They are located in the upper Rivers Cuckmere and Ouse joint valley north of the South Downs, between the A27 and the A22 roads, and some 15 miles (24 km) north-west of Eastbourne.

[4] The village of Chalvington (Charnton in the traditional Sussex dialect) is named Calvintone or Caveltone in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The village, in a mainly rural area, is mentioned in the Domesday Book and has had a number of names, including Alchitone, Achiltone, Achintone, Echentone and Eckington.

The novelist Malcolm Lowry, best known for Under the Volcano, died at age 47 in a boarding house in Ripe on 27 June 1957.

Ripe was also the retirement home of the tattooed performer Horace Ridler (the Great Omi) who died there in 1969.