Data copyright © Sussex Archaeological Society unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Jaime
Kaminski
Sussex Archaeological Society
Barbican House
169 High Street
Lewes
BN8 1YE
An examination of the tithe surveys of the 1840s, the Lloyd George 1910 Valuation Office material and the National Farm Survey of 1941?43 relating to the 100 square miles of the South Downs between the rivers Arun and Adur enables a picture to be built up of the way the land was owned and farmed during a century of rapid agricultural and social change. The study confirms the importance of large landowners in the West Sussex downland and the position of the study area as the natural habitat of the close parish, with land in few hands and the rural population small, deferential and conservative politically. In addition, changes over time and in the fortunes of individual families are discussed, as are changes in the size of holdings and the growth of owner-occupation. Finally, changes in land-use are described, with particular attention being drawn to the changing balance between arable and pasture on farms in the study area, the abandonment of remote farmsteads and the importance of mineral working and forestry. As the Second World War approached, military use also became important.