1) The father of ITV Racing commentator Richard Hoiles once worked in the ticket office at Preston Park Station until around 2011.
2) The Drove, Brighton’s steepest hill known locally as Black Hill, was two-way until the early 1970s. At its steepest point The Drove is a 1:5 gradient as it emerges at Compton Road.
3) From the 1970s until 2009 there was a regular daily train service from Brighton to Edinburgh. It took 11 hours. There was also one to Manchester which took nearly 6 hours.
4) Jockey Tommy Loates, who was born in Derby and won the 1889 Epsom Derby on Donovan, died in Brighton in 1910.
5) The mother of actress Helen Worth (who plays Gail in Coronation Street) was killed in a hit and run accident in Brighton in 1971.
6) In 1990 ex Manchester United captain Roy Keane was due to travel to Hove for a trial after a recommendation from the late Albion defender Paul McCarthy. This was cancelled at the last minute as Albion youth scouts heard that Keane was too small and lightweight for the English game.
7) In 2012, despite not appearing in the city for a number of years, the Red Arrows flew over the the Dyke in transit from the Goodwood Festival of Speed at a height of around 500ft. Several paragliders made emergency descents.
8) In early 1964 in a practice run for the forthcoming “Dagenham Coup” a syndicate of several men monopolised every available Tote window at Hove dog track with the intention of manipulating the betting market. Hove’s dual-sided enclosure persuaded the syndicate that they had to use a much smaller track for the real thing. Hence the coup at the Essex track some months later.
9) In 2007 an amateur filmmaker known as Dumpman, who explores disused railways, walked over a mile from the Eastern Road entrance of the Kemp Town tunnel all the way through to the south portal entrance under Elm Grove school. In a pitch black and silent environment he highlighted ancient railway equipment and a family of foxes. It will be 50 years next year, since the last train ran on the line.
10) A hydrofoil service, which cut the journey time from Sussex to Dieppe to just 100 minutes, ran from Brighton Marina in 1980. However, it was very unreliable and prone to breakdowns. It also caused many passengers acute seasickness. Despite a huge publicity campaign, it closed down after a few months.
There are 17 roundabouts between brighton and winchester.
12. Brighton is rumoured to have numerous lost tunnels underneath it but there is one from the Royal Pavilion to the museum and Dome today which you can still see. This was reputedly so the Prince Regent could move about Brighton without people seeing how overweight he had become, must’ve have been quite wide then.
Dumpman films about old railway lines and stations, tunnels and old depots amongst many other historical sites of interest are listed online, just google Dumpman.