Description

Summary: plan, coloured, scanned copy of plan of the Milford on Sea Estate. The property of Colonel Cornwallis West. Signed by C. Evans Vaughan. Includes key plan. Coloured to show proposals for development.

Identification note: Millford is given as Melleford on the plan. In the 1880s William Cornwallis-West of Newlands Manor decided to try to develop Milford into a high-class seaside resort in order to exploit the property he owned on the cliff top with its magnificent views. He wanted to emulate what his friend, the Duke of Westminster, had done at Eastbourne and thereby get himself out of financial difficulties. Plans were made for houses, a hotel, gardens, and a hydropathic establishment, and in preparation roads were laid out and named after the family (Whitby, West, De la Warr, Pless). He placed restrictions on the development to ensure its quality – each plot was ½ - 1 acre and each house should cost at least £1,200. However, the plan never attracted the finance it needed and his vision was never realised. The roads remain though, paying homage to the Cornwallis-West family.