Sussex

Sussex is a historic area in South East England. Its name comes from the Old English word for "South Saxons." Sussex was once its own kingdom but later became part of the Kingdom of England. Today, the area is split into two ceremonial counties: East Sussex and West Sussex.

The county borders Surrey to the north, Kent to the north-east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. It includes the city of Brighton and Hove, part of the South Downs National Park, and the beautiful Chichester Harbour. Sussex has a long coastline stretching 137 miles.

In 2007, Sussex Day was created to celebrate the county's culture and history. In February 2025, plans were approved to give more powers to a new combined county authority for East Sussex, West Sussex, and Brighton and Hove, with a directly elected mayor to lead it.

Toponymy

The name "Sussex" comes from old words meaning "land of the South Saxons." The South Saxons were a group of people who lived in the area a long time ago. They came from a place called the North German Plain during the fifth and sixth centuries.

The word "South Saxons" was used as early as the year 689 in an important old document. Later, in a big book from the year 1086 called the Domesday Book, Sussex was written as Sudsexe. Today, there are places in the United States and Australia that are also named after Sussex.

Symbols

Main article: Symbols of Sussex

The flag of Sussex has six gold birds, called martlets, on a blue background. This design was officially recognized in 2011. It is based on an old symbol used to represent the area. People have used this symbol since at least the early 1600s.

Sussex by the Sea is often thought of as the special song of Sussex. It was written in 1907 and is still sung at celebrations and sports events.

The special day for Sussex, called Sussex Day, is held each year on June 16. This day honors St Richard of Chichester, who is considered the special protector of Sussex.

Sussex has a special saying: We wunt be druv, which means "we will not be pushed around." This shows the independent spirit of the people of Sussex. The round-headed rampion flower is the special flower of Sussex.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Sussex

See also: Geology of East Sussex

Sussex is located in the southern part of England. It has many natural features shaped by its position on a large land curve called the Wealden anticline. This gives Sussex high lands running from west to east, including the Weald and the South Downs.

The highest point in Sussex is Blackdown, which stands at 280 metres tall. The River Arun is the longest river completely within Sussex, stretching for 60 kilometres. Sussex also has many lakes, mostly man-made reservoirs, with Bewl Water being the largest.

The coast of Sussex gets more sunshine than most of the United Kingdom, with about 1,900 hours of sunshine each year. This is because sea breezes help clear the clouds. Sussex usually has less rain than average, especially along the coast. The weather there can be cool in summer near the sea and sometimes warmer in autumn. Small tornadoes have occasionally affected places like Selsey.

Most people in Sussex live near the coast or along major roads, with Brighton being the largest city.

Population

The combined population of Sussex in 2021 was about 1.7 million people. The number of people living in each square kilometer was 451, which is a bit more than the average for all of England.

Long ago, in the year 681, a writer named Bede said Sussex had enough land for 7,000 families. If each family had ten people, that would mean about 70,000 people lived there. Over time, the number of people changed. In 1801, there were 159,311 people living in Sussex. By 1891, the population grew to 550,446, and in 1901 it was 605,202.

History

Main articles: History of Sussex and Timeline of Sussex history

The area that is now Sussex has a very long history. Very old tools and bones have been found there, showing people lived there hundreds of thousands of years ago. These early people hunted animals like horses and mammoths for food.

Later, the Romans came to Sussex and built towns and a big house called a palace. After the Romans left, new groups of people arrived and set up their own kingdom. One famous moment was when a leader named William landed in Sussex and fought a big battle. This battle changed the history of all of England.

Over many years, Sussex has seen many changes. It was important during wars, and people there have been part of big events in British history. Even today, Sussex remains a special and historic part of England.

Governance

See also: History of local government in Sussex

Politics

In February 2025, government leaders agreed to create a special group to help manage Sussex. This group would handle important jobs like roads, safety, health, and jobs. People in Sussex might choose a leader called the Mayor of Sussex to help run this group starting in May 2026. Some older groups would change or stop working, and new groups would start based on areas like East Sussex and West Sussex.

Right now, different areas in Sussex are led by different groups. Some are led by people from the Conservative Party, some by Labour, and others by the Liberal Democrats or Green Party. In the UK Parliament, Sussex has 17 leaders called MPs. In the 2024 election, some were from Labour, some from the Conservatives, some from the Liberal Democrats, and one from the Green Party.

Law

Sussex has its own police group called Sussex Police, which started in 1968 and works from Lewes. The main court for Sussex is Lewes Crown Court, with smaller courts in Lewes, Brighton, and Hove. There is also a smaller court in Chichester. Sussex has prisons for men in Lewes and Ford.

