The culture of Sussex is the pattern of human activity and symbolism associated with Sussex and its people. It is informed by Sussex's history as an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, English county, diocese of the church and present-day cultural region.
Sometimes thought by outsiders to be some sort of rural adjunct to London, Sussex has a cultural identity as unique as any other English county. The last Anglo-Saxon kingdom to be Christianised, Sussex has a centuries-old reputation for being separate and culturally distinct from the rest of England. This relative isolation until recent times is due to Sussex's geography, with the sea to the south, the forest and sticky clays of the Weald to the north and coastal marshes to the east and west. Sussex escaped the wholesale rearrangements of life and customs which the Norse invasions brought to much of England and the Germanic culture of the South Saxons remained much more intact than that of the rest of England. The people of Sussex have a reputation for independence of thought and an aversion to being pushed around, as expressed through the Sussex motto, We wunt be druv. The reputation for independence also extends to admiration of the independence of others and toleration of others. Other regional characterisations include the sharp shrewd stubborn Sussex Wealdsman and the more deferential Sussex Downsman.
Sussex is known for its strong tradition of bonfire celebrations and its proud musical heritage. Sussex in the first half of the 20th century was a major centre for modernism, and saw many radical artists and writers move to its seaside towns and countryside. The county is home to the Brighton Festival and the Brighton Fringe, England's largest arts festival. Brighton Pride is one of the UK's largest and oldest gay pride parades and other pride events take place at most other major towns including Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings and Worthing. Chichester is home to the Chichester Festival Theatre and Pallant House Gallery. The feast day of Sussex's patron saint, St Richard of Chichester, 16 June, has been observed since 2007 as Sussex Day to celebrate the county's culture and history.
Architecture
Sussex's building materials reflect its geology, consisting of flint on and near the South Downs and sandstone in the Weald. Brick is used across the county, with some regional variation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Brighton and Lewes both developed black glazed bricks and Worthing developed pale yellow bricks. A composite building material known as bungaroosh was used from the mid-18th to late-19th centuries in the south of the county between Worthing and Lewes, and most especially in Brighton and Hove, but is little-known elsewhere.
Typically conservative and moderate, the architecture of Sussex also has elaborate and eccentric buildings rarely matched elsewhere in England including the Saxon Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Sompting; Castle Goring, which has a front and rear of entirely different styles; and Brighton's Indo-Saracenic Royal Pavilion.
Rare elsewhere, but common in Sussex is the Sussex cap, a type of blunt pyramidal roof of red tiles on a church tower. Another architectural feature strongly associated with Sussex is the tapsel gate, a type of wooden gate found only in the county. Also typical of Sussex is the heave-gate (often pronounced simply 'e'gate) as an effective stockproof barrier at a field entrance or between fields. Made with two horizontal rails connected by several vertical rails with two diagonal bracing rails, it is heaved into place by feeding the two horizontal rails into two larger holes in one gate post, and then heaved in the other direction tightly into two smaller holes in the other gate post.<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218449008805079&set=p.10218449008805079&type=1&theater> From the seventeenth century, a type of building material called 'mathematical tiles' were used, and their use in Sussex became very common in the closing years of the 18th century. The architectural feature known as the 'boat porch' is a type of ogee-arched rendered porch found only in Worthing.
Important Norman architecture in Sussex includes Chichester Cathedral, the ruins of Lewes Priory and Battle Abbey as well as Norman remains in the castles at Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey and Hastings. From the medieval period, there are numerous examples of the Wealden hall house, especially in the east of the Sussex Weald. Some of Sussex's atmospheric stately homes include Herstmonceux Castle, Tudor Cowdray House, Elizabethan Parham House, Petworth House and Uppark. Important works from the 20th century include the International style De la Warr Pavilion, and Chichester Festival Theatre and University of Sussex, both fine examples of Modernist architecture. In the 21st century, the rebuilt Hastings Pier won the 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize, with both the Weald and Downland Gridshell and Jubilee Library, Brighton being finalists in earlier years. Described as the tallest structure in Sussex, the tall British Airways i360 in Brighton contains Britain's tallest moving observation tower with a platform that reaches .
Cinema
The first film show in Sussex was in March 1896 in Brighton, the first in the UK outside of London. This was closely followed by a screening in Worthing in August 1896. From 1896 to 1910 several important early filmmakers were active in Brighton and Hove. Known as the Brighton School, the group included George Albert Smith, James Williamson and Esmé Collings. Hove resident Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed, who produced films about the Cresta Run in Switzerland and whose films were shown at Hove Town Hall in 1900 has been called the first identifiable woman filmmaker. Filmed in Brighton in 1908, GA Smith's A Visit to the Seaside was the first colour film for public screening anywhere in the world. From 1914 to 1922 Shoreham Beach was a major centre for the UK film industry. In his first three years there, Sidney Morgan directed 17 films, many of which starred his daughter Joan Morgan. His films included a 1921 silent film adaptation of The Mayor of Casterbridge, in collaboration with the novel's author Thomas Hardy.
