Sussex Archaeological Collections 127

Recent studies of river valleys and chalk/and dry valleys have shown evidence for extensive anthropogenic soil erosion in prehistoric Sussex starting during the Mesolithic but increasing rapidly with the arrival of the earliest farming communities shortly before 4,000 B.C. This article adds to that data by examining evidence from the Greensand (West Heath) and the Coastal Plain (Ferring). At both sites evidence for soil erosion is centred on the 2nd-1st millenia B.C.

The titles of six Anglo-Saxon charters are listed in a volume of the chartulary of the Bishop of Chichester. Three of these can be related to an extant, but corrupt charter concerning the foundation and subsequent endowment of Bexhill minster church. After the Norman Conquest the church was granted to endow Hastings College. The origins of the other lands farming the endowment of the prebends of the college are considered.

From at least the 12th century and throughout the Middle Ages slates were a major form of roof covering on buildings mostly near ports and river valleys along the South Coast. This study concentrates on Sussex (East and West). Many types of structures were roofed with slates, but ecclesiastical buildings, manor-houses and others of high status were twice as likely to have them than those of humbler circumstances. The source of most of the slates is probably the South Hams area of South Devon, where there were numerous slate quarries on or near the coast: some slates may be from South Cornwall. The practical aspects and techniques of slating in diminishing courses are discussed in some detail, and comparisons are made between Sussex, West Cornwall and Normandy slating practices. The quarrying of slate, seaborne trade and shipping do not form part of this study.

A late Medieval hall-house on the route of the Horsham (Northern By-Pass was excavated in April 1985, producing a small assemblage of late 14th-16th century pottery.

The quasi-annual ritual known as the Elizabethan summer progress has often been interpreted as nothing more than royal propaganda and aristocratic submission to state power, but the few surviving accounts of these vents indicate variety in modes of entertainment and more importantly, in the relationship between aristocrat and queen. While spectacles such as the 1575 Kenilworth entertainment constituted a king of insiders' game, in which Leicester enjoyed high favour under Elizabeth, the 1591 Coudray entertainment was hosted by a discontented Roman Catholic lord in a heavily Catholic region of the country. I seek to interpret this event/text by placing it in relevant historical contexts and by revealing how the courtly practice of covert communication allowed Viscount Montague to use the entertainment to address different audiences on multiple levels of signification. The Renaissance concept of honour had a large impact on aristocrats, and Montague had been dishonoured by removal from the lieutenancy of Sussex in 1585, and by constant erosion of his local influence engineered by the Privy Council. In short, Montague was compelled to devise an entertainment which would simultaneously please the queen and derail ny suspicion of his literally treasonous activities undertaken for the Catholic faith, but also preserve his own honour in his community and perhaps create a sense of solidarity among all English Catholics - locally, nationally, and abroad.

Stanmer village today is a single street of 2 flint and brick built dwellings in neat terraces, together with a combined village stores and café, and a tenant farm. It is owned in its entirety by Brighton Corporation, who allow free public access in the surrounding park land. The open parkscape, dotted with trees, and the Palladian mansion set against a magnificent backdrop of beech and yew, was designed in the 18th century by the Pelham family: but research into earlier sources shows that it was not the Pelhams, but their predecessors, the Michelbornes, who first prepared the ground that enabled this present landscape to take shape.

A Palaeolithic Handaxe from Sussex; An Early Mesolithic Siute and later Flintwork from Hassocks, West Susex; An Early Bronze Age Axe found at Hassocks; A Possible Bronze Age Barrow on the West Sussex Coastal Plain; Iron Age and roman Features at Kemp Town; fieldwalking along the proposed route of the Brighton by-pass; A Romano-British Villa at Little Oldwick Copse, Lavant; A Civil War Denarius from Middleton-on-Sea; Two new 9th Century Anglo-Saxon Strap-Ends from East Sussex; Three Pennies of Edward the Martyr; Continental Coins in Medieval Sussex; A Medieval Anthropomorphic Jug from Crawley; Ford Deserted Village; A Saxon Church at Findon; Some Etchingham Ephemera or more Scenes from Provincial Life; Lewes during the 15th Century; West Blatchington Manor House; Eighteenth-century Electioneering: Winchelsea in 1747; Coade Stone at Worthing and Lewes; Aspects of Brighton's Market Garden Industry; A 19th-Century Brickyard Pug Mill from Barlavington.