The Sussex Coast - online book

A Literary & Historical travel guide to the Sussex Coast

	AT Anderida, but not until very late days of their occupation, the Romans built one of the strong fortresses that they put in charge of the Count of the Saxon Shore. The flat country called Pevensey Levels was then a bay of the sea, or rather a vast lagoon, which in the absence of the Imperial! fortress would probably have suited the Teutonic"barbarians very well. It was surrounded by ,the row hills on which stand Willingdon, Hailsham,, Herstmonceux, Hooe, and Bexhill, with an arm extending up to Ashburnham in the valley of the stream called Wallers Haven. The Romans do not seem to have seriously attempted the re­clamation of the district, but it was gradually accomplished during the Middle Ages, the eastward drift materially assisting by the deposit of the shingle bar that forms the existing coast-line; it is still a source of anxiety to the Commissioners of 292