THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon,
West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday stories about real people.

   THE SAXONS IN FINDON

 Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

The powerful Saxon Chieftain, adventurer and leader, Œlla, appeared off the Sussex coast and came ashore with a daring band of pirates.  These included his sons Cymen, Wlencing and Cissa.   Some authorities have given nearby Shoreham as the landing-place. 

He established the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex) in A.D.491 and died in A.D.514.  He was succeeded by his third son, Cissa, who (if legend can be believed) would have been a well known figure in the Findon area.

It is reputed that Cissa resided at the garrison up on the Cissbury hillside above Findon.  Little is known of King Cissa beyond a short note of him in old chronicles, to the effect that his reign extended for a period of seventy years and was eminently peaceful.  This intimates that Findon was free from strife for a time at least.

If we look at the configuration of our area, it will be seen that from a military point of view the Cissbury downland commanded an important convenient position.  It was the centre of the county and within sight of the coastline where Saxon war-galleys could have obtained shelter whenever the necessity arose.  Besides this, the Saxons found the Neolithic/Iron Age fortress (possibly improved and strengthened by the Roman engineers) ready made for their purpose. 

Findon in Saxon times was in a small Sussex kingdom set apart from the rest of the country.  It was partially isolated by the trackless quagmire of marshland around Chichester and Rye and by the dark abysmal woodland and mire of the impenetrable Andredswald forest.   

There were very few trackways traversing the area and these were nearly always impassable because of the glorious glutinous Sussex mud.  The state of the roads made them traversable only during the summer months and were virtually out of bounds from October to May when waterlogged.  Conditions were unsuitable for any Saxon fast travel or for bulky carts transporting their food and commodities.  In case you are wondering what had happened to the straight roads constructed by the Romans, they had been long abandoned and forgotten. 

The main towns at this time were only Chichester and Lewes and communication with the capital took many a long day.  One practical land route ran west into Hampshire and over the Hog’s Back.  The other was east to Canterbury in Kent and then along the North Downs within sight of the River Thames to London.

The terrible state of the legendary Sussex roads shaped Findon history and the development of the area and that of the lives of its inhabitants.  Findon became a rather sparsely populated rural backwater. Under such conditions it is a wonder that any sensible Saxon conqueror decided to stay in the Findon area, but they did. 

The invaders ignored any buildings constructed by the Romans and left them to crumble and decay instead of taking advantage of the readymade sites.  On occasions they even burnt and destroyed the remaining properties left standing instead of using them. 

Centuries later, the Saxons were to refer to the so-called houses abandoned by the Roman civilisation as “enta geweorc” which is Saxon for “giant buildings”.

By contrast, the great Roman historian, Tacitus, (55 AD - 117 AD) .recorded rather aptly that the Saxons did not reside in cities and they made no use of the available local stone or tiles and nor were their houses constructed in anything like neat rows.

From the top of Cissbury Ring I can see the nearby Highdown Hill.   Back in 1937 an exciting discovery was made.  An Anglo-Saxon necklace made of 150 beads of amber glass, bone and earthenware, was excavated there.... it ended up in Worthing Museum.

Continue if you would like to read In The Footsteps of the Little People.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.