What Is Sussex? (Part One)

[@raycornford283]

My family has lived in Sussex (the part that is now East Sussex) since at least 1573. I don't live there now but it will always be in my heart

[@razmot5547]

I’m a Brit living in the US and I lived near Petworth in West Sussex for a few years. I am very impressed by your knowledge and your delivery of such information.

[@ianpunter4486]

Thanks for this. Worthing born and bred, Horsham educated, expat living in the far east with no hope of ever going 'home' to the UK again, this was a real combination of information and nostalgia

[@CAPTAINDRONE798]

Keep the series going. Great premise for us non-Sussex humans to learn and see what is different and historic.

[@SussexYank]

Inspired I am by your comment! Part 2 is back on track. Soon to be uploaded.

[@judithhope8970]

I live in Essex and have been all over the Uk, mainly the beautiful north. However, recently we visited Sussex and I must say we were very pleased with our holiday and will go back. This year we went to Kent and will be back next year as there is still so much to do. If we stay near the border we can enjoy both counties equally.

[@ross2595]

Excellent video! I was born and raised in Sussex and you taught me a few things!

[@yungamurai]

I am amazed by your research and knowlege into Sussex, it truly is impressive. I've lived in Sussex for all 23 years of my life and have learnt a lot from this, keep it up dude!

[@FAS1948]

According to my birth certificate, I was born in the parish of Framfield, in the county of East Sussex, and as far as I and my contemporaries were concerned, West Sussex was a different country, not just a different county. We were even told that they played stoolball by different rules, but i never bothered to find out.

[@gillcawthorn7572]

What an excellent video, particularly your narration .

[@SussexYank]

Thanks!

[@davidmarsden9800]

The northern saxons were initially probably mixed in with the Angles and the Jutes in Norfolk and Suffolk which are self explanatory. Although the Saxon kingdoms were over the years spread right out to Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent and the ones you mentioned. Next to Sussex was a Jute kingdom from Winchester to the coast. In Yorkshire/Northumbria we still have the local Saxon Wappentakes of Ainsty, Skyrack, Elmet, Deira, Bernici and in Lincolnshire there's Lindsey. All still used for various things today such as political boundaries like council or parliamentary constituencies.

[@garycard1456]

What I like about the US is that the woodland area can be huge and expansive in some states. Take, for example, the maple forests of New England and Virginia, which give rise to beautiful reds during the Fall (or Autumn). Or the conifer (fir, spruce and pine) forests of Montana.

[@SussexYank]

My home state of Washington (on the west coast) has seemingly endless tracts of conifers. On the west side of the Cascade mountains, at least. East of the Cascades, it's a high desert.

[@zootsman7954]

If you read this comment, make sure to watch the whole series. Incredibly knowledgeable with broad information. Spot on 👌

[@michaelwhite8031]

Very interesting and full of facts

[@jenh7947]

Genuinely love this. I'm Sussex born and raised, and live away from there now. But it will always be home to me. Hope you're still living there and loving it. If you get a chance to visit there, the Church of St James the Less in Lancing is well worth a visit (very, vert old and pretty). From there it's a short- and beautiful - walk to Coombes Farm, with their gorgeous Church. Also Steyning, Bramber and Devils Dyke. And the Weald and Downlands Museum. Enjoy, and welcome to one of the finest places in England (second only to Yorkshire). Seriously, it's so beautiful and wholesome and lovely to see someone from not Sussex loving it so much. Best of luck and warmest wishes to you, frend

[@SussexYank]

I'm getting back to this rather late, but thanks for the kind words. I've already put out a video describing Devil's Dyke, by the way. And yes, I'm still in Sussex!

[@chutalotr]

Sussex Born, Sussex Bread, Strong in Arm and Brainey of Head, they won't be druv and they won't be led.

