I knew from the very start that my novel would be set on the coast and the sea would be important to both of my main characters as it is to me.
One of my very favourite books when studying The 19th Century Novel with the Open University was Kate Chopin’s THE AWAKENING and she encapsulates my love of the sea better than I ever could:
I grew up a few miles from Whitley Bay on the Northeast coast and now live in North Hampshire, much further from a beach than I’d like. A regular “sea fix” is essential and this Easter weekend, visiting friends and family has provided lots of opportunities to feed that need.
Whitley Bay will have its place in my next novel but it wasn’t quite right for ‘The Year Without a Summer.’ I needed somewhere which fitted with the Regency period for my 1816 timeline and although the Jane Austen House Museum had provided the inspiration (See - Novel Ideas), Chawton in Hampshire is still too far from the coast. So I chose another place I knew well, Brighton. I lived there in the early 1990s so knew some of the town’s history, but soon realised I had so much more to learn.
Let the Research Begin
I have always been interested in history so for me the research part of novel writing is a dream and I dive in deep, as you can see from the number of tabs!
I didn’t have to read far to find Balsdean, a hamlet east of Brighton in a remote valley on the Sussex Downs. Once a functioning farm with a Georgian manor house, farmhouse and cottages as well as outbuildings and barns. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Defence in 1939 and its occupants given notice to quit. All of the buildings including a 12th Century Norman Chapel were subsequently used for target practice by allied forces – it’s a fascinating story (More info here if you're interested).
I knew nothing of the village remained, but I had to go and see for myself.
A thirty minute walk, northeast from Rottingdean into beautiful rolling downs and I found a trace. A faint footprint of the past in the dry chalk earth and a plaque marking where the alter of the chapel once stood.
The location was perfect. Remote and isolated but only a short walk to the sea. All I needed to do was reimagine a situation where the Old Manor House and the Chapel survived the artillery fire and I had my setting – remote and isolated – exactly what I needed for ‘The Year Without a Summer’.
Magical. The whole subject of lost villages is fascinating, and I think there's quite a few in Sussex. Ones that have been swallowed up by bigger towns as well.