St Aubyns

St Aubyns News

St Aubyns – Update. September 2026

The wildflower meadow has been cut for winter and is developing well. The Parish Council will soon plant several new species to enhance it for next summer.

The hedges around the Field have been trimmed, and the hedge along Newlands Road has been levelled to make future maintenance easier.

We are grateful to Rottingdean in Bloom for volunteering to plant bulbs at the Twitten entrance to the Field, adding visual appeal in spring.

We are aware that the current design of the art installation 'the Sweeps' is vulnerable to damage, and several stones have recently been removed. We are seeking a design solution. In the meantime, please take care around the gabions that secure the stones.

St Aubyns Chapel to be open to the Public.

The opening of the Chapel during May attracted nearly 150 visitors. The St Aubyns working group will to consolidate the ideas put forward by visitors for future use at their next meeting and report to the Council.

Work continues on the Chapel. Polycarbon protection sheets have now been installed to protect the chapel windows that has enabled the boarding to be permanently removed. The next task will be to fit proper lighting and refresh the paint work. We have also installed fire and intruder alarms to the Chapel and Pavilion.

Wildflower Meadow The Parsh Council plan to install a waist-high wood and rope fence around the wildflower meadow with access points and mown paths so that everyone can walk through the meadow and enjoy the flowers.

The Community Field

The Field is for all residents and visitors to enjoy there are however ceratin restrictions for its used as set out in the signs at the entrance and in more detail here. The Parish Council has provided additional seating, picnic tables and bins, as well as appropriate signage.

The Chapel has now been fully restored including refurbishment of the stained glass windows. The Parish Council are currently engaged in cleaning and redecorating the interior and instlling new lighting. In the longer term the aim is to open the Chapel to the public from time to time for informal events and exhibitions.

The former Cricket Pavilion sits at the North West corner of the Field. The Parish Council are currently organising internal decoration and considering how it might be used for the Community benefit in the future.

St Aubyns Community Field

The Reverend Hooker first established a school in the Vicarage wich expanded to Field House on the High Street in the early 19th Century. St Aubyns School came into being in 1895 under the headship of C.E. F. Stanford. The school’s name may relate to the French saint regarded as the patron for protection from pirate attacks, as the village had previously endured pirate raids.

St Aubyns Preparatory School later gained a reputation as a key feeder school for some of the most famous public schools in England, including Charterhouse, Eton and Harrow. It’s alumni included the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, former MP Nicholas Soames and Sir William Shawcross, former Chair of the Charities Commission.
Many sports took place on the field over the years including football, rugby, cricket and hockey, as well as annual sports days. The school Football Alphabet composed circa 1900 included the lines:Sadly, the school lost 102 boys during the two World Wars and there is a memorial to them in the north-west corner of the field. The field has diminished in size over time. In 1979, scrubland at the southern end was sold to Brighton Corporation for £300.000 to form the Long Stay Car Park. Land adjacent to Marine Drive was sold in 1989 for a similar amount as part of a fundraising drive, resulting in the St Aubyns Mead development.

When the school finally closed in 2013, there was consternation in the village about what would happen to the site and, in particular, the playing field. After protracted negotiations, the site was eventually sold to Fairfax LLP. In the meantime, the Parish Council had worked with the City Council to put together a Planning Brief for the site, suggesting a mix of different sized units of accommodation and emphasising the need for the use of local materials such as flint and red paving to ensure the development was in keeping with its location adjacent to the Conservation Area. It also made the case for retaining some recreational space at the heart of the village, a cause taken up by local campaign group SAFE.

As part of the granted planning permission , Fairfax LLP sold the remaining area of the former playing field to the Parish Council for £1 and agreed to leave it in a good state at the point of transfer to the village. St Aubyns Community Field has been landscaped and has a wildflower patch and a play area for little ones. Pathways criss-cross the site to enable access from a number of points. At the point where the pathways intersect, is an art istalation taking its inspiration from the Burne-Jones windows in St Margaret’s church and the Windmill on Beacon Hill.

