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Southease is a small village and
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in East Sussex, in
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
between the
A26 road The A26 road is a primary route in the southeast of England, going from Maidstone to Newhaven through the counties of Kent and East Sussex. The road is almost entirely single carriageway with one lane on each side, although some of the road is ...
and the C7 road from Lewes to Newhaven. The village is to the west of the River Ouse, Sussex and has a church dedicated to
Saint Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupat ...
. Southease railway station lies roughly a kilometre east over the river and may be reached via a
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...
. The church has one of only three round towers in Sussex, all of which are located in the Ouse Valley and all three built in the first half of the 12th century. It is downstream of Lewes, the county town of East Sussex and upstream of Piddinghoe and Newhaven. Paths along both the banks of the river allow hiking in either direction along the river. The remains of a
slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...
on the west bank of the Ouse just north of the bridge faces
Mount Caburn Mount Caburn is a 146-metre (490 ft) prominent landmark in East Sussex, England, about one mile (1.6 km) east of Lewes overlooking the village of Glynde. It is the highest part of an outlier of the South Downs, separated from the main ra ...
. The nearest village is Rodmell, about a kilometre to the northwest. The
South Downs Way The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England. It is one of 16 National Trails in England and Wales. The trail runs for from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Susse ...
winds its way through the village towards the nearby River Ouse and the railway station. A new bridge has been built over the
A26 A26 or A-26 may refer to: Roads * List of A26 roads Transportation * Douglas A-26 Invader, a light attack bomber built by Douglas * Aero A.26, a Czech reconnaissance aircraft of the 1920s * Focke-Wulf A 26, a German Focke-Wulf aircraft * Blekinge- ...
.New Bridge over A26 near Southease
/ref> Most cottages in the village date from the 17th century.


History


Name

The name seems to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning "South land overgrown with brushwood". It is possible that Northease and Southease take their names from the Rodmell salt industry for the reference to brushwood could have indicated a small coppice industry provisioning the salt rendering ovens. Now little remains of the saltern mounds, for the big farmers have ploughed the land where they once stood.


Historical record

The village first appears in the historical record when King Edgar granted the manor of Southease (including Southease parish, 38 hides, a church and part of
South Heighton South Heighton is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is seven miles (12 km) south of Lewes. In the 1890s the village's population grew from less than 100 to over 500 after a cement manu ...
) to
Hyde Abbey Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538 following various acts passed under King Henry VIII to dissolve monasteries and abbeys (see Dis ...
. It was granted to the abbey again by
King Æthelred King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
in 996. The church dates from the year 966.Southease, Rodmell, Telscombe
Louise Schweitzer
Village history is closely linked with the Ouse and Lewes Levels. In the 11th to 13th centuries drainage of the river allowed more crops to be grown, but subsequent flooding led to more reliance on fishing. At the time of the
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
a thriving community was in place and the village appears to have been the biggest herring fishery in the district, having been assessed for 38,500 herring while Brighton had a mere 4,000. Until 1623 the steward of Southease manor recorded that the tenants were customarily given six good herrings at Lent (four if they came across the river from the manorial outlier of Heighton), as if herrings were still easily obtained in a village that is now stranded four miles from the sea. Telscombe and Southease villages must once have been one community, with Telscombe as an outlier of the mother settlement of Southease. Telscombe peasants always shared common rights with Southease over their brooklands, and the two manors were both owned by Winchester's
Hyde Abbey Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538 following various acts passed under King Henry VIII to dissolve monasteries and abbeys (see Dis ...
for nearly 600 years from Saxon times until the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor probably remained in possession of the king, and in 1546 one John Kerne was appointed bailiff and collector of the manors of Southease, Telscombe and Heighton. There was never a manor house in Southease as it was always owned by absentee landlords. In the 16th century the manor passed to the Sackville family: it was held by Thomas Sackville, his widow Cicely and their grandson
Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
.


19th century

The population of the parish declined through the 19th century. The census recorded a population of 120 in 1841 with the population falling with each census to 66 in 1891. When Telscombe's open fields were
enclosed Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
in 1811 the Down pastures were left as
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a ...
and the Telscombe Tye still is. The village was part of the Holmstrow hundred until the abolition of hundreds in the 19th century.