[@WanderingwithWatto]

i enjoyed this film and apreciate the effort you have put in to th research. Well delivered and engaging. Thanks for sharing. I will be watching the other parts for sure. 👍 Keep wandering 🙏 Watto

[@xetalq]

There is also a Middlesex, an historic county which is no longer used administratively although there is still a Middlesex County Cricket Club (MCCC) which competes in the annual County Championship in England. The MCCC's home ground is Lord's has been in St John's Wood in the City of Westminster (a borough of Greater London) since 1814. Lord's is also home to the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club), which once used to be in the County of Middlesex but now is rather boringly simply in the post code: London NW8 8QN. Lord's stadium is the oldest extant cricket ground in the world and the spiritual home of cricket, worldwide. Administratively, Middlesex has long since been subsumed into Greater London and sub-divided up between the modern-day but mundane London Boroughs of: Uxbridge, Enfield, Harrow and Ealing. But long before Middlesex became a county, it was the ancient area of Britannia where Saxons first settled in the 6th century and was so named as this area sat in the middle, between the ancient kingdoms of Essex, Sussex and Wessex.

[@garycard1456]

I hope that there are initiatives under way to increase the wooded area of the Weald, for the sake of the wildlife and ecology. I know that the remaining pockets of beech, oak and hornbeam woodlands in the Weald comprise of ancient woodland, which has unique ecology that cannot be instantly replicated just by planting some trees: it takes many, many years for woodlands to become ancient and to be able to support the rich variety of plant and animal life associated with ancient woodland.

[@cogidubnus1953]

Loved it...thank you!

[@archiebald4717]

Very thorough.

[@MartinBraonain]

Jerusalem is a song of rage (no?) written during a time of state control. Just saying, as it is now seen as a celebration of England's rural clime.

[@philbarrance]

I am not 100% but i believe the southern saxons eastern saxons and western saxons were all in relation to London no northern because they may not have been saxon possibly mercian

[@davidmarsden9800]

It's because they were all the way up north from Mercia to Northumbria. They were also part of the mix in East Anglia that's why there's Norfolk and Suffolk. There's confusion because they are all similar people and the Germanic areas that they all came from overlap a lot from the north German and Dutch coast and Denmark including into northern Germany. At the end of the Roman period there was not much stability in continental Europe and tribal movements were happening years before the eventual Roman withdrawal and final collapse and that collapse was the end result of these constant movements. They were only called Saxons because many of them had long knives called Saxe. Hence Norfolk for East Anglia. I read archeology it was a real eye opener from the high school history we were taught. It's a lot more complicated than that.

[@RoyCousins]

Very good, although you missed Middlesex.

[@SussexYank]

I realized this about three months after I posted the video! A bit late, yes.

[@CarolAnnAmelian]

Genetic Lineage ❤

[@MartinBraonain]

Beachy Head is often used for Dover in films

[@racheldicker5611]

West sussex born and bred , with east one of the oldest counties

[@MrSTAdventures]

Another cracking video, thanks for sharing. We are so fortunate to have this beauty on our doorsteps. Im not sure if you have covered it off on one of your videos yet but just up the road from you is the South Downs Way and the Monarchs Way, both have ancient archeology which litter both trails such as Barrows (burial mounds) and a Medieval Village by the name of Perching. Heres a link to a video I put together a couple of weeks ago. Love your style and hey you have now got the hang of English Pronunciation, just don't try and say the word Worcestershire as it will end in tears :) Stay safe and please keep bringing these fantastic videos to our screens. kzbin.info/www/bejne/farYdHyFpLaNpLs

[@nicholasr82]

The angles original English peoples pushed the invading saxons back so they never got a northern stronghold. Then when they tried to re-emerge they were destroyed by the cousins of the earlier English Kings the Norman's. Both families coming from the Danish King's a long time before.

[@OriginalSuperfreak]

'I am going up the downs' . Not a sentence to say to visitors who may just think you are referring to your current state of mind 😂

[@pabmusic1]

Really good. But the UK has no 'official' national anthem. God Save the Queen has never been adopted 'officially'.

[@SussexYank]

I'll grant you that! But that's not the "common" wisdom. Not that "wisdom" is particularly common!

[@pabmusic1]

@@SussexYank Indeed. And we have no 'official' flag either! The nearest we get is that George V gave permission in the 1920s to fly it from public buildings. Otherwise it's the Monarch's to identify his ships!

[@richard8016]

There is a Middlesex

[@SussexYank]

Yes, and I realized this some time after I posted the video! I should have clued into this earlier, especially due to my knowing that there's a Middlesex county in Massachusetts that figures in Longfellow's poem "Paul Revere's Ride" that I had to learn as a child. Part of it: He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light, - One, if by land, and two, if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every *Middlesex* village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

[@geoffstrowger9759]

........ or was! It became merged into London.