Pevensey is also the last name of
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, the four children who went through the wardrobe to the magical land of
Narnia and ruled as Kings and Queens under
Aslan from their castle of
Cair Paravel.
C. S. Lewis' classic Narnia series is famously (notoriously?) laden with Christian symbolism. Upon recently re-reading it, however, I was most struck by how much there is in the books of the Edwardian, antediluvian "Real England" ideology. Places that are good in the books have rolling hills and green lawns; places that are bad are barren deserts or craggy mountain ranges. Memorable meals and feasts always contain traditionally English dishes such as treacle tarts, fried eggs and bacon or boiled potatoes; bad or evil places ore often flagged by the strangeness of their food. Moreover, everyone who is anyone - of the Good Guys, of course - drinks copious amounts of tea, even while on the run from the White Witch.
This myth of "Decent Old England of the Shires" is not a new or unique concept, and in fact has made many appearances in children's literature, perhaps most famously in the works of Lewis' contemporary Tolkien and the more recent and widely popular Rowling. In all these cases the essential Englishness denotes a tranquil, safe and comforting environment of "Good" which the antagonist or "Evil" attempts to disrupt or destroy. As such I do not believe it to be accidental or insignificant among the other overarching themes in the series, and am inclined to believe that Lewis knew exactly what he was doing when he named his heroes after a historically significant English town.