Eastbourne and its surrounding area has a wider and longer connection to radicalism than simply Friedrich Engels – and as part of our series on Radical Eastbourne we look at some other radicals with a connection to the region.

Jack Cade and Heathfield (?)

As the late Hymie Fagan once pointed out, ‘it was at Heathfield, a few miles outside Eastbourne, that Jack Cade, leader of the 1450 uprising against Henry VI, was finally captured by Sherriff Iden.  The spot is marked by a seat in Cade Street, surmounted by a tablet giving a vicious account of Cade.’  However, historians now think it is likely that the rebel was actually captured in his home county of Kent, in Hothfield, though thousands of people in Sussex did join his rebellion.