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 Exceat in East Sussex doesn't now exist but was located near to the Seven Sister Visitors
Centre in the Cuckmere valley between Friston and Seaford .
The village was probably founded in Saxon times as a fishing village hidden
away from the weather by the valleys. It is known that Alfred the Great had
a palace in the nearby village of West Dean , and it is possible that
Exceat was one of his main naval bases in his war with the Vikings .
After the Norman Conquest in 1066 the village was given to Earl Mortain ,
King Williams half brother. He gave the land together with nearby
Exceat to the Monastry of Grestein, and their nearby priory at Wilmington .
During the 1100's the area was important as West Dean and Exceat paid more
in taxes than nearby Lewes , the villages were associated with Seaford in
their ties with the Cinque Ports .
In 1305 King Edward I who was at nearby Lewes visited the villages implying
a still great importance in the history of the Realm, again probably due to
the local naval power.
Exceat was the more important of the two villages until the 1300's when the
Black Death decimated the village, and the subsequent raids by the French
led to the village being abandoned by the mid 1400's . Exceat became part of
the parish of West Dean in the 1500's. |
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 The area is beautiful, and the meandering Cuckmere river contrasts with the
green Downs which rise up on each side.
The Seven Sisters Visitors Centre is well worth visiting, and the walk
alongside the Cuckmere to Cuckmere Haven and the sea is excellent.
Looking from the sea to the east lie the Seven Sisters , the cliffs on the
edge of the South Downs. |
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 Exceat in East Sussex does not now exist, except as the Seven Sisters Country Park Visitors
centre.
The nearest shops are in Seaford about 3 miles west , with the port of
Newhaven 2 miles further on. |
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| Exceat is shown as the red symbol on the map. |
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Nearby Villages
(click on symbol to see the village page) |
| Village= | |
Town= | |
Recorded in Domesday= |  |
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Alciston |
(Fifty thousand tiles on the Barn) | | 3.84 miles |
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Alfriston |
(Smuggling and Ghosts) | | 2.26 miles |
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Berwick |
(Sharpen your arrows on the Church) | | 3.36 miles |
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Bishopstone |
(Largest Tide-Mill in Sussex) | | 2.96 miles |
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Denton |
(Earl Godwins Manor) | | 4.40 miles |
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East Blatchington |
(Mutiny and the Edge of Space) | | 2.29 miles |
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East Dean |
(Fishing and Wrecking) | | 2.73 miles |
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Folkington |
(Teasles and Badgers) | | 3.67 miles |
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Friston |
(Home of the Railway Children) | | 2.42 miles |
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Jevington |
(Smugglers and Churchill Tanks) | | 2.99 miles |
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Litlington |
(Secret marriage of George IV) | | 1.09 miles |
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Lullington |
(destroyed by Cromwell ??) | | 1.97 miles |
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Polegate |
(Fine old Tower Mill) | | 5.25 miles |
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Seaford |
(The cormorants or shags) | | 2.24 miles |
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Tarring Neville |
(The Chest from the Spanish Armarda) | | 5.54 miles |
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Wilmington |
(The Long Man) | | 3.42 miles |
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