Brown (Shoreham)

Unidentified publisher of possibly no more than a dozen real photographic cards of Shoreham and Southwick. The black and white photographs are of good quality, with borders, and are marked "Brown, Copyright". The captions are written entirely in capitals, followed by a serial number. Cards seen have numbers ranging from 501 to 511.

The card above shows Shoreham lighthouse and one of the two Mystery Towers, which Royal Engineers began to build in 1918. The plan was to tow the towers by boat up the Channel and then sink them onto the seabed off Dover to help defend the port from submarine attack. The tower shown was never completed and in 1924 was dismantled. Its taller partner was towed away to the Isle of Wight on 12 September 1920, to replace the Nab lightship.

Brown climbed one of the towers to record the views from the top. At least five of his cards show Shoreham, Southwick and the Downs from this vantage point. They can easily be mistaken for low-level air photographs.

Unfortunately, Brown's cards do not disclose his (or her) initials or address. It can be assumed that Brown was a local person, but, as more than twenty people with this surname were resident in the area in the early 1920s, it is impossible to be sure who actually published the cards.

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