buildings at 27 and 28 Marine Parade are on the site. Many of the troops were posted away from Sea Houses in 1804. Their services had interested the local civilian population, though, and with the help of shopowner Henry Beck the Society and community continued to thrive after the soldiers' withdrawal. Beck moved from nearby Lewes in 1804 and set up a shop in Sea Houses; he joined the Society and became an important member of the Methodist community: by 1813 he was one of the first recorded Methodist preachers in Sussex. In 1808, Rev. Robert Pilter, known as the "Apostle of Kent" for his Methodist missionary work in that county, became associated with the Eastbourne cause, and further helped its development. Pilter used his experience of establishing a Methodist chapel at Brighton to help the community acquire their first permanent place of worship. He was called to minister elsewhere in Sussex before he could buy a plot of land, but his successor was able to do so almost immediately: in September 1809 Rev. Robert Wheeler paid £145 (equivalent to £ in ) for the site in the Southbourne area, where the present Grove Road runs. The Anglican Diocese of Chichester recorded the chapel's existence in its Records of Dissenting Chapels published on 9 March 1810, and it officially opened 19 days later. The cost of construction was £861 (equivalent to £ in ). In the chapel's early years, locals and the remaining soldiers were joined by increasing numbers of wealthy visitors who were attracted to the growing town of Eastbourne by its new reputation as a high-class resort; £8.10s.- (£ in ) had to be spent on extensions soon after it opened. Difficulties soon arose though: in 1815, the Napoleonic Wars ended and all soldiers posted to Eastbourne left, depriving the chapel of some of its followers. In 1817, Henry Beck moved to Hastings to evangelise that town, which had no Methodist place of worship. Debt was also a problem: the interest rate on the borrowings for the chapel's construction was 5%. The chapel's transfer from the Brighton Methodist Circuit to the much larger Lewes Circuit in 1825 caused disruption, storm damage in the 1840s meant services had to be held in the open air for a time, and the congregation reached a low point in 1860. Pevensey Road Chapel Nevertheless, most debt had been paid off by then,