Sussex

SUSSEX, a maritime county, bounded on the west by Hampshire, on the north by Surrey, on the northeast and east by Kent, and on the south by the English Channel. It extends from 50° 44' to 51° 9' (N. Lat.), and from 50' (E. Lon.) to 57' (W. Lon.), and comprises an area of upwards of 1463 square miles, or about 936,320 acres. Within its limits are 54,069 inhabited houses, 3650 uninhabited, and 251 in progress of erection; and the population amounts to 299,753, of whom 147,604 are males, aud 152,149 females.

At the period of the invasion of Britain by the Romans, Sussex formed part of the territory of the Regni. Its reduction was effected by Flavius Vespasian, who was commissioned by the Emperor Claudius, about the year 47, to establish the Roman dominion in the maritime provinces, which he accomplished without much difficulty, fixing his head-quarters near the site of the present city of Chichester: this county was included in the division called Britannia Prima. No particular mention of it occurs in history until after the departure of the Romans from Britain, when, in 477, a Saxon chieftain named Ælla landed with his three sons and a considerable number of followers, at West Wittering, a village about eight miles south-west of Chichester. They soon made themselves masters of the adjacent coasts, but were too weak to penetrate into the country, which was vigorously defended by its inhabitants. Hostilities appear to have been carried on for several years between Ælla and the Britons, the former occasionally receiving reinforcements; and in 485, a sanguinary but indecisive battle was fought near Mecreadesbourne, in the vicinity of Pevensey. At length, in 490, Ælla's forces having been recruited by fresh arrivals of his countrymen, he undertook the siege of Anderida, the capital of the Regni (the precise situation of which has not been ascertained), and succeeded in taking it by assault; as a punishment for the obstinacy of its defenders, he ordered them all to be put to the sword. From this period may be dated the foundation of the South Saxon kingdom, called Suth Seaxe, of which the name Sussex is a contraction.

Sussex is co-extensive with the diocese of Chichester, in the province of Canterbury, and is divided into the two archdeaconries of Chichester and Lewes, the former containing the deaneries of Arundel, Boxgrove, Chichester, Midhurst, Storrington, and Pagham; and the latter those of Dallington, Hastings, Lewes, Pevensey, and South Mailing. The number of parishes is 300. The great civil divisions are six rapes, each of which contains several hundreds; and the county includes the city and port of Chichester; the following members of the cinqueports, viz., Hastings, Rye, Seaford, and Winchelsea, all which have markets except Seaford; the borough and market towns of Arundel, Brighton, Horsham, Lewes, and Midhurst; the borough, market-town, and sea-port of Shoreham; and the market-towns of Cuckfield, East Grinstead, Hailsham, Petworth, Steyning, and Worthing. Under the act 2nd of William IV., cap. 45, the county was divided into the Eastern and Western divisions, each sending two members to parliament. Two citizens are returned for Chichester; two barons for Hastings, and one for Rye; and two burgesses for each of the boroughs, except Midhurst, Horsham, and Arundel, which return one each. This is one of the counties forming the Home circuit: the Lent assizes are held at Horsham, and the summer and winter assizes at Lewes; the county gaols are at Lewes, Petworth, and Horsham. The quarter-sessions take place at Petworth, Horsham, and Chichester, for the western division, and at Lewes for the eastern.

The most remarkable feature in the surface and scenery is the bold and open range of chalk hills, called the South Downs, extending into the county from Hampshire, and stretching in nearly an eastern direction for the greater part of its length, gradually approaching the sea. Their northern declivity is precipitous, but on the south their descent is gradual, except in the vicinity of Brighton, where they form a shore broken into stupendous cliffs, terminated on the east by the bold promontory of Beachy Head, which rises perpendicularly above the strand to the height of 564 feet, and is the most elevated point on the southern coast of England. The rest of the coast is flat, excepting the vicinity of Selsea Bill, where a few rocks present themselves, and the rocks of Hastings. The district generally understood to constitute the South Downs consists only of the chalk hills lying to the east of Shoreham: many parts of the Downs westward of the river Arun are overgrown with much beech wood, chiefly of a dwarf size, furze, &c., so that the herbage is much inferior to that covering them further eastward. Southward of the chalk hills, extending from their base to the sea, lies a fertile and richly-cultivated vale, which, towards its eastern extremity, between Brighton and Shoreham, is, for the most part, less than a mile in breadth. Proceeding westward, between the rivers Adur and Arun, this is increased to three miles; and from the Arun to the borders of Hampshire its breadth varies from three to seven miles. Its length is about thirty-six. Extensive tracts of marsh land lie adjacent to the coast, between the eastern extremity of the South Downs at Beachy Head, and the confines of Kent, in the vicinity of Rye; others are situated on the lower part of the course of the rivers Ouse, Adur, and Arun. The Weald of Sussex comprises nearly the whole of the level tract lying to the north of the Downs, together with the range of hills running the whole length of the county, at a short distance from its northern and north-eastern boundaries. Such is the quantity of timber and other trees in the low plains of the Weald, that, when viewed from the chalk hills, they present to the eye the appearance of one mass of wood; this is, in part, owing to the common practice, at the period when the tract was first reclaimed from a wild forest, of leaving a "shaw" of wood, several yards in width, around each inclosure, as a nursery for timber.

