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There is a legend that on the same hill as the White Horse stands Eve, companion to The Long Man of Wilmington. There is no evidence of this though from a distance, the landscape can be viewed a woman laying on her back with the white horse on her right leg and a small woodland in an appropriate V shape in between the two legs. Another possibility is the V shape hill is the same as that on which the Long Man of Wilmington is found, indicating the position of another chalk carved figure on the V.

The legend of the placement of Alfriston Church, supposedly set in the 14th century, is a curious story. It tells of when the first stones were being layed in a field west of the main street called Savyne Croft, they were magically transported each night to the east, a field called The Tye, where they are now. The builders couldn't decide whether this was the work of God or the Devil until four pure white Oxen were spotted on the Tye by a wise man, lying rump to rump in the shape of a cross. This decided the matter and the shape of the church, in the Cruciform shape, and it now called the Cathedral of the Downs, though others also claim that particular title and other churches such as Durham Catherdral also have a similar legend concerning their building.

Although the church is dedicated to St. Andrew, it also has associations with St. Lewinna, a virgin martyr killed by a heathen Saxon about 690 AD and buried there until her remains were stolen by a monk called Balger from the Priory of Bergue St. Winox and taken to Flanders in 1058. Balger landed at Cuckmere Haven at Easter time and with his scribe, Drogo, made their way on recommendation to a church assumed today to be Alfriston, for Easter Mass and stole the bones of St. Lewinna, leaving only a few finger bones. It isn't certain that Alfriston was the church Balger visited though it is the most probable. When he landed he was told he was at "Sevordt", probably now Seaford, before he went 3 leagues (about a mile and a half in those days) inland to find the church in the story which he was told was dedicated to St. Andrew. Other churches dedicated to St. Andrew that have been claimed to be the visiting point of Balgar are Jevington, Beddingham, Lewes and Bishopstone. If the location of the church in the story is in fact Alfriston, this has some bearing upon the existance of a building on the site before the date of the current building. Drogo also records that St. Lewinna was martyred and buried in the same place indicating an even earlier date for a church in the region, despite a lot of hostility towards christians in Sussex at the time of her martyrdom, Sussex being the last of the Saxon counties to be converted to christianity.

The fairies, it is said, used to dwell in the area, just to the north-east of Alfriston is a place called Burlow (or Burlough) Castle, a natural feature on the edge of the Downs above the River Cuckmere. The top has been ploughed until nearly flat and a Paleolithic handaxe was found in the 19th century. A theory suggests the area was also used as a medieval fort though the area is now little more than a steep banked hillock topped by a meadow. There is an old story about two men who were ploughing the area and heard a fairy from below ground who said he had been baking and had broken his peel. One of the men mended it and was later rewarded with some fairy beer, but the other maintained there was no such thing as fairies and wasted away.