[6] The Levett family would later include founders of Sussex's iron industry, royal courtiers, knights, rectors, an Oxford University dean, a prominent early physician and medical educator, and even a lord mayor of London.

[7] An ancient bronze seal found in the 1800s near Eastbourne, now in the collection of the Lewes Castle Museum, shows the coat-of-arms of John Livet and is believed to have belonged to the first member of the family named lord of Firle in 1316.

[8] On the bankruptcy of lord of the manor Thomas Levett in 1440, the ownership passed to Bartholomew Bolney, whose daughter married William Gage in 1472.

During the Second World War, Firle Plantation to the south of the village was the secret operational base of a four-man Home Guard Auxiliary Unit.

[10] The commonly used word greengage is linked with another branch of the Gage family who lived at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.

It would appear that Sir William Gage, 2nd bart (c. 1650–1727), introduced the Gross Reine Claude fruit tree to England from France ca.

St Peter's Church notably contains an alabaster effigy of Sir John Gage wearing his Order of the Garter and lying beside his wife Philippa.

The Ram Inn is the only remaining one of the village's three original public houses, that previously all acted as resting stops on the Lewes to Alfriston coach road.

Even earlier in 1725 Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet challenged the Duke of Richmond to a game of cricket, one of the first recorded matches.

The club continues to be central to village life and has two teams which both compete in the East Sussex Cricket League.

The Liberal Democrat Norman Baker served as the constituency MP since 1997, before losing his seat in the 2015 general election to the Conservative Maria Caulfield.