ASUSSEXMISCELLANY ASUSSEXGUIDE E D I U G X E S S U S A SOPHIECOLLINS This may look like a slim volume, but it is in fact a ASUSSEXMISCELLANY powerful pocket encyclopaedia that cunningly mixes ASUSSEX facts, figures and statistics with anecdotes, stories, Sophie Collins is a writer,editor and exile from folklore and myth to produce an intriguing treat for Who was the Grey Lady of Pevensey Castle? London, with family ties to where she Where could you have dined on Pigeons au soleil? wet afternoons and a formidable secret weapon for has lived and worked for the last ten years.A MISCELLANY What (or who) on earth is the Knucker? How the local pub quiz. Why not put in your thumb, and see long-term enthusiast for the odd and the do you make a Sussex trug?Who or what were what delicious Sussex plums you can pull out? irrelevant, she has found Sussex trivia particularly the Hastings Rarities?What’s the pond in Sussex rewarding and that the weirder aspects of the Pond Pudding? How many firework societies are county have well repaid closer study.What other Y N A L L E C S I M X E S S U S A there in Lewes? What was the name of the English county could offer over 30 different Bloomsbury marmoset?What was the Guinea terms for mud?Where else would you find such Pig Club? How many men did it take to run the an inviolate and historic pride in sheer pig- Shoreham Oyster Fleet?Who won the Battle of headedness? The fruits of her research have gone Lewes? For answers to these burning questions, into this miscellany. or for a lovely lazy afternoon dipping into an entertainingly quirky mix of local facts, figures, history, statistics and folk tales, turn to A Sussex Miscellany, a refreshing Schott of Sussex for readers who love local trivia.

‘Miscellany:assortment,brew,collection,conglomeration, S N I L L O C farrago,hodgepodge,jumble,mêlée,mixture,mélange,pasticcio, SOPHIECOLLINS patchwork,pot pourri,salmagundi,variety…’

PETERMARKROGET

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Snake River Press publishes books about the art, culture, personalities and landscape of Sussex. Snake River books are available by mail order or from bookshops. You can order safely online through our website: www.snakeriverpress.co.uk. If you prefer buying offline you can contact us by telephone: 01273 403988 or by email: [email protected] SNAKERIVERPRESS SNAKERIVERPRESS www.snakeriverpress.co.uk

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Book No 9 Books about Sussex for the enthusiast Published in 2007 by SNAKE RIVER PRESS South Downs Way,Alfriston, Sussex BN26 5XW www.snakeriverpress.co.uk ISBN 978-1-906022-08-2 This book was conceived, designed and produced by SNAKE RIVER PRESS Copyright © Snake River Press Limited 2007 Text © Sophie Collins All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information at the date of preparation. Readers who intend to rely on the information to undertake any activity should check the current accuracy.The publishers and authors accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by the reader as a result of information or advice contained in this book. Art Director & Publisher Peter Bridgewater Editorial Director Viv Croot Editor RobertYarham Page makeup Richard Constable & Chris Morris Consultant Lorraine Harrison This book is typeset in Perpetua & Gill Sans, two fonts designed by Eric Gill Printed and bound in

DEDICATION For Ted,who won’t be druv CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 6

CHAPTER ONE SUSSEX LANDSCAPES 9

CHAPTER TWO MYTHICAL SUSSEX 25

CHAPTER THREE HISTORICAL SUSSEX 41

CHAPTER FOUR SUSSEX SUSTENANCE 57

CHAPTER FIVE SUSSEX PASTIMES 73

FURTHER READING & INDEX 91 A SUSSEX MISCELLANY

SUSSEX STATISTICS

‘I love ,especially the English countryside. We had a cottage in Sussex.I love those cottages.’

RICHARD WIDMARK, AMERICAN ACTOR

ow long has SUSSEX been Sussex? There was a kingdom of the South Saxons from the fifth century onwards, and a document Hrecorded ‘Sud Seaxe’ – the South Saxons – in 722. By the time THE DOMESDAY BOOK was being written up in 1086, this had become Sudsexe, only a step away from the modern county name.