Administrative divisions

Historic sub-divisions

Main article: Rape (county subdivision)

Sussex used to be split into special areas called rapes for different jobs. There were originally four rapes: Arundel, Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings. Two more rapes, Bramber and Chichester, were added later.

Modern local authority areas

Sussex is now split into two areas for special events and two bigger areas for everyday jobs: East Sussex and West Sussex, plus the city of Brighton and Hove. Each bigger area has its own group to handle schools, help for families, libraries, buses, and cleaning up trash. Smaller groups help with planning and building rules.

This way of splitting Sussex into two parts started in 1504 and was made official by laws in 1865 and 1888.

Economy

Sussex, located in the South East of England, has areas where the economy is weaker than the UK average. Some parts of Sussex are among the most deprived in the country, with many children living in poverty. Efforts have been made to improve the economy, including partnerships and special deals for areas like Brighton.

Tourism is important in Sussex, with popular seaside towns and the South Downs National Park. Brighton is known for its media and technology businesses. Universities and major companies also provide jobs. Sussex has a history of iron working, glass making, and farming, and still has fishing and leisure ports along its coast.

Transport

Sussex has two main roads kept up by the UK Department for Transport. These are the A27/A259, which runs along the coast from east to west, connecting places like Chichester, Worthing, Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings. The other is the A23/M23, which goes north-south, linking Brighton and Crawley to Gatwick Airport and London. Other important roads include the A21 (from Hastings to London), A22 (from Eastbourne to London), and A24 (from Worthing to London).

Trains in Sussex are run by Govia Thameslink Railway. They operate on several key routes, such as the Brighton Mainline, East Coastway line, West Coastway line, Arun Valley line, and Marshlink line. There have been ideas to reopen the Uckfield — Lewes line to give another way to travel to London besides the Brighton Mainline.

Gatwick Airport, located just north of Crawley, is the second busiest airport in the UK and was the 10th busiest in the world in 2024. Sussex also has two commercial ports: Newhaven and Shoreham-by-Sea. DFDS runs a ferry service from Newhaven to Dieppe in France, and from there, you can take trains to Rouen and Paris.

Education

Sussex is home to several important schools and universities. The oldest university is the University of Sussex, which opened in 1961. It is known for its research and ranks among the best in the UK.

Later, the University of Brighton joined in 1992, and the University of Chichester started in 2005. There are also colleges and other schools, such as The Prebendal School, which is one of the oldest schools in the area. Sussex has many well-known schools for children to learn and grow.

Healthcare

Main article: Healthcare in Sussex

The Sussex County Hospital, now called the Royal Sussex County Hospital, started in 1828 in Brighton. Another important hospital, St. Francis Hospital (now the Princess Royal Hospital), began in 1859 in Haywards Heath. In 2002, the first medical school in Sussex, the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, was created. By 2011, the four healthcare groups in Sussex joined together to form NHS Sussex. The Royal Sussex County Hospital has a Major Trauma Centre, one of only five in the southern part of England, helping people with serious injuries. The hospital also has a cancer centre that helps most of Sussex.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Sussex

Sussex has a long history of being different from the rest of England. The people there are known for thinking independently and not liking to be told what to do, as shown by their motto, We wunt be druv. The area is famous for its lively bonfire celebrations and rich musical traditions. In the early 1900s, Sussex became a center for modern artists and writers who were drawn to its seaside towns and countryside.

The county is home to the Brighton Festival and the Brighton Fringe, England's largest arts event. Brighton Pride is one of the UK’s biggest and oldest pride events, with similar celebrations happening in towns like Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings, and Worthing. Chichester hosts the Chichester Festival Theatre and Pallant House Gallery.

Architecture

Building materials in Sussex match its natural landscape, with flint used on and near the South Downs and sandstone in the Weald area. Brick is used throughout the county.

The architecture of Sussex is usually simple but can also include very unique and unusual buildings, like the Saxon Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Sompting, Castle Goring, which looks very different from the front and back, and Brighton’s Indo-Saracenic Royal Pavilion.

Dialect

Sussex has had its own special way of speaking for a long time, with differences in various parts of the county. The dialect includes many words for mud, similar to how some people think there are many words for snow.

Literature

Writers born in Sussex include poets and playwrights like Thomas May, Thomas Otway, and John Fletcher. Fletcher worked with Shakespeare. Other famous writers from Sussex include William Collins, William Hayley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and many more.

