at the track where Linford Christie trained.
Stan came stone last - he was a good forty or fifty years older than all the other competitors but, nevertheless, he got the biggest cheer of all. I’m still a regular on the Undercliff Walk, especially now that I am retired. I enjoy early morning cycle rides, either on my own or with a small group that my friend Neil jokingly describes as “elite cyclists” although we are all over 60, most of us (certainly me) are well beyond our prime, and none of us would be seen dead in Lycra! I also enjoy walks to Saltdean with my sister, Sue, and my dog, Molly.
I’m ignorant when it comes to breeds of birds but Sue can identify and name most. On our walks she points out black and white oyster catchers with their red beaks and red feet, making a sound like a squeaky dog's toy (the oyster catchers, not Sue!). She spots curlews, egrets, various breeds of gulls, as well as jack doors and crows, and she says she once saw a kingfisher down there.
My cycling friends, the ‘elite cyclists’, like it because it is off-road and away from cars. They say it’s a pleasant bike ride, the perfect distance to start the day but, as one said, it has to be early in the day so that it’s not packed with people. Like Sue, they reference birds.
I showed my ignorance and got totally the wrong idea when one mentioned shags which, it turns out, are dark, goose-sized birds with long necks that look similar to Cormorants but are smaller and slimmer with a distinctive steep forehead. On our early morning rides we occasionally see seals between the Marina and Saltdean. I’m usually strongly opposed to so-called ‘shared spaces’ where cars, bicycles and pedestrians are expected to coexist on the same bit of road, such as the space outside St Bartholomew’s Church.
Only an idiot traffic planner would think this is a viable arrangement. There is also another ill-conceived ‘shared space’ for cyclists and pedestrians on pavements around St Peter’s Church. So I open myself to an accusation of hypocrisy by saying that the Undercliff Walk works well as a shared space, but only if cyclists respect pedestrians and their dogs.
There are times when the path ahead is empty, especially in the early morning, when I like to get up a bit of speed, but will slow down to walking pace at busy points, especially when dogs are enjoying the freedom to run off the lead. I appreciate it when cyclists do likewise when Molly is exploring and running about as she has very little road sense. So a huge thank you to David Edwards, the Borough Engineer, who designed the walk, and to local builders F.
G. Longley & Son who built it involving around 500 workers, using over 13,000 tons of cement and 150,000 concrete blocks. It was and remains a significant engineering feat.
Today it remains a gift to us Brightonians, and to future generations it will be a gift that continues to give. Andy Winter is a former councillor who worked in social care and homelessness services for 40 years.
