Sussex Archaeological Collections 132

A recent earthwork survey of Cissbury Ring by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) is the first analytical examination of the site since the pioneering work of Herbert and Christine Toms in 1926. This paper describes the results of the RCHME survey which, building on the work of the Toms, has produced the first detailed plan of the extensive Neolithic flint mining complex set within the context of the hillfort. A number of important points of detail were recorded concerning the morphology and organization of space within the flint mining area and its stratigraphic relationship to the hillfort. New information concerning the earthworks within tile interior of the hillfort has also been recorded.

A Roman and Early Saxon cemetery was destroyed by sand extraction at Stonepound, Hassocks during the last years of the 19th and the early years of this century. A large number of pots and other artifacts were recovered and many dispersed into private hands before F. R. Couchman intervened and arranged with the landowner for subsequent finds to go to the Sussex Archaeological Society. Couchman published some of the recovered items in 1925, but without drawings or significant discussion of the coarse pottery. All known surviving vessels from the cemetery are reported on here, within Roman and Saxon fabric series, and sources and parallels discussed. The 153 Roman burial pots are subdivided and quantified under three successive dated groupings, in order to determine changes in pottery supply to the Hassocks area. The Roman coinage is also analysed and its pattern shown to support the Antonine/Early 3rd-century date arrived at for most of the pots. Pottery from a pre-Flavian ?cremation hearth excavated in 1908 is also published for the first time, as is the Antonine pottery assemblage from a building on the west side of the cemetery. The form and fabric make-up of this assemblage is compared with that of the contemporary burial vessels and differences discussed. The Saxon pots and ironwork are also described and discussed and some spearheads, now disintegrated, and a knife are drawn from an old photograph and classified for the first time.

A field survey carried out in advance of the A23 road improvements discovered a previously unknown medieval house platform. Sampling, and then larger-scale excavations during 1987 and 1989 revealed evidence (or an early medieval settlement. Evidence (or prehistoric activity and (or a 19th-century military encampment was also found. (Includes microfiche)

During Charles II 's reign remodelling of the commissions of the peace on political lines began. After 1690 the commissions were frequently renewed to ensure that the justices of the peace appointed to them supported the dominant, Whig or Tory, party. The consequent upheavals in local administration were mitigated in Sussex by a group of hard-working justices being appointed time after time. This article looks at who these justices were; at the development of a regular chairmanship; and at the impact of the frequent remodellings on the personnel of quarter sessions.

Most detailed accounts of the early Sunday schools relate primarily to London or the industrial Midlands and North; this article records the experience of a rural county in the South. The evidence of the extent of the 'Sunday school movement' in Sussex in the late 18th century is examined. Sunday schools were then one-day-a-week charity schools. Motives for setting them up were mixed, but in Sussex the dominant motive appears to have been to preserve the social order. They were established more at the instigation of the laity than of the clergy. They evidenced growing acceptance of the idea of more widespread schooling of the poor, financed by the affluent, and the relatively large numbers of children the 18th-century Sunday schools accommodated prefigured the general expansion of elementary education that occurred in the early decades of the 19th century.

The paper takes Lewes as a microcosm for a study of British involvement in and attitudes towards the Boer War. The population was notably patriotic and social occasions such as smoking concerts and rejoicings to mark victories became an important feature of Lewes' social life. A Roll records 214 Lewesians as having served in the War. Of these, volunteers (some of whom had been members of local Volunteer units before the War) had most publicity, but almost certainly 'regulars ' were more numerous. The local papers printed many informative (and uncensored) letters from local men serving in South Africa. Jn many ways the War was perceived as a sum of individual patriotic enterprises rather than as an instance of a state at war. The letters of Trooper B. Moore, which show some disillusionment in the face of hardships and disappointments, illustrate the attitudes of a volunteer. Nine Lewesians died through sickness and three were killed in action (but it is difficult to draw lines in attributing death to service). Participation was also financial; there were many charitable appeals. The Sussex Volunteers Equipment Fund purchased life insurances to cover volunteers and made a grant to the wife of a volunteer to compensate for lost pay. Criticism of the War was expressed at an early stage by Quakers. Critics ('Pro-Boers ') had to face local unpopularity, extending to protest by 'Rough Music' demonstrations. From the summer of 1901 more doubts were expressed and conversions were made to the ranks of the critics.