Great British Road Journeys - East Sussex - Lewes to Hastings Ep. 20 

It's incredible to see how well preserved the St Pancras Priory sports pitches are. They knew how to build stuff in the ten hundreds.

Greetings from Hong Kong - here to get my weekly fix of home. Bit of countryside and a bit of history. Lovely.

0.42 I was waiting for the mention and the snigger 😂. Awesome as always!

My daughter was born early, while we were visiting friends in Eastbourne. Went out to a Boot Fair, came home with a baby...

Impressive you managed to make Eastbourne and Hastings look half decent - you clearly didn't venture into the town centre or badlands further north.

probably not mentioned in the guide book, but there is an underground skatepark in Hastings that was originally built in 1874 as Turkish baths, the building was acquired by Hastings Corporation in 1925 and turned into swimming baths. A few decades later, it had fallen into disrepair, fast forward to 2016, and with the help of a surprisingly forward thinking council is now probably one the best skateparks in the country and each year holds the 'Battle Of Hastings' BMX competition attracting pro riders from all over the world.

Beachy Head Lighthouse featured in the series "The Prisoner" as a rocket. Belle Tout lighthouse featured in the "The Lives and Loves of a She Devil"

Love it when Jon say's, wicked, sweet, awesome :D

Hastings resident here - I've been looking forward to this video for a while, and it's wonderful! I greatly appreciate the content you create, it always inspires me to explore the roads more and appreciate what our country does have intact... somewhat. The Martello Towers are a common sight along the coast, Many of them now have been either abandoned, or converted into houses, and I'd imagine you saw plenty along your journey across the coast. On your next stop, Beachy Head is a great place known locally for scenic walks, fantastic views of the Eastbourne Airshow, and skydivers without parachutes. The Long Man of Wilmington is also a unique sight to behold with some fantastic walks, and even has a brewery named after it - the Long Man Brewery. The section of road between Pevensey and Hastings is rather boring - you've got a pub (The Lamb Inn), and that's about it. The rest of the area is flat wet grasslands and Bexhill, which is full of old people (much more than Eastbourne). In my 2 years of being at college in Bexhill, I found nothing interesting to do there, my favourite part was leaving. The Battle of Hastings indeed didn't happen in Hastings, it happened in a small town named Battle - yes, very imaginative. There is a castle which allows for paid entry to a museum and the grounds of the Abbey (plus a tower with an overview of the town), rather neat. The pier nowadays is truly a shadow of what it once was. There isn't really anything to do on the pier, or anything to brag about. It's quite literally a plank of wood with some stuff on it. The final shot in Hastings, taken in Bottle alley is an alley constructed from thousands of pieces of glass encased in concrete blocks that formed a wall along the promenade on the beach. Apparently it is rather infamous and has a light show each evening, although I can only remember this place stinking of piss - which is rather unfortunate. Apart from that, Hastings has a lot of history to offer with many unique events, including Jack in the Green (which includes the May Day Bike Run), Hastings Bonfire, Pirates Day, and many other random events that questions our sanity. Ta-ra!

Here we go. Happy Sunday everyone. Wicked sweet + awesome. ❤❤❤

“Dover for the Continent” “Eastbourne for the incontinent” Nice one as always……… it’s not a bad part of the country, we’ve meandered around it on and off for many years………. the roads to the coastal towns usually snarled up by squadrons of trucks delivering Ralgex (other brands of analgesic are available), Werthers Originals and balls of wool…… No airfield this week, but sufficient military infrastructure to distract 🙂🇬🇧

Had a couple of family summer holidays in Prevensey Bay as a kid in the late 1970s. Lovely to see it again.

Sarcasm holds no bounds on this excellent performance!👍 Sunday's have never been the same since you came along!Top man.👍👍

Lovely videos, far better then repeats of repeats on British TV

Pevensey Castle has had the base of one of the towers turned into a pill-box just in case the second small disagreement arrived nearby. I was equally amused at Cockshut Lane when I moved to the area in the late 90s. I'm guessing there was a chicken shed closeby at some point.

The entire history of Pevensey castle in less than a minute - well done!

If there is one thing that is needed in my life, is a nice big mug for my coffee that says, "wicked, sweet, awesome". Maybe even some socks too. Just saying......

Belle Tout = Bell-Toot! And the most interesting thing about it is that the whole building was physically moved back from the edge of the cliff to prevent it falling into the sea. They lifted the whole lot in one piece, and slowly moved it inland.