20th century

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
four Type 24 pillboxes were built, roughly at the corners of the village, with a Type 28 pillbox just to the north. The former were for rifles and light machine guns and the latter was for a 2-pounder anti-tank gun or a 6-pounder Hotchkiss gun. There was also a
Prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...
containing 16
Nissen hut A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of Corrugated galvanised iron, corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British ...
s near the northern farm, the concrete bases of which are still visible. There was also an anti-aircraft gun. The body of the writer
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
was found on 18 April 1941, at Asham Wharf on the east bank of the Ouse, to the north of the bridge, after her suicide by drowning on 28 March.Newhaven to Lewes walk
– mentions Asham Wharf


Notable buildings and areas

Like Iford and Kingston, Southease is a parish of two halves. To the east is the
Lewes Brooks Lewes Brooks is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Lewes in East Sussex. The Falmer-Glynde and the River Ouse, Sussex, Ouse valleys meet in Lewes Brooks, and the Upper and Lower Rises are the remains of the chalk uplands er ...
and to the west is the
South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...
. Between the two sits the Southease village with many old buildings from Soiuthease's rich history.


Parish Church

This is one of three churches in the Ouse valley to have a round 12th century tower – the others are in Lewes and Piddinghoe. The
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...
and
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
date from the 11th century and form the nave of the original building, the chancel and
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...
s having been demolished in the 14th century. There are remains of mural paintings from 1280 on the north and west walls. It is a Grade I listed building. The churchyard is surrounded by mature lime trees and bounded by a flint boundary wall. The church bells were rehung in 2000.


Southease Listed Buildings

Southease has a number of listed buildings givens its grand past, which include Southease Place, Rock and Barn Cottage, Thatched Cottage, The Rectory and Black Lamb House. Southease Place is a 17th-century two-storey house with a tiled
hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
. The lower floor has been refaced with flints, the upper with stucco. It is a
Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
. One of the village's original farmsteads has now been made into two cottages, Rock Cottage and Barn Cottage, with the division having taken place between 1873 and 1899. Rock Cottage forms the western section of the building and Barn Cottage the eastern. Parts of Rock Cottage are 16th century making it the oldest remaining dwellings in the village. Both are
Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
s and stand next to the old southern farmstead, which includes all the traditional 18th century buildings. The late 18th century threshing barn, on the southern boundary, is the dominant feature in views of the village from the South. While the farmhouse was divided into two cottages, Thatched Cottage was once two separate cottages and has been combined into a larger one. It dates from the 18th century and has a thatched hipped roof. It is a
Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
. The Rectory is an L-shaped building with a 16th-century frame that has been stuccoed and a 19th-century addition that has also been stuccoed. A western gable bears the date 1604 and the monogram of John Rivers. It is a
Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
. Black Lamb House is an 18th-century two storey house formerly known as "The Rest" and is also a
Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
.


Southease Brook pastures

Southease brook pastures are still regularly flooded in winter, attracting wintering
snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a ...
and other wildfowl, and raptors to prey upon them. To the north of the lane to Southease Bridge, the pastures are designated as part of the
Lewes Brooks Lewes Brooks is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Lewes in East Sussex. The Falmer-Glynde and the River Ouse, Sussex, Ouse valleys meet in Lewes Brooks, and the Upper and Lower Rises are the remains of the chalk uplands er ...
SSSI ( Site of Special Scientific Interest), although the ditches both there and to the south of the Bridge are heavily dominated by Reed,
Phragmites australis ''Phragmites australis'', known as the common reed, is a species of plant. It is a broadly distributed wetland grass that can grow up to tall. Description ''Phragmites australis'' commonly forms extensive stands (known as reed beds), which may ...
, at the expense of the much wider range of plants and freshwater invertebrates that occurred until modern times. Wild celery,
marsh dock ''Rumex palustris'', or marsh dock, is a plant species of the genus ''Rumex'', found in Europe. The species is a dicot belonging to the family Polygonaceae. The species epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phr ...
,
sea clubrush ''Bolboschoenus maritimus'' is a species of flowering plant from family Cyperaceae. Common names for this species include sea clubrush, cosmopolitan bulrush, alkali bulrush, saltmarsh bulrush, and bayonet grass. It is found in seaside wetland hab ...
and
bulrush Bulrush is a vernacular name for several large wetland grass-like plants *Sedge family (Cyperaceae): **''Cyperus'' **'' Scirpus'' **''Blysmus'' **''Bolboschoenus'' **'' Scirpoides'' **'' Isolepis'' **'' Schoenoplectus'' **'' Trichophorum'' * T ...
still occur, although other special plants, like greater spearwort and
golden dock ''Rumex maritimus,'' commonly called golden dock, bristle dock, or seashore dock, is an annual plant species of the genus ''Rumex''. ''Rumex maritimus'' grows in Argentina, Burma, Canada, China, and the United States. It is native to Canada and ...
appear to have been lost.
Water rail The water rail (''Rallus aquaticus'') is a bird of the Rallidae, rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are bird migration, migratory, but this species is a perma ...
can still be heard from the thick cover of the ditches, and
water shrew Water shrew may refer to any of several species of semiaquatic red-toothed shrews: *Asiatic water shrews ('' Chimarrogale'' spp.) ** Malayan water shrew (''C. hantu'') ** Himalayan water shrew (''C. himalayica'') ** Sunda water shrew (''C. phaeura'' ...
and great silver diving beetle are present. Redshank,
oystercatcher The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The ...
, little egret and common sandpiper can be seen along the Ouse channel banks.


