Sea Fishing in Brighton

The fishermen were in a sense the aborigines of Brighton then called Brighthelmstone, a small fishing town off the South East coast of England. Then the beach was a mass of fishermen tending to their fishing nets and boats. There was a fish market upon the beach and the fishermen's work extended up off the beach to The Old Steine where it was a common sight to see nets and lobster pots being mended.

Fishing remained the dominant industry in Brighton until Prince Regent first settled here in the late 18th Century after the recommendation of his physicians who considered the sea water might ease the swellings in the glands of his neck. Although the Prince's presence brought considerable prosperity to some local tradesmen, the character of this once quiet fishing town was irrevocably changed as it became a playground for the rich and pampered. Following the building of The Pavilion, the railway was built in the 1840s bringing an even larger number of pleasure-seekers to the town. The fashionable new inhabitants of the town resented the unsightly fishermen who insisted on working on their nets on The Steine. This tension grew reaching its climax in 1822, when the fishermen brought their protest to Brighton Town Hall. The result was that Special Constabularies were appointed and the fishermen got moved off the beach and eventually up to The Marina in the 1970's.