Sunday evening is complete tea, digestive biscuits, and a video with the shenanigator in chief. ❤

No way have there been 20 of these already. I guess like any good series, time just flies by when you're enjoying content

It's Friday, it's five to five and it's... Oh, wait, It's Sunday, it's just after lunch ad it's Auto Shenanigans!

When we visited the UK in 2019 we had to stop at Battle to see. Being a history major I couldn't not stop. Daughters thought it was nice, but not sure they understood the significance.

Born in Hastings, went to school in Lewes. I know the A259 very well :)

My old patch. Lewes was also the location of the UKs worst avalanche in 1836, where 8 people were killed. The site is now where the Snow Drop Inn is.

I watch all your videos and you finally came to my home town of Polegate (even though you didn’t stop there). It’s a lovely drive, if you do it once or twice, but everyday for work it’s horrendous. Traffic is awful. Talks of upgrades for 50+ years, then they spend millions on a cycle lane that runs beside it 🤦‍♂️

Pretty cool to see John in the town I grew up in. If you find yourself at the Lewes Priory on a sunday afternoon you might find my old medieval combat group whacking each other with swords.

I lived in Eastbourne for five years and loved it there.

Love a bit of Eastbourne and Beachy Head. Glorious when the sun's out. In 1066, the sea used to come pretty much right up to where Pevensey Castle is now.

never been so early, nice

Thanks John. I'm late today but I get to read all the posts. Fascinating stuff.

Love how there are funny rude names in East Sussex. Such novelty in having roads names with rude names is too funny. Mind you I have been to East Sussex before and there’s lots of places to visit.

We often say Bexhill is that place between Eastbourne and Hastings that people drive through, this proves it :)

Dear John, we love waving to you at the end of every video. Please keep it up. XD

Old abandoned road are usually good to camp on. I did it a few times when I was touring on my bicycle.

The best you tube channel by a country mile fantastic as always:)

Looks like you ended up in bottle alley, the old Hastings pier was one of my teenage haunts, saw some good "proper" bands there back in the good old days 🙂

Twenty road journeys episodes already 🎉🎉🎉

Haven't been to Hastings since I was a kid in the 1960s - after your video, I'm tempted to make the 230 mile journey again! 😂

My 1983 Vauxhall Cavalier CDi burned up on the old A259, probably should have fixed that fuel leak I was smelling. Did millions of miles on the A259 travelling from Bexhill to Eastbourne Pier for work. The back road (locals will know it) was wayyyy more fun to drive though.

I loved the sarcastic quips. I got quite a few chuckles. Some of the scenery shots you got are amazing liminal spaces! Got me thinking this is something to add to my bucket list of places to see.

This is the best video I've ever seen about anything

You should visit Lewes on bonfire night - what they do there, puts pretty much every other fireworks display to shame. And then some. And Beachy Head - sadly, still the suicide capital of Britain. In Pevensey castle, a WW2 pillbox was cunningly concealed in one of it's outer walls.

One of my favourite roads in the South. No journey along it is complete without visiting the Cider farm at Middle Farm. Janets Jungle Juice a particular favourite.

Seaside piers are (like railway signalboxes) strangely prone to spontaneous combustion. Brighton West Pier accidentally caught light,but the fire brigade got there early and managed to save most of it. So it had to be accidentally set on fire a second time.

How he managed to read his lines and get through that first bit standing by the cockshut rd sign.....is impressive well done Jon

Greetings from Hastings. Its well known here that the peir was an insurance job. Similar to the george street fire last year.

I like Eastbourne. It's kind of laid-back, and it's not crammed with old people so much these days; they've started dying off, and younger people are moving in. Good chippy there, too.

Great Video. I live here and you've taught me things I didn't know and I drive past them everyday. Thanks.

Watching as always from Michigan… missing drives in the Cotswold countryside even the A40 from Cheltenham to Oxford.. keep up the great work

Just love these videos

Hello Jon, how the devil are you, have you had a good week?

Eastbourne is the home of one of the best roller derby tournaments.

Pevensey BAy was where William the Conqueror (or William the Bastard, if you were on the English side at the time) landed. After that he made his way to Senlac (now called Battle for some inexplicable reason) to have a , well battle. Interestingly, some 925 or so years after William arrived a certain viewer of this channel drove onto the car park on the beach at Pevensey to watch a thunderstorm out at sea. When ready to leave he found that he had driven past the limit of the car park and got stuck on the pebbles. Much revving, the use of a blanket and the aid of a fellow traveller, he managed to get free (and very wet). However, for about two years afterwards there was a mysterious noise from the car (a ford Sierra). Only when it eventually had to have some work done did it transpire that some pebbles had become trapped in the rear suspension and were rattling around in there.

