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Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, from the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
'Sūþsēaxe' ('
South Saxons la, Regnum Sussaxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons , capital = , era = Heptarchy , status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)Vassal of Mercia (771–796) , governm ...
'), is a historic county in
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...
. Evidence from a fossil of Boxgrove Man (''Homo heidelbergensis'') shows that Sussex has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years. It is thought to be the oldest human fossil ever discovered in Britain. Near Pulborough, tools have been found that date from around 35,000 years ago and that are thought to be from either the last Neanderthals in northern Europe or pioneer populations of modern humans. On the South Downs lie Neolithic flint mines that date to around 4000BC, some of the earliest in Europe. The county is also rich in remains from the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Prior to Roman invasions it was occupied by a
Belgic tribe The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by J ...
called the
Atrebates The Atrebates (Gaulish: *''Atrebatis'', 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil') were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period, originally dwelling in the Artois region. After the tribes of Gallia Belgica were defeated by Caes ...
. Togibubnus ruled over much of Sussex when the Roman conquest of Britain began and formed most of the Roman canton of the
Regni The Regni, Regini, or Regnenses were a Tribe which occupied modern West Sussex, East Sussex, south-west Kent, eastern Surrey, and the eastern edges of Hampshire. Their Tribal centre was at Noviomagus_Reginorum (Chichester in West_Sussex), close ...
. The retreat of Roman forces in the 5th century facilitated the landing of migrants from what is now Germany and created the kingdom of the
South Saxons la, Regnum Sussaxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons , capital = , era = Heptarchy , status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)Vassal of Mercia (771–796) , governm ...
under King Ælle, who is recorded as having held overlordship over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and as being the first
bretwalda ''Bretwalda'' (also ''brytenwalda'' and ''bretenanwealda'', sometimes capitalised) is an Old English word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from ...
, or 'Britain ruler'. Under
St Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
, Sussex became the last of the seven traditional kingdoms of the
heptarchy The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wess ...
to undergo Christianisation. By the 8th century the kingdom had expanded to include the territory of the
Haestingas The Haestingas, or Heastingas or Hæstingas, were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Not very much is known about them. They settled in what became East Sussex sometime before the end of the 8th century. A 12th-century source suggested th ...
. Around 827 in the aftermath of the
battle of Ellandun The Battle of Ellendun or Battle of Wroughton was fought between Ecgberht of Wessex and Beornwulf of Mercia in September 825. Sir Frank Stenton described it as "one of the most decisive battles of English history". It effectively ended Mercian S ...
, Sussex was annexed by the
kingdom of Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...
, a kingdom that with further expansion became the
kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 1 ...
. In 1066 Norman forces arrived in Sussex, the heartland of King
Harold Godwinson Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...
. Defeating Harold at the
Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...
, William the Conqueror established five (later six) semi-independent territories known as
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
s within Sussex. The South Saxon
see See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...
was transferred from
Selsey Abbey Selsey Abbey was founded by St Wilfrid in AD 681 on land donated at Selsey by the local Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Æðelwealh of Sussex, Sussex's first Christian king. The Kingdom of Sussex was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evangeli ...
to a new cathedral in the city of
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
. Castles were built, many the subject of sieges in the
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
. Sussex was of strategic importance on the most direct route between Angevin lands in England and Normandy. Many Sussex ports, including the
Cinque Ports The Confederation of Cinque Ports () is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier (Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to th ...
, provided ships for military use. A succession crisis in the
kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. ...
led to the
Hundred Years War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
in which Sussex found itself on the frontline. Various rebellions followed in the late medieval period, including the
Peasants’ Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...
,
Jack Cade's rebellion Jack Cade's Rebellion was a popular revolt in 1450 against the government of England, which took place in the south-east of the country between the months of April and July. It stemmed from local grievances regarding the corruption, maladmini ...
and the rebellion of the Merfold brothers. Under Henry VIII, the church in England split from Roman Catholism. Mary I returned England to Catholicism and in Sussex 41 Protestants were burned to death. Under Elizabeth intolerance continued on a lesser scale as many Catholics in Sussex lost their lives at this time. In Elizabeth's reign, Sussex was open to the older Protestant forms practised in the
Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
as well as the newer Protestant forms coming from Continental Europe; combined with a significant Catholic presence, Sussex was in many ways out of step with the rest of southern England. Sussex escaped most of the ravages of the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
with two sieges and one battle. As the Industrial Revolution took hold, the
Wealden iron industry The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Iron ...
collapsed. The growth of the
seaside resort A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...
s in the 18th century was especially significant in Sussex. Sussex men played a significant role in the first world war
Battle of the Boar's Head The Battle of the Boar's Head was an attack on 30 June 1916 at Richebourg-l'Avoué in France, during the First World War. Troops of the 39th Division, XI Corps in the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), advanced to capture th ...
. At the war's end terms of the Armistice were agreed at
Danny House Danny is a Grade I listed Elizabethan red brick mansion near Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, England. It lies at the northern foot of Wolstonbury Hill and may be regarded as one of the finest stately houses in Sussex, with 56 bedrooms and 28 a ...
. In World War Two the county was a base for the
Dieppe Raid Operation Jubilee or the Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) was an Allied amphibious attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in northern France, during the Second World War. Over 6,050 infantry, predominantly Canadian, supported by a regiment o ...
and
D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
. In 1974, the Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex was replaced with one each for
East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and
West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
, which became separate
ceremonial counties The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...
. In the 21st century a county day and a county flag were created for Sussex and a
National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
was established for the South Downs.


Prehistoric Sussex


Stone Age

In 1993 a human-like tibia was found at
Boxgrove Boxgrove is a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in the Chichester District of the English county of West Sussex, about north east of the city of Chichester. The village is just south of the A285 road which follows the line of the R ...
near Chichester. Then in 1996 further
hominid The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the east ...
remains were found: two incisor teeth from a single individual recovered from the lower freshwater deposits at the site. The remains came to be known as "Boxgrove man" and are thought to be a species known as ''
Homo heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of ''H. erectus'' in ...
''.Roberts. Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex (English Heritage Archaeological Report). Summary. p.xix Boxgrove man apparently lived in a temperate stage immediately prior to the
Anglian glaciation The Anglian Stage is the name used in the British Isles for a middle Pleistocene glaciation. It precedes the Hoxnian Stage and follows the Cromerian Stage in the British Isles. The Anglian Stage is correlated to Marine Isotope Stage 12 (MIS 12), ...
, in the
Lower Paleolithic The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in ...
period between 524,000 and 478,000 years ago.C B Stringer and E Trinkham. The Human Tibia from Boxgrove. Chapter 6.2 in Boxgrove: A Middle Pleistocene Hominid Site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex In 1900
Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
flintwork was found at a site in the Beedings. Then in 2007–08 Early Upper Palaeolithic archaeology was found at the same site. The archaeology at the Beedings spans a crucial cultural transition in the European Palaeolithic and therefore provides an important new dataset for the analysis of late Neanderthal groups in northern Europe and their replacement by modern human populations.Pope. Early Upper Palaeolithic archaeology at Beedings. Archaeology International Issue 11: p. 33 It is believed that during the
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
Age nomadic hunters arrived in Sussex from Europe.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. Ch. 3., page=18Peter Drewett. Late Hunters and Gathers ''in'' Leslie. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 14–15 At the time (8000 BC), Britain was still connected to the continent, however the ice sheets over northern Europe were melting rapidly and causing the gradual rising of sea levels, which eventually led to the forming of the Straits of Dover, effectively cutting off the Mesolithic people of Sussex from the continent. There have been archaeological finds from these people, mostly in the central wealden area to the north of the Downs. Large amounts of knives, scrapers, arrow heads and other tools have been found. Close to the River Ouse near Sharpsbridge, a polished axe, polished axe fragments, a chisel and other examples of
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
flintwork have been found. The fact that these implements were found close to the River Ouse suggests that some land clearance may have taken place in the river valley during the Neolithic period.Butler. Mesolithic and later flintwork from Moon’s Farm, Piltdown, East Sussex, SAC. pp. 222–24. From about 4300 BC to about 3400 BC the mining of flint for use locally and also for wider trade was a major activity in Neolithic Sussex.Drewett. Neolithic Sussex: published in 'Archaeology in Sussex to AD 1500: Essays for Eric Holden.' p. 27. There was also a Neolithic pottery industry, with styles of pot reminiscent of finds elsewhere, such as Hembury and Grimston/Lyle Hill.Alison Haggarty. Machrie Moor, Arran: recent excavations at two stone circles. pp. 59–60


Bronze Age

From the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
(about 1400-1100BC) settlements and burial sites have left their mark throughout Sussex.Ann Ellison. ''The Bronze Age of Sussex''. Essay in ''Archaeology of Sussex to AD 1500: Essays for Eric Holden.'' fig.14. - distribution of Bronze Age sites in Sussex. The transition from the late neolithic to the
Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
in Sussex is marked by the appearance of Beaker pottery.Hutton. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles. pp. 88–89. The author discusses the possibility that the Beaker people may not have existed. There have been several finds including some in Beaker settlements; a significant settlement was one discovered near
Beachy Head Beachy Head is a chalk headland in East Sussex, England. It is situated close to Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters. Beachy Head is located within the administrative area of Eastbourne Borough Council which owns the land, formin ...
in 1909. The site was partially excavated in 1970 and the finds included pottery, flints, post settings, shallow pits and a
midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
.Ellison. The Bronze Age of Sussex. Essay published in 'Archaeology of Sussex to AD 1500: Essays for Eric Holden.' p. 30. The presence of Beaker pottery provides the first evidence of the migration of people from northern Europe since the early Neolithic period. In the 1980s some pre-historians doubted the existence of the Beaker people as migrants and suggest that it was possible that the Beaker culture may have just been a new development of the local neolithic people. However more recent ancient human DNA analysis has enabled scientists to establish that the British Beaker populations were in fact more closely related to those originating from central Europe.


