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Sussex
Sussex was for centuries a byword for inaccessibility, cut off by the north downs and the heavily wooded weald, and proverbial for muddy lanes. In Roman times the local tribe was the Regni. At the time of the Roman conquest, the king was Cogidubnus, who submitted and whose title was recognized. The Roman capital was Chichester (Regnum). The Saxon settlement in the area is curiously and perhaps deceptively precise. The Anglo‐Saxon Chronicle relates that Ælle and his three sons came to Britain in 477 (perhaps earlier?) and that one of the sons, Cissa, took Pevensey in 491. By Bede's time, the kingdom of the South Saxons—Sussex—was well established. The line of Sussex kings continued until the later 8th cent., when the region fell under Mercia and then Wessex.
The size of the area made it a manageable unit for the shire system which developed in the 10th cent., but there were local characteristics. First, the county was, uniquely, divided into six rapes—strips centred on Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings. Secondly, the difficulties of east–west communication meant that Sussex fell naturally into sections. The rape of Hastings was probably the territory of the Haestingas, who formed a subkingdom. Later, the county divided into a western section, based on Chichester, and an eastern section, based on Lewes. When parliamentary representation developed in the later medieval period, the convention was to choose one MP from each section. The sea coast being difficult and the only large harbours at Chichester and Rye, the Sussex ports remained local. The spectacular medieval development was in iron manufacture, eked out by smuggling. Camden, writing in the 1580s, noted that Sussex was ‘full of iron mines everywhere … for the driving of mills by the flashes; which beating with hammers upon the iron, fill the neighbourhood round about, night and day, with their noise.’ But in the late 17th cent. cheap Swedish iron, the exhaustion of the forests, and competition from Shropshire led to a decline, and by 1788 there were only two furnaces left. The transformation of Sussex from a remote rural county of farms and small market towns was the result of two developments—the growing taste for seaside holidays and the coming of the railways. Brighthelmstone was described by Defoe in the 1720s as ‘a poor fishing town, old built’, fast eaten away by an ‘unkind’ sea. The prince regent's visit in 1782 and his plans for the Pavilion put Brighton on the fashionable map and thereafter its growth was prodigious. By 1801 it was already nearly twice the size of Chichester and by 1851 bigger, at 65,000, than all the other Sussex towns put together. It was now pursued by other local resorts. Hove, its neighbour, had a population of 100 in 1801 but 29,000 100 years later. By 1901, Eastbourne had 42,000, Hastings 52,000, and Worthing 20,000. Bognor left its run until the 20th cent., profiting from the convalescence of George V in 1929. |
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JOHN CANNON. "Sussex." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Sussex." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Sussex.html JOHN CANNON. "Sussex." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Sussex.html |
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Sussex
Sussex Kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, settled by the South Saxons under Aelle (c.ad 477). It was allegedly the last Anglo-Saxon kingdom to adopt Christianity (c.680). A number of Kings of Sussex are known from the 7th and 8th centuries, but at various times they were under the dominance of Mercia. Wessex absorbed Sussex in the early 9th century. See East Sussex; West Sussex
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"Sussex." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Sussex." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Sussex1.html "Sussex." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Sussex1.html |
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Sussex
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JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Sussex." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Sussex." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-Sussex.html JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Sussex." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-Sussex.html |
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Sussex
Sussex Former county in se England, on the English Channel, since 1974 divided into the counties of East Sussex and West Sussex. Area: 3773sq km (1457sq mi).
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Cite this article
"Sussex." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Sussex." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Sussex.html "Sussex." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Sussex.html |
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Sussex
Sussex (the county). Suth Seaxe late 9th cent., Sudsexe 1086 (DB). ‘(Territory of) the South Saxons’. OE sūth + Seaxe.
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A. D. MILLS. "Sussex." A Dictionary of British Place-Names. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. A. D. MILLS. "Sussex." A Dictionary of British Place-Names. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O40-Sussex.html A. D. MILLS. "Sussex." A Dictionary of British Place-Names. 2003. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O40-Sussex.html |
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Sussex
Sussex
•admix, affix, commix, fix, Hicks, intermix, MI6, mix, nix, Nyx, pix, Pnyx, prix fixe, pyx, Ricks, six, Styx, transfix, Wicks
•Aquarobics • radix • appendix
•crucifix • suffix • Alex • calyx
•Felix, helix
•kylix • Horlicks • prolix • spondulicks
•hydromechanics • phoenix
•Ebonics, onyx
•mechatronics • sardonyx
•Paralympics • semi-tropics
•subtropics • Hendrix
•dominatrix, matrix
•administratrix • oryx • tortrix
•executrix • Beatrix • cicatrix
•Essex, Wessex
•kinesics • coccyx • Sussex
•informatics, mathematics
•Dianetics • geopolitics • bioethics
•cervix • astrophysics • yikes
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"Sussex." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Sussex." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Sussex.html "Sussex." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Sussex.html |
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