Brighton Midsummer Fencing Festival 2026 – The city – Brighton & Hove

The city of Brighton and Hove today is a vibrant, creative centre for the arts,the LGBTQ+ community, digital media and of course tourism with more than10 million visitors a year. It’s a leading hub for advanced engineering, healthand life sciences and the financial sector. And it’s home to more than 280,000people, of whom 836 are millionaires.

But the city began as a small Saxon farming and fishing village known asBeorthelm’s tun (or farm). Farmers lived above the cliff and fishermen lived onthe foreshore below it. By the 1300s the village had grown into the busymarket town of Brighthelmstone or Brighthamstead with weekly fish, pig andcorn markets and annual fairs.

The town suffered many setbacks. The foreshore dwellings were swept away inviolent storms, it was attacked and burnt by the French, and its fishing fleetblockaded by the Dutch. By the 1700s the town was poor, in decline andpopulated mainly by widows, orphans and the infirm. Then in 1750 the town’sfortunes were changed by a book.

The book was called “A Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in the Diseases ofGlands; Particularly The Scurvy, Jaundice, King’s Evil, Leprosy, and theGlandular Consumption” and was an instant hit, and not just for the catchytitle. Russell promoted the idea that drinking* and bathing in seawater led toimproved health, and the wealthy began to visit Brighton for “the cure”.

George, Prince Regent, was enchanted by the town and the fashionable tonfollowed him. The town expanded to serve its patrons, swelling to encompassthe new developments of Kemptown and Hove.

George brought his at-that-time-illegal Catholic wife to stay, gambling dens,coffee shops, moneylenders, fashion houses and – worse – circulating librariessprang up and the town that we now know and love, Brighton, was broughtinto being.

That’s all very well, but where’s the important history?

A few notable duels are recorded.

The first features swords.

Surgeon and apothecary Henry Kipping was an ardent sportsman, expertswordsman and well-known local gossip and curiosity. Insulted by an armyofficer outside his home in West Street, Kip fought the man in an impromptuduel, won the duel, took the man’s sword and kept it for a week, much to theofficer’s chagrin.

The second features fists and pistols.

Henry Barry, 8th Earl of Barrymore accused Humphrey Howarth, MP, of cheatingat whist, Howarth thumped Barrymore in the eye and the Earl demandedsatisfaction. At dawn the next day a small crowd gathered to witness the duel.As his second primed his flintlock, Humphrey Howarth began to strip. Howarthwas of generous proportions and by the time he was near-naked the crowdwas hooting.

Howarth explained that as surgeon for the British East India Company he hadtreated many gunshot wounds. More deaths were caused by infection fromshreds of clothing forced into the wounds than by bullet. He had stripped to hisbriefs for his health.

The hungover combatants took their marks. Howarth fired at Barrymore andmissed. The Earl discharged his bullet into the air. Honour satisfied, the twomen stumbled off to bed.

Since that time, not much has happened in Brighton and Hove.

A couple of world wars, a slight disagreement between some mods androckers, a hotel bombing, Covid and the occasional rave on the beach hostedby Norman Cook.

Until now.

We welcome you to the Brighton Midsummer Fencing Festival – and suggestthat if you are going to cheat here at whist, don’t get caught.

*Please note that drinking seawater is not currently advised.