Many well-known writers, though not born in Sussex, lived there, such as Charlotte Turner Smith, William Blake, Alfred Tennyson, H. G. Wells, and AA Milne, who wrote the Winnie-the-Pooh stories while living in Ashdown Forest. Sussex has been home to four winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Music

Main article: Music of Sussex

Sussex has a rich musical history in folk, classical, and popular music. The county’s unofficial anthem is Sussex by the Sea, composed by William Ward-Higgs. Traditional songs have been passed down through generations, collected by people like John Broadwood and Lucy Broadwood.

Sussex has been home to many classical composers, including Thomas Weelkes, John Ireland, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The county also has famous orchestras like the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Worthing Symphony Orchestra.

In popular music, Sussex has produced artists such as Leo Sayer, The Cure, Keane, and The Kooks. The county hosted the UK’s first large free music festival, Phun City, and the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, which made ABBA famous worldwide. Major festivals include The Great Escape Festival and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Television

Due to the size of the county, it is covered by more than one TV station:

• BBC South East covers Brighton & Hove and East Sussex, and also Haywards Heath, East Grinstead, Burgess Hill and Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex.
• BBC South covers the remainder of West Sussex.
• ITV Meridian is another regional news which covers the county.
• Crawley is covered by both regions, but receives a better TV signal from BBC London and ITV London.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Sussex

See also: History of Christianity in Sussex

Christianity is the main religion in Sussex, with about 58% of people identifying as Christian according to the 2011 census. Other groups include Muslims (1.4%), Hindus (0.7%), and those with no religion (30.5%).

Sussex has been a single diocese since the eighth century, after St Wilfrid founded Selsey Abbey. The Normans later moved the cathedral to Chichester in 1075. Since 1965 Arundel Cathedral has been the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishops of Arundel and Brighton. Different religious groups have existed in Sussex for centuries, including Jewish communities and various modern belief groups around East Grinstead.

Science

Pell's equation and the Pell number are named after the 17th-century mathematician John Pell. In the 19th century, geologist Gideon Mantell began studying dinosaurs and discovered the first fossil teeth of Iguanodon. Braxton Hicks contractions are named after the Sussex doctor John Braxton Hicks.

In the 20th century, Frederick Soddy won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on radioactive substances. Frederick Gowland Hopkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for discovering vitamins. Martin Ryle shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974. While at the University of Sussex, Harold Kroto won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering fullerenes. David Mumford won the Fields Medal in 1974 and the National Medal of Science in 2010.

In the social sciences, Sussex was home to economist John Maynard Keynes from 1925 to 1946.

Sport

Main articles: Sport in Sussex, Cricket in Sussex, and Football in Sussex

Sussex has a long history of sports. It played a key role in the early development of cricket and stoolball. Sussex is where cricket was first recorded as being played by men in 1611 and by women in 1677. Sussex CCC, founded in 1839, is England's oldest county cricket club. Slindon Cricket Club was dominant in the 18th century. Sussex is also believed to be the origin of stoolball.

Sussex has teams in the Premier League like Brighton & Hove Albion and in the Football League like Crawley Town. Sussex has its own football association and football league. The county is home to race tracks like Goodwood and show jumping events.

Cuisine

See also: Beer in Sussex and Sussex wine

Sussex is known for its "seven good things": Pulborough eel, Selsey cockle, Chichester lobster, Rye herring, Arundel mullet, Amberley trout, and Bourne wheatear. Other local dishes include Ashdown Partridge Pudding, Chiddingly Hot pot, and Sussex Pond Pudding.

The county has a long history of brewing of beer and many vineyards. Sussex wine gained Protected Designation of Origin status in 2022, with wines winning awards worldwide. Many vineyards use traditional Champagne methods.

Visual arts

Some of the earliest known art in Sussex is from the Neolithic flint mines at Cissbury. The Roman palace at Fishbourne has the UK’s largest collection of mosaics, and the villa at Bignor has some of England’s best-preserved Roman mosaics.

The ‘Lewes Group’ of wall paintings from the 12th century can be found in several Sussex churches. The Long Man of Wilmington is Europe’s largest human-shaped landmark.

In the late 18th century, important works of Sussex were commissioned by people like William Burrell, George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, and John 'Mad Jack' Fuller.

In the 19th century, artists like Copley Fielding, Aubrey Beardsley, and Eric Gill were born or lived in Sussex. The 1920s and 1930s saw works by Edward Burra and Eric Ravilious.

In the early 20th century, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant lived at Charleston Farmhouse. Sussex became a center for surrealism, with artists like Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso visiting places like West Dean and Farley Farm House.

Notable people

Main listing: List of people from Sussex

Sussex, a beautiful area in South East England, has been home to many famous people throughout history. From ancient kings to modern artists, many important figures have lived and worked in this region. You can learn more about them in the list of people from Sussex.