Publications
The Old House at Broad Oak, Brede, by Edmund Austen, published 1925 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 66, article, pp.136-147) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2151] & The Keep [LIB/500284] & S.A.S. library
"Right of Man" Tokens, by Edmund Austen, published February 1927 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. I no. 5, note, pp.145-146) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8950] & The Keep [LIB/500203] & S.A.S. library
John Wesley and his Sussex Friends. I - Rye and Winchelsea, by Edmund Austen, published 1930 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. IV no. 7, article, pp.586-594) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2308][Lib 2309] & The Keep [LIB/500173]
John Wesley and his Sussex Friends. II - Northiam, Robertsbridge and Ewhurst, by Edmund Austen, published 1930 in Sussex County Magazine (vol. IV no. 8, article, pp.655-661) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2308][Lib 2309] & The Keep [LIB/500173]
John Wesley at Rottingdean, by Edmund Austen, published May 1935 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. V no. 6, query, p.189) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2204][Lib 8223][Lib 8862] & The Keep [LIB/500207] & S.A.S. library
Mudge, by Edmund Austen, published May 1939 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. VII no. 6, query, p.190) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 12536][Lib 8864][Lib 2206] & The Keep [LIB/500209] & S.A.S. library
Brede: the Story of a Sussex Parish, by E. Austen, published 1946 (144 pp., Rye: Adams & Son) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/503760] & British Library & East Sussex Libraries
Review by R. H. d'E [R. H. D'Elboux] in Sussex Notes and Queries, May 1947:Mr. Austen's love of Sussex and infinite understanding of our way of living need no advertisement. We can be happy that he has consented to put a little of his lore in book form for us and succeeding generations at a time when the shortage of paper and the costs of production might well have daunted a less valiant worker.
This is a book of twelve dozen pages, including an adequate, but by no means comprehensive, index, and if at times amongst its twenty chapters, which vary from the studiously learned on the descent of the manor to the racy idiom of dialect and humour, one sighs for more, it is at the least an indication of the ability of the author to hold one's attention, in writing as in talking.
One could wish for a more detailed illustration of the church, for some attempt at dating the altar tomb in the Oxenbridge chapel, and some reason for the strange removal of the brass to Robert Oxenbregg and his wife Ann [Hawkins] from its slab on to the wall, the slab being in a position by the altar that precluded ordinary wear and tear. Similarly fewer and larger illustrations of Brede Place seem desirable, and, most of all, one needs a map of the parish, with its field names thereon.
But these omissions passed, there are two admirable and (for parish histories) unusual chapters on Poor Law Administration and Highway Accounts, while throughout the book are interspersed intimate notes (that "the iron gate in front of my house at The Twitten was made at the smithy in 1833," or that the local cure for deafness and snake bite was adder's oil) and anecdotes like the stockman's remark to the corpulent gentleman: "Hello, Mr. B , how unevenly you have fatted!"
No information, it would seem, can come amiss to Mr. Austen, and so he has produced a very real, if unconventional, history of the complete parish of Brede.
This is a book of twelve dozen pages, including an adequate, but by no means comprehensive, index, and if at times amongst its twenty chapters, which vary from the studiously learned on the descent of the manor to the racy idiom of dialect and humour, one sighs for more, it is at the least an indication of the ability of the author to hold one's attention, in writing as in talking.
One could wish for a more detailed illustration of the church, for some attempt at dating the altar tomb in the Oxenbridge chapel, and some reason for the strange removal of the brass to Robert Oxenbregg and his wife Ann [Hawkins] from its slab on to the wall, the slab being in a position by the altar that precluded ordinary wear and tear. Similarly fewer and larger illustrations of Brede Place seem desirable, and, most of all, one needs a map of the parish, with its field names thereon.
But these omissions passed, there are two admirable and (for parish histories) unusual chapters on Poor Law Administration and Highway Accounts, while throughout the book are interspersed intimate notes (that "the iron gate in front of my house at The Twitten was made at the smithy in 1833," or that the local cure for deafness and snake bite was adder's oil) and anecdotes like the stockman's remark to the corpulent gentleman: "Hello, Mr. B , how unevenly you have fatted!"
No information, it would seem, can come amiss to Mr. Austen, and so he has produced a very real, if unconventional, history of the complete parish of Brede.