Drone shot was great

Another route of yours that I know fairly well. I was surprised you didn't mention the 1999 project that moved the whole Belle Tout lighthouse building back 56 feet from the cliff edge, to stop it falling over the edge. Great story.

Thanks!

Harvey"s brewery in Lewes is worth a visit, beautiful ales worth tasting!! There are a lot of pubs that mysteriously burn down too??

So disappointed that you missed out Ravenside Retail Park on the eastern edge of Bexhill and the municipal tip just slightly further on. The undoubted jewels in the crown along the route. 😀

Your cheery "Hello!" at the start never fails to brighten my day. I know I'm in for some excellent content.

Another informative and enjoyable video. John. Loved the bit about “some guy called William the Conqueror heading off to Hastings to have a bit of of argument”. I’m a Pink Floyd fan and the info re Syd was something I didn’t know, so thank you

A wicked, sweet, awesome video. 👍. What's next after the road journeys I wonder? 🤔😆

Hi Jon, Great video, didn't know there was a battle in Hastings, I thought Hastings is a name of a house insurance company🤣🤣Have a good week👍

Nice road sign.

1:36 that picture of the steam locomotives, the smaller one in the foreground is still preserved and operational at the nearby Bluebell Railway.

Pevensey Castle was built with Roman expertise and intelligence but after 1066 it was finished by Norman wisdom. It used to be an island.

Absolutely loving this series

i remember learning about pevensey castle in school. it was used to teach about roman fortifications and later used to link into teaching the middle-ages by using again to teach about fortifications but this time after the french invasion in 1066 and leading into the battle of hastings (quite a snazzy segue if you ask me)

Nice one Jon

Love your video ❤❤❤

Great work.

Excellent.

Hastings deserves an episode of it’s own. Interesting old town, interesting old buildings, interesting old shops, interesting fishing fleet on the beach, full of interesting people. Bit like Brighton but better and cheaper.

I live in Eastbourne, it has changed over the years & the only remarkable thing you missed is that Beachy Head is where they filmed ChittyChitty bang bang song 👍

Thats amazing scenery

Nice one. Made me look up Track Tribe. Cool.

Yes we can see you, thanks for asking at the end of the video. It's a shame about that old pier being burned down.

Thank you Jon for another brilliant video.

Excellent 👍

Good stuff and thanks for posting these excellent videos. BTW, Kent residents always are a bit snooty about our East Sussex neighbours. William the conquer tried to land at Lydd in 1064 (gateway to the wild west) but were seen off. The soft touches in ES, let him land without any intervention in 1066. So upset about this were the Kent folk, they refused to accept William as King and he granted Kent the Invicta white horse flag. Invicta meaning unconquered.

It's a lovely part of the world and great to see it on here. My grandparents lived in Polegate for many years so we as a family spent many happy days down there. The 259 via Lewes being our way in and out. Belle Tout lighthouse has an interesting past by the way - it's a private house now and in the 1980s became the setting for the odd BBC TV series 'The Life and Loves of a She Devil'. A few years later due to coastal erosion, the whole building was jacked up and moved inland by a considerable distance to stop it falling into the sea. Thanks as always for another highly entertaining installment.

exciting and interesting John 😂😂😂😂😂😂❤

Nice to see a local video. I work in Eastbourne and live in Hastings.

How great to get an update of my old haunting ground, thank you very much brilliant

I enjoy this video, very well done

Great video loved it as usual

Hi Jon how the devil are you have you had a good week and also I liked the video and used the button specifically for that

awesome video

Nice one John, really enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work my friend.👍🐺👍

Yay in my neck of the woods at last!

Great to see your take on some familiar places, and I hope you get to visit my home county of West Sussex soon!

I do wonder how many comments have been deleted! Wonderful John!

Hastings... one of my favourite towns in England. Driven this road many times, love the content, thanks for that!

The opening minute = schoolboy 😅. Another Fwickedsweetawesome video, Jon. And yes, we can see you at the end 👍

XD great video John

😆⚓️🧲👍great video John

Great to hear about the history of Lewes. I worked and played golf there for many years, all that is normally mentioned is the fireworks, the flood and the brewery.

So weird to see Lewes as I used to live near there and spend a fair bit of time there... Definitely had a few smokes in the priory in the evening when I was younger haha

Interesting video, and I can see why Eastbourne would be such a popular place for older folks!

Keep up the good work mate

i was in eastbourne and pevensey today, even walked up the road and remarked about the old court house that i had never noticed before