A history of Sussex (due in 2012)
We are delighted that Professor Philip Payton has agreed to write a major new history of Sussex. More details will be posted here shortly. The synopsis of the book looks stimulating and I am looking forward to several trips to photograph some of the county’s remarkable historic sites! The book will complement Prof. Fred Gray’s forthcoming Brighton: A History, also published around the same time.
This book is a comprehensive, illustrated history of Sussex from earliest times to the present day. Broadly chronological in approach, the volume also emphasizes key themes throughout – the maritime dimension, a gateway to Europe, the frontline in war, the national context. It stresses continuities as well as change, and attempts to sketch the ‘character of Sussex’ – its landscape, it architecture, its people.
The book begins by considering prehistoric and early historic Sussex, concentrating on what can still be seen in the landscape. There is a discussion of Iron Age and Roman Sussex, together with an examination of Saxon settlement, including the creation of Sussex identity as the land of the ‘South Saxons’. As the book makes plain, Sussex played an important role in the establishment of Anglo-Norman and medieval England, and this is explored in a wide-ranging survey of the county’s ecclesiastical, military and political history in this era. There is also a focus on economic development in the medieval and early modern periods – the wool industry and, especially, the Sussex iron industry which exploited the twin resources of local mineral deposits and plentiful Wealden wood for fuel.
The upheavals of the Reformation and Civil War, and what they meant for Sussex, are also discussed: as is the impact of the Industrial Revolution. Initially, much of this new industrialism appeared to pass Sussex by, and Sussex remained relatively poor compared to many other English counties. However, two events were to change the county’s fortunes. First of all, there was an early move towards seaside bathing and tourism, encouraged initially by royal patronage. Secondly, the coming of the railway led to new forms of economic diversification, including the growth of ‘dormitory’ settlements for those commuters working in London and its hinterland. Sussex had by now become ‘fashionable’, attracting literary figures such as Kipling and the Woolfs.
During the Second World War, Sussex was again in the front-line – in the escape from Dunkirk and in the Blitz. After the war, Sussex returned to its tourism and dormitory roles but it also attracted light manufacturing and, increasingly, service and ‘high-tech’ industries. Today the population of Sussex is diverse and cosmopolitan. Yet, as this book argues, early twenty-first-century Sussex has managed to maintain its special sense of place as ‘Sussex by the Sea’, with its own distinctive identity.
About the author
Professor Philip Payton spent much of his childhood in Sussex, first in Brighton and then at Burgess Hill, attending what was then Haywards Heath Grammar School from 1965 until 1972. He remains a frequent visitor to the county and, among other things, is a member of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, which runs the steam railway from Sheffield Park to near East Grinstead. Philip Payton has published widely on regional history, and is currently Professor of Cornish & Australian Studies and Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus.