Sussex ( ), from the
Old English Sūþsēaxe ('South Saxons'), is a historic county in South East England
corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the
north by Surrey
, east by
Kent
, south by the English Channel
, and west by Hampshire,
and is divided for local government into West Sussex
and East
Sussex
and the City of Brighton and Hove
. The city of Brighton & Hove was created
a
unitary authority in 1997; and
was granted
City
status in 2000.
Until then Chichester
had been Sussex's only city.
The divisions of West Sussex and East Sussex were first established
in 1189, and had obtained separate administrations (
Quarter Sessions) by the 16th century. This
situation was recognised by the
County of Sussex Act 1865.
Under the
Local Government Act 1888
the two divisions became two administrative counties
(along with three county boroughs:
Brighton, Hastings
and, from
1911, Eastbourne
).
The appellation Sussex remained in use as a
ceremonial county until 1974,
when the
Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex
was replaced with one each for East and West Sussex. The whole of
Sussex has had a single police force since 1968.
Sussex still retains a strong local identity and the county's
unofficial anthem is
Sussex by the
Sea. The county's motto, "We wunt be druv", reflects the
strong-willed nature of its people in past centuries.
Sussex's device shows six
martlets. Sussex's
county
flower is the
round-headed
rampion, also known as the Pride of Sussex.
June 16, the feast day of the county's patron saint
St Richard, has been declared
Sussex Day by West Sussex County Council.Although it retains a
strong identity, most people say
West Sussex and
East
Sussex today and even usethem in lists of traditional counties
sometimes.
Geography
Relief
The
physical geography of Sussex relies heavily on its lying on the
southern part of the Wealden
anticline
. The major features of that are the high lands
which cross the county in a west to east direction: the Weald
itself, and the South
Downs
. The former consists of clays and sands; the
latter chalk.
Between those two ridges, mainly in West
Sussex, lies the ‘’Vale of Sussex’’; at the eastern end of the
county is the valley of the River Rother
, which flows into what was a long sea inlet to
reach the sea at Rye
Bay
.
- The Weald
The Weald
is what remains of the vast forest that existed between the
North
and South Downs. It can be split into three parts, the High
Weald, the Low Weald and the Greensand Ridge
. The High Weald runs in an easterly direction
from St Leonards
Forest
, south-west of Crawley
, and continues to Ashdown Forest
. Its eastern extremity is in two sections,
divided by the River Rother valley. The northern arm reaches the sea at Folkestone
(in Kent); the southern at Fairlight Down
east of Hastings,
Within
the Weald lies
Sussex's highest point, the pine-clad Black Down
, close to the Surrey border at .
Another
high point is in the part called Forest Ridges: a height
of about is reached at Beacon Hill in the neighbourhood of Crowborough
.
The High Weald, as the main area is known, gets its name from
’’wilderness’’ or forest, and it retains the highest proportion of
ancient woodlands in the country. Around 1660 the total area under
forest was estimated to exceed , and supplied the furnaces of the
ironworks which formed an important
industry in the county until the 17th century, and which survived
even until the early years of the 19th century.
- South Downs
The South
Downs start from a point near Petersfield
in Hampshire. On
entering Sussex, their summit is about from the sea.
They run east for
some , gradually approaching the coast, and terminating in the bold
promontory of Beachy
Head
near Eastbourne
. Their average height is about though
Ditchling
Beacon
is (the third highest summit) and many other
summits exceed .
- Vale of Sussex
The Vale of Sussex is the lower undulating land which came into
being when the softer clays between the Weald and the Downs were
worn away. Crossing the Vale are most of the rivers in Sussex:
those rising on the slopes of the Weald and cutting through the
Downs to reach the sea (see Drainage).
- Coastal plain
This is a fertile narrow belt from Chichester to Brighton. Once
noted for market gardening, it is now heavily built-up into a
sprawling coastal
conurbation.
The
beaches along the coast vary from sandy to shingle: that factor,
together with the mild climate of the coast, sheltered by the hills
from north and east winds, resulted in the growth of numerous
resort towns, of which the most popular are (east to west) Hastings, Bexhill, Eastbourne, Seaford
, Brighton
, Shoreham-by-Sea
, Worthing
, Littlehampton
and Bognor
Regis
.
- Marshland
There are several areas of low-lying marshland along the coast;
from west to east these are:
All were originally bays; natural coastal deposition and man-made
protective walls have given rise to alluvial deposition.
