Sussex Transport Heritage

Ever since the Romans built Stane Street from London to Chichester and peddlers used the high ridge-line tracks across the South Downs, Sussex has needed strategic transportation to aid commerce and its ever-growing population. There were 52 active Turnpike Trusts in Sussex at their zenith in the early 1840s, most closing due to the short-lived canal mania that in turn lost its commerce to the railways. The London to Brighton railway line is just as well-known as the road that links the two cities, the annual London-Brighton Veteran Car Run being the longest-running motoring event in the world. Sussex claims to fame include Brighton’s Volk’s Railway—Britain’s oldest electric railway and still operating—Eastbourne can boast to having been the first and oldest municipally-owned motor bus operator in the world; Bexhill is the home of British motor racing; and Gatwick—London’s second airport and now the busiest single runway airport in the world, had much more humble beginnings.