Brighton as a restricted area

Recently reading 'War Time Chronicle- Vera Brittain's War Time Diary 1939-1945'

In an entry for 12th July 1941, Vera Brittain mentioned travelling on a day out from London to Brighton to talk to the Peace Pledge Union, and says was told at the Victoria train station booking office that Brighton was a 'restricted area'.
Seems that she got to visit Brighton without difficulty.

As I live in Brighton, trying to establish exactly what the restrictions in visiting would have been. Have posted on a website for South East England's history and other people have mentioned reading of or hearing from family members about travel permits being needed if non residents wanted to visit coastal areas during World War 2.

But have not been able to locate the exact regulations and the time periods that they were in operation.
Can anyone direct me ?
Many thanks ,

 

Only found this so far-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/37/a7154237.shtml

 

I believe the official terminology was 'Special Coastal Areas'

http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__11331.aspx

See what you mean about zooming in on some 'official' list of the regulations. Think I have them in facsimile form for a city or two... but lord knows where and it wouldn't really answer the specific Brighton query
Might very well be worth searching the Hansard site for 'Emergency Powers Act', 'Air raid precautions' & 'Defence of the realm regulations' as it links quite nicely to specific mentions of an act or power.
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/search/blackout+brighton

And welcome aboard.
Spending more time in Brighton myself of late since a mate moved there. Be interested in your investigations.

 

Thank you for the replies. Helpful.

After some more web-searching seems that the information I am after will be included in the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act passed in August 1939 or perhaps in further amendments which took place in May 1940.

To the best of my knowledge Brighton beach was closed off at the start of July 1940 and the piers had sections removed so they were no longer connected to the land. There would also be a curfew, and of course the standard blackout.
[SIZE=12.8px]Vera Brittain mentions walking on the seafront in her diary entry above, but that the two main seafront hotels, 'The Grand' and 'The Metropole' were closed. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12.8px]Will carry on trying to find the answer and report back. Regards [/SIZE]

 

I have no special knowledge regarding Brighton, but the coastal regulations covered pretty well the whole southern and eastern coasts of Britain, I suspect that they were not formally lifted until well after D Day.

They were certainly made under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act as enhanced in May 1940; They were Emergency Powers (Defence) Regulations; "Defence of the Realm" was a peculiarly WW1 term, not used in WW2.

 

Dover was the only town truly "closed", its administration was turned over to the Navy very early in the war IIRC...there's a couple fo short chapters dealing with Dover in the Southern Railway's official history of the war years, "War On The Line"...It's a very "thin" history but Dover warrants quite a mention as it was essentially a "Southern Rail town" before the war, the rail ferries and railway station and yards were THE big employer in the town...but even so a lot of locals remained as they were essential to running the Billets (hotels) and pubs etc used by the forces' personnel in the town and harbour, and the surrounding area.

Travel was restricted into the coastal crust, but as noted above wasn't much more than satisfying a constable of your business in the area, probably. By 1941 a good part of the population had decamped inland anyway.

Brighton's piers did indeed have sections of the boarding removed...and there were OP's and sandbagged "emplacements" on them - but the Germans were fully aware of this; the breaks and the OPs...and all the other defences along the esplanade...are noted and marked in the series of maps made from aerial recce and issued by the Germans for Sealion.

 

Just had a quick google round, and found snippets like this http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1940/oct/08/holiday-resorts-travel-restrictions which mention restrictions at the far end on pleasure travel into the defence zone. I think the picture of what was happening from 1940-on will be built up from snippets like this.

EDIT: AHA! Quite a lot of information buried in here http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/37/a7154237.shtml

Interesting about the checkpoints. There would have been a lot of checkpoints around anyway in 1940 - Army, Home Guard AND police. be interesting to find out of these ones were distinguished from the others in any way, such as a big "YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A RESTRICTED AREA" notice and list of the defence regulations. but I doubt we'll ever find a picture, unless an official "posed" one, as I'm quite sure taking pics of defences and security preparations was severely frowned on! LMAO

One of the interesting factlets buried in there is that residents inside the 25-mile exclusion zone had their passes marked appropriately to permit travel We often forget about the rapidly-introduced system of security passes and identity cards.

