Sussex Archaeological Collections 123

A floodplain section of the upper Cuckmere valley near Stream Farm has been investigated. The litho-stratigraphy and bio-stratigraphy of a 6.6-metre fill sequence is described and the Holocene palaeoenvironmental conditions in the fossil record are briefly outlined. It is evident that the alluvium has accumulated largely in response to the impact of prehistoric man on the former vegetation cover, particularly during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. There is little evidence of more recent episodes of alluviation, suggesting the contemporary floodplain is a relic land/form. A tentative archaeological model is presented of the apparent environmental impact of prehistoric man in Sussex as regards valley alluviation.

The removal of soil by machine in 1969 for a new reservoir at Arlington uncovered a number of archaeological features. A group on the west side of the river Cuckmere was examined in the limited time available to them by E.W. and H. G. Holden. Of these features a 4th-century pottery kiln, workshop, and a scatter of potsherds have been published (Holden 1979). This report deals with the other features of that site referred to in the 1979 article. That paper should be consulted for a site plan and description of the area.

An area of planned land division is identified in the part of South Malling manor which lay in Withyham parish. The planning is associated with the settlement of this land in the medieval period. It is suggested that the lord of the manor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, may have initiated the colonization of this part of his land.

The greater part of modern Burgess Hill has developed out of the Wealden commons and demesne woodlands belonging to three ancient settlements at the foot of the South Downs, namely Clayton, Keymer and Ditchling. The evolution of its minor names presents an interesting study, for some were affected by changes in the topography long before the birth of the Victorian town, while others have been directly affected by the town's growth. The role that the area has played in the history of Sussex has been obscured owing to the difficulty of relating old names to present-day places. This article aims to place former names in their modern context and vice versa.

Rabbits were native to Britain in early post-glacial times but had become extinct by the Roman period. Their history in southern England from their reintroduction, through the establishment and decline of warrens, to the later formation of wild populations, is reviewed as background to the account of rabbits at West Dean in West Sussex. Rabbit warrens were present on all landforms in Sussex. A combination of archaeological, historical and ecological methods was used to trace the development and demise of the West Dean warren. Already well established by 1583, the warren existed until 1804 when it was dismantled; the area known as Ellingsdean may originally have been a separate, smaller warren, part of which became incorporated into West Dean. The warren contained about 900 a. in the 18th century, was well stocked with rabbits and was simultaneously used as common pasture for tenants' domestic stock. Although it was surrounded by a substantial fence-topped, flint-faced bank with inner ditch, escaping rabbits caused friction between warrener and farmers. There was some controversy over rights of free warren on the land and over ownership of fringe areas.of the warren. Since the demise of the warren, the area has become progressively enclosed and wooded, so that now only two per cent of its former area has remnants of the original chalk downland and heath vegetation. The establishment of a 19th-century game warren for rabbit shooting, quite separate from the medieval warren, and the increasing abundance of wild rabbits in the area are described. Myxomatosis, which came here in 1954, almost eradicated rabbits from the area, demonstrating the full extent of their previous effect on the landscape. Rabbits are now reestablished and causing problems again on the West Dean Estate.

Dissenters in Lewes are examined during the period of proscription and intermittent prosecution which lasted from 1663 to 1686. Estimates are made of their number, occupational spread and social weight, and the character of each congregation is discussed.