Project Scope
Timescales
Historical timescale
The initial period of study is that of 1940-41, i.e. the period in which most of the defences were constructed and the invasion threat at its height. Of course, the threat still did exist after 1941, defence planning continued and some defences were constructed as late as 1942, but nowhere near as frenetically as during the preceeding years.
If I have time (see the section below) I may conduct a trial to assess the post-1941 documents to see how much detail they give; it may be that later defence schemes have survived and are more detailed for areas for which earlier detailed documents have not survived.
Project timescale
A project should have a definite timespan, but at this stage I have absolutely no idea what the finish date should be; it could be five years, it might be ten - it all depends on what material comes to light. As this project is my hobby, I intend to conduct it at my own pace and enjoy it!
Geographical Scope
The area covered by the project does not cover all of East Sussex, either as it was in 1940 or as it is today. This may seem strange, but there are good reasons for this, the main one being the definition of "East Sussex."
The image below shows various definitions of "East Sussex". East Sussex as it is in 2008 is shaded in purple. (Geographically, Brighton and Hove is in East Sussex.) Add to this the yellow shaded area, and you have East Sussex as it was before 1974.
But it is military, not civilian boundaries that make the most sense. The red line shows 45 Division's boundary, the black line that of 55 Division.
When 45 Division moved into Sussex in May 1940, they occupied an enormous area stretching from Bognor Regis in West Sussex all the way out to just west of Rye. In July 1940, the boundary changed to that shown in red, covering from Telscombe Cliffs in East Sussex and crossing over the boundary into Kent, covering the entire Dungeness peninsula as far as Dymchurch. 44 Division relieved 45 Division in October 1940, occupying the same boundary.
55 Division had a smaller (and for me, a more convenient) boundary area, stretching (still) from Telscombe Cliffs, and joining the East Sussex northern boundary about 4 miles north of Crowborough, and following it (with a slight deviation) until it reached Rye and Camber where it again parted company with the municipal boundary.
In terms of the boundaries to use for the project, that of 55 Division seems to be the line of "best fit" as the majority of this area was occupied consistently throughout the timespan of the available documents.
Although this leaves the western end of East Sussex outside the study, to properly study the defences of this extra area in detail would require me to fly along the paper trail of the divisions that occupied this area. 45 Division did occupy this area in the early weeks of its tenure in Sussex, but there is very little mention in war diaries of the work carried out, and no defence schemes for this period have yet been found.
A divisional boundary is therefore easier to work with than a geographical one; to study the missing zone would start to take me out of the area I'm most familiar with, and any data I did gather would be in danger of being examined in terms of it being part of today's East Sussex, rather than as part of the coordinated defence scheme of a particular division. Having said this, a few defensive features from outside of the study area will occasionally creep in.
The image below shows the 55 Division boundary in relation to the current administrative boundaries.
