Publications
Remembering 'Round-the-Down': topographical perspectives on early settlement and land-use at Southerham, near Lewes, by Gail Vines and Francis Price, published 2005 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 143, article, pp.117-134) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15610] & The Keep [LIB/500361] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:Archaeological and documentary evidence, taken together, suggests the enduring significance of a subtle downland feature on the steep southern slope of the Malling-Caburn Downs. Named 'Round-the-Down' on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map, this small rounded hill is one of the few local landforms still noted by today's cartographers. The site of an Early-Bronze-Age barrow constructed alongside prehistoric fields, it retained a distinct identity well beyond prehistoric times. Within the settlement of Southerham, throughout the rise and fall of a peasant community, it became the focal point of a common field and a network of trackways, traces of which remain today. Thus the barrow and its hill may have helped to define a landscape that remained in cultivation over four millennia.