Iron Age

There are over fifty Iron Age sites that are known throughout the Sussex Downs. Probably the best known are the hill-forts such as
Cissbury Ring Cissbury Ring is an biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Worthing in West Sussex. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated a Scheduled monument for its Neolithic flint mine and Iron Age hillfort. Cissbury Ring is ...
.Bedwin. Iron Age Sussex-Downs and Coastal Plain: published in 'Archaeology in Sussex to AD 1500: Essays for Eric Holden'. p. 41. A small number of agricultural settlements, or farmsteads, have been excavated on a large scale. The results of these excavations have provided a picture of the economy, based on mixed farming. Artefacts such as iron ploughshares and sickles were excavated. The presence of animal bones, particularly cattle and sheep, attests to the pastoral element to their economy. Various items have been found that indicate that they used to spin and weave the wool they produced. The Sussex Iron Age dwellers supplemented their diet with marine shellfish, the remains of which have been found on several sites. Towards the end of the Iron Age in 75BC, people from the
Atrebates The Atrebates (Gaulish: *''Atrebatis'', 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil') were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period, originally dwelling in the Artois region. After the tribes of Gallia Belgica were defeated by Caes ...
, one of the tribes of the
Belgae The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Ju ...
, a mix of Celtic and German stock, started invading and occupying southern Britain.Koch
Celtic culture. Retrieved 29 October 2011
pp. 195-196
Armstrong. A History of Sussex. Ch. 3. This was followed by an invasion by the Roman army under
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
that temporarily occupied the south-east in 55BC. Then, soon after the first Roman invasion had ended, the Celtic
Regni The Regni, Regini, or Regnenses were a Tribe which occupied modern West Sussex, East Sussex, south-west Kent, eastern Surrey, and the eastern edges of Hampshire. Their Tribal centre was at Noviomagus_Reginorum (Chichester in West_Sussex), close ...
tribe under their leader
Commius Commius (Commios, Comius, Comnios) was a king of the Belgic nation of the Atrebates, initially in Gaul, then in Britain, in the 1st century BC. Ally of Caesar When Julius Caesar conquered the Atrebates in Gaul in 57 BC, as recounted in his '' ...
occupied the
Manhood Peninsula The Manhood Peninsula is the southwest of West Sussex in England. It has the English Channel to its south and Chichester to the north. It is bordered to its west by Chichester Harbour and to its east by Pagham Harbour, its southern headland bein ...
.
Tincomarus Tincomarus (a dithematic name form typical of insular and continental Celtic onomastics, analysable as ''tinco-'', perhaps a sort of fish f Latin ''tinca'', English ''tench''+ ''maro-'', "big") was a king of the Iron Age Belgic tribe of the Atreba ...
and then
Cogidubnus Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus (or Togidubnus, Togidumnus or similar; see naming difficulties) was a 1st-century king of the Regni or Regnenses tribe in early Roman Britain. Chichester and the nearby Roman villa at Fishbourne, believed by some t ...
followed Commius as rulers of the Regni. At the time of the Roman conquest in AD 43 there was an ''
oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...
'' in the southern part of their territory, probably in the Selsey region.Cunliffe. Iron Age communities in Britain. p. 169.


Roman Sussex

After the Roman invasion Cogidubnus was installed or confirmed by the Romans as ruler of the Regni and he took the name Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus and claimed to be ‘'rex magnus Britanniae'’.Cannon. A Dictionary of British History. His name is mentioned in two exceptionally early Roman inscriptions in his capital of
Noviomagus Reginorum Noviomagus Reginorum was Chichester's Roman heart, very little of which survives above ground. It lay in the land of the friendly Atrebates and is in the early medieval-founded English county of West Sussex. On the English Channel, Chichester ...
(Chichester). There are a variety of remains in the county from Roman times, coin hoards and decorated pottery have been found.White. Mid-Fifth Century Hoard. pp. 301–315 There are examples of Roman roads such as: *
Chichester to Silchester Way The Chichester to Silchester Way is a Roman Road between Chichester in South-East England, which as ''Noviomagus'' was capital of the ''Regni'', and Silchester or '' Calleva Atrebatum'', capital of the '' Atrebates''. The road had been entirely ...
* Chichester to London Stane Street Also a variety of buildings, the best known being: *
Bignor Roman Villa Bignor Roman Villa is a large Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display on the Bignor estate in the English county of West Sussex. It is well known for its high quality mosaic floors, which are some of the most ...
*
Fishbourne Roman Palace Fishbourne Roman Palace (or Fishbourne Villa) is located in the village of Fishbourne, Chichester in West Sussex. The palace is the largest Roman residence north of the Alps. and has an unusually early date of 75 CE, around thirty years af ...
* Anderitum (Pevensey Castle) The coast of Roman Britain had a series of defensive forts on them, and towards the end of the Roman occupation the coast was subject to raids by
Saxons The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
.Myers. The English Settlements. pp. 83-89. Additional
forts A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
were built against the Saxon threat, an example in Sussex being
Anderitum Anderitum (also ''Anderida'' or ''Anderidos'') was a Saxon Shore fort in the Roman province of Britannia. The ruins adjoin the west end of the village of Pevensey in East Sussex, England. The fort was built in the 290s and was abandoned after it ...
(
Pevensey Castle Pevensey Castle is a Middle Ages, medieval castle and former Roman Britain, Roman Saxon Shore fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a scheduled monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors. Built ...
). The coastal defences were supervised by the
Count of the Saxon Shore The Count of the Saxon Shore for Britain ( la, comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam) was the head of the Saxon Shore military command of the later Roman Empire. The post was possibly created during the reign of Constantine I, and was probably ...
. There is some suggestion that around the beginning of the fourth century the Roman authorities recruited mercenaries from the German homelands to defend the southern and eastern coasts of Britain.Jones. The end of Roman Britain. pp. 32–37. The area they defended was known as the ''Saxon Shore''. It is possible that these mercenaries remained after the departure of the Roman army and merged with the eventual Anglo-Saxon invaders.


Kingdom of Sussex

The foundation of the Kingdom of Sussex is recorded by the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
'' for the year AD 477, saying that Ælle arrived at a place called
Cymenshore Cymenshore is a place in Southern England where, according to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', Ælle of Sussex landed in AD 477 and battled the Britons with his three sons Cymen, Wlencing and Cissa, after the first of whom Cymenshore was held to ...
in three ships with his three sons and killed or put to flight the local inhabitants.ASC Parker MS. 477AD. The
foundation story An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have sto ...
is regarded as somewhat of a myth by most historians, although the archaeology suggests that Saxons did start to settle in the area in the late 5th century.Welch. Anglo-Saxon England p. 9. The Kingdom of Sussex became the county of Sussex; then, after the coming of Christianity, the see founded in Selsey was moved to Chichester in the 11th century. The See of Chichester was coterminous with the county borders.Diocese of Chichester Website In the 12th century the see was split into two archdeaconries centred at Chichester and Lewes.Diane Greenway. The Medieval Cathedral ''in'' Hobbs. Chichester Cathedral. pp. 14–15 Having fought on the banks of the Mearcredesburna, it seems Ælle secured the area between the Ouse and Cuckmere in a treaty. After Ælle's forces seized the
Saxon Shore The Saxon Shore ( la, litus Saxonicum) was a military command of the late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the "Count of the Saxon Shor ...
fort of
Anderida Anderitum (also ''Anderida'' or ''Anderidos'') was a Saxon Shore fort in the Roman province of Britannia. The ruins adjoin the west end of the village of Pevensey in East Sussex, England. The fort was built in the 290s and was abandoned after it ...
, the South Saxons were able to gradually colonise free of Romano-British control and extend their territory westwards to link with the Saxon settlement at
Highdown Hill Highdown Hill is a hill in the South Downs, with a height of . The summit of the hill and its western slopes lie in the parish of Ferring in the Arun district, while its eastern slopes lie in the borough of Worthing. It is a popular spot for pi ...
. Ælle was recognised as the first '
Bretwalda ''Bretwalda'' (also ''brytenwalda'' and ''bretenanwealda'', sometimes capitalised) is an Old English word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from ...
' or overlord of southern Britain. It has been conjectured that, as Saxon war leader, Ælle may have met his death in the disastrous battle of
Mount Badon The Battle of Badon /ˈbeɪdən/ also known as the Battle of Mons Badonicus ( la, obsessio isBadonici montis, "Blockade/Siege of the Badonic Hill"; ''Bellum in monte Badonis'', "Battle on Badon Hill"; ''Bellum Badonis'', "Battle of Badon"; Old ...
, where the Britons halted Saxon expansion. The Britons were thought to have been led by
Ambrosius Aurelianus Ambrosius Aurelianus ( cy, Emrys Wledig; Anglicised as Ambrose Aurelian and called Aurelius Ambrosius in the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' and elsewhere) was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Sa ...
, although there is no evidence for him being present at the battle. For much of the 7th and 8th centuries, Sussex was engaged in conflict with the kingdom of Wessex to its west. King Æðelwealh formed an alliance with Christian
Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...
against Wessex, becoming Sussex's first Christian king. With support from
St Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
, Sussex became the last major Anglo Saxon kingdom to become Christian. South Saxon and Mercian forces took control of what is now east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. In about 685
Eadric of Kent Eadric (died August 686/ 687?) was a King of Kent (685–686). He was the son of Ecgberht I. Historical context In the 7th century the Kingdom of Kent had been politically stable for some time. According to Bede: Eorcenberht was succeeded by ...
revolted against his uncle (
Hlothhere of Kent Hlothhere ( ang, Hloþhere; died 6 February 685) was a King of Kent who ruled from 673 to 685. Hlothhere succeeded his brother Ecgberht I in 673. His parents were Eorcenberht of Kent and Seaxburh of Ely, the daughter of Anna of East Anglia. I ...
) and with help from Æðelwealh raised a South Saxon army that defeated Hlothhere in battle. Eadric then became sole ruler of Kent. Also in 685, a warband led by the West Saxon prince Cædwalla killed Æðelwealh and "ravaged Sussex by fierce slaughter and devastation". Cædwalla was subsequently driven out of Sussex by two of Æðelwealh's ealdormen, Berhthun and Andhun.
William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a ...
suggests that Eadric became king of the South Saxon kingdom at that time. It is also possible that Sussex could have re-emerged as a regional power. When Cædwalla eventually became king of Wessex, he returned to Sussex, killing its king and oppressing its people, putting them in what Bede called "a worse state of slavery". After the departure of Wilfrid, the South Saxon Diocese was absorbed by the Diocese of the West Saxons, at Winchester. However, by AD 705 the West Saxon Diocese had grown to such a size that it became unwieldy to manage, so
Ine of Wessex Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, ( la, Inus; c. AD 670 – after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor ...
, Cædwalla's successor, resolved with his
witan The Witan () was the king's council in Anglo-Saxon England from before the seventh century until the 11th century. It was composed of the leading magnates, both ecclesiastic and secular, and meetings of the council were sometimes called the Wit ...
to divide the great diocese. Accordingly, a new see was created at
Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. T ...
and four years later the See of South Saxons was reinstated. Following a period of rule by King Offa of Mercia, Sussex regained its independence but was annexed by Wessex around 827. In 860, following the death of Æthelbald king of Wessex, Sussex was fully absorbed into the realm of Wessex.


Late Saxon Sussex

Viking raids took place on Sussex in the following years. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 895 the people of Chichester fought off a large force of raiders, slaying many hundreds of them, and took some of their ships. After the
Battle of Edington At the Battle of Edington, an army of the kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by the Dane Guthrum on a date between 6 and 12 May 878, resulting in the Treaty of Wedmore later the same year. Primary ...
, in Wessex,
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
constructed an integrated network of fortifications and defence with a system of fortresses, known as ''
burh A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...
s'', at its centre. Alfred was able to make it difficult for the Vikings to seize strategically important towns and ports. In Sussex ''burhs'' were built at Chichester, Burpham, Lewes, Hastings and ''
Eorpeburnan ''Eorpeburnan'' is the first place identified in the Burghal Hidage, a document created in the late 9th or early 10th century, that provides a list of thirty one fortified places in Wessex. It details the location of fortifications designed to d ...
''. ''Burhs'' also had secondary roles as economic centres, safe havens in which trade and production could take place. Some of the ''burhs'' became the administrative centres of their districts, headed by ''
thegn In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there w ...
s'', or chieftains. The fortifications seem to have protected Sussex well from attack. By the ninth century, of the many Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, only four remained, namely Wessex, Mercia,
Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
and
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
. Of those four kingdoms, Wessex became dominant and eventually, by Æthelstan's reign (927 to 939), had absorbed the other kingdoms into the one Kingdom of England. During the reign of
Æthelred the Unready Æthelred II ( ang, Æþelræd, ;Different spellings of this king’s name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern diale ...
there was renewed conflict with the Danes. In 998 the Vikings established a base on the Isle of Wight from which they could launch attacks and in 1000 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that "everywhere in Sussex they plundered and burnt as is their custom". After the Danish king
Cnut the Great Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
took the English throne in 1016, there was a brief flowering of Saxon culture in Sussex, as peace returned. Churches were built and wall paintings were created across Sussex, including at Bosham,
Sompting Sompting is a village and civil parish in the coastal Adur District of West Sussex, England between Lancing and Worthing. It is half grassland slopes and half developed plain at the foot of the South Downs National Park. Twentieth-century est ...
, Worth,
Jevington Willingdon and Jevington is one of the civil parishes in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. The t ...
,
Sullington Sullington is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Storrington and Sullington, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the A283 road west of the A24 road, 20 miles (32 km) south of Horsham. In ...
and Clayton. Under Cnut's kingship,
Godwin, Earl of Wessex Godwin of Wessex ( ang, Godwine; – 15 April 1053) was an English nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in Kingdom of England, England under the Denmark, Danish king Cnut the Great (King of England from 1016 to 1035) and his succ ...
rose to prominence. A son of
Wulfnoth Cild Wulfnoth Cild (; died 1014) was a South Saxon thegn who is regarded by historians as the probable father of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and thus the grandfather of King Harold II. Biography It is known that Godwin's father was called Wulfnoth, an ...
, a South Saxon ''thegn'', Godwin was also popular in Sussex. When Godwin refused an order from Edward the Confessor to punish the people of Dover following a violent clash between the people of Dover and
Eustace II, Count of Boulogne Eustace II, (), also known as Eustace aux Grenons ("Eustace with long moustaches"),Heather J. Tanner, 'Eustace (II), count of Boulogne (d. c.1087)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. was Count of Boulogne fro ...
, King Edward sent Godwin and his family into exile. On his return from exile in 1052 Godwin received a hero's welcome in Sussex. After Cnut's death, Godwin's daughter,
Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and vari ...
married
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...
and Godwin's son
Harold Harold may refer to: People * Harold (given name), including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Harold (surname), surname in the English language * András Arató, known in meme culture as "Hide the Pain Harold" Arts a ...
became the last Saxon king of England. Godwin and Harold used Bosham and Pevensey as naval bases from which they protected the coast from pirate raids. Norman influence was already strong in Sussex before the Conquest: the
abbey of Fécamp An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...
had interest in the harbours of
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
, Rye, Winchelsea and Steyning; while the estate of Bosham was held by a Norman chaplain to
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...
.Mark Gardiner and Heather Warne. Domesday Settlement ''in'' Kim Leslie's. An Historical Atlas. pp. 34–35


Norman Sussex

On Friday, 13 October 1066,
Harold Godwinson Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...
and his English army arrived at
Senlac Hill Senlac Hill (or Senlac Ridge) is the generally accepted location in which Harold Godwinson deployed his army for the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. It is located near what is now the town of Battle, East Sussex. The name ''Senlac'' was ...
, just outside Hastings, to face William of Normandy and his invading army.Seward. Sussex. pp. 5–7. On 14 October 1066, during the ensuing battle, Harold was killed and the English defeated. It is likely that all the fighting men of Sussex were at the battle, as the county's
thegns In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there w ...
were decimated and any that survived had their lands confiscated. The Normans buried their dead in mass graves. There were reports that the bones of some of the English dead were still being found on the hillside some years later. Harold held troops in key strategic locations, such as Hastings, Pevensey and Bosham. Bosham was probably Harold's military headquarters, close to his naval headquarters on the Isle of Wight, and from where he could send messages to London. William built
Battle Abbey Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle, East Sussex, England. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St Martin of Tours. It is a Scheduled Monument. The Grade I listed site is now op ...
at the site of the battle of Hastings, and the exact spot where Harold fell was marked by the high altar. After the Norman conquest the 387 manors that had been in Saxon hands were replaced by just 16 heads of manors. The 16 people, in charge of the manors, were known as the '' Tenentes in capite'' in other words the chief tenants who held their land directly from the crown.Friar. The Sutton Companion to Local History. p. 429 The list includes nine ecclesiasticals, although the portion of their landholding is quite small and was virtually no different from that under Edward the Confessor. Two of the lords were Englishmen, Ode (also known as Odo of Winchester), who had been a pre-Conquest treasurer, and his brother Eldred.Dennis Haselgrove. The Domesday Record of Sussex ''in'' Brandon's South Saxons. p. 193 This means that 353 of the 387 manors in Sussex would have been wrested from their Saxon owners and given to Norman Lords by William the Conqueror. The county was of great importance to the Normans, Hastings and Pevensey being on the most direct route for Normandy.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. pp. 48–58 Because of this the county was divided into five new baronies, called
rapes Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, Abusive power and control, ...
, each with at least one town and a castle. This enabled the ruling group of Normans to control the manorial revenues and thus the greater part of the county's wealth. William the Conqueror gave these rapes to five of his most trusted Barons: * Roger of Montgomery - the combined Rapes of Chichester and Arundel. * William de Braose -
Rape of Bramber The Rape of Bramber (also known as Bramber Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England. It is the smallest Sussex rape by area. Bramber is a former barony whose original seat was th ...
. * William de Warenne - Rape of Lewes * Robert, Count of Mortain - Rape of Pevensey * Robert,
Count of Eu Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
- Rape of Hastings Historically the land holdings of each Saxon lord had been scattered, but now the lords' lands were determined by the borders of the rape.Brandon. The South Saxons. Chapter IX. The Domesday Record of Sussex The unit of land, known as the hide, in Sussex had eight instead of the usual four
virgate The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as   hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...
s,(a virgate being equal to the amount of land two oxen can plough in a season). The county boundary was long and somewhat indeterminate on the north, owing to the dense forest of Andredsweald.Brandon. The South Saxons. Ch. VI. The South Saxon Andredesweald. Evidence of this is seen in 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 manusc ...
by the survey of Worth and Lodsworth under
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, and also by the fact that as late as 1834 the present parishes of North and
South Ambersham South Ambersham is a hamlet (place), hamlet in the Chichester (district), Chichester Districts of England, district of West Sussex, England. It lies 0.7 miles (1.2 km) south of the A272 road and 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Midhurst. Until ...
in Sussex were part of
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
.


Sussex under the Plantagenets

During the
Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...
, Sussex found itself on the frontline, convenient both for intended invasions and retaliatory expeditions by licensed French pirates. Hastings, Rye and Winchelsea were all burnt during this period and all three towns became part of the
Cinque Ports The Confederation of Cinque Ports () is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier (Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to th ...
, a loose federation for supplying ships for the country's security. Also at this time,
Amberley Amberley may refer to: Places Australia *Amberley, Queensland, near Ipswich, Australia *RAAF Base Amberley, a Royal Australian Air Force military airbase United Kingdom * Amberley, Gloucestershire, England * Amberley, Herefordshire, England ...
and
Bodiam Bodiam () is a small village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. It lies in the valley of the River Rother, near to the villages of Sandhurst and Ewhurst Green. The MP of the local UK Parliament constituency is Hu ...
castles were built to defend the upper reaches of navigable rivers.