Drainage
The rivers wholly within the county are relatively short. All rise
in the Weald (St Leonard’s Forest area) and, apart from the eastern
River Rother, flow south to the English Channel, using gaps in the
South Downs as they do so. The mouths of all have been affected by
longshore drift, particularly during
violent storms during the Middle Ages. From west to east they are:
Climate
South East England combines the highest average daytime
temperatures found in the British Isles with the highest sunshine
averages on the British mainland. There are between of rainfall;
and there can be high variation of temperature between day and
night.
The climate of the coastal districts is strongly influenced by the
sea, which because of its tendency to warm up slower than land, can
result in cooler
temperatures than inland in the
summer. In the autumn months, the coast sometimes has higher
temperatures.
Rainfall during the summer months is
mainly from thunderstorms and thundery showers; from January to
March the heavier rainfall is due to south-westerly frontal
systems. The coast has consistently more
sunshine
than the inland areas: sea breezes, blowing off the sea, clear any
cloud from the coast.
Industries
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 to 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 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. 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, 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
fisheries were of great importance, including cod,
herring, mackerel, sprats, plaice, sole, turbot, shrimps, crabs,
lobsters, oysters, mussels, cockles, whelks and periwinkles.
Bede records that
St
Wilfrid, when he visited the county in 681, taught the people
the art of netfishing. 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.
There are
working harbours at Rye, Hastings, Newhaven and Shoreham; whilst
Pagham
and
Chichester harbours cater for leisure craft, as does Brighton
Marina.
Iron working
Deposits of
ironstone which occur where
sandstone strata overlie weald clay have been exploited from early
in the
Iron Age. The Romans made full use
of this resource, and iron slag was widely used as paving material
on the Roman roads of the area. In medieval times the Weald was of
national importance in the
iron
industry, with numerous streams dammed to create furnace ponds,
where water powered bellows drove
blast
furnaces, and hammer ponds where wrought iron was hammered out
of the raw iron from the furnaces.
This made the area strategically
important for producing iron canons during the English Civil War, when the Yalding family
of ironmasters at Fernhurst
had a policy of armed neutrality, firing on
soldiers from either side who tried to enter the
parish.
Clay working (pottery, tiles, bricks)
As much
of the 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. Although 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, but it still can be
seen in place names such as "Meeds Road", "The Kiln", or Oakmeeds
Community College
, which is named after the oak
trees in the area and Meeds Pottery, a once 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
, but now
there is just one main tileworks in the area, Keymer
Tileworks. Plans have been submitted to develop the area
into housing, so even this tileworks now has a closing date, albeit
one not in the near future.
Service industries
The string of holiday resorts, and the many tourist attractions,
form part of the main economic base in Sussex.
The University
of Sussex
and the University of Brighton
provide employment for many more; whilst
reasonable rail connections allow many people to work in
London.
Borough English
The custom of
borough-English, by
which land descends to the youngest son, prevailed to an
extraordinary degree in Sussex, and 140 manors have been catalogued
in which it was found.
Gavelkind tenure
existed in Rye, in the large manor of Brede, and in Coustard manor
(in Brede
parish).
Population
The area of the ancient county is with a population in 1891 of
550,446 and in 1901 of 605,202. The earliest statement as to the
population is made by Bede, who describes the county as containing
in the year 681 land of 7,000 families; allowing ten to a family (a
reasonable estimate at that date), the total population would be
70,000.
In 1693 the county is stated to have contained 21,537 houses. If
seven were allowed to a house at that date, the total population
would be 150,759. It is curious, therefore, to observe that in 1801
the population was only 159,311. The decline of the Sussex
ironworks probably accounts for the small increase of population
during several centuries, although after the
massacre of St Bartholomew
upwards of 1,500
Huguenots landed at Rye,
and in 1685, after the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, many more refugees were
added to the county.
An act of
Henry VII (1504)
directed that for convenience the county court should be held at
Lewes as well as at Chichester, and this apparently gave rise to
the division of Sussex into east and west parts.
History
Antiquities
From
early times castles guarded three important
entries from the coast through the South Downs into the interior provided by the valleys of the
Ouse
, the Adur
and the
Arun
.
These are
respectively at Lewes
, Bramber
and Arundel
. The ruins of the first two, though
imposing, do not compare in grandeur with the third, which is still
the seat of the
dukes of
Norfolk.
More
famous than these are the massive remains, in part Norman but mainly of the 13th century, of the
stronghold of Pevensey
Castle
, within the walls of Roman Anderitum
. Other ruins are those of the finely situated
Hastings
Castle
; the Norman remains at Knepp Castle
near West Grinstead
; the picturesque and remarkably perfect moated fortress of Bodiam
, of the
14th century; and Herstmonceux
Castle, a beautiful 15th-century building of
brick.
The county is also rich in moated sites, and smaller castles,
mostly found in the Low Weald.
