measured at , Regency had a population of 8,510. Its population density of 96.25 persons per hectare was much higher than that of the city Brighton and Hove (29.98) and of South East England as a whole (4.2). The ethnic mix is similar to that of the wider city and of South East England as a whole: in the Census, 93.3% of people in Regency classified themselves as White, 2.1% as Mixed, 1.88% as Asian or Asian British, 1.79% as Chinese or Other, and 0.93% as Black British. The largest differences in comparison to Brighton and Hove overall were the lower proportion of White people and the higher proportion belonging to Chinese or other ethnic groups. The gender balance is significantly different from that of the city as a whole: while 48.38% of Brighton and Hove's residents were male (as recorded by the 2001 Census), the proportion rose to 54.49% of people in Regency ward. History The South Downs, a range of chalk hills, surrounded the ancient fishing and farming village of Brighton (formerly Brighthelmston). The downland pasture sloped down to the English Channel coast and was farmed in one of two ways: some parts were divided into strips according to a local system of "laines", furlongs" and "paul-pieces", and other areas were left for the grazing of sheep. The area now covered by Montpelier was an example of the latter. The five laines around Brighton were based on land with a relatively gentle slope; when the gradient or height made the land too difficult to work, no more strips were marked out and the rest of the land was given over to grazing. A map of Brighton from the 1740s shows that a large section in the northwest of the parish—north of West Laine, west of North Laine and bisected by the road to Steyning—was marked as "sheep down". It had no official name at the time, but by 1792 it had become known as Church Hill in reference to St Nicholas Church, the parish church of Brighton which stood on a hillock near the road. The part west of the road was sometimes described as "Church Hill – West Side"; the corresponding "East Side" later became known as West Hill during Brighton's 19th-century growth. The road became a turnpike in 1777, increasing its importance, and became known as Dyke Road. Vine's Mill, one of several windmills built on