Facts about Sussex
History
Finds at Eartham Pit in Boxgrove show that the area has some of the earliest hominid remains in Europe, dating back some 500,000 years and known as Boxgrove Man or Homo heidelbergensis. At a site near Pulborough called The Beedings, tools have been found that date from around 35,000 years ago and that are thought to be from either the last Neanderthals in northern Europe or pioneer populations of modern humans. The thriving population lived by hunting game such as horses, bison, mammoth and woolly rhinos.
Sussex is rich in remains from the Bronze and Iron Ages, in particular the Bronze Age barrows known as the Devil’s Jumps and Cissbury Ring, one of Britain’s largest hillforts. Towards the end of the Iron Age in 75BC people from the Atrebates, one of the tribes of the Belgae, a mix of Celtic and German stock, started invading and occupying southern Britain. This was followed by an invasion by the Roman army under Julius Caesar that temporarily occupied the south-east in 55BC.
General Info
Sussex, is a historic county in South East England and was formerly an independent medieval kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English Channel, and divided for many purposes into the ceremonial counties of West Sussex and East Sussex. Brighton and Hove, though part of East Sussex, was made a unitary authority in 1997, and as such, is administered independently of the rest of East Sussex.
In 1974, the Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex was replaced with one each for East and West Sussex, which became separate ceremonial counties. Sussex continues to be recognised as a geographical territory and cultural region. It has had a single police force since 1968 and its name is in common use in the media. In 2007, Sussex Day was created to celebrate the county’s rich culture and history and in 2011 the flag of Sussex was recognised by the Flag Institute.