Towns and cities
Major towns and cities of Sussex include:
Culture
Religion
Sussex is connected with several saints, including
St Lewina;
St Wilfrid,
sometimes known as the 'Apostle of Sussex';
St Cuthman of Steyning;
St Richard of Chichester, Sussex's
patron saint; and
St
Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel.
In folklore, Mayfield
and Devil's Dyke
are linked with St
Dunstan while West
Tarring
has links with St
Thomas a Becket.The historic county has been a single
diocese after St Wilfrid converted the kingdom of Sussex in the
seventh century.
The seat of the Sussex bishopric was
originally located at Selsey Abbey
before the Normans moved it to Chichester
Cathedral
in 1075. Since 1965 Arundel Cathedral
has been the seat of the Bishops of Arundel and
Brighton, which covers Sussex and Surrey.
Historically, the west of the county has had a tendency towards
Catholicism while the east of the county has had a tendency towards
non-conformism.
The county has been home to several
pilgrimage sites, including the shrine at Chichester Cathedral to
St Richard of Chichester which was destroyed during the Reformation
and the more recent Catholic shrine at West Grinstead. During the
Marian persecutions, several Sussex men
were martyred for their Protestant faith, including 17 men at
Lewes. The
Society of
Dependents (nicknamed the Cokelers) were a non-conformist sect
formed in Loxwood.
The Quaker and
founding father of Pennsylvania
, William Penn
worshipped near Thakeham
; his UK home from 1677 to 1702 was at nearby
Warminghurst. The UK's only Carthusian monastery is situated at St. Hugh's
Charterhouse, Parkminster
near Cowfold. The headquaters of
the Church of Scientology in
the UK is situated at Saint Hill Manor
near East Grinstead.
Sport
Sussex has a long tradition of sport, going back centuries. Sussex
has played a key role in the early development of both
cricket and
stoolball.
Cricket
is recognised as having been formed in the Weald and Sussex CCC is England's oldest county cricket
club. Slindon Cricket
Club dominated the sport for a while in the 18th century.
The
cricket ground at Arundel Castle
traditionally plays host to a Duchess of Norfolk's XI which plays the
national test sides touring
England. The sport of stoolball is also associated with
Sussex, which has a claim to be where the sport originated and
certainly where its revival took place in the early 20th century.
Sussex is represented in the
Football
League by
Brighton &
Hove Albion.
In horse racing, Sussex is home to Goodwood
, Fontwell Park, Brighton
and Plumpton
. The All England Jumping Course show jumping
facility at Hickstead
is situated north of Brighton and
Hove.
Cuisine
The historic county is known for its "seven good things of Sussex".
These seven things are Pulborough eel, Selsey cockle, Chichester
lobster, Rye herring, Arundel mullet, Amberley trout and Bourne
wheatear. Sussex is also known for Ashdown
Partridge Pudding,
Sussex Pond
Pudding and
Banoffee Pie. The
county has vineyards and the 18th century beer brewers,
Harveys of Lewes.
The Arts
The county is home to England's largest arts festival, the
Brighton Festival.
Chichester is home to
the Chichester Festival Theatre
. Glyndebourne
is one of the world's best known opera
houses. Chichester is home to Pallant
House Gallery
.
Flag
Sussex's flag was the winning entry in a competition held in 2008
under the auspices of the
BBC and in
collaboration with
Graham Bartram of
the
Flag Institute.
See also
References
- CONNECTIONS 12 .pdf
- West Sussex County Council: Home Page
- Rev. A. Young, General View of the Agriculture of the
County of Sussex, 1813, P. 226.
- I D Margary, Roman Ways in the Weald Phoenix House,
Revised 1965
- Brandon, Peter (2006), Sussex Phillimore ISBN ISBN-13:
9780709069980
- http://www.thakehamquaker.com/
- http://www.englandschristianheritage.org.uk/
-
http://www.history-tourist.com/V2//arundel-castle_S0103.html
- http://www.cricinfo.com/fantasy/content/ground/56747.html
-
http://www.information-britain.co.uk/food/foodlegends/Pulborough%20Eels/
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/south/series2/seven_sussex_things/02.shtml
- http://www.francisfrith.com/shop/books/taste/1-84589-456-1
and Pagham Harbour
;
: source of Arun near Horsham
; entering the sea at Littlehampton
; mouth near Shoreham-by-Sea
; mouth at Newhaven
: rising near Heathfield
; mouth ‘’Cuckmere Haven’’.
) and Tillingham: source, the Weald near Heathfield
)
(credited as the largest village in
Britain)
(Steam Heritage
railway)
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