Geography

Because it is so close to London, it is home to which you can blame on the Romans who first built a road called Stane Street joining Winchester and London which was later rebuilt by the Romans as a paved highway they called Watling Street, (and is now the A21 road), and its proximity to the sea meant that both the army and (later) navy used it. So it was not surprising that people then began to settle.

Some of these settlements later grew into towns including Lewes which has been Sussex's county town since at least the Norman Conquest – in 1086 it held a large castle which today is just ruins, but caters today for the county courts with their important archives and two museums, while many Grade I listed buildings, Mad About Brighton (madaboutbrighton.co.uk). Area A. High Weald, an undulating land of intermingled woodlands, calcareous grassland and heathlands, cut by steep-sided stream valleys (sometimes with caves).

The highest point is Ditchling Beacon, at 267 metres (876 ft) above sea level. The Wealden dome is bounded to the north east by the sandstone ridges of the South Downs;. Around three quarters of Sussex lies within the South Downs National Park, a Level 1 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which covers some 3,480 km2 (1,350 sq mi). The South Downs contains the highest and driest areas of chalk downland in the UK.

Population

Sussex is a border county, and therefore its neighbouring counties are: to the north, Hampshire and Surrey; to the east, Kent; to the south-east, East and West Sussex. East Sussex has been named one of the most car-dependent counties in the UK because 78% of households have at least one car. According to an ONS report on 11 December 2013, Worthing had a population of 34,497 and Chichester 68,903. The largest towns in terms of size are Crawley (163,486) and Brighton (146,969).

Education

For many years the two universities in the city have been Sussex University and Brighton University (which became a campus of Southampton University). These formed a single university in 1992. In 2005, this merged with East Sussex College of Art & Design to become the University of Brighton, based at three large campuses: at Falmer, School of Arts on Grand Parade, and School of Media Arts and Technology (SMAT) on New England Road, together with smaller sites at Rottingdean and Shoreham-by-Sea.

The university is home to an international community of students from 120 countries. UK Office for Fair Access statistics show that the number of disadvantaged students attending the university is around 21%; this compares well with the average for the national. The University of Chichester has gained university status in 2012, merging with the Chichester Institute of Higher Education which became a general FE college in 1985. It continues to be based in Chichester.

The university was established in November 2012 and received its Royal Charter in August 2014. Located on a single site on Rowlands Farm estate near Haywards Heath, University Campus Chichester (UCC) also includes teaching and facilities at St Anne's Church, Selmeston, and uses the facilities of Sussex Downs College as well as maintaining links with the former Eastbourne College of Arts and Technology. A university for the creative industries focusing on media, digital communication and the arts, UCC is now.

Other universities in the county include the Institute of the Motor Industry, Chichester College of Arts and Technology, Eastbourne College, University of Chichester and West Dean College. The University of Chichester was formerly located at St Leonard's Gate in Chichester until 2007 when it moved to a new £35 million campus (now called The Spires) on the outskirts of the city. Other institutions of higher education in Brighton and Hove include a higher national college, Institute of Cancer Research, London South Bank University, Surrey Institute of Art and Design with campuses in both the city itself and nearby Lewes, Sussex Coast College Group, West Sussex College of Technology.

The original campus of Sussex Downs College was in central Brighton. There are also a number of independent, fee-paying schools in Sussex, specialising in such areas as art, music, drama, ballet and personal development. These schools include Steiner Academy East Grinstead, Wiston House School near Hastings and The Costelloe School (formerly known as Rossall School) near Bognor Regis. The inhabited part of Chichester Harbour falls under West Sussex but is administered by HM Revenue and Customs as part of their customs area.

Landscape

Offshore shipping plays a large role in the local economy. The City of Brighton and Hove forms a major sea cargo gateway along the British south coast and international freight is handled at the Ports of Shoreham and Newhaven.  manufactures are some of its most well-known brands include James Priestley's Ginger Wine, W J Deans & Sons Sussex Relish and Tangerine Confectionery (including home to the famous Sussex Shark). Sussex has the oldest railway network in Britain, with its earliest railways being ferries, privately owned railways from 1823, and lines promoted by railway speculator, engineer and entrepreneur, Richard Laverton; it is still a major part of local life with many services operated by Southern.

Arriving in the county from the north, one first comes across Pevensey Levels, which consists of nearly flat and very fertile pastureland. Then one passes through the South Downs in West Sussex, a range of hills with steep and highly varied topography, while to the south is Selsey, a peninsula whose once heavily wooded area is now mostly farmland (mainly cereal crops). The county has various geographical boundaries: it is bordered by Hampshire to the west; West Sussex, Surrey and Greater London to the north; Kent to the east; East Sussex to the southeast; and France (the département of Pas-de-Calais) and the Channel Islands to the south—all of these are nominal limits controlled at.

