Beachy Head

The name Beachy Head appears as 'Beauchef' in 1274, becoming 'Beaucheif' by 1317, and it has nothing to do with the word "beach". Instead, it is a corruption of the original French words meaning "beautiful headland" (beau chef). It was being consistently called Beachy Head by 1724.[1][2]

In 1929, Eastbourne Borough Council bought 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) of land surrounding Beachy Head to save it from development at a cost of about £100,000 (equivalent to £6,467,710 in 2021).[3] This land became known as the Eastbourne Downland Estate.[citation needed]

The prominence of Beachy Head has made it a landmark for sailors in the English Channel. It is noted as such in the sea shanty Spanish Ladies:[4]

The first land we sighted was called the Dodman,
Next Rame Head off Plymouth, off Portsmouth the Wight;
We sailed by Beachy, by Fairlight and Dover,
And then we bore up for the South Foreland light.

The ashes of German social scientist and philosopher Friedrich Engels, one of the fathers of communism, were scattered off the cliffs at Beachy Head into the Channel, as he had requested.[1]

Human remains discovered in the 1950s were subjected to forensic reconstruction, carbon dating, and radioisotype analysis, and it was concluded that they were those of a Roman woman of Sub-Saharan African origin who grew up in the Eastbourne area in about 200–250 CE. She became known as Beachy Head Lady.[5][6][7] However, in 2021, DNA testing indicated she was of "southern European lineage, most likely from Cyprus";[8] the parish later ordered the removal of a plaque erected by the BBC "to commemorate the first black Briton."[9]

^ a b Surtees, Dr John (1997). Beachy Head. Seaford: SB Publications. ISBN 978-1-85770-118-0. ^ Ekwall, Eilert (1960). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-869103-7. ^ Times, 30 October 1929. P. 11 ^ Palmer, Roy (1986). The Oxford Book of Sea Songs. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-214159-0. ^ Miller, Ben (28 March 2014). "Beachy Head Lady was young sub-Saharan Roman with good teeth, say archaeologists – Culture24". Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 21 February 2017. ^ "Centuries-old Beachy Head Lady's face revealed – BBC News". BBC Online. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2017. ^ Mintz, Zoe (4 February 2014). "Face Of 'Beachy Head Lady' Revealed, Roman Era Woman Is A 'Fantastic Discovery'". International Business Times. Retrieved 21 February 2017. ^ "Story of Eastbourne celebrates first year with 23,000 visitors". 27 February 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020. ^ Jack Blackburn (26 October 2023). "Plaque for first black Briton is shelved (she was from Cyprus)". The Times. Retrieved 26 October 2023. Parish councillors in the village of East Dean in East Sussex voted to remove the plaque