Eastbourne is a Borough with a population of approximately 90,449 and extents over 11,356 acres, 4095 of which are Downland. The South Downs rise on the west and provide natural shelter for this lovely, seaside resort.

From the earliest times, the hills near Eastbourne were the home of man, and there has been continuous occupation of the area since the Early Iron Age. About 500 B.C. Celts settled on the Eastbourne side of the Downs in the present Green Street District. During the Roman occupation a villa of some importance stood where the pier now is and greensand stone was excavated near the Wish Tower for the Roman walls of Pevensey Castle, four or five miles away. In those days, Saxons harried these shores and upon withdrawal of the Roman Legions in A.D.410 Saxon invaders settles here round the headwaters of a stream, or burne that still rises in Motcombe Gardens. This burne gave the name to Saxon Hundred, which comprised some five small burghs governed by the local Hundred Court, or Mote (hence Motcombe). King Alfred and Edward the Confessor owned the Royal manor of Burne, and the continuous recorded history of Burne begins in the late Saxon period.

After the Norman Conquest, when William 1 compiled the Doomsday Book, Burne was entered as Bourne, with 105 Holders of land. The manor was held under Crown grants for the next two hundred years. A Saxon parish church near the rise of the stream was re-built in the 12th century at the crossing of two roads, and these were the only two thoroughfares until the 19th century. In the 13th century, the Lamb Inn was built facing the church. A timbered house opposite dates to the 14th century. Agriculture, sheep farming, and fishing were the main

In 1752, Dr. Richard Russell of Lewes (county town of Sussex) published the "Dissertation on the Use of Sea-Water," and encouraged fashionable folk to visit the seaside for the health.

East Bourne gained Royal favour in 1780, when four George 111's children were sent to spend summer holidays at Sea Houses. The first guidebook, published in 1787, was dedicated to the Royal Children. However, "this desirable watering place" was hardly more than a fishing village, and as late as 1801 there were only 243 houses and 1,668 inhabitants. In 1804 "this little watering place" boasted "the fullest season ever known", and received a further boost when William Wilberforce, the "Great Emancipator", brought his family to stay in 1808. By 1811, the population reached 2,633. Alfred Lord Tennyson came in 1845. John Heatherley's Guide of 1819 was in fact, "humbly dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry who honour this delightful retreat", and claimed East Bourne to have been "for many years a watering-place of great respectability". There were then 421 beds for visitors, plus some "good lodgings, and "Two respectable boarding schools for young ladies and gentlemen". In fifty years, from 1801 to 1851, the population rose from 1,668 to a modest 3,433 but major developments and expansion were now insight.