Several critically acclaimed films have been set in Sussex including The Invisible Man (1933), National Velvet (1944), Brighton Rock (1947, 2010), Genevieve (1953), The Chalk Garden (1964), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Quadrophenia (1979), The Snowman (1982), When the Wind Blows (1986), Wish You Were Here (1987), Children of Men (2006), My Boy Jack (2007), Down Terrace (2009), Mr. Turner (2014), Mr Holmes (2015), My Policeman (2022), Lee (2023), Wicked Little Letters (2023) and Vindication Swim (2024). Documentary films made in Sussex include László Moholy-Nagy's Lobsters (1936), The Moon and the Sledgehammer (1971), The Moo Man (2012), Nick Cave's One More Time With Feeling (2016), The Ballad of Shirley Collins (2017), a documentary about Sussex folk singer Shirley Collins, and Another Paradise (2019).
Film directors from Sussex include Adrian Brunel and Graham Cutts, both eminent directors in the 1920s, Charles Frend, whose films were often large-scale and dramatic in nature, Manning Haynes, Don Chaffey, Jack Clayton, Pete Walker, Sean Ellis and Elliott Hasler. Several screenwriters of note are from Sussex. Charles Bennett is possibly best known for The 39 Steps (1935); Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for The Pumpkin Eater (1963) from his Worthing home, for which he won a BAFTA. Screenwriter William Nicholson won an Oscar, for the epic Gladiator (2000) and was nominated for a BAFTA and an Oscar for Shadowlands (1993). David Hare was nominated for a BAFTA for writing the screenplay for The Reader (2008). Celebrated Sussex film actors include Katie Johnson, Anna Massey, Ralph Richardson and Lesley Manville. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh also spent much of their lives in Sussex.
Two of the UK's oldest cinemas are in Sussex: the Duke of York's Picture House in Brighton, which opened in 1910, and Worthing's Dome Cinema which opened in 1911.
Cuisine
The historic county is known for its "seven good things of Sussex". These seven things are: Pulborough eel, Selsey cockle, Chichester lobster, Rye herring, Arundel mullet, Amberley trout and Bourne wheatear. Sussex is also known for: Ashdown Partridge Pudding, Chiddingly Hot pot, Sussex Bacon Pudding, Sussex Hogs' Pudding, Huffed Chicken, Sussex Churdles, Sussex Shepherds Pie, Sussex Pond Pudding, Sussex Pond Pudding Recipe - Historical Foods Sussex Blanket Pudding, Sussex Well Pudding, and Chichester Pudding. Sussex is particularly known for puddings: such was the reputation of Sussex that it was said that "to venture into the county was to risk being turned into a pudding yourself". In one version of the Sussex folk tale, the knucker dragon at Lyminster was slayed after being fed a poisoned Sussex pudding.
Sussex is also known for its cakes and biscuits known as Sussex plum heavies Sussex Plum Heavies Recipe - Historical Foods and Sussex Lardy Johns. Speciality breads include Lady Arundel's manchet, the recipe for which was first published in the 17th century whilst the town of Horsham has a continuing history of baking gingerbread. Banoffee pie was first created in 1972 in Jevington. The county has vineyards and has produced beer for centuries. It includes the 18th century beer brewers, Harveys of Lewes as well as many more recently established breweries. In recent decades Sussex wines have gained international acclaim winning awards including the 2006 Best Sparkling Wine in the World at the Decanter World Wine Awards. With 23 vineyards in 2015, Sussex has the largest and most densely planted cluster of vineyards in the UK. Many vineyards make wines using traditional Champagne varieties and methods, and there are similarities between the topography and chalk and clay soils of Sussex downland and that of the Champagne region which lies on a latitude to the south. With the backing of the UK Government, a consortium of Sussex vineyards announced in 2015 its intention to apply to the European Union for protected designation of origin status of Sussex wine.
At least 30 varieties of apple originate in Sussex including Egremont Russet, Knobbed Russet, Sussex Mother and Crawley Reinette. The Granny Smith apple was first cultivated by and named after Maria Ann Smith, a native Sussexian. The Sussex variety with the longest history in cultivation is the Golden Pippin, which has been grown since at least as early as 1629.
Cultural identity In the late 19th and early 20th centuries there existed a high level of patriotism towards Sussex. It was in this period that Sussex's anthem "Sussex by the Sea" was written, and literature celebrating the county produced by writers including Rudyard Kipling and Hilaire Belloc. Sussex has a centuries-old reputation for being separate and culturally distinct from the rest of England; This sense of separateness inspired intense patriotic sentiment and strongly infused Sussex literature from the 1890s.