East Sussex

County of southeast England, created in 1974, formerly part of Sussex (since April 1997 Brighton and Hove has

been a separate unitary authority).

Area
1,725 sq km/666 sq mi

Towns
Lewes (administrative headquarters), Newhaven (cross-channel port), Eastbourne, Rye, Winchelsea; Bexhill-on-Sea, Hastings, St Leonards, Seaford (all coastal resorts)

Physical
Beachy Head, highest headland

on the south coast (180 m/590 ft), the eastern end of the South Downs; the Weald (including Ashdown Forest); Friston Forest; rivers Cuckmere, Ouse, and East Rother (which flows into the sea near Rye); Romney Marsh

Features
the ‘Long Man’ chalk hill figure at Wilmington, near Eastbourne; prehistoric earthworks; Iron Age hill fort at Mount Caburn, near Lewes; Roman villas; Herstmonceux, with a 15th-century castle (conference and exhibition centre) and adjacent modern buildings, site of the Greenwich Royal Observatory (1958–90); other castles at Hastings, Lewes (1066), Pevensey (Roman walls and medieval castle), and Bodiam (1385); Bayham Abbey (13th century); Battle Abbey (1090) and the site of the Battle of Hastings; Michelham Priory (1229); Sheffield Park garden; University of Sussex (1961) and University of Brighton (1992, formerly Brighton Polytechnic), both at Falmer, near Brighton

Agriculture
cereals, hops, fruit and vegetables; fishing (at Hastings)

Industries
electronics, gypsum, light engineering, timber

Population
(2001) 492,300

Famous people
former homes of Henry James at Rye, Rudyard Kipling at Batemans in Burwash, Thomas Sackville at Buckhurst, Virginia Woolf at Rodmell; Angus Wilson