East Dean and Friston is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Wealden District of

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, England.The two villages in the parish are in a

dry valley A dry valley may develop on many kinds of permeable rock, such as limestone, chalk, sand stone and sandy terrains that do not regularly sustain surface water flow. Such valleys do not hold surface water because it sinks into the permeable bed ...

on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

– between

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

three miles (4.8 km) to the east and Seaford an equal distance to the west. The main

A259 road The A259 is a road on the south coast of England passing through Hampshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent, and is the longest Zone 2 A road in Great Britain. The main part of the road connects Brighton, Peacehaven, Eastbourne, Hastings, ...

goes through both village centres. The coast and much of the land between it and the

A259 The A259 is a road on the south coast of England passing through Hampshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent, and is the longest Zone 2 A road in Great Britain. The main part of the road connects Brighton, Peacehaven, Eastbourne, Hastings, ...

from the east edge of Seaford to the west edge of

is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

, and this has prevented further development to the area. The civil parish was formed on 1 April 1999 from "East Dean" and "Friston" parishes. A hamlet within the parish, Birling Gap, is owned by the

. Some of its cottages have been removed because of

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...

Governance

East Dean and Friston, which has its own parish council, is part of the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

called East Dean. This ward had a population at the 2011 Census of 2,258.

The villages

East Dean lies in the valley bottom: Friston is at the top of the hill to the west. Within both villages are a large number of buildings of historic interest. The church in East Dean, dedicated to St Simon and

St Jude Jude the Apostle (Ancient Greek: Ἰούδας Ἰακώβου translit. Ioúdas Iakóbou Syriac/Aramaic: ܝܗܘܕܐ translit. Yahwada) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Tha ...

, has a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

tower and an unusual

Tapsel gate A Tapsel gate is a type of wooden gate, unique to the England, English county of Sussex, which has a central pivot upon which it can rotate through 90° in either direction before coming to a stop at two fixed points. It was named after a Sussex ...

(preventing cattle from entering the churchyard); that at Friston is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The churches have formed a united

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

since 1688. The latter contains Tudor monuments to the local family ''Selwyn'' and the grave of the composer

Frank Bridge Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Life Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845–1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a ...

(1879–1941). John Eric Bartholomew OBE, stage name

Eric Morecambe John Eric Bartholomew (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's de ...

, of Morecambe & Wise fame, could trace his descent from John Bartholomew (c.1791–1854), a resident of Crowlink, Parish of Friston in the Census of 1841 and was living in the Parish of East Dean in the 1851 Census. John's son, Henry Bartholomew (1829–1908) moved to

Overton, Lancashire Overton is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England, south west of Lancaster and south of Morecambe between Heysham and the estuary of the River Lune. Neighbouring villages include Middleton and Sunderland Point; Glasson is on the ...

, near

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

in the late 1840s and later into Morecambe itself. Henry's third child John Bartholomew 1860–1934 was the father of George Bartholomew 1898–1976, Eric's father.

Birling Gap

Birling Gap is a

coastal A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

within the parish. It is situated on the Seven Sisters not far from

Beachy Head Beachy Head is a Chalk Group, chalk headland in East Sussex, England. It is situated close to Eastbourne, East Sussex, Eastbourne, immediately east of the Seven Sisters, Sussex, Seven Sisters. Beachy Head is located within the administrative ar ...

and is owned by the

Coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...

has already removed some of the row of coastguard cottages built in 1878, but those that remain are still inhabited. There are a cafe, shop and visitor centre run by National Trust, and a metal staircase leading down to the enclosed pebble beach and the Seven Sisters

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of Rock (geology), rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. ...

s. In time, the houses are likely to be demolished due to the severe coastal erosion; the Government has concluded that the commercial value of the houses does not justify the construction of sea defences. If walkers are cut off at high tide, they can climb the ladder, which is replaced often, to Birling Gap. The beach, which was awarded the Blue flag rural beach award in 2005, is advertised by Naturist UK. It has a large number of

rockpool A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. These pools typically range from a few inches to a few feet deep and a few feet across. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only ...

s. The artist

Jean Cooke Jean Esme Oregon Cooke RA (18 February 1927 – 6 August 2008) was an English painter of still lifes, landscapes, portraits and figures. She was a lecturer at the Royal Academy and regularly exhibited her works, including the summer Royal Acade ...

lived in two cottages at Birling Gap. She painted seascapes there and died in 2008 while looking at the sea. In August 2017, hundreds of people suffered ill effects after a suspected chemical poisoning incident.

Geography of the land

The main rock type at Birling Gap is

. Other rock types outcropping here include

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

loess A loess (, ; from ) is a clastic rock, clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loesses or similar deposition (geology), deposits. A loess ...

and

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

. The coastline is part of the

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

Seaford to Beachy Head Seaford to Beachy Head is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches from Seaford to Eastbourne in East Sussex. It has several Geological Conservation Review sites. Part of it is a Nature Conservation Review ...

, which falls within the parish. The site is of biological and geological interest. There is also extensive evidence and visible earthworks here for an Iron Age hillfort on the site – although nearly half of it has already been lost to the sea. Information boards at the site show how it would have originally looked; however, even more will be lost due to the geological nature of these chalk cliffs.

References

External links