Every visitor knows Eastbourne’s pier and seafront — but the town itself is named after something far humbler and much older: a little stream that still bubbles up from the chalk in a quiet Old Town garden. This is the story of the Bourne, the spring that gave Eastbourne both its name and its very beginning.
The stream that named a town
An old English “bourne” is simply a stream, and Eastbourne — the “east bourne” — takes its name from the little watercourse that rises in today’s Old Town and runs down to the sea. Long before the resort was imagined, this was the reason people settled here at all. Like so many ancient villages along the foot of the South Downs, the original settlement grew up around a reliable source of fresh water where springs issued from the chalk. That first settlement of “Bourne” — later called East Bourne to tell it apart from other Bournes — was one of the four humble hamlets, with Meads, South Bourne and the fishing settlement of Sea Houses, that would eventually merge into the modern town.
The source at Motcombe Gardens
You can still visit the exact spot where Eastbourne began. In the pretty, sheltered Motcombe Gardens, tucked into the Old Town, a clear pond is fed by a spring that bubbles up in one corner — the source of the Bourne. Fittingly, the little springhead is watched over by a lead statue of Neptune, god of water. The gardens were once part of Motcombe Farm, and were given to the town by the Duke of Devonshire in 1908. Beside them stand two more echoes of the deep past: an imposing circular flint dovecote with a conical tiled roof, and, just up the hill, the ancient St Mary’s Church.
Did you know? The “Motcombe” name is thought to come from a Saxon “moot,” or meeting place — making this quiet garden not just the source of the town’s water, but quite possibly the spot where its earliest inhabitants gathered to make decisions.
Ponds, mills and the Sheepwash
The trickle you see today was once far more substantial. In earlier centuries a large mill pond, covering much of the low ground now occupied by the gardens, powered a watermill, and old records mention more than one mill worked by the Bourne over the years. Further along its course, near Grove Road, an artificial channel and a long pond known as the Sheepwash were created — used, as the name suggests, for washing sheep, and, going back a couple of centuries, as a fish pond to supply the table. The stream could be unruly, too: the lane beside it flooded so often that carriages and coaches preferred to take the longer, hillier routes between the Old Town and the sea rather than risk getting bogged down in the mud.
Supplying a growing town
As Eastbourne began to grow, the humble Bourne was pressed into more organised service. In 1857 the pond at Motcombe was remodelled to make it a fit source of drinking water — reduced in size, lined with brick and squared off much as it looks today — while a pump and trough were installed at the roadside so residents could still draw water there. Two years later, in 1859, the Eastbourne Waterworks Company was formed, laying pipes from the pond towards Seaside Road, where the water was pumped into a raised reservoir and distributed to the rapidly expanding new town. It was one of the many pieces of infrastructure that made the Dukes of Devonshire’s grand resort possible.
From Bedford Well to Holywell
The little Bourne could only supply so much, of course. As demand soared, the town drew water from Bedford Well, near the present Whitley Road railway bridge, where pumping began in 1883 at a ceremony attended by the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. When that supply began to taste brackish in the mid-1890s, the waterworks turned instead to the springs at Holywell, at the far western end of the seafront — taking over the little fishing hamlet there in the process. Water, it turns out, shaped Eastbourne at almost every turn.
Following the Bourne today
The Bourne still slips quietly out of the Motcombe pond and runs for a few yards in the open before vanishing underground beneath the streets on its old journey to the sea. Motcombe Gardens themselves remain one of the loveliest and most peaceful corners of Eastbourne — a compact garden with sheltered lawns, a bowls club and that historic dovecote, and free to enjoy at any time. It’s the perfect place to stand for a moment at the very source of the town, among the Old Town’s green spaces, and reflect on how a single spring gave rise to a whole seaside town.
The Bourne & Motcombe Gardens: FAQs
Where does the name Eastbourne come from?
From the “bourne” — an old word for a stream — that rises in the Old Town. The settlement was known as Bourne, and later East Bourne, to distinguish it from other places of the same name.
Where is the source of the Bourne?
In Motcombe Gardens in Eastbourne’s Old Town, where a spring bubbles up into a pond watched over by a statue of Neptune. It’s widely regarded as the spot where the town first began.
Can you visit Motcombe Gardens?
Yes — it’s a free public garden in the Old Town, with lawns, a pond, a bowls club and a historic dovecote, overlooked by St Mary’s Church. It’s about a 20-minute walk from Eastbourne railway station.
Can you still see the Bourne stream?
Only briefly. The stream emerges from the Motcombe pond and runs in the open for a short distance before disappearing underground on its way to the sea.
Trace the town’s roots further: explore Eastbourne Old Town, ancient St Mary’s Church, and the full history of Eastbourne.