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During the Roman period there were few towns and villages; most people lived in hamlets and farmsteads and very few of the Roman villages have developed into modern villages. At the time homes were not seen as permanent structures, we were still nomadic at heart and would abandon a building after a few generations to move elsewhere and rebuild.
 This all changed around AD800 following the introduction of the open field farming method. The population was growing and new methods of farming were needed to support the increased numbers. Now people came together in the feudal system to farm individually but cooperatively and it made sense for everyone to live together and so numerous small villages began to develop. The introduction of Christianity at around the same time and the building of churches also promoted village living. Early villages were probably little more than ramshackle and draughty buildings dominated by the lord of the manors house and the church.
Some villages prospered, benefiting from good locations and historical circumstances developing into towns or cities whilst others have changed little and others have disappeared completely. Not all towns go back to the feudal times – others are more modern developing as a result of the iron industry or the introduction of railways.
There are, on the whole, five reasons why settlements have disappeared in Sussex. Some have been swept away by the sea, some as a result of changes from labour intensive agricultural farming to land consuming sheep farming. Other villages have been lost as a result of the lords of the manor developing their park land – few of them wanted a grubby village blotting their view. The Black Death took its toll to, many people moved from smaller settlements into larger ones wrongly believing they were safer and the combination of deaths and relocation left many villages abandoned. Finally many settlements still exist but have been swallowed up by the growth of settlements in the last hundred years – particularly along the coast.
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