Hope Sussex Community is an “autonomous community centre” established in 2022 near Netherfield in East Sussex. 

The project emerged from the conspiracy theory-driven anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protest movement, and was spearheaded by Matt and Sadie Single, former British National Party (BNP) officials. In Matt Single’s words, the aim of the project is to build “a community of wide-awake people that have removed their children from an insidious State education system, that […] seeks to denigrate our children using self-loathing, fear and intolerance to create future generations of easily manipulated drones”.

Hope Sussex encourages parents to remove children from mainstream schools in favour of learning an alternative, conspiratorial curriculum. The group has published photos of children engaging in crossbow and combat training, and Matt Single conducting “science” lessons involving explosives and his homemade flamethrower.

The Times reported in 2023 that “as many as 20 children of primary school age” attend the school, and that “obstructive” staff members blocked Ofsted from inspecting the site. The paper also reported last July that Matt Single planned to take pupils on a road trip to Moscow, driving through France, Belgium, Germany and Belarus in his campervan. 

While Hope Sussex presents a “family friendly” New Age image, organising alternative music festivals and craft events, it has also hosted a number of far-right figures and radical conspiracy theorists. An early contributor to the project was Alpha Team Assemble, the militant anti-vaccine group, until a falling out between the two groups. 

The site has also hosted events featuring David Icke, the UK’s best-known conspiracy theorist, the far-right social media personality Katie Hopkins and Kate Shemirani, a leading British anti-vaxxer notorious for her extreme statements. In December 2024, Hope Sussex also hosted the Holocaust denier John Hamer, who gave a talk attempting to discredit the theories of evolution, the Big Bang and “globe earth”.