 

Thanks- really pleased how the thread is developing and appreciate all the contributions.

I have tried searching this site

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

But so far haven't managed to find the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act .

Regards

 

I can also tell you that the many and various books on the Sealion period are equally "thin" on this particular aspect, except to say there were movement restrictions in place, you couldn't enter except on legitimate business etc....and I've read most of them LOL The "Stay where you are" and evacuation procedures...or lack of them...gets far more discussion - but the actual nature of the security zone and restrictions no. Yet as these were the strictures that tens of thousands....hundreds of thousands...of people lived under for years it's suprising there's not more personal anecdotes about it!

EDIT: actually, no really the more I think about it, most of what there is outside of the BBC's People's War archives are service or Home Guard anecdotes and memoirs...and of course THEY would have no problems moving around, the whole "defence zone" thing for civilians would all be very opaque to them! Unless they were manning the checkpoints of course, but as these were ten a penny anyway...

 

Yes I think that that personal recollections are helpful, my own interest in the topic started from reading Vera Brittain's diary . And to get a complete picture, I am keen to view the regulations themselves. Not all legislation is enforced, so personal accounts can help advise on how how said legislation was imposed.
From reading recollections from people who were in Brighton in World War 2 , they remember the beaches being closed, a curfew imposed on the sea front,and of course the blackout, along with rationing as the main rules that were part of every day life.

 

Strange that there's no clear-cut records of something we all know happened.

 

It's something I've been lamenting for many years now - that there's no Schenk equivalent for British anti-invasion preparations. there are some great books - it's suprising how useful Peter Fleming still is, for example, when reconciled against other information. Brian Lavery's "We Shall Fight On The Beaches" from a few years back is equally great...but half the book is "wasted" detailing the 1803-5 threat, preparations etc. and comparing THEM with the 1940 situation!

There are also excellent local history" publications on limited areas, and some REALLY decent websites now, particularly on the Home Guard in individual towns and areas...but too many "thin" books written to argue one side of the real threat/no real threat question that's still debated even today. Thankfully, along the way even they provide lots of detail on the anti-invasion preparations that can be reconciled with all the others. And really good stuff on the physical defences, WIlliam Foot's books for example...along with the Defence of Britain Project and overlays on Google Earth.

Just no single, all-encompassing work.

 

Hi folk

You really have me baffled !

On the day before www2 broke out my dad packed the younger members of our family on a fish lorry and sent us off to live in Brighton where we stayed until late 1940.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/68/a2416268.shtml

I was 16 at the time and can not remember any restrictions being placed on the town whatsoever.

Of course, movement on the beach was restricted and lots of the promenade area was covered in barbed wire but there was certainly no restriction in entering or leaving the town itself .

Ron

 

Just remembered I actually have a copy of the Defence Regulations. Couldn't see anything relating to specific geographic areas though.

 

Thanks for all the latest replies. Particularly welcome Ron's comments, and enjoyed reading the post that was linked to the post.
I think my next step will have to be to consult local newspapers of the time ! But any other advice is most welcome.

 

I've a feeling that if you were legitimately IN the Defence Zone, your National ID Card stamped appropriately etc...the "Zone" itself would be pretty much invisible to you. Ron, you'd have been in the town, resident there, before the strictures were applied anyway so you were a "local". There were really only movement restrictions in and out of the Zone itself, not inside it. Probably yes, the only thing you'd have noticed was the access restrictions to the beach etc....and possibly if you'd known Brighton long enough before the war you'd have seen more and more houses vacant, seasonal businesses shut down over the winter not opening for the summer etc.

 

Michael, the newspapers' court notices pages for the area will list any breaches of the defence regulations for which people were brought before the beak But there might not be many of them. I seem to remember a comment somewhere in a book that there was flurry of police activity with respect to the defence regulations across the country as a whole in the first months...whether intentionally or to shock people into respecting them...but it very soon tapered off. Apart from a few exceptions, the penalties were pretty small and petty anyway.

What might be worth finding however is any editions that carried half- or full-page notices regarding the defence regulations immediately after the EP(D)A was passed

 

Thanks for the advice phylo_roadking. I hope to get to the local history centre, 'The Keep' at Moulsecoomb , Brighton, at the end of this month, and will look at local newspapers from the time.