A region of outstanding natural beauty, the South Downs encompass an area of 1,771 square kilometres (681 sq mi) that include all of the historic county apart from the coastal margins. The region is characterised by rolling chalk hills cut across by wooded valleys and traversed by roads and railway lines. There are a number of nature reserves; the largest and best known is Chanctonbury Ring in the western part. Chalky underfoot, cretaceous chalk underlies much of Sussex's soil and rock and soils are not particularly fertile.

The chalk provides a good base for pastures on much of the Downs, but away from valley bottoms there are large areas covered with brash. Natural resources, including extensive deposits of clay which has been used for brickmaking for many centuries in the county, have made Sussex one of the most productive agricultural areas in Southern England. Its landscape has been described by historian Ivan D Lloyd as "a patchwork of fields and sown pastures enclosed by hedgerows, small woods and scattered farmsteads.

Roman canton

The second Roman invasion of southern Britain was in AD47 led by the future emperor Vespasian . The first and third legions of the invasion force under Aulus Plautius set up a camp at Noviomagus Reginorum , now known as Chichester to serve as a base for further operations, but poor weather among other things prevented further advances over the next few years. In AD48, the weather improved enough for Plautius to move out towards the River Medway and establish a camp near present-day Rochester .

Their advance was checked, however, shortly before reaching their destination when they encountered the British tribes laid in wait on the road leading west out of Noviomagus. The. There are several reasons to support this. Fishbourne Roman Palace was discovered in Sussex 20 years before the first Richborough site was found, and by the end of the 1930s, when Richborough was subsequently excavated, the palace was thought to pre-date it.     Hestia Ludwell in Sussex County History , iii (1926), pp.

49-50, proposed that there had been an earlier oppidum at Fishbourne and that it had been destroyed c 5 AD by the envoys of Ostorius Scapula on his march eastwards along the south coast of Britain; recent work in Sussex has tended to confirm this. Proponents of Fishbourne place the landing there    for. The Romans established Augusta (from which derives the name of Chichester) as the capital for the southern and western part of their territories in Britain, with Isca Augusta to the north-west in Calleva Atrebatum.

The Roman changes were not universally popular in Sussex, particularly amongst the Iron Age tribes on the south coast, who remained independent throughout the period of Roman occupation. The Roman period of the city's history left the town with a number of notable archaeological remains, including an amphitheatre , hypocaust still in situ is now re-displayed in Chichester Cathedral . An extensive suburban villa at Fishbourne was excavated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, but has not been maintained for public access.

The Roman influence on Chichester, therefore, would have been direct and immediate. Rome imposed the law of its own centre of government on the inhabitants. The same fate was to befall towns like Silchester and Calleva Atrebatum which were sufficiently important to be founded as Roman colonies under the early emperors. ". In the Wealden areas of the county there are deposits of clay and sandstone. They are both part of the larger county of Sussex.

Law

Sussex Police is headed by Chief Constable Giles York and has its headquarters in Lewes. It is divided into five sectors Brighton and Hove, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne and Hastings and Rother. In April 2009 the force was rated "good" by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in all areas. The force has five local policing teams, 21 neighbourhood teams and three community safety teams. The police support the work of the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership which consists of representatives from the police, other agencies and local council members who aim to tackle problems such as drink driving, speeding, use of seat belts and child car seats.

The partnership works. Sussex Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Sussex in southeast England. Its headquarters are in Lewes. The force covers an area of 797 square miles (2,066 km 2 ), including 199 miles (320 km) of coastline and 10 miles (16 km) of the English Channel. The principal responsibility of the 41 designated Areas within which Sussex Police operates, from a geographical perspective, is to provide an appropriate and proportionate response to all incidents reported to them – and, when necessary, enforce law and order .

First, don’t let the title “Home Office Police” mislead you. Yes, Sussex is responsible for policing the county and acts as the regional hub – they are also responsible for organising support to forces in Hampshire and Kent during major events and providing co-ordination between forces when necessary. The force itself covers an area of 1,659 square miles (4,370 km2) which amounts to a population of 837,000 citizens. This means that for each officer working in Sussex there are approximately 24,000 people who they are responsible for protecting.

There are three tiers of policing in Sussex, namely Basic Command Unit, Geographic Commander and Force Level (Sussex Police). This was changed from the previous two tiers in October 2006. The geographic structure has changed to meet local policing requirements which have not been met by the previous structure. Sussex is divided into six policing areas, Chichester , Crawley , Eastbourne , Hastings & Rother , Horsham and Rye and Surrey . Sussex is covered by eight Home Office police forces, each with a different police force area.