47

There is no individual memorial to view but in the Garden of Rest lie the ashes of Charles and Dorothy Neville [47]. Charles was a property entrepreneur who developed the coast between Newhaven to Rottingdean. He had first sought his fortune in Canada and Australia before returning to his native England.  They owned The Grange [view] (now Rottingdean's library and museum) between 1936 - 1940.

Having purchased land in the area he attempted to sell building plots using all available means including the use of prize competitions, one notorious competition being to name a new town. It could be seen as an early example of the 'Boaty McBoat Face' problem. Despite the winning name being ‘Anzac-on-Sea,’ the military connotations became too sensitive and the name Peacehaven was eventually adopted instead.

Like most of his competitions, it offered as prizes cheap building plots on which Neville’s company could build a home, or free plots, on which they could charge for the conveyancing work. Later, free homes were offered to each winner of a lottery style competition for up to 1,000 plot purchasers.

Many roads in the Peacehaven area are named after people connected with Charles Neville.  The most obvious is Neville Avenue; while Dorothy Avenue is named after his wife (pictured below) and Roderick Avenue is named after his son, who was also one of the directors of the Company.

In Rottingdean, Neville’s companies produced a high quality of development, often in Tudor Style. The picturesque ‘Tudor Cottages' [view] on the corner of Dean Court Road are not Tudor but a clever conversion by Neville, during the 1930’s, utilising a barn and some cottages of Court Farm. On the opposite side of the road more ‘Tudor’ homes appeared when two further agricultural buildings were converted into Tudor Close. The homes did not sell well as they were too expensive at a time of depression, so they were converted into the Tudor Close Hotel.

_{Charles Neville}

_{Dorothy Neville}

_{An aerial view of Tudor Close, also showing the church and village pond.}