St Aubyns Field is a community asset owned by the Parish Council for all residents and visitors to enjoy.
As part of the transfer agreement restrictions have been placed on the use of the Field. The open space land on the Playing Field is to be used as public open space for formal and informal recreation only and not for any trade or business and no development requiring planning permission shall be carried out thereon unless it is for the purpose of providing children’s play facilities or sports facilities or for the maintenance of the Playing Field or is required to be carried out by a statutory undertaker or to adapt the pavilion on the Playing Field for a use ancillary to the use of the Playing Field as public open space and to hold the open space land on the Playing Field (as at the date of the Transfer) as public open space under the Open Spaces Act 1906

Since acquiring the Field in June 2025, the Parish Council has provided additional seating, picnic tables and bins, and we have planted a wildflower meadow and a number of trees that will provide shade during the summer. There are however certain restrictions for its use. No vehicles or any motorised or electric bicycles or scooters are allowed on the Field. Small gatherings and picnics are allowed but no barbeques. We welcome dogs walkers provided dogs are either kept on a lead or under close control and dog owners dispose of any waste in the bins provided. Full details can be found here

The Chapel

The chapel was completed in 1912 and dedicated in 1913. It is located to the north of the main school building, and was attached via the substantial extension on the north wing.Though never consecrated, a late-20th century school prospectus describes the routine services held in the chapel for pupils:

“There is a simple 10 minutes service in the School Chapel each morning, except on Sunday when there is Matins or Evensong, usually with a visiting preacher. The services are led by the School choir. The majority of boys are Church of England, but boys of other denominations and faiths are welcomed, and arrangements can generally be made for them to attend.”

At the rear of the Chapel are photographs of the former pupils of St Aubyns School who were killed in the First and Second World Wars including John Kipling son of Rudyard.

The chapel was fully refurbished as part of the St Aubyns development including the restoration of a stained glass window depicting three former pupils. Since then the chapel windows have been cleaned and restored and polycarbon protection sheets put in place for their protection. The next task will be to clean the inside the building, refresh the paint work and fit internal lighting. Once this is completed, the aim at the moment is to consider how the building might be brought into community use.

There are certain restrictions on the use of the Chapel as set out in the transfer documents. It can only be used for (subject to obtaining prior planning permission) the following purposes; for the provision of any medical or health services, as a crèche, day nursery or day centre, for the provision of education, for the display of works of art (otherwise than for sale or hire) as a museum as a public library or public reading room, as a public hall or exhibition hall, for, or in connection with, public worship or religious instruction, a cinema, a concert hall, a dance hall, a public meeting place. a community performing arts venue or a charitable/community café. At the moment the Parish Council is considering allowing occasional access to the chapel and potentially providing the space for exhibitions

The Pavilion

The cricket pavilion is a modest, albeit rather picturesque, and relatively late example of the sport’s architecture. Its timber construction, raised on a brick plinth with veranda is typical of the design of cricket pavilions from the late-19th century, and it is not a rare or unusual example of the building type.
The pavilion carries historic interest at the local level where it reflects the role of cricket as part of the formeschool’s activities, and contributes to Rottingdean’s reputation as one of the oldest cricket-playing towns in Sussex. The pavilion also forms part of a small ensemble of historic ‘civic’ structures for the school use, along with the war memorial and drinking fountain nearby. Together, these illustrate the former function of the playing fields as an integral element within the wider campus of St Aubyns School, albeit only since the interwar period. The deliberate positioning of the pavilion at a higher corner and commanding the field is an element of its setting that contributes to the understanding and appreciation of its former use as a space for sport and leisure by the school pupils

The Pavilion was fully restored, including internal repairs and new roof, prior to transfer to the Parish Council in June 2025. An electricity and water supply has now been connected and an intruder alarm fitted. The Parish Council plans some internal cleaning and decoration and are considering how to bring it into community use. There are covenants on the Pavilion and Field that prohibit any trade or business being in the Pavilion or indeed the Field although occasional use in this way may be permitted.