Two coats of arms X WEST SUSSEX’s version is gold on The two parts of the county have had blue, and also has the martlets and the individual coats of arms for centuries. Saxon crown, but is topped with a As early as 1611, the RED SHIELD for crest of oak leaves and acorns.These East Sussex, and the BLUE SHIELD additions were imported from the for West Sussex (both with six golden coat of arms when parts of that martlets), were in use. county were incorporated into West The martlet is a heraldic bird that Sussex in 1974. Subsequent redraw- is always shown without feet, and is ings of the county boundaries left often equated with the swallow.In the Gatwick Airport as the only remain- Sussex arms, the six martlets repre- ing Surrey takeover within Sussex sent the six ancient ‘rapes’ or boundaries, but the oak leaves remain. sub-divisions of the country, which One rather complicated pedigree existed before the Norman invasion. for the martlets claims that they Today, each Sussex crest has a reflect the power of the lords of golden Saxon crown in its top half, Arundel in Sussex, the French word and a wavy line, symbolic of the for swallow being ‘hirondelle’ which county’s bond with the sea, divides sounds like ‘Arundel’. this from the martlets below. X EAST SUSSEX’s crest is similar to A county divided the banner of the ancient Kingdom of Although West and East Sussex were Sussex in the sixth century. It shows recognised as distinct areas as early as a crown above a wavy bar, with six the twelfth century, and were organ- martlets in the lower half.The colours ised as separate entities by the are gold on red. sixteenth, formal separation did not

[ 10 ] SUSSEX STATISTICS come until the 1880s. In 1888, as a Place names part of the Local Government Act, ANGLO-SAXON place names still rule the two parts were formally divided in Sussex. Here are a few of the into two administrations. commonest prefixes and affixes in original form, with examples of the Measuring up places by which they are identified: X WEST SUSSEX is divided into Becc a brook or stream (Bexhill) seven districts: Burh a hill, or citadel 1. Adur, 2. Arun, 3. Chichester, (Burghersh,Pulborough) 4. Crawley, 5. Horsham, 6. Mid- Denu a valley (East Dean,Marden) Sussex, and 7.Worthing. Its county Ea a marsh (Winchelsea,Selsea) town is Chichester. Feld a plain or flat place (Heathfield) X EAST SUSSEX is divided into six Folde a field (Slinfold) districts: Ham a village, an enclosure 1. Brighton and Hove, 2. Eastbourne, (Beddingham) 3. Hastings, 4. Lewes, 5. Rother, and Hou a hill (Piddinghoe) 6.Wealden. Its county town is Lewes. Hurst a wood (Nuthurst) Ig an island (Thorney) X WEST SUSSEX comes out ahead Mersc a marsh (Peasmarsh) (it’s bigger, has a higher population, Stede a station, a place and an extra district), but by only a (East Grinstead) narrow margin. Tun a dwelling, a close (Alfriston) Wic a village, a dwelling place (Terwick) A complete review of English place names was conducted in The Place Names of Sussex, published in 1929/30 for the English Place-name Society. Helena Hall published a short version in her update of the Reverend Parish’s Dictionary of Sussex Dialect, updated in 1957, from which this is a selection.

