A few more little snippets of local civy life at the time, told to me by locals.
A lady farmer at Herstmonceux, (or Herkymoo as we say) a village about 5 miles from Polegate, was tending graves at the church there with her mother when they heard a huge bang, the loudest thing they had ever known. There was no sound of any plane and no warning at all, this scared them so much they rushed home straight away, they later learned this was the V2, which landed in Broad Road, Polegate.
Her father, when the flying bombs were "coming really thick" used to shoot at them from the attic window, but he could never get the speed right so missed them all!
On the first day of the war a steam engine was heard going to and fro along the railway line blowing it's whistle all the time, it turned out this was an air raid warning because the proper ones had not been put up yet, the plane that caused the alert was in fact just returning with some important people from Europe.