[5] Elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 to take over the administrative business of the quarter sessions.

John Dodson, Lord Monk Bretton, a Liberal peer and former Member of Parliament, was appointed the first chairman of the council.

The lower tier of local government was rearranged at the same time, with the county being divided into seven non-metropolitan districts.

[9] In 1997 the two districts of Hove and Brighton were merged to become a unitary authority called Brighton and Hove, independent from the county council, leaving only five districts in the area administered by the county council.

[10] Brighton and Hove (which subsequently gained city status in 2001) remains part of the ceremonial county of East Sussex.

Most of the county is also divided into civil parishes, which form an additional tier of local government.

[25] When first created the council met at the old County Hall in Lewes, now known as Lewes Crown Court, which had been built in 1812 as a courthouse and had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council.

[27] In 1938 the council extended Pelham House to include a council chamber and committee rooms and also built a large office block called Southover House in the former gardens of Pelham House, with the two neighbouring buildings then serving as the council's main offices and meeting place, and the old County Hall reverting to being purely a judicial facility.