Early modern Sussex

Like the rest of the country, Sussex felt the effects of the Church of England's split with Rome during the reign of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
.Peter Wilkinson. The Struggle for Protestant Reformation 1553-1564: in Kim Leslie's. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 52-53 In 1538 there was a royal order for the demolition of the shrine of
Saint Richard Richard of Chichester (1197 – 3 April 1253), also known as Richard de Wych, is a saint (canonized 1262) who was Bishop of Chichester. In Chichester Cathedral a shrine dedicated to Richard had become a richly decorated centre of pilgrima ...
in Chichester Cathedral,Stephens Memorials of the See of Chichester. pp. 213-214 with Thomas Cromwell saying that there was "a certain kind of idolatry about the shrine". In the reign of Queen Mary, 41 people in Sussex were burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs. Elizabeth re-established the break with Rome when she passed the 1559
Acts of Supremacy The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the Eng ...
and Uniformity. Under
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
, religious intolerance continued, albeit on a lesser scale, with several people being executed for their Catholic beliefs. Sussex escaped the worst ravages of the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, although in 1642 there were
siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...
s at Arundel and Chichester, and a skirmish at Haywards Heath when
Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
marching towards Lewes were intercepted by local Parliamentarians. The Royalists were routed with around 200 killed or taken prisoner. Despite Sussex being under Parliamentarian control, a heavily disguised Charles II was able to evade capture on his journey through the county after the
Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...
in 1651 and make his escape to France from the port of Shoreham.


Late modern and contemporary Sussex

The Sussex women are very nice in their dress and in their houses. The men and boys wear smock-frocks more than they do in some counties.'' - William Cobbett. 1822''Cobbett. Rural Rides. p. 55
The Sussex coast was greatly modified by the social movement of
sea bathing The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Se ...
for health, which became fashionable among the wealthy in the second half of the 18th century. Resorts developed all along the coast, including at Brighton, Hastings, Worthing, and Bognor. At the beginning of the 19th century, agricultural labourers' conditions took a turn for the worse with an increasing amount of them becoming unemployed, while those still working faced their wages being forced down.Harrison. The common people. pp. 249-253 Conditions became so bad that it was even reported to the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
in 1830 that four harvest labourers (seasonal workers) had been found dead of starvation. The deteriorating conditions of work for the agricultural labourer eventually triggered riots, first in neighbouring Kent, and then in Sussex, where they lasted for several weeks, although the unrest continued until 1832 and became known as the Swing Riots.Horspool. The English Rebel. pp. 339 -340 During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, on the eve of the
Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
on 30 June 1916, the
Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed in 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot ...
took part in the
Battle of the Boar's Head The Battle of the Boar's Head was an attack on 30 June 1916 at Richebourg-l'Avoué in France, during the First World War. Troops of the 39th Division, XI Corps in the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), advanced to capture th ...
at
Richebourg-l'Avoué Richebourg-l'Avoué is a village and former commune in the Pas-de-Calais region of France. It was merged with Richebourg-Saint-Vaast to form the commune of Richebourg on 21 February 1971. The village was the site of the Battle of the Boar's ...
. Over a period of less than five hours 17 officers and 349 men were killed. Twelve sets of brothers were amongst the dead, including three from one family. A further 1,000 men were wounded or taken prisoner. The day subsequently became known as "The Day Sussex Died". With the outbreak of
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 opposin ...
, Sussex found itself part of the country's frontline with its airfields playing a key role in the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
and with its towns being some of the most frequently bombed.Kim Leslie and Marlin Mace. Sussex Defences in the Second World War ''in'' Kim Leslie. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 118-119. As the Sussex regiments served overseas, the defence of the county was undertaken by units of the
Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
with help from the
First Canadian Army The First Canadian Army (french: 1reArmée canadienne) was a field army and a formation of the Canadian Army in World War II in which most Canadian elements serving in North-West Europe were assigned. It served on the Western Front from July 1944 ...
.Brandon. Sussex. pp. 302-309. During the lead up to the
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
landings, the people of Sussex were witness to the buildup of military personnel and materials, including the assembly of landing crafts and construction of Mulberry harbours off the county's coast.


Governance

Since its creation in the fifth century, Sussex has been subject to periodic reform of its local governance. After the Reform Act of 1832 Sussex was divided into the eastern division and the western division. These divisions were coterminous with the two original archdeaconries of Chichester and Lewes. In 1889, following the
Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
, Sussex was divided into two administrative counties, East Sussex and West Sussex, using those same boundaries, together with three self-governing county boroughs, Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. In the post-war era, the
New Towns Act 1946 The New Towns Acts were a series of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to found new settlements or to expand substantially existing ones, to establish Development Corporations to deliver them, and to create a Commission to wind up the C ...
designated Crawley as the site of a
new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the county boundaries were revised with the mid-Sussex area of East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and Hassocks being transferred from East Sussex into West Sussex. The Gatwick area that was formerly part of Surrey was transferred to West Sussex. As part of the
Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
, the eastern and western divisions of Sussex were made into the ceremonial counties of East and West Sussex in 1974. Boundaries were changed and a large part of the rape of Lewes was transferred from the eastern division into West Sussex, along with Gatwick Airport, which was historically part of the county of Surrey.UK Government. Local Government Act 1972.
Retrieved 27 January 2014.
The county boroughs were returned to the control of the two county councils but in 1997 the towns of Brighton and Hove were amalgamated as a unitary local authority and in 2000, Brighton and Hove was given City status. Although it is administered as the two ceremonial counties of East and West Sussex, there continue to be a range of organisations that operate throughout the ancient borders of Sussex, such as the
Diocese of Chichester The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was founded in 681 as the ancient Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey, until the see was translated to Chichester in 1075. The cathe ...
,
Sussex Police Sussex Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing in the whole of Sussex. Its jurisdiction covers the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex. The force is headquartered in Malling House, Lewes, East Sussex. His ...
, the
Sussex Archaeological Society The Sussex Archaeological Society, founded in 1846, is one of the oldest county-based archaeological societies in the UK. A registered self-funding charity whose charitable aims are to enable people to enjoy, learn about and have access to the he ...
, the Sussex History Society, and the
Sussex Wildlife Trust The Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT) is a conservation charity which aims to protect natural life in Sussex. It was founded in 1961 and is one of 46 wildlife trusts across the UK and the Isle of Man and Alderney. , it has 33,000 members and manages ...
. In 2007,
Sussex Day Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English C ...
was created to celebrate Sussex's rich
culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
and history. Based on the traditional emblem of Sussex, a blue shield with six gold
martlets A martlet in English heraldry is a mythical bird without feet that never roosts from the moment of its drop-birth until its death fall; martlets are proposed to be continuously on the wing. It is a compelling allegory for continuous effort, expre ...
, the flag of Sussex was recognised by the Flag Institute in 2011. In 2013,
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, also referred to as the levelling up secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction o ...
Eric Pickles Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar (UK Parliament co ...
formally recognised and acknowledged the continued existence of England's 39 historic counties, including Sussex.


