East Sussex is a large county that spans from the Kent border up to the border with West Sussex, with inland Weald villages and many Edwardian coastal resorts. The county is also home to England’s newest national park (The South Downs) which stretches from Eastbourne through West Sussex and into Winchester in Hampshire.
Famed for its ‘Old Man of Wilmington’ chalk carving, the Weald is the area between the South Downs and chalk escarpments of the North Downs (stretching to Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex, it was once totally covered in forests).
a vegan, gay & green coastal city
The vibrant city of Brighton is kind of like England’s answer to San Francisco – a vegan-friendly, gay-friendly and artistic place that voted in England’s first Green MP Caroline Lucas who has recently written a wonderful book on compassionate patriotism.
She’s since resigned (her legacy was helping to ban the sale of seal fur in Europe while serving in Brussels), although thankfully she had nothing to do with the stupid decision by England’s first Green council to disturb bird nesting sites to build a cycling path in the city, something that many Greens were appalled at, as it does not encourage other people to vote for Green councils elsewhere.
England’s first solar-powered bus fleet
The Big Lemon (soon to be renamed The Big Orange) is a privately-owned fleet of solar-powered buses in Brighton that used to run on oil donated from local chip shops. Today it offers conventional bus trips plus a college shuttle bus and hires out buses for parties. You can even nominate someone whose lives could be brightened up with a bus trip with friends. But limited to Sussex, so the bus doesn’t run out of solar power, to take you back home!
home to England’s most notorious smugglers
Back in the day, Hastings was the main landing point for notorious smugglers who would board ships in the English channel and kill anyone who resisted them taking the cargo. Today the 3-mile seafront boasts two of England’s remaining railways (cliff-lifts). The Battle of Hastings in 1066 is well-known, but was actually in the town of Battle nearby (but you couldn’t call it the Battle of Battle, because that would sound silly).
The local pier is one of many burned down in an arson attack, though local company Harbor Designs makes beautiful furniture made from reclaimed planks, to stop them going to waste and to preserve history.
Ashdown Forest (home to Winnie-the-Pooh!)
Pooh Corner and the bridge where the friends play Pooh Sticks is situated in the village of Hartfield. This beautiful bear of very little brain remains one of our best-loved collections of stories, for children and adults alike, for such wisdom as:
Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing. Of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.
