Extreme East Sussex: Jury’s Gap, Broomhill and Camber Sands

Sussex used to be an extraordinarily large county, stretching from the West of Chichester at one end to several miles East of Hastings at the other. Its Northern border with Kent reaches diagonally across the country from just south of Tunbridge Wells to the sea itself beyond Rye. Since 1974, when the county was divided into its East and West administrative areas, its size is less noticeable, but it is still a long way from one side to the other.

The most Eastern Sussex railway station is Rye, which is actually on the only line belonging to Southern railways which stretches far into Kent. This line offers a diesel train, usually of only two carriages (even on the day of Brighton Pride), which chugs back and forth between Brighton and Ashford International via Lewes, Eastbourne and Hastings, with normally one an hour in each direction, both of which arrive at Rye at the same time as they need to pass each other and much of that line is single track only. It is all rather primitive, particularly bearing in mind that the high tech high speed Eurostar also calls at the same Kent station.

The very furthest Easterly bit of Sussex is the edge of Romney Marsh which is a landscape all of its own. Most of it used to be under water and its full history as well as lots of other fascinating information can be found here: http://theromneymarsh.net/home This extreme part of the county meets the sea at Jury’s Gap, which is as far as you can go in East Sussex and indeed along the coast at this point, as beyond it lies the Ministry of Defence Lydd firing ranges, all out of bounds.