Jurisdiction

The system of hundreds had been introduced during the time of the Saxons.Carol Adams. Medieval Administration ''in'' Kim Leslie's. An Historical atlas of Sussex. pp. 40–41. In the 7th century Sussex has been estimated to have contained 7,000 families or hides.Morris. Domesday Book Sussex. Appendix The creation of the rapes by the Normans introduced boundaries that divided some of the hundreds (and also some of the manors) causing a certain amount of fragmentation. The Arundel Rape covered nearly all of what is now West Sussex until about 1250 when it was split into two rapes, the Arundel Rape and the Chichester Rape. Ultimately Sussex was divided into six rapes; Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey and Hastings. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Sussex contained fifty nine hundreds.Brandon. The South Saxons. Appendix A. The Domesday Hundreds of Sussex. pp. 209–220. - notes and statistics given for the individual Sussex hundreds of Domesday Book. This eventually increased to sixty-three hundreds and remained unchanged till the 19th century, with thirty eight retaining their original names.Horsfield. The Histories Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Volume I. p. 78 The reason why the remainder had their names changed was probably due to the meeting-place of the hundred court being altered. These courts were in private hands in Sussex, held by either the Church or the great barons and local lords. Independent from the hundreds were the
boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...
. The county court had been held at Lewes and Shoreham until 1086, when it was moved to Chichester. A petition to parliament of 1336 from the 'community of Sussex' asked to have a place assigned for the holding of the county court. After several changes the act of 1504, during the reign of Henry VII, arranged for it to be held alternately at Lewes and Chichester. In 1107–1109 there was construction of a county gaol, in
Chichester Castle Chichester Castle stood in the city of the same name in West Sussex (). Shortly after the Norman Conquest of England, Roger de Montgomery ordered the construction of a castle at Chichester. The castle at Chichester was one of 11 fortified sites ...
. The castle was demolished in around 1217 and another gaol built on the same site.Pugh. Imprisonment in Medieval England. pp. 75–77 That gaol is known to have been used until 1269, when the site of the prison was given to the Greyfriars to build a priory. In 1242 the counties of Surrey and Sussex were formerly united, and a sharing of prison accommodation resulted almost immediately. Sussex men were imprisoned in Guildford gaol. There were requests for the provision of a county gaol in both Chichester and Lewes at various times to no avail. However the national gaol system became overloaded during the
Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...
of 1381, and the earl of Arundel was obliged to imprison people in his castles at Arundel and Lewes. Thus Sussex managed to get a county gaol again at Lewes in 1487 and there it remained until it was moved to Horsham in 1541 for a period. In the middle of the 16th century, the assizes were usually held at Horsham or East Grinstead.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. p. 128 In the middle of the 17th century, a gaol was built in Horsham, then in 1775 a new gaol was built to replace it. In 1788 an additional gaol was built at Petworth, known as the ''Petworth
House of Correction The house of correction was a type of establishment built after the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601), places where those who were "unwilling to work", including vagrants and beggars, were set to work. The building of houses of correctio ...
''. There were further ''Houses of Correction'' built at Lewes and Battle.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Vol. I. pp. 94–95 It is believed that the last case of someone being executed by being pressed to death (
peine forte et dure ' (Law French for "hard and forceful punishment") was a method of torture formerly used in the common law legal system, in which a defendant who refused to plead ("stood mute") would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon h ...
), in the country, was carried out in 1735 at Horsham. - Cambridge also have a claim to being the last in 1741. The possible reason why the prisoner pretended to be 'dumb' is because if he could not plead, then he could not be convicted. If he could not be convicted then his goods and chattels could not be confiscated, thus he may have been protecting his family from destitution. At the assizes a man who pretended to be dumb and lame was indicted for murder and robbery.The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. p. 343 When he was brought to the bar, he would not speak or plead. Witnesses told the court that they had heard him speak so he was taken back to Horsham gaol. As he would not plead they laid weight on him, then as he still would not plead, they added more, and a further making a total of weight, still he would not speak; so more was added, when he was nearly dead, the executioner, who weighed about or , laid down upon the board which was over him, and killed him in an instant. In 1824 there were 109 prisoners in Horsham Gaol, 233 in Petworth House of Correction, 591 in Lewes House of Correction and 91 in Battle House of Correction.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Vol. I. p. 96 The last public hanging in Sussex was at Horsham in 1844, a year before the gaol finally closed. The
sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
's function was to be responsible for the civil justice within the county. Surrey and Sussex shared one sheriff until 1567 when the function was split. Then in 1571 the two counties again shared one sheriff, finally each county was given their own sheriff in 1636.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Vol. I. pp. 83-86 The office of High Sheriff for Sussex then continued until 1974 when it was ended by the local government re-organisation that split Sussex into the two counties of East and West Sussex.John Godfrey. Local Government in the 19th and 20th Century ''in'' An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 126–127. During time of internal unrest or foreign invasions it was usual for the monarch to appoint a lieutenant of the county.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Vol. I. pp. 79–83 The policy of appointing temporary lieutenants continued until the reign of Henry VIII, when Lords Lieutenant were introduced as standing representatives of the crown. The first ''Lord Lieutenant'' of the County of Sussex was Sir Richard Sackville in 1550; the Lord Lieutenant was usually also the
custos rotulorum ''Custos rotulorum'' (; plural: ''custodes rotulorum''; Latin for "keeper of the rolls", ) is a civic post that is recognised in the United Kingdom (except Scotland) and in Jamaica. England, Wales and Northern Ireland The ''custos rotulorum'' is t ...
of the county and Sackville had been given that the year before. The main duties of the Lords Lieutenant was to oversee the military in the county; in Sussex this was the Militia and the Sussex Yeomanry. As with the Sheriff, the post of Lord Lieutenant of Sussex was ended, in 1974, by the local government re-organisation. There are now separate Sheriffs and Lords Lieutenant for East and West Sussex and the modern day role is largely ceremonial. Private jurisdictions, both ecclesiastical and lay, played a large part in the county. The chief ecclesiastical franchises were those of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...
and also that of Battle Abbey, which was founded by William the Conqueror.Stephens ''Memorials of the See of Chichester'' p. 45 The main lay francises were those of the
Cinque Ports The Confederation of Cinque Ports () is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier (Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to th ...
and the Honour of Pevensey. The Cinque Ports were a group of coastal towns in Kent and Sussex that were given ancient rights and privileges.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities, and Topography of the County of Sussex. Volume II. Appendix pp. 58-59. The main rights were the exemption of taxes and duties and the right to enforce the laws in their jurisdiction. In return for these privileges they were duty bound to provide ships and men in the time of war for the crown. Traditionally when a collection of lands owned by the Crown is held in tenancy then the tenant is known as the tenant-in-chief and the lands held in such a way was called an ''honour''.Friar. The Sutton Companion to Local History. p. 216 The Honour of Pevensey was a collection of estates in Sussex. The Honour of Pevensey was also known as the ''Lordship of Pevensey Castle'' or the ''Honour of The Eagle'' after the lords of L'Aigle who invariably were the tenant-in-chief. The name L'Aigle (French for eagle) is supposedly derived from a town in Normandy, named after an eagle that had built its nest in the area.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities, and Topography of the County of Sussex. Volume I. pp. 312–313.


Borough English in Sussex

Borough-English was the custom that lands should descend to the youngest son or daughter, or, in default of issue, to the youngest brother of the deceased. The name originated from a case in Nottingham in 1327 when the English borough, or part of the town, held to
ultimogeniture Ultimogeniture, also known as postremogeniture or junior right, is the tradition of inheritance by the last-born of a privileged position in a parent's wealth or office. The tradition has been far rarer historically than primogeniture (sole inhe ...
and the French (Norman) part to
primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
. In Sussex, inheritance by Borough-English could still be found on 134 manors after 1750.Thirsk. Agrarian History. p. 295
Gavelkind Gavelkind () was a system of land tenure chiefly associated with the Celtic law in Ireland and Wales and with the legal traditions of the English county of Kent. The word may have originated from the Old Irish phrases ''Gabhaltas-cinne'' or ...
was the practice of partible or equal inheritance, as opposed to primogeniture. It was predominant in Kent but was also found, across the county border, in Sussex. It existed in Rye, in the large manor of Brede, and in Coustard manor (in Brede parish).Hannah. Sussex Coast. p. 394 Borough-English and gavelkind were finally abolished in England and Wales by the
Administration of Estates Act 1925 The Administration of Estates Act 1925 is an Act passed in 1925 by the British Parliament that consolidated, reformed, and simplified the rules relating to the administration of estates in England and Wales. Principal reforms All authority th ...
.


Religion

Several polytheistic religions, including Celtic polytheism and Roman religion, were practised in Sussex before Christianity was firmly established there in the 7th century. Christianity was practised during part of the Romano-British period, but was replaced in the 5th century by the polytheistic religion of the South Saxons. According to
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
, it was the last area of what was to become England to be converted.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. pp. 38-40Bede.HE.IV.13 After the Council of London of 1075 decreed that sees should be centred in cities rather than
vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...
s,Kelly. The Bishopric of Selsey ''in'' Mary Hobbs. Chichester Cathedral. p. 9 the South Saxon diocese, with its see at Selsey was transferred to Chichester. As was the case in the rest of the country, the Church of England's split with Rome during the reign of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
was felt in Sussex. There had been twenty years of religious reform, when the Catholic, Mary Tudor succeeded to the throne of England in 1553.Kitch. The Reformation in Sussex ''in'' Studies in Church History. p. 77 Mary's persecution of Protestants earned her the nickname ''Bloody Mary''. The number of Protestants burnt at the stake during her reign was around 288 nationwide and included 41 in Sussex. Most of the executions in Sussex were at Lewes. In 1851 the authorities organised a census of places of worship in England and Wales.John Vickers. Religious Worship 1851 ''in'' Leslie's. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 76-77 The figures for Sussex indicated that there were more Anglican than non-conformist places of worship. In the neighbouring counties of Hampshire and Kent, there were more non-conformist places than Anglican.


Parliamentary history

The
Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...
history of the county began in the 13th century. In 1290, the first year for which a return of knights of the shire is available, Henry Hussey and William de Etchingham were elected.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Volume II. Appendix pp. 23-75. In 1801 the Members of Parliament (MPs) for the counties on the south coast of England were elected to a third of all the seats in parliament, although they represented only about 15% of the nation's population.Richard Childs. Parliamentary Representation ''in'' Leslies, An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 72-73. The design of the country's electoral system had changed little since the first parliament in 1295. The counties each returned two MPs and each borough designated by Royal charter also returned two MPs. This produced the situation where some of the towns of the north that had grown large during the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
had no representation whereas smaller towns in the south that had been important in medieval times were still able to have two MPs. Although there had been various proposals to reform the system since 1770, it was not until 1830 that a series of factors saw the
Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...
introduced. The larger industrial towns of the north were enfranchised for the first time and smaller English boroughs (known as
Rotten Boroughs A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electora ...
) were disenfranchised, including Bramber,
East Grinstead East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...
, Seaford,
Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles (6.4 km) north of the ...
and
Winchelsea Winchelsea () is a small town in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. Th ...
in Sussex. The
Representation of the People Act 1884 In the United Kingdom under the premiership of William Gladstone, the Representation of the People Act 1884 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 3, also known informally as the Third Reform Act) and the Redistribution Act of the following year were laws which f ...
and the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...
(together known as the
Third Reform Act In the United Kingdom under the premiership of William Gladstone, the Representation of the People Act 1884 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 3, also known informally as the Third Reform Act) and the Redistribution Act of the following year were laws which ...
) were responsible for redistributing 160 seats and extending suffrage. After the Reform Act of 1832 Sussex was divided into the ''eastern division'' and the ''western division'' and two representatives were elected for each division. In June 1832 the Honorable C.C. Cavendish and H.B. Curteis Esquire were elected in the eastern division and the Earl of Surrey and Lord John George Lennox were elected for the western division. There was a total of 3478 votes cast in the eastern division and 2365 votes in the western division. Before the 1832 reform two members each had been returned by
Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much large ...
, Chichester, Hastings,
Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...
, Lewes,
Midhurst Midhurst () is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother inland from the English Channel, and north of the county town of Chichester. The name Midhurst was first recorded in 1186 as ''Middeh ...
, New Shoreham (with the
Rape of Bramber The Rape of Bramber (also known as Bramber Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England. It is the smallest Sussex rape by area. Bramber is a former barony whose original seat was th ...
) and Rye. Arundel, Horsham, Midhurst and Rye were each deprived of a member in 1832, Chichester and Lewes in 1867, and Hastings in 1885. Arundel was disfranchised in 1868, and Chichester, Horsham, Midhurst, New Shoreham and Rye in 1885. Under the new system the constituencies were based on unit numbers rather than historic towns. The reforms of the 19th century made the electoral system more representative, but it was not till 1928 there was universal suffrage for men and women over 21.


