Visitors Guides:
Sussex history
Over a thousand years of history have formed the county of East Sussex. Its green fields have been the sites of great battles, its old stones home to kings and queens, soldiers and sailors, writers and artists, rebels and pioneers.
Visit the site of the Battle of Hastings, where, some say, English history began in 1066. An audio tour brings the battle to life, and you can see the spot where King Harold fell. William the Conqueror built Battle Abbey and Hastings Castle, now home to the 1066 Experience, and gave the Saxon town of Lewes to his supporter William de Warenne. Visit imposing Lewes Castle, built by de Warenne in 1100, with spectacular views from the top, and the ruins of Lewes Priory.
East Sussex is studded with castles. As well as Hastings Castle, the first the Normans built, there's Rye Castle, now a museum, Camber Castle and Roman Pevensey. Bodiam is a fairytale castle complete with moat, towers and spiral staircases, and 15th century Herstmonceux Castle (tours by appointment) also has a moat and gardens. Newhaven Fort has displays showing military history from Napoleon to the present, and Eastbourne's Redoubt Fortress is the largest military museum in the South-East.
There are historic houses too, from cottages and farmhouses to mansions and palaces. Visit 14th century Alfriston Clergy House, a thatched Wealden Hall house, and Anne of Cleves House in Lewes, given to one of King Henry VIII's luckier wives in a divorce settlement, now a museum. On a grander scale are Georgian Firle Place and the Elizabethan manor house Glynde Place, both with fine collections of paintings. In Brighton, a fashionable resort since Regency times, don't miss the Royal Pavilion, seaside palace of King George IV, with its extravagant Chinese style interior and Indian Moghul exterior. The Regency Town House in Hove gives a flavour of upper class life, while Preston Manor shows Edwardian life both upstairs and downstairs.
East Sussex has been home to many writers and artists over the years, among them Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, who lived at Bateman's in Burwash from 1902 to 1936. See his manuscripts and mementoes of India in the study, and his Rolls Royce in the garage. Henry James wrote The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl at Lamb House in Rye. Charleston Farmhouse at Firle, home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant from 1916, was the Bloomsbury Group's country meeting place and has murals, furniture and textiles painted by the artists. Nearby at Rodmell you can visit Monk's House, home of writer Virginia Woolf.
Walking around ancient villages and the old town areas of Rye, Lewes, Hastings, and Brighton's Lanes, you can easily imagine how life used to be. To find out more about this historic county, visit the local museums, which tell the story of the region and its people with fascinating objects, photographs and films.
