In the town itself are some interesting though scanty remains of mediaeval times.  In the garden of a house named “The Folly” is a vaulted room the origin of which has never been satisfactorily explained.  It is possibly part of the Ancient Hospital of St. Leonard.  The open space at the higher end of the town is called “The Crouch” a name that is a corruption of “The Crux.”  The fine old Hardwicke House in Broad Street is dated 1603.  At one time it was a lodging-house, but its fortunes have lately risen.  Seaford House was once the temporary residence of Tennyson.

Seaford church is dedicated to St. Leonard and is Norman as far as the tower is concerned, of which the embattlement is modern; note the crosses in black flints on three of the sides.  The base of the walls of the church date from this period, rising through Transitional to Perpendicular.  The detail has been largely spoilt through restoration.  Note the capitals of the pillars which are most elaborately worked, that near the south door having a representation of the Crucifixion carved upon it.

[Illustration:  SEAFORD CHURCH.]

Millburgh House was once the property of a noted smuggler named Whitfield, whose immunity from punishment was obtained by judicious presents of choice wines in high quarters.  Tales of the old smuggling days would fill many pages, and undoubtedly the profession formed the major commercial asset not only of Seaford but of more important Sussex towns both on the coast and on the roads leading to the capital.

Lower has recorded many interesting facts about the long war between the revenue officers and the natives, relieved at all times by the unfailing humour of the law-breakers, who took a keen delight in fooling the exciseman.  It was but infrequently that real tragedy took place; considering the times, and the manner of those times, the records of Sussex are fairly clean.  Such brutal murders as that of Chater in 1748, which crime was expiated at Chichester, were rare.  The professionals were nearly all men of substance and standing in the land.  The marine smuggler was of course a separate breed whose adventures and danger were of a different sort and, despite the glamour of the sea, of much less interest and excitement; on the other hand most of the inhabitants of such places as Alfriston had one or more of the male members of the family engaged in the trade, and many are the houses which still have secret vaults and chambers for the reception of the goods, chiefly wine, brandy, silk and tea.  Most of the churches between Seaford and Lewes have at one time or another proved convenient temporary storage places, and on more than one occasion Sunday service has had to be suspended, on one excuse or another, until the building could be cleared of its congregation of tubs.  Lower records that at Selmeston the smugglers actually used an altar tomb as a store for spirits, always leaving a tub for the parson.