Rebellions, riots and unrest

Sussex, from its position, was constantly the scene of preparations for invasion, and was often involved in rebellions.Brandon. Sussex. p. 295 In 1264 a group of barons led by
Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...
, launched a civil war against Prince Edward, in the name of Henry III, known as the
Second Barons' War The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the fut ...
. On 12 May 1264, Simon de Montfort's forces occupied a hill known as 'Offam Hill' outside Lewes. Royalist forces tried to storm the hill for over five hours but ultimately were defeated by the barons'. The actual site of what became known as the
Battle of Lewes The Battle of Lewes was one of two main battles of the conflict known as the Second Barons' War. It took place at Lewes in Sussex, on 14 May 1264. It marked the high point of the career of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and made h ...
is somewhere between the town and the hill.Seward. Sussex. p. 125Horspool. The English rebel. pp. 84-85 During the 19th century, Victorian road builders constructing the Brighton-Lewes turnpike in the area of the battle discovered mass graves with around 2000 bodies in them. During the Middle Ages the Wealden peasants rose up in revolt on two ocaasions, the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 under
Wat Tyler Wat Tyler (c. 1320/4 January 1341 – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to London to oppose the institution of a poll tax and to demand economic and social reforms. Wh ...
, and in
Jack Cade Jack Cade's Rebellion was a popular revolt in 1450 against the government of England, which took place in the south-east of the country between the months of April and July. It stemmed from local grievances regarding the corruption, maladmini ...
's rebellion of 1450.Brandon Sussex p. 164 Cade's rebellion was not just supported by the peasant class, but many gentlemen, craftspeople and artisans, as well as the Abbot of Battle and Prior of Lewes, flocked to his standard in revolt against the corrupt government of Henry VI. Jack Cade was fatally wounded in a skirmish at Heathfield in 1450. At the time of the English Civil War the county's sympathies were divided: Arundel supported the King, while Chichester, Lewes and the Cinque Ports were for Parliament.Stephens. Memorials of the South Saxon See and the Cathedral Church of Chichester. pp. 284–285 Most of the west of the county were for the King and included a powerful group with the bishop of Chichester and Sir Edward Ford, sheriff of Sussex, in their number. Exceptionally, Chichester was for Parliament, largely due to an influential brewer named William Cawley. However the group of royalists led by Edward Ford managed to get a force together to capture Chichester in 1642 for the King and imprisoned 200 parliamentarians. The
roundhead Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...
army under Sir William Waller besieged Arundel and after its fall marched on Chichester and restored it to Parliament.Stephens. Memorials of the South Saxon See and the Cathedral Church of Chichester. pp. 286-287 A military governor,
Algernon Sidney Algernon Sidney or Sydney (15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist and colonel. A member of the middle part of the Long Parliament and commissioner of the trial of King Charles I of Englan ...
was appointed in 1645. Chichester was then demilitarised in 1647–1648 and remained in Parliament's hands for the rest of the civil war.Horsfielde. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. Volume II. p. 7 The brewer William Cawley became an MP for Chichester in 1647 and was one of the signatories on King Charles I's death warrant. At the beginning of the 19th century, agricultural labourers' conditions took a turn for the worse with an increasing amount of them becoming unemployed, while those remaining employed faced their wages being forced down. Conditions became so bad that it was even reported to the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
in 1830 that four harvest labourers (seasonal workers) had been found dead of starvation. The deteriorating conditions of work for the agricultural labourer eventually triggered riots in Kent during the summer of 1830. Similar action spread across the county border to Sussex where the riots lasted for several weeks, although the unrest continued until 1832 and were known as the Swing Riots. The Swing riots were accompanied by action against local farmers and land owners. Typically, a threatening letter would be sent to a local farmer or leader demanding that automated equipment such as
threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshi ...
s should be withdrawn from service, wages should be increased and there would be a threat of consequences if this did not happen. The letter would be signed by a mythical
Captain Swing "Captain Swing" was a name that was appended to several threatening letters during the rural Swing Riots of 1830, when labourers rioted over the introduction of new threshing machines and the loss of their livelihoods. The name was made-up and ...
. This would be followed up by the destruction of farm equipment and occasionally arson. Eventually the army was mobilised to contain the situation in the eastern part of the county, whereas in the west the
Duke of Richmond Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor dynasty, Tudor and House of Stuart, Stuart families. The current dukedom of Richmond was ...
took action against the protesters by the use of the yeomanry and special constables.Andrew Charlesworth, Brian Short and Roger Wells. Riots and Unrest ''in'' Kim Leslie's. An Historical atlas of Sussex. pp. 74–75 The Sussex Yeomanry were subsequently disparagingly nicknamed the ''workhouse guards''. The protesters faced charges of arson, robbery, riot, machine breaking and assault. Those convicted faced imprisonment,
transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
or ultimately execution. The grievances continued encouraging a wider demand for political reform, culminating in the introduction of the Reform Act 1832. One of the main grievances of the Swing protesters had been what they saw as inadequate
Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...
benefits, Sussex had the highest poor-relief costs during the agricultural depression of 1815 to the 1830s and its workhouses were full. The general unrest, particularly about the state of the workhouses, was instrumental in the introduction of the
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relief ...
.Roger Wells. The Poor Law 1700-1900 ''in'' Kim Leslie's. Historical atlas of Sussex. pp. 70–71


Wars

During the
French revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...
and Napoleonic wars (1793–1815), a European coalition was formed that included Britain, with the intention of crushing the newly founded French Republic. This led to defensive measures being taken in Sussex. In 1793 at Brighton two Artillery battery, batteries were built on the town's east and west cliffs (replacing older installations).Bill Woodburn. Fortifications and Defensive Works 1500-1900 ''in'' Kim Leslie's. An Historical Atlas of Sussex.pp. 102-103 The Sussex Yeomanry was founded in 1794, and numbers of gentlemen and yeomen volunteered to join the part-time cavalry regiment to serve in case of invasion by Napoleon, Bonaparte.Murland. Departed Warriors: The Story of a Family in War. pp. 57–79. Between 1805 and 1808 a series of defensive towers known as Martello towers were erected along the Sussex and Kent coasts, and later on the east coast. The British Admiralty, Admiralty commissioned a visual signalling system to allow communications between ships and the shore and from there to the Admiralty in London; Sussex had a total of 16 signalling stations on its coast. A central fort and supply base for the towers, the Eastbourne Redoubt at Eastbourne was constructed between 1804–1810. It is now home to the Royal Sussex Regiment Museum. In the 1860s, possible Napoleonic Wars, wars with France prompted more defence building, including the fort at Newhaven Fort, Newhaven. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the landowners of the county employed their local leadership roles to recruit volunteers for the nation's forces. The owner of Herstmonceux Castle, Claude Lowther, recruited enough men for three Southdown Battalions that were known as ''Lowther's Lambs''.Keith Grieves, 'Lowther, Claude William Henry (1870–1929)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007. The Royal Sussex Regiment fielded a total of 23 battalions in the Great War.Brandon. Sussex. pp. 300–301. After the war, St George's Chapel, in Chichester Cathedral, was restored and furnished as a memorial to the fallen of the Royal Sussex Regiment. Nearly 7,000 of the regiment lost their lives in the First World War, and their names are recorded on the panels that are attached to the walls of the chapel.Atkinson. Chichester Cathedral. p. 4.
On the Sussex boys are stirring
In the wood-land and the Downs
We are moving in the hamlet
We are rising in the town;
For the call is King and Country
Since the foe has asked for war,
And when danger calls, or duty
We are always to the fore.
''From Lowther's Lambs marching song''.
With the declaration of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, Sussex found itself part of the country's frontline with its airfields playing a key role in the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
and with its towns being some of the most frequently bombed. The first line of defence was the ''coastal crust'' consisting of pillboxes, machine-gun posts, trenches, rifle posts, anti-tank obstacles plus scaffolding, mines and barbed wire. As the Sussex regiments were serving overseas for large parts of the war, the defence of the county was undertaken by units of the
Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
with help between 1941 and early 1944 from the
First Canadian Army The First Canadian Army (french: 1reArmée canadienne) was a field army and a formation of the Canadian Army in World War II in which most Canadian elements serving in North-West Europe were assigned. It served on the Western Front from July 1944 ...
. During the war every part of Sussex was affected. Army camps of both the tented and also the more permanent variety sprang up everywhere. Sussex played host to many servicemen and women, including the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, the 4th Mechanized Brigade (United Kingdom), 4th Armoured Brigade, the 30th Infantry Division (United States), 30th US Division, the 27th Armoured Brigade and the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, 15th Scottish Division. Besides airmen and women from the British Commonwealth, fighter squadrons from the Free Belgian Forces, Free Belgian, Free French Air Force, Free French, Czech Air Force, Free Czechs, Polish Armed Forces in the West, Free Polish were regularly based at airfields around Sussex. During the lead-up to the
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
landings, the people of Sussex were witness to the build-up of military personnel and materials, including the assembly of landing crafts and construction of Mulberry harbours off the county's coast. Five new airfields were built to provide additional support for the D-Day landings, four near Chichester and one near Billingshurst. A legacy of the D-Day landings are the sections of Mulberry harbour that lay broken and abandoned on the sea floor off the coast, of Selsey Bill, having missed the invasion.Kendall McDonald. The Mulberry that missed the invasion ''in'' McDonalds. The Underwater Book. pp. 91–115


Economy of Sussex

Sussex was an industrial county from the Stone Age, with the early production of flint implements until when the use of coal and steam power moved industry nearer the coalfields of the north and midlands.Brandon. Sussex. p. 169. The county also has been known for its agriculture.


Agriculture

Sussex has retained much of its rural nature: apart from the coastal strip, it has few large towns. Although in 1841 over 40% of the population were employed in agriculture (including fishing), today less than 2% are so employed. The wide range of soil types in the county leads to great variations in the patterns of farming. The Wealden parts are mostly wet sticky clays or drought-prone acid sands and often broken up into small irregular fields and woods by the topography, making it unsuitable for intensive arable farming. Pastoral or mixed farming has always been the pattern here, with field boundaries often little changed since the medieval period. Sussex cattle are the descendants of the draught oxen, which continued to be used in the Weald longer than in other parts of England. Agriculturalist Arthur Young (writer), Arthur Young commented in the early 18th century that the cattle of the Weald "must be unquestionably ranked among the best of the kingdom." William Cobbett, riding through Ashdown Forest, said he had seen some of the finest cattle in the country on some of the poorest farms.Cobbett. Rural Rides. p. 182 Areas of cereals grown on the Weald have risen and declined with the price of grain. The chalk downlands were traditionally grazed by large numbers of small Southdown (sheep), Southdown sheep, suited to the low fertility of the pasture, until the coming of artificial fertiliser made cereal growing worthwhile. Yields are still limited by the alkalinity of the soil. Apart from a few areas of alluvial loam soil in the river valleys, the best and most intensively farmed soils are on the coastal plain, where large-scale vegetable growing is commonplace. Glasshouse production is also concentrated along the coast where hours of sunshine are greater than inland. There are still fishing fleets, notably at Rye and Hastings, but the number of boats is much reduced. Historically, the fishing, fisheries were of great importance, including cod, herring, mackerel, sprats, plaice, sole, turbot, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, oysters, mussels, cockles, whelks and periwinkles.
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
records that Wilfrid, St Wilfrid, when he visited the county in 681, taught the people the art of net-fishing. At the time of the Domesday survey, the fisheries were extensive and no fewer than 285 salinae (saltworks) existed. The customs of the Brighton fishermen were documented in 1579.


