Steyning, Bramber and Beeding are now quiet backwaters. It is a large part of their present charm that they preserve much of the atmosphere of a past age. Yet, paradoxically, the three adjacent communities were relatively busier. Bustling river trade on the Adur combined with their position as centres for a thriving agricultural community, with markets, fairs, a castle, a priory, a great collegiate church and, by the 10th century, even a mint; all these made them places of importance in the Middle Ages.