Southease

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Southease is a small village and civil parish in East Sussex, in South East England just west of the A26 road. The village is just to the west of the River Ouse, Sussex and has a church dedicated to Saint Peter. Southease railway station lies roughly a kilometre east over the river and may be reached via a swing bridge. The bridge was built in the 1880s, is the second bridge on the site and though the swing mechanism remains, it has not been opened since 1967^[1].

The South Downs Way winds its way through the village towards the nearby River Ouse and the railway station. A new bridge has been built over the A26^[2].

The neighbouring village of Rodmell lies to the northwest of Southease. It is downstream of Lewes, the County town of East Sussex and upstream of Newhaven. Paths along both the banks of the river allow hiking in either direction along the river. The remains of a slipway on the west bank of the Ouse just north of the bridge faces Mount Caburn. The church has one of only three round towers in Sussex, all of which are located in the Ouse Valley and all three built in the first half of the 12th century.

At the time of the Doomsday Book a thriving community was in place and the village appears to have been the biggest herring fishery in the district, having been assessed for 38,500 herring while Brighton had a mere 4,000.