The village site was excavated between 1952 and 1954 by Eric Holden and John and Gillian Hurst when plans for additional housing, overspill from Hove, threatened to (and subsequently did) remove all traces of the village for good (Holden, 1963; Hurst, 1964).  In total the remains of 12 building groups (20 buildings) were excavated, covering a period from the 13th to the 15th century.  These were spread out in a linear development away from the village church along two tracks, track 1 which corresponds to what is now Hangleton Way and track 2, which has disappeared (Figure 2). 

Figure 2.  General plan of excavations (Holden)
Published by kind permission of Sussex Archaeological Society

The remains of two ‘longhouses’ were found, measuring approximately 40ft by 20ft, each divided internally into three rooms.  All the other buildings were less than 30ft long, some with two rooms, some with one.  The remains of six ovens were found, two within what otherwise appear to be living houses, three in separate outshuts (two in one outshut and one in another) and one within a freestanding kitchen.   The pattern of building combined with the dating of pottery sherds suggested that the period of densest occupation was from c.1250 to c.1325 and that the population of Hangleton contracted substantially at some point after that.