AREA IN SQ KM POPULATION IN 2005 Ranked in England & Wales Ranked in England & Wales X WEST SUSSEX 1,991 30th in size 764,300 27th in size X EAST SUSSEX 1,792 33rd in size 752,900 28th in size

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MORE STATISTICS

The South Downs Way Sussex wildlife THE SOUTH DOWNS WAY, stretch- Sussex is rich in FAUNA and FLORA, ing between Water Lane in Winchester and some plants and insects that are in Hampshire and the west end of the quite easily found there are rare or (in seaside promenade in Eastbourne in formal terms) ‘nationally scarce’ else- East Sussex, is one of the best-known where.The top ten in this category in walkers’ paths in Britain. Measuring the Sussex Rare Species Inventory are: around 100 miles (160km) from one end to the other, it covers the land- • ROUND-HEADED RAMPION scapes of both East and West Sussex in (Phyteuma orbiculare, see p18) all its variety,and covers a large chunk • FROGBIT of Hampshire for good measure. Its (Hydrocharis morus-ranae, highest point is DITCHLING BEACON, waterplant, also known at 814ft (248m), and it passes near to as waterpoppy) most of the county’s most scenic spots • ADONIS BLUE and interesting towns. (Lysandra bellargus, butterfly) • LONG-WINGED CONEHEAD (Conocephalus discolor, cricket) UNUSUAL HERITAGE • DOOR SNAIL (Macrogastra rolphii) Something that has shaped the history of • HAIRY DRAGONFLY Sussex and many of her great estates is (Brachytron pratense) the unusual inheritance practice of • RUDDY DARTER BOROUGH ENGLISH.Technically (Sympetrum sanguineum, known as ultimogeniture,this means that dragonfly) the youngest surviving son of a family • VARIABLE DAMSELFLY inherits its estate – the opposite of the far (Coenagrion pulchellum) more common state of . • WHITE-LEGGED DAMSELFLY This has been a marked custom from (Platycnemis pennipes) medieval times. It is not unique to • DOWNY EMERALD Sussex (parts of ,Suffolk and (Cordulea aenea, dragonfly) Surrey also use it),but it is unusual in Britain overall. $

[ 12 ] MORE STATISTICS

Saxon Sussex DATE OF REIGN ...King, bretwalda Even career historians have problems or ealdorman sorting out the early rule of Sussex. We know that the SAXONS were ?c.660-?c.685 ...... Ædelwealh making inroads into southern England ?c.683 ...... Eadwulf by the third century because the ?c.683-?c.685 ...... Ecgwald Romans were building forts to protect ?c.685 ...... Andhun the coast against them, but these early X From c.686 to 726, the kingdom Germanic invaders didn’t arrive, like came under the overall rule of neigh- DUKE WILLIAM OF NORMANDY,in bouring Wessex: one neat fleet with a date. Instead they gradually took over,and although the 692-717 ...... Nodhelm history between the third and the 692-700 ...... Watt ninth century has numerous gaps, it 717 ...... Aedelstan tells of increasing Saxon influence. 740 ...... Aedelberht The source of much early in- 760-772 ...... Osmund formation is the ANGLO-SAXON X From 771 to 825, the kingdom was CHRONICLE, a text that was compiled placed under the rule of Mercia: entry by entry between the earliest years after Christ and the twelfth cen- 772 ...... Oswald tury, but which can largely be dated 765-772 ...... Oslac back to a manuscript dated 891. It was 765-791 ...... Ealdwulf much added-to over the centuries and 765-772 ...... Ælfwald little of the text it contains can be X From 825, the kingdom was back independently verified, but it claims under Wessex: that a figure called Ælle became first bretwalda – chief or king – of the 825-839 ...... Ecgberht South Saxons in the fifth century. 839-858 ...... Ethulwulf A list of some of the indefinite 858-865 ...... Ethulbert rulers from this vague period of 865-871 ...... Ethelred history follows, partly because of the X On the death of ETHELRED, we wonderful resonance of the Anglo- finally get back into more familiar Saxon names, and partly because it territory with the accession of his son, demonstrates that power was in a who became ALFRED THE GREAT. constant state of flux. uMany of the reigns overlap,sometimes because power was shared, sometimes % because the records mention more than one leader for the period in question:

[ 13 ] A SUSSEX MISCELLANY

SUSSEX FOSSILS

‘His rise and fall are a salutary example of human motive,mischief and mistake...’