The different soils of chalk, clay, sand, loam, and gravel, are found in this county. The rich arable lands lying south of the Downs, and at the foot of their northern declivity, amount to about 100,000 acres; of down land there are about 68,000 acres, of which a great portion is under its native green sward. The arable and the grass lands of the Weald, which are of nearly equal extent, amount together to about 425,000 acres. The corn and pulse crops commonly grown are wheat, barley, oats, and peas. Oats are raised in large quantities in the Weald. Peas are extensively cultivated, especially on the South Downs and in the maritime districts: beans are very little grown. Cole-seed, barley, and rye are in great esteem among the flock-masters of the Downs, as green food for their sheep. Potatoes are very successfully grown, particularly in the vicinities of Battle, Eastbourne, and Chichester. In the eastern and north-eastern parts, hops are cultivated. The principal artificial grasses are, red and white clover, trefoil, and rye-grass; the meadow lands are mown every year, and afterwards grazed. It is only in the western part of the county that there are any extensive tracts of irrigated meadows, and these are chiefly on the course of the small river Lavant. The marshes, which may be classed among the finest and most profitable of their kind, having undergone great improvement, occupy about 30,000 acres, and are wholly employed in feeding cattle and sheep. The great extent of down land having its native green sward is applied to feeding numerous flocks of sheep; the herbage is short, sweet, and aromatic, of a kind peculiar to these hills, which is supposed to give to the flesh of the sheep that firmness and exquisite flavour for which it is so remarkable. In the western parts of the county are some considerable orchards, from which cider is made. Sussex has, from the remotest period, been celebrated for its fine growth of timber, chiefly oak; and the present extent of its woodlands cannot be estimated at less than 170,000 acres, nearly all included within the Weald, the timber produced in which is preferred by the navy contractors to that of any other district. In the Saxon times there appears to have been one continued forest, stretching from Hampshire into Kent. The waste lands are mostly situated on the northern side of the county, occupying an area of about 100,000 acres; their principal value is as rabbitwarrens.

The chief mineral productions are the various descriptions of limestone obtained in the Weald; one of these, the Sussex marble, is found in the highest degree of perfection in the neighbourhood of Petworth, and, when cut and polished, is equal in beauty to most marbles. The limestone, and the ironstone in contact with it, often rise to within a very few feet of the surface. Alternate strata of sandstone and ironstone occur every where in the Weald; and under these, at a considerable depth, are numerous strata of limestone which, when burned, makes the finest cement in the kingdom. The ironstone of this district was very extensively worked as ore, until the successful establishment of the great iron and coal works in the midland and northern districts of the kingdom occasioned the works in the Weald, the fuel of which was supplied by the surrounding woodlands, to be wholly abandoned. Fullers'-earth is found at Tillington, and used in the neighbouring fulling-mills; red ochre is obtained at Graffham, Chidham, and several other places on the coast. The manufacture of charcoal, chiefly for gunpowder, has been of considerable importance in the county, from which large quantities have been annually sent to London over land.

At Chichester a small woollen manufacture is carried on; and sacks, blankets, linen and worsted yarn, cotton and stuff goods, and other articles, are made in the workhouses. There are paper-mills at Iping and a few other places. Potash is made at Bricksill Hill, near Petworth, for the soap-makers of that town; brick-making is common in many parts of the county, and near Petworth are kilns for burning bricks and tiles to be exported to the West Indies. Ship and boat building is carried on in some of the small harbours of Sussex; yet, notwithstanding the great extent of sea-coast, its maritime commerce is of nearly as little importance as its manufactures. A considerable quantity of timber is exported; as are charcoal, cord-wood, and oak-bark; and horned-cattle, sheep, hides, and wool, are among its agricultural exports. There are several fisheries upon the coast, chiefly of herrings, mackerel, and flat-fish, and much of the produce is sent to London. In the Weald are numerous ponds for feeding fresh-water fish for the London markets, principally carp, though tench, perch, eels, and pike are also kept: many of the ponds were originally formed for working the machinery of the iron-manufactories, long since abandoned. The fashionable places of resort for sea-bathing in the county are Brighton, Worthing, Hastings, St. Leonard's, Bognor, Littlehampton, and Eastbourne.

