EHL73. Replica Cannon Bollards c1900. Willowfield Road, Eastbourne. what3words location: winter.vine.decoding

These three replica cannon bollards would have been part of a line placed in front of Willowfield Higher Grade School, which opened in 1902.  There are a further six remaining bollards in this road, making a total of nine survivors.  In all probability, there would have been a continuous line of these bollards to protect the school children from the road traffic. The adjacent school in Belmore Road was Willowfield Infant School, which opened in 1899 and would probably also have had a line of these bollards.  The schools later became Bourne Junior School and Bourne Infants School; later moving to the old Cavendish School site in Melbourne Road.

Naval historian Martin H. Evans states that decommissioned cannons were used as mooring bollards on naval jetties as a means for tying up ships, whereby the cannon was often buried with the open end of the barrel downwards and the trunnions used to secure the ships ropes. The practice of using old cannons as bollards then spread to the streets of surrounding port towns or cities and were normally placed with the open barrel end uppermost.  This opening was usually sealed with an oversize cannon ball.  Evans does however refute the idea that any of the cannons came from French ships captured at Trafalgar as stated in other articles on this subject.  The practice of using old cannons was obviously popular as replica cannon bollards were then mass produced as the supply of genuine cannons dried up.  The use of the replica cannon bollards then spread to other towns and cities other than those with ports.

Reference’s: -
Old Cannon Reused as Bollards by Martin H. Evans.

Historic UK.
Reliance Foundry.
Willowfield Schools now known as Bourne by Gilbert Hodges, ELHS Journal No20, June 1976.

Bollards very similar to those in Willowfield Road can be seen in Kevin Gordon’s book ‘Eastbourne Through Time,’ Page 62, and in a picture titled ‘Terminus Road and the Railway Station’ on Grenville Godfrey’s flickr site.