EDITORIAL ON PILTDOWN MAN, NATURE, 1954

ussex is particularly rich in FOSSILS, but for centuries the local people who came across them, lying among rockfall on the shore, Sor under the blades of their ploughs, did not know how to iden- tify them, believing them to be giants’ bones, or dragons’ teeth (which, of course, in a sense, they were). Fittingly, it was a Sussex man, the doctor and naturalist GIDEON MANTELL, who was one of the first to attempt to categorise his findings into a specific sort of animal.

SITE PERIOD OF FOSSILS HOW LONG AGO? Bracklesham Bay Eocene 40-50 million Eastbourne Cretaceous 85 million Folkestone Cretaceous 100 million Hastings Early cretaceous 140 million Littlehampton Cretaceous 75-100 million Peacehaven Late Cretaceous 80-85 million Seaford Cretaceous 70-100 million Seven Sisters Cretaceous 70-100 million

Eight great fossil sites Ammonite houses Should you want to fossil-hunt, check Falling outside the familiar architec- the rules first: some sites encourage tural orders, a sudden – and brief – amateurs, others forbid them! fashion for capitals in the form of The immense lengths of the clas- AMMONITES (those curled shell fossils sified prehistoric periods are almost found all along the rocky Sussex impossible to grasp.The CRETACEOUS coastline) flourished in the early nine- period overall lasted just over 71 teenth century. Just a few appeared in million years, so the dates given in the London, but the Sussex father-and- table relate to the fossils actually found son builders, AMON WILDS & AMON on each site – to the nearest five HENRY WILDS, introduced a number million years or so. in fossil-mad Sussex, including them

[ 14 ] SUSSEX FOSSILS on terraces in Brighton and, in Lewes, been discredited, and it was acknowl- on the elegant façade of Castle Place edged that Eoanthropus dawsoni had on Lewes High Street. It may be that actually been formed from the top they appreciated the pun of Amon- part of a human skull and the jawbone nite on their name, or they may of an orang utan.Who perpetrated the simply have been following the fraud, and why,has never been estab- contemporary craze for antiquarian lished – suspects have ranged from themes in their work. Dawson himself to a number of his colleagues, and the list even includes an intriguing appearance from SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, himself an amateur palaeontologist.

The naming of parts It was GIDEON MANTELL, a Sussex doctor,who ‘created’ the first named dinosaur.An enthusiastic naturalist and fossil hunter,when huge teeth and bone fossils were found at Cuckfield in the early 1820s, he noticed that they resembled those of the iguana, but The Piltdown scandal were around twenty times the size. One of the most famous associations From this came the name IGUANADON, between palaeontology and Sussex is used ever since.The term ‘dinosaur’, the discovery – and later discrediting from the Greek deinos,‘fearfully great’ – of ‘the man who never was’: and sauros,‘lizard’, was coined in 1842 PILTDOWN MAN. No-one knows for by the scientist RICHARD OWEN. sure who perpetrated the fraud, but in 1912, CHARLES DAWSON,a THE BRICKWORKS DINOSAUR respected bone-hunter uncovered a The village of Rudgwick has its very own skull at Piltdown which seemed to dinosaur, the remains of which were combine the characteristics of earlier found in the local brickworks in 1985. and later specimens, having the large In 1996,Polacanthus rudgwickensis cranium and high forehead of modern was acknowledged with its own classifi- man and a primitive jaw much closer cation – it was an armour-plated, to Neanderthal remains. Dawson died spike-backed herbivore,resembling a five- in 1916, and by the early 1950s the ton armadillo. Its remains can be seen skull (and a later example, also uncov- in the museum at Horsham. ered at Piltdown by Dawson) had

[ 15 ] A SUSSEX MISCELLANY

THE SUSSEX COASTLINE

‘When I gaze on the sea,I want to be on it,over it, across it – there is no home for me here’

CHARLES LAMB

ocky and rugged, with shingle beaches often overhung by towering cliffs, the Sussex coastline is just as picturesque as Rthe DOWNLAND LANDSCAPE, and can offer as much in terms of folklore and history.The play of light on the coastal landscape inspired TURNER, among others, to create lasting memorials of its splendour. The more pragmatic smugglers and fishermen looked instead at what trade could be brought from the sea.