Iron working

Iron Age wrought iron was produced by means of a bloomery followed by reheating and hammering. With the type that was common in Sussex a round shallow hearth was dug out, clay hard-packed to line it, then layers of hammered ore and charcoal were put down and the whole lot covered by a clay ''beehive'' structure, with holes at the side for the insertion of foot or hand bellows.Beresford. Medieval England: an aerial survey. p. 259. The material inside the ''beehive furnace'' was then ignited and it took two to three days for the process to complete, leaving semi-molten lumps of iron, known as ''blooms'' on the hearth.Seward. Sussex. p. 152. - ''bloom'' derives form ''bloma'' the Anglo-Saxon for ''lump'' The output from these types of furnace was very small as everything had to cool down before the iron could be retrieved. The iron so retrieved could then be ''worked'' by using the ''heat and beat'' technique to form wrought iron implements such as weapons or tools.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. pp. 101-102. Around a dozen pre-Roman sites have been found in eastern Sussex, the westernmost being at Crawley. The Romans made full use of this resource, continuing and intensifying native methods, and iron slag was widely used as paving material on the Roman roads of the area. The Roman iron industry was mainly in East Sussex with the largest sites in the Hastings area. The industry is thought to have been organised by the ''Classis Britannica'', the Roman navy. Little evidence has been found of iron production after the Romans left until the ninth century, when a primitive bloomery, of a continental style, was built at Millbrook on Ashdown Forest, with a small hearth for reheating the blooms nearby. Production based on bloomeries then continued until the end of the 15th century, when a new technique was imported from northern France that allowed the production of cast iron. A permanent blast furnace was constructed; into the furnace chamber was inserted a pipe fed by bellows that could be operated by a wheel; the wheel was rotated by the use of water power, oxen or horses. Pairs of bellows continuously forced air into the furnace chamber, producing higher temperatures such that the iron completely melted and could be run off from the base of the chamber and into moulds. This allowed a continuous process that usually ran during the winter and spring seasons, ceasing when water supplies to drive the bellows dwindled in the summer.
"Full of iron mines it is in sundry places, where for the making and fining whereof there bee furnaces on every side, and a huge deale of wood is yearely spent..."
''From William Camden's description of 17th century Sussex.''
Henry VIII urgently needed cannon for his new coastal forts, but casting these in the traditional bronze would have been very expensive.Awty. 'Levett, William (d. 1554)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online edn, Jan 2008
Retrieved 22 March 2011
/ref> Previously iron cannons had been made by building up bands of iron bound together with iron hoops; such cannons had been used at Bannockburn in 1314. There had also been some cast cannons made in the Weald but with separate barrels and breeches. In Buxted the local vicar, the William Levett (vicar), Reverend William Levett, was also a gun-founder. He recruited a Ralf Hogge to help him produce cannon and in 1543 his employee cast an iron muzzle-loading cannon.Ankers. Sussex Cavalcade. p. 46 It was cast in one piece, using a pattern based on the latest bronze ordnance. The navy complained that the new guns were too heavy but bronze was ten times more costly, so in fortifications and for arming merchant ships iron guns were preferred. Gradually, owing to their ''toughness and validiti'', an important export trade in wealden guns built up and they remained dominant internationally until displaced by Swedish guns around 1620. Both men made a lot of money out of the trade, and Hogge built a house on the road to Levetts church. Hogge put a rebus on his house, with a hog on it as a pun for his name. The large supply of wood in the county made it a favourable centre for the industry, all smelting being done with charcoal till the middle of the 18th century.


Glass making

The glass making industry started on the Sussex/Surrey border in the early 13th century and flourished until the 17th century.Brandon. Sussex. pp. 175–176. The industry in Sussex spread during the 16th century to Wisborough Green, then to Alfold, Ewhurst, Billingshurst and Lurgashall. Many of the artisans in the industry were immigrants from France and Germany. The manufacturing process used timber for fuel, sand and potash (which served as flux).Armstrong. A History of Sussex. p. 77. Glass production in the English midlands using coal for the smelting process, plus opposition to the use of timber in Sussex, led to the collapse of the Sussex glass-making industry in 1612.


Forestry

When the Romans arrived in Sussex around AD 43, they would have found remote bands of people smelting iron in the forest of Andresweald.Ivan Donald Margary. Roman ways in the Weald. pp. 22-24 Timber was used to produce charcoal to fuel the smelting process. There is evidence that the Roman engineers improved the road system in the area, by first metalling the old cart tracks and then putting in new roads. This was so they could produce and distribute the wrought iron more efficiently. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...
, commissioned in the 9th century by
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
, provides a description of the forest that covered the Sussex Weald. It says that the forest was wide and deep (although probably closer to wide).ASC Parker AD 892Seward Sussex. p. 76 The forest was so dense that even the Domesday Book did not record some of its settlements. The Weald was not the only area of Sussex that was forested in Saxon times: for example at the western end of Sussex is the Manhood Peninsula, which these days is largely deforested. The name is probably derived from the Old English ''maene-wudu'' meaning "men's wood" or "common wood" indicating that it was once woodland.Brandon. South Saxons. pp. 6–8 During and before the reign of Henry VIII, England imported much of the wood for its naval ships from the Hanseatic league.Vogt ''et al.'' Forests and Society. p. 11 Henry wanted to source the materials for his army and navy domestically. So it was largely the forests of Sussex that met this demand for wood, Sussex oak being considered the finest shipbuilding timber. Vast amounts of wood were consumed to build ships and produce charcoal for the foundry furnaces. Faced with diminishing stocks of wood due to the large consumption from the ship, iron and glass making industries, Parliament introduced bills to manage the stocks more efficiently. However the parliamentary bills were never passed, with the result that the county's forests were decimated. The poet Michael Drayton in his poem Poly-Olbion, published in the early 17th century, made the trees denounce the iron trade:
Jove's oak, the war-like ash, veined elm, the softer beech
Short hazel, maple plain, light asp and bending wych
Tough holly and smooth birch, must altogether burn.
What should the builder serve, the forger's turn
When under publick good, base private gain takes hold.
And we, poor woeful woods, to ruin lastly sold.
From Michael Drayton's Poly-OlbionDrayton. The Complete Works. Volume 3. p. 980
Despite parliamentary efforts the forests of Sussex continued to be consumed. However, in 1760 Abraham Darby I, Abraham Darby discovered how to replace charcoal with coke in his blast furnaces, which resulted in production being moved nearer the coal mines.Ankers. Sussex Calvalcade. p. 48 By that time the forests had been completely devastated and the roads ruined by the transport of ore and pig iron. The High Weald still has about of woodland, including areas of ancient woodland equivalent to about 7% of the stock for all England.Bannister. The cultural heritage of woodlands in the High Weald AONB. p. 14 When the ''Anglo Saxon Chronicle'' was compiled in the 9th century, there was thought to be about of forest in the Sussex Weald.


Wool

In 1340-1341 there were about 110,000 sheep in Sussex.Darby. A new historical geography of England before 1600. p. 160 Edward III of England, Edward III commanded that his Chancellor should sit on the woolsack in council as a symbol of the pre-eminence of the wool trade at the time.Friar. The Sutton Companion to local history. p. 480 In 1341 the greatest wool production in Sussex was in the eastern part of the county, and in the west of the county the port of Chichester was extended along the whole coast from Southampton to Seaford for the collection of customs on wool.Tansley. The British Islands and their Vegetation. pp. 180–181Salzmann. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 3. pp. 100 -102 Also Chichester, despite its geographical disadvantages ranked as the seventh port in the kingdom and was one of the wool ports named in the Statute of the Staple of 1353. In the early 15th century, most production of wool was within of Lewes. In the 16th century weavers were to be found in nearly every parish, as were Fulling, fullers and Dyer (occupation), dyers.Bosworth. Cambridge County Geographies- Sussex. pp. 55–56 Chichester was an early centre for the weaving of cloth and also for the spinning of linen. In 1566 an act that prohibited the export of ''"unwrought or unfinished cloths"'' led to the demise of the industry in Sussex, and by the beginning of the 18th century it had virtually collapsed; Daniel Defoe commented, in 1724, that the ''"..whole counties of Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire, are not employ'd in any considerable Woolen Manufacture;"''.Defoe. A Tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain. p. 142Zell. Industry in the Countryside: Wealden Society in the Sixteenth Century. p. 158


Clay working (pottery, tiles, bricks)

As much of the Mid Sussex District, Mid Sussex area has clay not far under the surface, clay has in the past been a focus of industry in central Sussex, in particular in the Burgess Hill area. In the first quarter of the 20th century, Burgess Hill and the Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint areas had many kilns, clay pits and similar infrastructure to support the clay industry; nowadays the majority of this form of industry has left the area, although it still can be seen in place names such as "Potters Lane", "Meeds Road", "The Kiln"; Meeds Pottery was once a significant pottery in the centre of Burgess Hill. At the height of the success of this industry, tiles and bricks from Sussex were used to build landmarks such as Manchester's G-Mex. In 2007 the local district council produced plans to close the only remaining tile works in the area and use the site for residential development. Then in 2015 the last tile works moved to a new home in Surrey.Keymer Tiles History


