INTRODUCTION

The land occupied today by the Seven Sisters Country Park creates a deceivingly quiet and peaceful landscape, as though divorced from the activities of Man, the truth is quite the opposite. This factsheet will seek to break down and explain this apparent illusion.

EARLY MAN

The first occupiers of the locality were prehistoric men; many items of evidence to their presence here have been found in the form of tools fashioned from the hard flint found within the chalk. Items found include axes (some polished or smoothed), scrapers and arrowheads. At about 3,500 BC, a more advanced stone age man started to arrive on the coasts of south east England. They were drawn to the chalk uplands of southern England because of the light, easily cultivated soils. These people are termed NEOLITHIC (new stone age) and were the first people to practice agriculture, that is, to domesticate and breed animals, and grow crops. to accomplish this, they first had to clear small areas of the woodland which then covered the Downs, using their flint axes. Crops were then grown on these areas until the soil became exhausted; this necessitated clearing a new area - the former then being used for grazing livestock. Later, during the IRON AGE and the ROMANO-BRITISH periods, most of the woodland on the Downs was cleared and large areas cultivated using small rectangular fields. At this time the clearance of trees caused large scale SOIL EROSION - rain then washing much of the soil into the valleys or BOTTOMS as they are known locally. During present day ploughing operations, evidence probably from this period can be seen on the slopes between Exceat Bridge and the Hindover Hill, and north beyond the western half of the Seven Sisters cliffs, in the form of LYCHETS - banks formed by the movement of soil during cultivating operations, often showing up white against the surrounding soil. Another feature dating from this period is the large numbers of ROUND BARROWS or grave mounds dotted across the Downs. Many were plundered by the Victorians who made no record of finds from the central burial chamber; this is why most barrows have a depression upon them. An example of a barrow may be viewed on the hills just before Exceat.

EXCEAT

During the period AD 700 - 1000, SETTLEMENT had achieved a high density on the Downs, and settlements were established in the dry valleys and on marginal land, these included Birling, East Dean, Friston, West Dean and Exceat. Place-name experts have difficulty in explaining 'Exceat‘. It possibly means 'settlers by the Exe‘, Exe probably being the old British name for the Cuckmere, or 'Ecci‘s settlement‘, Ecci being a personal name. The village continued to prosper until the early 13th Century when there was a retreat from marginal areas such as Exceat. Records also show that by 1341 other neighbouring coastal sites had been raided by the French; so Exceat probably suffered too. Other factors which influenced the DECLINE were a series of poor seasons, soil exhaustion, the Black Death and possibly new opportunities on land north of the South Downs. In 1528, with only one household left at Exceat, the village was united with West Dean.

EXCEAT CHURCH

When the DOMESDAY BOOK was compiled in 1086 there were three holdings or estates within Exceat. By the year 1536, these holdings had been absorbed into the extensive estates of the GAGE family of Firle, near Lewes. Exceat remained part of the Gage Estate until 1823, when an exchange was arranged with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. After a short spell in private hands, Exceat was purchased by the East Sussex County Council in 1971.

RIVER AND ROAD

Until influenced by the hand of man, the natural course of the CUCKMERE RIVER was to follow the graceful sweeping curves of the meanders, which are such a famous feature of the valley. To reduce flooding along the valley, the course of the river was straightened or 'canalised‘, south from Exceat Bridge, at a cost of £751. This work was carried out during 1846, involving the excavation of 24,809 cubic yards (18,969 cubic metres) of clay by hand and wheelbarrow, and the construction of a new east bank between the new 'watercourse‘ and the meanders. Stretching across the valley, from the cluster of buildings at Exceat to the bridge on the western side, is Exceat CAUSEWAY - a large dyke built, in at least medieval times, of chalk boulders, which carries the coast road across the often wet valley floor. Being high and rather narrow, it was decided in 1840 to reduce the height, and with the surplus chalk increase its width, leaving only a narrow section on its south side at the original height (today‘s footpath). The reason for leaving this was that until the river improvements in 1846, the causeway acted as a sea wall, for the meanders and the neighbouring meadow (then saltmarsh) would have been covered to a depth approaching 6 feet (2 metres) by the sea during spring tides.

