The coastguard cottages at Seaford Head

In the Middle Ages, Seaford was one of the main ports serving Southern England, but the town's fortunes declined due to coastal sedimentation silting up its harbour and persistent raids by French pirates. The coastal confederation of Cinque Ports in the mediaeval period consisted of forty-two towns and villages; Seaford was included under the "Limb" of Hastings. Between 1350 and 1550, the French burned down the town several times. In the 16th century, the people of Seaford were known as the "cormorants" or "shags" because of their enthusiasm for looting ships wrecked in the bay. Local legend has it that Seaford residents would, on occasion, cause ships to run aground by placing fake harbour lights on the cliffs.

Seaford's fortunes revived in the 19th century with the arrival of the railway connecting the town to Lewes and London. It became a small seaside resort town, and more recently a dormitory town for the nearby larger settlements of Eastbourne and Brighton, as well as for London.

GEOGRAPHY

The town lies on the coast near Seaford Head, roughly equidistant between the mouths of the River Ouse and the Cuckmere. The Ouse valley was a wide tidal estuary with its mouth nearly closed by a shingle bar, but the tidal mudflats and salt marshes have been "inned" (protected from the tidal river by dykes) to form grassy freshwater marshes (grazing marsh). To the north the town faces the chalk downland of the South Downs, and along the coast to the east are the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs, and Beachy Head. This stretch of coast is notified for its geological and ecological features as Seaford to Beachy Head Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The River Ouse used to run parallel to the shore behind the shingle bar, entering the sea close to Seaford. However, a major storm in the 16th century broke through the bar at its western end, creating a new river mouth close to the village called Meeching, which was later renamed to Newhaven. Part of the former channel of the river remains as a brackish lagoon.

The town formerly had excellent beaches, which were supplied by longshore drift constantly moving sand along the coast from west to east. However, in the early 20th century a large breakwater was constructed at Newhaven Harbour and the harbour entrance was regularly dredged. These works cut off the supply of fresh sand to the beach. By the 1980s the beach at Seaford had all but vanished, the shoreline becoming steep, narrow and largely composed of small boulders. This made Seaford attractive to watersports enthusiasts (since water visibility was good and there was a rapid drop-off into deep water) but it discouraged more general seaside visitors. So in 1987 a massive beach replenishment operation was carried out, in which around 1 million tonnes of material was dredged from sandbanks out to sea and deposited on the shore. During a severe storm that October a substantial amount of the deposited material on the upper part of the beach was washed out past low tide level, leading to questions in the House of Commons. The beach has been topped up several times since then, giving the town a broad beach of sand and shingle.

The town's publicity website states: "For many, the main attraction in Seaford is the beach", which draws visitors, particularly during the summer months when sea temperatures can reach up to 20°C (68°F).

To the east of Seaford, below chalk cliffs, is a beach called Hope Gap. It is a location in the film Hope Gap.

SOUTH DOWNS KEY FACTS

The South Downs National Park is the newest of the UK’s 15 National Parks. It officially came into being on 31 March 2010. Yet, the idea of a National Park in the South Downs can be traced all the way back to 1929. 

In 2016 the National Park was granted International Dark Sky Reserve status, making it one of the best places in the country to view the night sky. Today, the area is one of only 16 such Reserves in the world. The South Downs Way is one of 15 National Trails. However, it is the only National Trail to lie entirely within a National Park.

The National Park is home to a number of globally important habitats, including lowland heath, described as rarer than rainforest. Woolmer Forest, a lowland heath site, is the only place in the country to have all 12 of the UK’s native amphibian and reptile species. 

Around 4% of the land in the National Park is chalk grassland. Since the Second World War, the UK has lost over 80% of its chalk grassland. 

The South Downs is home to a number of rare species, including the Adonis blue butterfly that thrives in chalk grassland. 

It is thought that the chalk ridgeline of the South Downs Way has been used by people for more than 6000 years. Cissbury Ring, just north of Worthing, is the second largest hillfort in England. It is a Scheduled monument due to its Neolithic flint mines and the remnants of the Iron Age fort. 

The South Downs is the most populous of the UK’s National Park. 117,000 live and work within the Park’s boundaries with an additional 2 million people living within 5km of the Park.

The beaches along the coast of the South Downs National Park, are littered with plastic waste, that is left by visitors, or blown up onto the shore with the tide. Many local groups organise beach cleaning parties on a regular basis, but cannot keep up with the flow of plastic that is being dumped into the sea from rivers all over the world that are unregulated.