NEWHAVEN (St. Michael), a parish and seaport, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Holmstrow, rape of Lewes, E. division of Sussex, 7 miles (S.) from Lewes, 9 (E. S. E.) from Brighton, and 58 (S.) from London; containing 955 inhabitants. The ancient name of this place was Meeching; its present appellation was probably given to it about 1713. The town is situated about half a mile from the sea, near the mouth of the river Ouse, over which, about the year 1790, a drawbridge was erected leading towards Seaford, in lieu of a ferry. The streets are neat and clean, the houses respectable, and many of them of modern erection; the neighbourhood abounds with interesting scenery, and the cliffs which guard the coast, about 200 feet high, are of strikingly picturesque appearance. In 1713, an act of parliament was obtained empowering commissioners to repair the piers, and to cleanse and enlarge the harbour of Newhaven; and in 1847, an act was passed for more effectually maintaining the harbour, and the navigation of the river Ouse between Newhaven and Lewes. In the same year, a railway was completed to Lewes in connexion with the Brighton and Southcoast lines. Newhaven is one of the best tide-harbours between the Downs and the Isle of Wight, and the bay forms one of the finest roadsteads on the southern coast. In the early part of the last century the inhabitants were largely engaged in trade, which afterwards declined owing to the decay of the old wooden piers that protected the harbour; but from its improvement, and its having been constituted, under a licence from the lords of the treasury, a bonding port for all kinds of timber, as it was previously for wine and spirits, the commercial interests of the inhabitants have been much advanced. The importation of coal is extensive; there is a considerable importation of timber, wine, spirits, grain, cheese, and butter, from foreign ports, and English oak is shipped for the dockyards: the coastingtrade in flour, butter, and corn, is also of importance. Commodious bonding warehouses have been constructed on the quay, on a principle similar to that adopted at the West India docks. Ship-building is carried on, and there are two breweries. A fair for pedlery is held on October 10th.
The parish comprises 999a. 3r. 14p., of which about 900 acres are arable, pasture, and meadow land of good quality. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £8. 3. 4., and in the patronage of the Crown: the incumbent's tithes have been commuted for £205, and £89 are paid to an impropriator; there is a glebe-house, with a glebe of 6 acres. The church has some traces of Norman architecture, and a tower at the east end, with a small semicircular recess for the chancel beyond it; the nave, which is divided into two aisles by small octagonal pillars, has been modernised. On the northern side of the churchyard is an obelisk, erected to commemorate the wreck of the Brazen sloop of war on the Ave rocks, near the town, during a violent storm on the morning of Jan. 26th, 1800, when Captain Hanson and 95 men were drowned. A national school has an endowment of £500, assigned by Edward Dean, Esq., in 1826. The union of Newhaven comprises 16 parishes or places, containing a population of 3789. On Castle Hill, about a mile from the town, are the remains of a military encampment; the substrata of the hill contain some curious fossils and scarce minerals, among which are hydrate and subsulphate of alumine.
