If you want more than a walk to the Norman church at West
Dean, there is also international tennis at Eastbourne, world-class opera
at Glyndebourne, pre-West End theatre in Brighton, show-jumping at Hickstead,
horseback riding on the South Downs, serious bowls almost everywhere and music
on the Eastbourne Promenade.
For those interested in history, the Saxon fishing
and salt producing village of West Dean was originally known as Eorlscourt,
later to be Earlscourt then Dene and finally West Dean.
It is known that Alfred the Great had a palace in the village and it was possibly
one of the naval bases in his war with the Vikings .
More recently, smugglers roamed local villages until 1831 when the Alfriston
Gang leader, Stanton Collins, was arrested and deported for 7 years.
