[2] Ditchling may have been an important regional centre for a large part of central Sussex between the Rivers Adur and Ouse until the founding of Lewes in the 9th century.

[3] Another possibility is that the rapes may derive from the system of fortifications, or burhs (boroughs) devised by Alfred the Great in the late ninth century to defeat the Vikings.

At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Rape of Lewes seems to have included the land between the Rivers Adur and Ouse and would have been given to William de Warenne.

By the time of the Domesday Survey was made in 1086 a large strip of land extending to the River Adur on the west, and running from north to south, seems to have been cut off from Warenne's territory and given to William de Braose as part of his rape of Bramber.

Another piece of land in the northeast of the original rape of Lewes, the hundred of East Grinstead, was given to Robert, Count of Mortain.