The principal rivers rise in the Weald, within the limits of the county, and take a tolerably direct course to the English Channel, so that their length is not great: they are, the Arun, with its tributary the Rother; the Ouse; and the Adur. The Arun, with the aid of several artificial cuts, has been made navigable up to Newbridge, near Billinghurst; and the Rother, with the like assistance, to the town of Midhurst. A small canal branches from the Rother to the village of Haslingbourne, within half a mile of Petworth. The largest barges navigating these rivers are of thirty tons' burthen; the tide flows up the Arun, a distance of seventeen miles, to the vicinity of Amberley. The Ouse is formed by the junction of two streams, one of which rises in the forest of Worth, and the other in that of St. Leonard, uniting near Cuckfield; it has been made navigable beyond Lewes to within five miles of Cuckfield. The Adur, sometimes called the Beeding, is navigable for ships of considerable burthen to Shoreham, and for barges to the neighbourhood of Ashurst. The Lavant, a much smaller stream than any of the above, becomes navigable for ships some distance below Chichester, and expands into an estuary, which opens into the sea between the village of Wittering and the south-eastern point of Hayling Island in Hampshire: remarkably fine lobsters are bred in this river, near its mouth. The shores of the south-western part of the county are rendered very irregular by several other arms of the sea, one of which separates Thorney Island from the body of the county. The Portsmouth and Arundel canal, the act for which was obtained in 1815, commencing from the river Arun, a little below the latter town, proceeds westward, in nearly a direct line, to the broad estuary of the Lavant, below Chichester, to which city is a short branch northward. From the Lavant the navigation is continued through the channels that separate Thorney and Hayling Islands from the main land, to the eastern side of Portsea Island, where the artificial navigation recommences, and proceeds westward to Portsmouth. The London and Brighton railway enters the county at Black Corner, and proceeds in a southern direction past Baleomb, and east of Cuckfield, to Brighton, whence a branch diverges westward to Shoreham, Worthing, Arundel, and Chichester, and a branch eastward to Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings.

The county is supposed to have contained the Roman stations of Anderida Civitas, at Seaford or Eastbourne; Anderida Portus, at Pevensey; Cilindunum, at Slindon; Mida, at Midhurst; Mantuantonis, or Mutuantonis, at Lewes; Portus Adurni, at Aldrington; and Regnum, at Chichester. The present roads from Portsmouth, from Midhurst, and from Arundel, to Chichester, are considered to have been originally of Roman formation; and from this city, the Roman road commonly called the Stane-street proceeded in a north-eastern direction towards Dorking, in Surrey, where it fell into the Erminstreet. Various Roman domestic remains have been dug up in different places, particularly at Chichester, Bognor, and Eastbourne, including tessellated pavements and baths; and coins of the Lower Empire have been found. The number of ancient encampments upon the Downs and elsewhere near the sea, evince that the county has been frequently the scene of conflict: some of these fortifications are supposed to have been made by the Romans, and others by Saxon and Danish invaders; one on Mount Caburn, about a mile and a half from Lewes, on the northern edge of the Downs, is thought to be British.

The number of Religious houses in the county before the general dissolution, including hospitals and colleges, was about fifty-eight: there are yet extensive remains of the magnificent abbey of Battle, and of that of Bayham on the confines of Kent; also considerable relics of the priories of Boxgrove, Hardham, Lewes, Michelham, and Shelbred about four miles north of Midhurst. The chief remains of ancient castles are those of Amberley, Arundel, Bodiham, Bramber, Eridge in the parish of Frant, Hastings, Hurstmonceaux, Ipres at Rye, Lewes, Pevensey, Scotney, and Winchelsea; and the most remarkable ancient mansion is Cowdray House, now in ruins. Several of the modern seats of the nobility and gentry are magnificent; those most worthy of notice are, Petworth Park, Arundel Castle, the episcopal palace of Chichester, Eridge Castle, Goodwood, Parham Park, Penshurst Place, Sheffield Park, Slindon House, and Stanmer Park. There is a chalybeate spring at Brighton, and another at Eastbourne: near Hastings is a singular dropping well, and in the same vicinity, a fine waterfall forty feet perpendicular. The title of Duke of Sussex was borne by the late Prince Augustus Frederick, sixth son of George III., upon whom it was conferred in 1801.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.