The Sussex Cinque Ports Smuggling in Sussex Because more than five names crop SMUGGLING was one of the foremost up whenever the CINQUE PORTS are businesses in Sussex through the discussed, there is sometimes confu- eighteenth and much of the nine- sion as to which are the ‘real’ ports. teenth century. One nineteenth- The original five, granted privi- century wit claimed that all Sussex leges in return for maintaining ships men were either shepherds or for the king’s use if necessary, were: smugglers. 1. HASTINGS, 2. NEW ROMNEY, 3. HYTHE, 4. DOVER and 5. SAND- Here are some facts & terms WICH – so only one, Hastings, was in [OWLING] the original term for Sussex.As time went on and the trade smuggling, referring first purely to in the ports grew,names were added the smuggling of wool. to the list – RYE and WINCHELSEA [TUBBING] the conveyance of contra- became Cinque Ports, also, and a band goods in ‘tubs’, often disguised number of ‘Limbs’ were added as with a top layer of licit goods. extensions to existing members. [DERRICKING] the technique by A government post, Lord Warden which goods were hauled up a cliff of the Cinque Ports, was created at face from an inaccessible beach. some point in the twelfth century; the [CONDEMNED HOLE] the dump in office still exists, with an official resi- Hastings where the remains of smug- dence at Walmer Castle, but is now glers’ boats were left, having been cut solely an honorary role. into pieces. In fact, the upended bows

[ 16 ] THE SUSSEX COASTLINE and sterns of the boats were often in 2006 has been attributed to the used to make huts for the town’s CHAPLAINCY TEAM, a band of volun- fishermen teers linked to a number of local [150] the total number of excisemen churches, who patrol the clifftop employed by the government to foil during the day and into the evening. smuggling in Sussex and Kent in the There is also a strategically sited tele- early eighteenth century. At this phone box with a hotline direct to the period, the number of smugglers SAMARITANS, the charity that helps pitted against them was probably in those in emotional distress.With ever- the thousands. increased efforts in place, over time [3 MILLION] the number of pounds Beachy Head may regain its role as a of tea it is estimated were smuggled breathtaking beauty spot – and no in the first half of the eighteenth more than that. century.This was three times the total of tea brought in legally. How to make Brighton rock How do the letters get into the rock? The strange lure of Beachy Head It’s complicated: BEACHY HEAD is one of the most 1. Boil water,sugar and glucose syrup until beautiful places on one of the pretti- it coagulates into candy. est stretches of coastline in southern 2. Colour quantities of the mixture with England. Why it should also have red and pink,leaving the largest quantity become one of Britain’s most popular white.Work while the candy is still warm. locations for would-be suicides 3. Make each letter by putting together remains a mystery, but records small units of square-ended red candy rods stretching back to the seventeenth two metres long into the shape of the letter. century show that people have always Support the shape with rods of plain white seen it as a jumping site as well as a candy. beauty spot. In more recent times the 4. When all the letters have been formed, mere fact that it is known to be put them around a circular rod of plain popular with would-be suicides prob- white candy.Separate them with more rods ably only increases its charm. And of plain white. the numbers seemed bent on rising: 5. Roll the ‘pipe’of rock in a border of from an average of 6-7 deaths per year plain white candy. in the 1950s, the figure had risen to 6. Roll the ‘pipe’of rock in an outer,very an average of 17 by the end of the thin layer of pink candy. 1990s. However the trend may 7. Pull the rock out until it is the right recently have been reversed – after diameter. further rises between 2002 and 2005, 8. Chop the cylinder into the foot-long a steep decrease to only 7 deaths sticks of classic seaside rock.

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