This village underwent the sort of trauma that could so easily have shattered its identity. In the early years of the 19th century it abandoned its roots and moved to a new site half a mile away, leaving only its church in the middle of a private park. The ancient settlement of Bloc Stede (Place…

The village maintains a proud but sad duty throughout the year. A light is turned on at the top of the war memorial on the evening of the anniversary of the death of each of the village’s soldiers, sailors and airmen. There are some 100 names and dates recorded there. The original lantern, which shone…

Lucas called it an ‘alien curiosity’ and the editor of the Sussex County Magazine commented in 1932 that there is something incongruous in the fact that a Sussex church houses the infant bed of the author of Gulliver’s Travels and in so doing takes on the character of a museum.’ The critics won the day.…

The tale of the cannibal ogre has persisted for 400 years. Sir Goddard Oxenbridge, a towering 16th century knight, was said to eat a child every night for his supper. He could not be harmed by conventional weapons but was vulnerable to anything made of wood. The children of Sussex held a council for self-protection…

When an old army hut costing £42 became the village hall in 1923 it added an extra dimension to social life. The village responded to new diversions enthusiastically, 150 packing the building to hear Mr Woolgar play a selection on his gramophone … and Mr Young read a paper ‘Is Music Beneficial to Cattle?’ The…

The fairytale castle must not blind us to another claim to fame. The Bodiam pancake races were held here every Shrove Tuesday for many years and at one time attracted the attention of the BBC. They were started by the Rev Algernon Cottam. Most of the able-bodied adults took part and they ran tossing their…

Fred Bennett of Blackboys had a remarkable escape from one of the more spectacular accidents of the Edwardian era. He was at the wheel of an East Sussex County Council traction engine travelling through Uckfield in the summer of 1903. As it crossed the river Uck the entire bridge collapsed and the nine ton engine…

A distinguished Saxon church and pretty cottages grouped around a green, known locally as The Egg, which has escaped Seaford’s suburban tentacles. As the name Bishopstone implies, it was for centuries a sort of retreat for the Bishops of Chichester, who used to stay here until the 17th century. In 1324 one of them entertained…

Art is often controversial and in this village the work of the paintbrush has caused a stir more than once. During the Second World War the Bishop of Chichester commissioned local artists Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and her son Quinten Bell to paint contemporary murals on the walls of the 12th century parish church. Their…

Not a good place to have been a simple foundry worker at the height of the iron industry … you might have found yourself on a forerunner of the treadmill. They made guns here and depended on water power to keep the bellows of the furnace going, so in dry winters when water was in…