Sussex Day

Each year 16 June is Sussex Day - a day to celebrate all the good things about our wonderful county.

The date was chosen because it is St Richard's Day, which marks the life of St Richard, Bishop of Chichester from 1245 until his death in 1253.

Below you’ll find some inspiration for how you can make the most of what the county has to offer – whether on Sussex Day or any day of the year!

Coastal walk or countryside stroll? Visit a vineyard or bask on the beach? Drinks with the dog, kayaking or kitesurfing? There are so many ways to celebrate Sussex Day. Check out Experience Sussex for ideas on how to celebrate our wonderful county, including.

·         Exploring the outdoors whether walking, cycling, horse riding, sports on the water or dry land, nature trails or fun activities.

·         Finding a cycle route to explore, including a cycle journey planner, on- and off-road cycle routes, paths, tracks and trails.

We proud that the award winning Buchan Country Park is located in West Sussex, set in 170 acres of beautiful countryside right on Crawley's doorstep. It has won the Green Flag Award, which recognises the best green spaces in the UK, every year since 2010. The park is free to enter and is an excellent place for walking, watching wildlife or enjoying a picnic.

We have 36 libraries with a wide range of books and audiobooks about local places and people – perfect for finding out more about what makes Sussex unique.

It’s free and easy to join, if you live or work in West Sussex.

If you are already a member, find your nearest library here.

Many famous authors, writers and poets past and present have been inspired by Sussex.

Past greats include Jane Austen, novelist, J M Barrie, playwright and author, Hilaire Belloc, writer and historian, William Blake, poet, artist, engraver and mystic, William Cobbett, journalist and political writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, novelist, Eleanor Farjeon, poet and short story writer, James Joyce, novelist, John Keats, poet and Alfred Lord Tennyson, author and poet.

In 2025 West Sussex residents nominated their most-loved authors and several modern famous authors who live in Sussex made the list. Find out more here.

West Sussex Record Office has a vast collection of local archives some of which date back over 1,200 years.

If you love stepping back in time to see and read what the county was like in the past, then there are many things you can do at the Record Office, including tracing your family history, exploring old photographs, researching a military ancestor, listening to memories of times gone by and viewing old film footage of the local area.

There’s lots more historical information that you can access via this webpage.

And if you want to find out more about the town or village you live in, take a look and see if your hometown is here.

Event: There will be a free online webinar on Sussex Day exploring the experiences of ordinary West Sussex residents on the Home Front in the Second World War. Photographs and documents from the Record Office will help bring to life themes such as evacuation, rationing, air raids and the ever-present threat of invasion by sea whilst films from Screen Archive South East will show Home Guard training and activities, including the wrong and the right way of dealing with Nazi spies.

The talk will end with a compilation of films depicting the war-time experience and the end-of-war celebrations across the south east. Find the details here.

How much do you know about the county? Try out this Sussex Day quiz.

Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet new people, learn and develop new skills and help other people in your community.

We have a wide range of volunteering opportunities, including working with our library service, in the countryside, and mentoring and supporting young people.

Check out what you can get involved in.

Here are some unusual and quirky local stories which have been passed down the generations.

In medieval times the River Adur was much wider than it is today. It was over a mile across in places and Steyning and Bramber were busy ports. In the Domesday Book, Steyning was recorded as one of the largest towns in the south east, with a mint and two churches.

Arundel ‘Mullets’ are people born within the parish boundaries and are named after the fish that swam in the River Arun – and not the vintage hairdo!

When Queen Elizabeth I visited Chichester she apparently said: ‘It’s a little London’ and that the road was named following her comment. But there’s evidence of a Little London street that predates her visit. It was possibly named because merchants from London lived and worked there.

In the 1780s, wealthy London hatter Sir Richard Hotham had a dream to create a seaside resort at Bognor Regis, named Hothamton after himself. At the time there was only one pub in the town. Sir Richard bought it and converted it into a hotel, which also housed a library, newspaper reading room, millinery shop and sea water bath room. The town also regularly tops the polls as one of the sunniest spots in the UK.

Rustington and Littlehampton were centres for the suffrage movement. Leading lights included Rustington resident Lady Maud Parry. Her husband Sir Hubert Parry wrote the music to William Blake’s Jerusalem which later became the Women Voter’s Hymn. Blake wrote Jerusalem when he lived in Felpham.

The name Horsham may mean either ‘horse home’ or ‘Horsa’s home’. He was a Saxon warrior who lived in the area. The town was known as a centre for horse trading in medieval times.

In 1946 the village of Crawley was selected as a site for a New Town. The idea was to move people out of London and in 1947 the decision was taken to initially build homes and factories should be built on 6,000 acres in the area. In the 1950s, the Sun d’Or sweet factory employed women on the production line from 7.30am to 4pm – so they could get home in time to cook dinner!

Kingley Vale forest, near the village of West Stoke, has a grove of ancient yews believed to have started growing before the time of Christ over 2,000 years ago. The Vale was used as a base for Canadian soldiers in World War 2, and you can still see dug-outs and bullet holes in some of the trees. It also has a reputation for being haunted. Some people believe it is the ghosts of Viking soldiers buried under the ancient trees.

Reports suggest that St Thomas A’ Becket planted a fig tree in The Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Tarring (now Tarring Parish Hall). This was in 1162 and it is reputed to still exist within the orchard there.

Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, was a seventeenth century authority of fishing. He was the first to praise the quality of ‘Chichester lobster, Selsey cockle and Amberley trout’.

East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Hospital is where the Guinea Pig Club was formed in 1941 during World War II. A group of young men – mostly RAF aircrew who survived fiery crashes – formed a social club during their long recoveries and called themselves The Guinea Pig Club, in honour of the experimental treatments of pioneering plastic surgeon, Sir Archibald McIndoe.

In the early 1900s Worthing was the centre of the tomato-growing industry, with miles of glasshouses. The pioneer tomato growers began planting around 1870 and used the railways to export tons of toms to Covent Garden in London and then on to the waiting world. Dutch and Belgian apprentices came to the town to learn from the early masters, although the actual growing of them was shrouded in secrecy.

The court of Queen Elizabeth I came to Cowdray for a week in 1591. Lord Montagu laid on a lavish feast for the Queen and her attendants. This included consuming 30 oxen and 140 geese. And at Ockenden Manor, Cuckfield, the guests of Timothy Burrell were given 15 courses every time they dined over Christmas in 1702.

Experience Sussex has also collated some interesting facts about Sussex.

Historic changes are currently being made to local government across England.

Work is underway on two separate processes that will shape the future of local authorities and the delivery of services across Sussex.

Devolution is the transfer of powers and funding from national to local government, specifically to newly created strategic authorities that will be led by a mayor

Local government reorganisation is the process of restructuring local authorities, specifically to move to a single level of councils in areas of England where there are currently two levels, such as West Sussex.

Find out more.