SHIPWRECKS

The Seven Sisters cliffs have been witness to the demise of many ships and seafarers, the local inhabitants being quickly on the scene to rescue crew and salvage any valuables. Since 1563, there have been at least 25 shipping casualties between Birling Gap and Cuckmere Haven. Probably, the greatest shipwreck of all time in Sussex occurred in November 1747, when the captured Spanish ship the NYMPHA AMERICANA lost its way while under convoy from Portsmouth to London and foundered at Crowlink. Thirty of the one hundred and thirty man crew perished when the foc‘stle overturned, the lower portion of the hull was ripped away and not located until the following Christmas Eve. The ship and cargo were insured for the, then huge, sum of £150,000, salvaged from her precious cargo was £30,000 worth of mercury.

WRECK OF THE ”NYMPHA AMERICANA"

During very low tides, visitors to Cuckmere Haven may spot ironwork projecting from the sea immediately seaward of the river. This is the wreck of the German sail ship, POLYNESIA, which ran aground somewhere west of Beachy Head, laden with a cargo of nitrate of soda during April 1890. After being partly unloaded she was towed off and beached at Cuckmere Haven. Failure to refloat her again resulted in her bring broken up during a gale one month after her initial demise. The last casualty of the rocks below the cliffs was the Danish schooner, the MOGENS KOCH, on passage from Sweden to Spain, with a cargo of timber. She was driven aground below Haven Brow during a gale in December 1929. Her crew were rescued by the Newhaven lifeboat, during which the coxswain sustained serious injuries which brought about his premature death. The ship was eventually re-floated and towed to Newhaven for repairs.

SMUGGLING

The coast of Sussex was notorious for smuggling exploits. The remote shingle beach situated at Cuckmere Haven has seen many a smuggling run, many of which are not recorded for usually only the unsuccessful attempts were recorded. The earliest incident recorded at Cuckmere was when a French ship tried to pick up a cargo of WOOL, known as 'owling‘, but was captured and the crew of six imprisoned. All other incidents recorded involved the importation of duty-free or illegal goods. BRANDY and GIN were often retrieved by the smugglers after 'crop sowing‘ by a boat - that is tubs known as 'half-ankers‘ each holding about 3½ gallons (approximately 16 litres), were lashed together and 'sown‘ close in-shore and retrieved at low tide, or by another boat.

  In the Autumn of 1783, within the space of a week, two GANGS each numbering 200 or 300 men openly carried away their goods from Cuckmere Haven, their sheer size overcoming the PREVENTIVE OFFICERS. During 1788, smugglers were surprised on Exceat causeway; panicking, they cut the girths on their pack horses and left a wagon load of TEA and TOBACCO for the Seaford Preventive Officers. During September 1825, two public house landlords approached a preventive man at Cuckmere Haven and tried to bribe him into letting them 'work the boat‘ in exchange for £20 and a horse to take him out of the area. Bribery failed on this occasion, and legal proceedings were taken against the two men.

WAR DEFENCES

The last war involved Exceat to a far greater degree than during any previous outbreaks of hostility. During the early part of the war, and extensive network of LIGHTS was laid out within the valley. The purpose of these was to give German bomber crews the illusion that they were over the port of Newhaven, so protecting the port facilities and drawing them of course for the targets further north. Between the sea and the coast road, concrete gun emplacements known as PILLBOXES were constructed at strategic points. Near the road at Exceat, and between the beach and the saltmarsh, tank traps of DRAGONS TEETH were constructed - those near the beach still being in position. The beach and the valley meadows, together with the riverbed, were heavily MINED.

R.A.F. FRISTON

During 1940, Gayles Farm and a large portion of Exceat Farm were requisitioned as an R.A.F emergency landing ground. Facilities were later upgraded and operations recommenced during May 1942. the first real action involving Friston was when two squadrons of Hurricanes were temporarily stationed there for the DIEPPE RAID. As Friston was the nearest airfield this side of the Channel, it received a number of crippled aircraft on its two grass runways that fateful day. During Spring 1943, German fighter/bombers were becoming a serious threat to south coast towns. To counter them the new Mk XII Griffon-engines Spitfires first saw active service at Friston.

During the Autumn and Winter of 1943-44, many Allied aircraft such as Lancasters, Flying Fortresses and Liberators, which were damaged or low on fuel, made for Friston. In the words of the station‘s log, ”the airfield began to look like a Bomber Station". From October 1943, Friston was to have its own resident squadron of Spitfires, and became a fully operational airfield in its own right as from January 1944, having a compliment of 1,400 airmen and women. Many aircraft used the airfield in connection with the D-DAY landings and during the Summer of 1944 Friston‘s aircraft accounted for many dozens of V1 FLYING BOMBS. By November, Friston had seen its heyday and was finally derequisitioned in April 1946. Today, very little evidence survives, the area now forming a quiet backdrop to the Seven Sisters.