One of the first interesting things I’ve learned about Bexhill in Australia, is that it has absolutely nothing to do with early English settlers from East Sussex. Known as ‘Bald Hill’, the surveyor Mr Ewing recruited a Mr Beck to assist him for a time. Mr Beck must have been particularly good at assisting (or Mr Ewing short on imagination), for it is said that Ewing declared that the hill be known as Beck’s Hill thereafter. And so Bexhill was born – later perhaps mistaken for an English connection, or just coincidentally abbreviated to take on the same spelling.

Bexhill from Beck’s Hill (Louise Kenward, 2014)