Adam Trimingham's Sage of Sussex column
Buying the Stanmer estate was one of the best bargains Brighton Council ever made – or so it seemed at the time. The Earls of Chichester, who had owned Stanmer for three centuries, decided after the Second World War that they could no longer afford to run it. So in 1947 they sold Stanmer for a rock bottom price of £224,000 to the council. It included Stanmer House a handsome Palladian mansion, plus 5,000 acres of land and most of the villages of Stanmer and Falmer. The council donated land for the start of Sussex University and leased the house to the embryo institution for 20 ye...
Source: theargus.co.uk