Builders, designers and decorators of interiors – the Georgian Craftsmen of Lewes and local country houses 1710-1820,   Sue Berry

The talk explores the impact of patronage and its decline and other influences on the work of craftsmen in Lewes , especially Arthur and John Morris snr. It also puts them into the broader context of rivals in Lewes at the time, asking whether Arthur and John were unique in the amount of work that they did on local country houses as well as in Lewes by exploring what we know about rivals such as Joseph and Amon and Amon Henry Wilds.

Whilst there are a lot of examples of local craftsmen working on country houses in eastern Sussex between the 1720s and the 1760s, such work then seems to fall away. Archives show little during the later period. And the houses seem to freeze. The craftsmen of Lewes had to find other sources of income.

That the way in which craftsmen sought work had changed is reflected in the work undertaken by craftsmen based in Lewes from the 1780s. The leading families of craftsmen moved to speculative housing and incomers found plenty of work in Lewes and Brighton, both of which had building booms. Of which Brighton’s is the greatest and lasts longest. The resort becomes a magnet for builders from the 1750s. When Dr Poole wished to revamp his substantial house overlooking the Steine in the 1760s, he used builders from the resort apart from John Morris who built his stables (HOOK 23/1/13). ¹ This suggests that Brighton was so well supplied with craftsmen that Lewesians struggled to become established there without good contacts. The Wilds of Lewes initially depended on the patronage of Thomas Kemp of Lewes who moved to Brighton to develop land that he had inherited and that helped them make contact with other clients.

We will look at country houses and churches where the Morris dynasty of Lewes made their mark and the work by them and other craftsmen in Lewes.

LHG Members can attend our talks for free.

Non-members can buy a ticket (£4) from TicketSource.co.uk/lhg

See the Talks page for a list of forthcoming monthly events organised by Lewes History Group.