Southease swing bridge

Before bridges spanned the Ouse, the Stock Ferry, several hundred yards down stream of the current bridge, was the usual way of crossing.Southease
A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7, L. F. Salzman (editor), retrieved 15 May 2009
However, the Lower Ouse Improvement Act of 1791 required the ferry to be replaced with a bridge. The bridge had to be substantial enough to allow cattle, people and vehicles to pass over while allowing ships to pass. The original bridge was a wooden
cantilever bridge A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end (called cantilevers). For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed ...
slightly to the north of the current one. The wooden bridge was demolished in 1879 when it was replaced by the current one. The current swing bridge was built in the 1880s and although the swing mechanism remains, it has not been opened since 1967.Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society page with information on Southease Bridge and railway
/ref> In September 2009 the bridge was granted Grade II
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
status. The bridge was closed from 8 June to 26 November 2010 and a scaffold bridge was put in place for walkers and cyclists while the original bridge structure was lifted into the adjacent Environment Agency yard, restored and then replaced. Other traffic had to take a detour for . The wrought iron parts of the bridge were strengthened as it had suffered corrosion and twisting of the supports. The turntable, deck and supporting timbers were replaced.


Southease Hill

To the every east of the parish on the border with Telscombe is Southease Hill. To the north, between the Southease Road and Cricketing Bottom, is a broad-backed sheep-grazed slope, with scattered gorse and thorn brakes. It is a special place for downland flora and fauna. After the war it suffered from the farmer applying agrochemicals there and it is still recovering, but you can find
harebell ''Campanula rotundifolia'', the harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell of Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the temperate regions of the northern hemi ...
s and cowslips flowers in summer and butter waxcap fungi, Hygrocybe ceracea, in autumn and one steep part of the slope () survived the chemical peril, and the old Down pasture herbs and insects are intact in this area.


Hill Buildings

Hill Buildings () was a little Victorian farm built after the
enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
of Southease in 1845. It had two gaunt cottages which were deserted for much of the late 20th century and became ruinous. New cottages have now been built, although the old flint barn and yard survive. To the north is a bushy chalk grassland bank () with spotted orchid and cowslips, round-headed rampion and
dropwort Dropwort is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *'' Filipendula vulgaris'', an herb in the family Rosaceae, growing in dry meadows in Europe and Asia *'' Oenanthe'', a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae, growing in moist habitats ...
. It is grazed, which is important for the diversity of the chalk grassland plants.


Southease railway station

Southease railway station is on the Seaford branch line. Compass Travel runs the 123 bus which stops on the C7 road.


Governance

On a local level, Southease parish is governed as a
Parish Meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...
with twice yearly meetings of the parish electorate. The next level of government is the district council. The parish of Southease lies within the Kingston ward of
Lewes District Council Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of the ...
, which returns a single seat to the council. The election on 12 May 2015 elected a Liberal Democrat East Sussex County Council is the next tier of government, for which Southease is within the Newhaven and Ouse Valley West division, with responsibility for Education, Libraries, Social Services, Civil Registration, Trading Standards and Transport. Elections for the County Council are held every four years. The
Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...
Carla Butler was elected in the 2013 election. The UK Parliament constituency for Southease is Lewes. The Liberal Democrat
Norman Baker Norman John Baker (born 26 July 1957) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewes in East Sussex from the 1997 general election until his defeat in 2015. In May 2010 he was appointed ...
served as the constituency MP from 1997 until 2015, when Conservative Maria Caulfield was elected. Prior to
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
in 2020, Southease was part of the
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...
constituency in the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
.


References


External links


Southease village website



Details about the church at Online Parish Clerks




* ttps://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/TQ4205 Photos of Southease from geograph.org.uk {{authority control Villages in East Sussex Civil parishes in East Sussex