27/01/2026
𝐒𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐗 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐘
𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 26
𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲: Chanctonbury Hill
𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘅 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻/𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲:
Chanklebury
𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Hill of the brushwood thicket stronghold
𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀:
Hill of Changebury 1351 > Chanckberie Hill 1587
"According to Sussex legend, Chanctonbury was formed from a great clod of earth which was thrown from the Devil's shovel as he dug the Devil's D**e. Another legend concerns the Ring itself, believed to be haunted by the ghost of a bearded Saxon, killed at the Battle of Hastings, who returns to search for the treasure he had previously buried at this spot."
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Once a day, we will be posting a different place name from Sussex, including the local Sussex dialect pronunciation or name for each location.
These derivations and recordings have been taken from ‘The Place Names of Sussex’ collected and compiled by Judith Glover, and published in 1975.
The local dialect pronunciations and names have been taken from the following publications:-
• 'Contributions to Literature: Historical, Antiquarian, and Metrical', Mark Antony Lower, 1854.
•'A Compendious History of Sussex', Mark Antony Lower, 1870.
•'A Dictionary of Sussex Dialect’, William Douglas Parish, 1875.
•A Glossary of Dialectal Place-Nomenclature', Robert Charles Hope, 1883
•'A Handbook of Sussex' The Great Tower Street Tea Company, 1894
•'East Sussex Place Names by An Old-Fashioned Man', Walter Gillett, 1920, 1925 and 1933
•'The Place Names of Sussex', Judith Glover, 1975
•'A History of the People of Sussex', Chris Hare, 1995
•'The South Downs', Peter Brandon, 1998
•'Sussex as She Wus Spoke', Tony Wales, 2000
•'Sussex', Peter Brandon, 2006
•'Wunt be Druv!', David Arscott, 2006
It isn't particularly easy to put a specific time scale on each dialect name - some pronunciations have eroded far quicker than others. A number of these local names didn't continue to be used prominently far into the 20th Century and became extinct due to exterior influences, therefore the older population of today still may not have even heard some of these, even in early childhood. Many of these dialectal names have proven to go back many centuries. For example, the Sussex vernacular "Brighton" for the town of ‘Brighthelmstone’ can be traced back to at least 1416.
We hope that by publishing these Sussex names, you may learn something new about where you live and even reintroduce the local diction into your vocabulary.
Maybe you will have some nostalgic memories of these pronunciations? Do your friends and family still use this Sussex speech?!
