Sussex Day; a very modern ancient tradition

You may not be aware that the 16th June each year is Sussex Day. Celebrated across the length of this ancient English county, one that stretches from the West Witterings by Hampshire all the way over to Rye in the East as you enter Kent, Sussex Day will be marked by various events in lots of different places.

More often than not, at one of these events you may well hear someone, perhaps a town crier, reading the Sussex Charter aloud:

For all the people of the ancient kingdom of Sussex!

Let it be known: the 16 June of each and every year shall be known as Sussex Day. Sussex Day shall be celebrated according to the rites and traditions of Sussex.

Let it be known all the people of Sussex shall be responsible for the maintenance of those boundaries that join to those of our neighbours.

Let it be known all the people of Sussex shall be responsible for all the environs within those boundaries.

Let it be known, the people of Sussex shall recognise the inshore waters that lie inside a line drawn from Beachy Head, and extending to Selsey Bill as being, the Bay of Sussex.

Let it be known, the people of Sussex will undertake responsibility for the general well-being of our neighbours.

Let it be known the people of Sussex shall be guardians of our wildlife.

Let it be known the people of Sussex will, through custom support all local business.

Finally, let it be known, as guardians of Sussex, we all know Sussex is Sussex … and Sussex won’t be druv!

In God we trust.

God Save the King!

All sounds rather quaint, right? When you read it (or hear it), it feels like the remaining vestiges of a tradition that dates back decades, if not centuries?

Despite living in Sussex since 2007, I only found out about Sussex Day last year. By sheer coincidence, this was actually the year that the celebration of Sussex Day started. It sounds like it was written in the 1780s, but it was only written in the noughties.

Like everything else, Sussex Day is a made-up thing.

And that’s where things get interesting…

The invention of Sussex Day

Ian Steedman, who passed away in 2023, was a Sussex resident, local history expert, and former employee of Brighton Corporation Buses. And Ian loved Sussex.

In fact, so passionate was Ian about the county, he discussed finding a suitable day to celebrate Sussex with the Bishop of Chichester; it turned out that the 16th June is the feast day of St Richard, the Patron Saint of Sussex. Then Ian wrote the Sussex Charter, and campaigned to have it adopted by West Sussex County Council. As a result, Sussex Day was first celebrated in 2007.

Of course, it also starts to make sense as to why so few people in Sussex are aware of Sussex Day - it’s actually a really new thing, invented (by and large) by one person.

So why do I know, and why even would you be interested?

Well, I found out last year on the train home from a meeting with Jon Alexander, author of Citizens.

We’d been talking about how the work of The STEPS Collective was often orientating itself around things that were unfolding in Sussex - and not just because I lived there.

There’s something about Sussex, going back centuries, that makes it a home for people who want to challenge the status quo, the established order.

The county motto speaks to this - We Wunt Be Druv. It means we will not be pushed and prodded and told what to do. We will do things our way.

My reason for meeting up with Jon is that I was curious as to what I might do about the things we could see happening in Sussex, especially with devolution on the horizon that would mean that Sussex becomes whole once more.

You see, Sussex is only a historic county.

For administrative purposes it has been split informally into East and West since about the 12th century, and formally since the Local Government Act of 1888. There hasn’t been a ‘whole of Sussex’ in living memory.

Now, under the banner of a new Mayor who will be elected in May 2028, Sussex will be united again. But… what might the citizens of Sussex want? How should they feel that they are part of this new democratic settlement? And given the raft of regenerative activity in the region - environmentally, socially and economically - does this give us a clue?

“What do you know about Charters?” asked Jon…

Shaping a new charter

Two things then happened that day. Firstly, I searched online for references of a ‘Sussex Charter’, and found out about Ian Steedman, Sussex Day and the like.

Then Jon introduced me to the work of Our House and Oli Whittington. They are undertaking a project to channel the spirit of the 19th century Chartists Movement and build a new democracy that works for everyone in the UK.

And as part of that, they had developed a charter-building game.

Jenni Lloyd and I wondered if we might be able to make a Sussex version of this - and channel the county motto, calling it ‘We Wunt Be Druv’. So Oli came down to Brighton, and we tested a version out at Lighthouse.

Then Richard Freeman invited us to play it as part of something he was doing over in Worthing at Colonnade House.

And now, here we are today, on Sussex Day, running the first proper version of We Wunt Be Druv.

Our players will start by introducing themselves, in the context of their life experience in Sussex, They will be given once sentence at random from the Sussex Charter to offer what they see of their Sussex in that statement.

Then everyone is given a ‘Who’ card and a ‘How’ card - who might hold power, and how might they exercise it? There are 16 of each of these cards, expanded a little from the original Our House deck.

Then they will play two rounds - Dreadocracy, and then Dreamocracy. What’s the worst thing that entity might do with that power, and then what’s the best thing they might do.

Finally, when each table has explored these angles, they will be invited to shape some new demands for how Sussex democracy should work for people moving forwards.

Very fittingly, thanks to Leanne O’Boyle from the Thomas Paine Legacy (another introduction by Jon), all this will take place in the Lewes Home of Thomas Paine, 18th century social and democratic reformer.

Making the world differently

What might happen then, today in Lewes on Sussex Day?

I can’t honestly say yet - we have roughly eighteen people turning up who’ve responded to this invite.

We’ll play the game at two or three tables, explore the edges and opportunities of this Sussex-specific iteration, and begin to shape demands that point to different possibilities in how Sussex will be shaped moving forwards.

If it works well, we’ll speak to others who might want to run the game across the county, and look for funding support to make sure we can do it properly; widely and well.

But just now, in this moment, I want to sit with the idea that maybe Sussex Day is not about the past.

Sussex Day could be about the future.

Perhaps we could think of Sussex Day as an annual event where people all across Sussex can think about how we work together with the world as it is, in this moment, to design a society that works for everyone and everything who lives here.

In the same spirit as Ian Steedman had when he took it upon himself to write the Sussex Charter and start Sussex Day, we’re going to see what else we might make up for this new democratic moment in Sussex.

Because as David Graeber said:

“The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently”

John V Willshire
16th June 2026
Sussex Day

If you want to follow We Wunt Be Druv specifically, you can sign up here.

Or if you want to discuss and take part in other futures work in Sussex, join the LinkedIn Group for the Sussex Futures Network where we are linking together various projects across the region.