
Sussex |
Sussex,
now divided into East and West,
lies in southern England on the English Channel.
Towns include Chichester,
the county seat for West Sussex and Lewes,
the county seat for East Sussex.
Includes also the coastal town of Hastings
one of the original five
Cinque Ports (the other four being in Kent). Later Rye
and Winchelsea
were also granted the same status. From the Norman invasion until
Tudor times these ports were required to supply the monarch with ships
and men in times of a threat of invasion.
The highest point on the south coast is found in the county at Beachy
Head near Eastbourne.
Beachy
Head |
Areas of Outstanding
Natural Beauty |
Designated
an AONB in 1964, Chichester
Harbour is one of the few coastal areas which remains undeveloped
in Southern England. Still relatively wild despite its heavy boating
use, the large areas of tidal flats and wetland provide a haven for
wildlife and migrating birds.
The
eastern end of the South
Downs which reach west into Hampshire, the Sussex Downs was designated
an AONB in 1965. The protected area included the cliffs of Beachy
Head
and the Seven
Sisters in the east and ran parallel to the coast across the county
to the border of Hampshire in the west. This AONB was incorporated
into the new South Downs National Park
which was created in 2009. See National
Parks.
Spreading across three ancient counties, the major part of the High
Weald is found in Sussex, reaching down to the coast at Hastings.
Designated an AONB in 1983, the area lies between the North and South
Downs and contains one of the largest areas of ancient woodland
remaining today in England. This woodland includes the Ashdown
Forest.

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Composers |
In 1918 Hubert Parry died at Knight's
Croft, his home near the sea at Rustington, where he had lived since
1880 and in 1916 had composed his most famous work "Jerusalem",
an anthem based on a poem by William Blake.
Hubert
Parry
The
ashes of Gustav
Holst were interred at Chichester
Cathedral in 1934. His suite The Planets was his most famous
composition.
Gustav
Holst
Gustav Holst website

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Famous
People |
Elizabeth
Blackwell, the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the USA,
died in Hastings in 1910. Born in Bristol in 1821 she emigrated with
her family to America in 1832 but returned to England later in her
life.
The
economist John
Maynard Keynes died in Firle in 1946.
John
Maynard Keynes

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Nobel
Prize Winners |
Physics |
The
physicist and radio astronomer
Martin Ryle was born in Brighton in 1918. In 1974
he shared the Nobel
Prize for Physics with Antony Hewish for their research
in radio astrophysics.

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Prime
Ministers |
Prime Ministers |
Born in the village of Laughton in 1694, Henry
Pelham was Prime Minister from 1743-54.
On
his death in 1754 he was buried in the Pelham family vault in All
Saints church in the village.
Henry
Pelham
In 1754 Pelham was succeeded by his brother the Duke
of Newcastle, who was twice Prime
Minister in 1754-56 and 1757-62. The Duke, born as Thomas Pelham-Holles,
died in 1768 and like his brother was buried in the Pelham family
vault in All
Saints church in the village.
Duke
of Newcastle
Born in Eastbourne in 1956 Theresa
May
became Prime Minister in
2016 taking over from David Cameron
who resigned after the EU referendum. She became only the second woman
in history (after Margaret Thatcher) to hold the position. She resigned
in 2019.
Harold
Macmillan
Prime Minister from 1957-63, died in 1986 at his home Birch Grove
House at Chelwood Gate. He is buried nearby at St
Giles in the village of Horsted Keynes.
Harold
Macmillan

Let us be frank about it: most of our people
have never had it so good.
(Speech at Bedford, 1957)
There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman
Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers.
(The Observer, 1981)
James
Callaghan,
Prime Minister from 1976-79, died on his farm at Ringmer near Lewes
in 2005. At the age of 92 he was the longest-living Prime Minister
in British history. Before becoming Prime Minister Callaghan had held
all three of the principal offices of government; Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary. The defeat of his
Labour Party in 1979 by Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives heralded
18 years of Conservative rule until Labour won the 1997 election under
Tony Blair.
James
Callaghan

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Royal
Consorts and Heirs |
House of Lancaster |
Joan of Navarre,
the second wife of Henry
IV who had died in 1413, was accused of witchcraft and imprisoned
in Pevensey
Castle between 1418-22 .

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Writers
and Poets |
For
Rudyard Kipling see Nobel
Prize Winners
Percy
Shelley was born at Field Place near Horsham in 1792.
Percy
Shelley

Titles are tinsel, power a corrupter, glory a bubble, and excessive
wealth a libel on its possessor.
Declaration of Rights (1812)
Tyranny entrenches itself within the existing interests of the most
refined citizens of a nation and says "If you dare trample upon
these, be free."
A Philosophical View of Reform (1819-20)
I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,
Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,
And gentle odours led my steps astray,
Mixed with a sound of water's murmuring
Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay
Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling
Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,
But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightst in dream.
The Question (1822)
The
American-born author Henry James lived
at Lamb
House in Rye from 1898 until his death in 1916.
Henry
James

The black and merciless things that are behind
the great possessions.
The Ivory Tower (1917)
Arthur Conan Doyle, the Scottish creator of Sherlock
Homes, died at his home Windlesham in Crowborough in 1930. He
was buried in the garden of Windlesham where his second wife was buried
next to him on her death in 1940. When the house was sold in 1955
their remains were moved to the churchyard at Minstead in Hampshire,
near where they had owned a house in the New Forest.
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate
Sherlock Homes Society

How often have I said to you that when you
have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth?
The Sign of Four (1890)
Virginia
Woolf drowned herself in the river Ouse near her home Monk's
House at Rodmell
in 1941. Her ashes are buried in the garden.
Virginia
Woolf
Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of
men who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.
A Room of One's Own (1929)
Things have dropped from me. I have outlived
certain desires; I have lost friends, some by death - Percival - others
by the sheer inability to cross the street.
The Waves (1931)
The
creator of Winnie the Pooh - the children's author A.A.
Milne - died at his home at Cotchford Farm in the village of
Hartfield near
Ashdown
Forest
in 1956.
In 1969 the Rolling Stone Brian Jones
drowned in the swimming pool of Cotchford Farm having purchased the
farmhouse the previous year.
A.A.
Milne

The more he looked inside the more Piglet
wasn't there.
The House at Pooh Corner (1928)
Author
of Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
died in the village of Ripe in 1957. He is also buried there.
Vita
Sackville-West was buried in 1962 at Withyam.
Vita
Sackville-West

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