This is a regional study, providing a detailed examination of the inns and taverns situated in the western part of the county of Sussex in the south-east of England. At the beginning of the period the English inn and tavern was entering an era of expansion and proliferation, though numbers grew only slowly in the region; by its end communications had worsened and there had been no great improvement to standards of paid hospitality. There were c.40 inns in 1550, increasing to c.120 by 1700; two-thirds were urban, some of which may have been taverns, either individually or more usually functioning as inns .that sold wine. Problems of definition are examined in some detail. The period sees some inns growing in architectural as well as social terms, while others decline, disappearing from the written and physical record. Reasons for their rise and fall are discussed.