Communications


Roads

After the Romans left, roads in the country fell into disrepair and in Sussex the damage was compounded by the transport of material for the iron industry. A government report described the condition of a road between Surrey and Sussex in the 17th century as ''"very ruinous and almost impassable."''Turnpike Trusts: County Reports of the Secretary. No. 2 County of Surrey. p. 4. In 1749 Horace Walpole wrote to a friend complaining that if he desired good roads ''"never to go into Sussex"'' and another writer said that the ''"Sussex road is an almost insuperable evil"''.Jackman. The development of transportation in modern England (Volume 1). p. 295 Because of the state of the county's roads the major transport network for Sussex had been by way of sea and river, but this had become increasingly unreliable as well.Albert. The Turnpike Road System in England: 1663-1840. pp. 8–9 Roads had been maintained by the parishes, in a system established in 1555, a system that had proved increasingly ineffective given the relentless increase in traffic. Consequently, in 1696, during the reign of William III, the first Turnpike Act was passed and was for the repair of the highway between Reigate in Surrey and Crawley in Sussex. The act made provision to erect Toll roads, turnpikes, and appoint toll collectors; also to appoint surveyors, who were authorised by order of the Justices to borrow money at 5 per cent, on security of the tolls. Other turnpike acts followed with the roads being built and maintained by local trusts and parishes. The majority of the roads were maintained by a toll levied on each passenger (who usually would have been transported by stage coach). A few roads were still maintained by the parishes with no toll levied. There were 152 Acts of Parliament by the mid-19th century for the formation, renewal and amendment of the turnpikes in the county.Horsfield. The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex. pp. 96-97. A report on the county's turnpike trusts, published in 1857, said that there were fifty-one trusts covering of road, with 238 toll gates or bars, giving an average of one toll gate every .Armstrong. A History of Sussex. p. 134. The last turnpike to be constructed in the county was between Ewhurst, East Sussex, Cripps Corner and Hawkhurst in 1841.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. p. 136. The system of turnpikes, coaches and coaching inns collapsed in the face of competition from the railways. By 1870 most of the county's Turnpike Trusts were wound up, putting hundreds of coachmen and coachbuilders out of business. The conditions of the county's roads then deteriorated until the creation of the new county council in 1889, who assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the county's roads. At the beginning of the 20th century, nearly all the first class roads had been turnpikes in 1850. During the course of the 20th century, the car and the lorry challenged the supremacy of the railways. The two counties of East and West Sussex only have a total of of motorway and relatively small amounts of dual carriageway. Two of the ''"A"'' roads that traverse Sussex from east to west are the A27 road, A27 and the A259 road, A259. These two roads provide the major routes across Sussex. The route is only dual-carriageway for part of its length; both roads run parallel to the Sussex coast.Steve Brown and Tony Duc. Planning and Communications 1947-2000 ''in'' Leslie. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 124-125 The main north–south road, which connects the coast to the London orbital M25 motorway, M25, is the M23 motorway, M23/A23 road, A23. According to the ''Highways Agency'' the removal of most of the east/west bottlenecks, for example improvements to the Chichester bypass, will not occur for some time to come.


Canals and navigations

The first canals that were constructed in Sussex can be described as navigations, in that their purpose was to make the lower reaches of the county's rivers navigable.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. pp. 144–145. The rivers had suffered from centuries of neglect, which had made navigation, even for small craft, difficult. Examples of navigations in Sussex are: * Arun Navigation * River Rother (Western), Rother Valley Navigation Eventually, true canals were also built, examples being: * Wey and Arun Canal * Portsmouth and Arundel Canal * Royal Military Canal, Hythe Military Canal When the railways arrived in Sussex, they provided an alternative to the canals and waterways. The canal companies' revenue quickly dropped, resulting in most of them closing for business by the beginning of World War I.John Farrant. Growth of Communications 1840-1914 ''in'' Leslies. An Historical Atlas of Sussex. pp. 80-81


Railways

In 1804 Richard Trevithick, a Cornish engineer, built the first steam locomotive for a railway.Hey. The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History Online His seven-tonne locomotive hauled 10 tonnes of iron and 70 passengers on a journey of from the Penydarren Ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil to the Glamorganshire Canal at Abercynon, reaching a top speed of almost .Dickinson. Richard Trevithick. The Engineer and Man. pp. 69–70 George Stephenson built the engine Locomotion No 1, Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington railway, which was opened in 1825 for both passenger and goods traffic; Locomotion pulled thirty-six wagons containing coal, grain and 500 passengers a distance of at a top speed of .Dargie. A History of Britain. pp. 154–155 The Manchester to Liverpool railway of 1830 was the first to convey passengers and goods entirely by mechanical traction. Stephenson's Rocket, which won the famous Rainhill trials in 1829, was the first steam locomotive designed to pull passenger traffic quickly. Brighton's proximity to London made it an ideal place to provide short holidays for Londoners.Gray. The London-Brighton Line. Chapter 1 In the 1830s, during the summer the London-Brighton road would see around 40 coaches a day plus a number of private carriages taking visitors to the coast. The road was in a poor condition so proposals to build a railway were suggested as early as 1806. However, it was not till 1823 that a serious scheme was mooted. There followed years of discussion and argument with various groups proposing different routes; then finally in 1837 the London and Brighton Railway Bill with branches to Shoreham and Newhaven received Royal assent. In 1838 the directors of the London and Brighton Railway Company (L&BR) stated that the railway would be different from the rest of the country in that it would be a passenger-only railway. In the 18th century Brighton had been a town in terminal decline. It was described by Daniel Defoe as 'a poor fishing town, old built', fast eaten away by an 'unkind' sea. This changed after two things happened: # In 1750 a ''Richard Russell (doctor), Dr Richard Russell'' recommended Brighton for a seawater cure.Brandon. Sussex. pp. 210–211 # From 1783 the George IV of the United Kingdom, Prince of Wales started visiting Brighton on a regular basis making it a fashionable destination. These two events increased the number of visitors to the town. However, in 1841 when the L&BR opened for business, of Brighton's 8,137 stock of houses, some 1,095 stood empty.Gray. The London Brighton Line. p. 4 But within 40 years of the railway's arrival, Brighton's resident population had doubled. After the opening of the Brighton line, within a few years branches were made to Chichester to the west and Hastings and Eastbourne to the east.Bosworth. Sussex. p. 116 In 1846 the L&BR merged with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR), the Brighton and Chichester Railway and the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway(LB&SCR).Gray. The London Brighton Line. p. 34 The LB&SCR continued as an independent entity until the Railways Act 1921, which saw the merger of various rail companies in the south and south east into the Southern Railway (Great Britain), Southern Railway Company (SR); formed on 1 January 1923.Gray. The London Brighton Line. Chapter. 11Gray. The London Brighton Line. pp. 82–83 Two railway companies in the county that were not absorbed by the SR, were Volk's Electric Railway the world's first electric railway, that runs along the front at Brighton and opened in 1883, and the West Sussex Railway, a light railway between Chichester and Selsey, opened in 1897 (and closed in 1935).Armstrong. A History of Sussex. p. 148Bathurst. The Selsey Tram. p. 4 SR was the smallest of four groups that were brought together by the Railways Act 1921.Simmons. The Oxford Companion to British Railway History. pp. 460–461 The LB&SCR had partly electrified their network before World War I, though that had been an Overhead lines, overhead system. SR decided to electrify their network using the third rail DC system. During World War II the SR was heavily involved with transporting armed services traffic and was bombed on many occasions. After the war SR was nationalised in 1948 and became the Southern Region of British Railways. Following John Major's victory in the 1992 United Kingdom general election, 1992 General Election, the Second Major ministry, conservative government published a white paper, indicating their intention to privatise the railways.MacGregor. New Opportunities for the Railways. The privatisation of British Rail The government went ahead with their plans and franchises were awarded to train operating company, train operating companies (TOC). Currently, in Sussex, most rail services are operated by the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, served by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) since September 2014. This consists of the Gatwick Express service between London Victoria station, Victoria and Gatwick Airport. Southern (train operating company), Southern Railway who manage the southcoast and services to Victoria and London Bridge station, London Bridge. Also Thameslink for services between Brighton and Bedford, and from Brighton to Cambridge and Horsham to Peterborough. In September 2021, the British Government announced that an operator of last resort, SE Trains would take over services from Southeastern (train operating company), London & South Eastern Railway Limited (trading as Southeastern) for the South Eastern franchise between eastern Sussex and London. effective 17 October 2021, due to a "serious breach of contract by Southeastern" .


Ports

The two major ports in Sussex are at Newhaven, East Sussex, Newhaven, opened in 1579, and at Shoreham-by-Sea, Shoreham opened in 1760.Shoreham Port History
retrieved 17 July 2011
Other ports such as Pevensey, Winchelsea, and the original medieval port of Rye now lie stranded from the current coastline.Armstrong. A History of Sussex. p. 17 In addition, for smaller craft, there are working harbours at Rye Harbour and Hastings, with Brighton Marina, Pagham Harbour, Pagham and
Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
harbours catering for leisure craft. Other harbours that existed such as Fishbourne, West Sussex, Fishbourne, Steyning, Old Shoreham, Meeching and Bulverhythe are long since silted up and have been built over.


See also

* Timeline of Sussex history *
Sussex Day Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English C ...
- Celebrated each year on 16 June * History of Christianity in Sussex * History of local government in Sussex * History of England * History of Brighton * History of Horsham * History of Worthing * Weald and Downland Open Air Museum - containing about 50 historic buildings dating from the 13th to 19th century.


Notes


Citations


References

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External links


Sussex Archaeological Society
active in the fields of archaeology and history in Sussex plus providing public access to historic properties and museums.
J. Williams 2011 'Finds and access at Black Patch, East Sussex', Internet Archaeology 31.The Victoria County History for Sussex
The full text in 8 volumes containing the local history of the county; part of British History Online.
Key dates in Sussex historySussex by the Sea
- Tourist information. {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Sussex History of Sussex, Canals in West Sussex Transport in East Sussex Transport in West Sussex History of England by county Religion in Sussex