Lewes History Group

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1.    Next meeting: 14 October 2024, Sue Berry, ‘The Georgian Craftsmen of Lewes’
2.    Other upcoming events
3.    A poor shoemaker and his apprentice
4.    Not so Funny
5.    Memories of a late-Georgian Lewes childhood
6.    Lewes subscribers to Dr Dodderidge’s theology
7.    Malling from the Coombe
8.    The recipe for twenty gallons of soup
9.    Lewes photographer Frank Shoulder
10.  The Lewes Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery
11.  Lewes Building Society advertisement
12.  St Martin’s Lane by Greg Parmenter

1.    Next Meeting               7.30 p.m.            King’s Church        Monday 14 October

       Sue Berry                     The Georgian craftsmen of Lewes 

The full title of Sue Berry’s talk to us this month is ‘Builders, designers and decorators of interiors – the Georgian craftsmen of Lews and local country houses, 1710-1820’. Her talk will explore the impact of patronage and other influences on the work of Lewes craftsmen, with a particular focus on the work of Arthur Morris and his successor John Morris, and their rivals Joseph Wilds, Amon Wilds and Amon Henry Wilds. There were many examples of such craftsmen working on local country houses between 1720 and 1760, but such work then fell away. They then had to find other sources of income, such as speculative housing development. Brighton was booming in the later part of the period, but soon developed its own supply of craftsmen. However, the Morris and Wilds families have left their mark on Lewes, on Brighton and on the wider rural area they served.

2.        Other upcoming events

On Friday 4 October 2024, starting at 7.30 p.m., Sue Berry will give a talk entitled ‘The story of our Lewes Churches’, and then Peter Varlow will speak on ‘St Thomas à Becket, Lewes’ Hidden Gem’. The talks will be in Cliffe Hall, by the church. Tickets are £7, and can be obtained from https://LewesChurchesTalks.eventbrite.co.uk. The talks are in aid of the work of St Thomas à Becket Church, Cliffe,

The Sussex School of Archaeology and History are organising a study day for Saturday 12 October at the Kings Church Building, Brooks Road, Lewes. The topic is ‘Living in Tudor and Stuart Sussex, c.1500-1700’. A series of expert speakers will explore how people in the Tudor and Stuart periods made a living, what they wore, where they lived and worshipped, and how they were helped if they became very poor. Key events included the closure of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the emergence of England as a Protestant nation, the attempt by Spain to invade England and the failure of the Spanish Armada, the English Civil War and Commonwealth, and the restoration of the Stuarts as monarchs. You need to book in advance to attend. The course fee is £30 (£15 for online attendance) and booking is via http://www.sussexarchaeology.org/tudor-stuarts-programme.    

   3.         A poor shoemaker and his apprentice

At the Easter Quarter Sessions in 1675 the assembled magistrates had to consider the situation of Abell Stepney, a cordwainer [shoemaker] who had fallen on hard times. A magistrate’s order that he should be removed from St Michael’s parish to Southover was respited until the next sessions. At the same time his apprentice Thomas Jeffrey was discharged from his apprenticeship, as the magistrates agreed that his master could neither maintain the lad or keep him in work. The case was not mentioned at the following Quarter Sessions. Abell Stepney had married at St Michael’s in September 1673, and had daughters baptised there in 1674, 1675, 1677 & 1680, followed by a son in 1685.

An apprenticeship, for which a premium was paid up front either by the parents or the parish, was a binding legal agreement on both sides, and could only be discharged by a court order. An apprentice formally became a member of his (or her) master’s family, and on completing the term acquired his master’s legal settlement. The magistrates dealt with many consequent disputes and difficulties arising across the county. Some people refused to accept apprentices allocated to them by their parish, so had to be compelled to do so by the court. Masters could die, or their business could fail. Where a widow continued her late husband’s business, she could be compelled to take on his apprentice too. A brutal master who mistreated his apprentice, by the standards of the time, saw his apprentice discharged and was ordered to repay most of the premium. Some apprentices ran away, and if caught were returned on pain of imprisonment. Others proved disobedient or incompetent, one being formally described as an idiot, and were discharged, as was a tailor’s apprentice whose eyesight became too poor for the trade. An apprentice who was impressed for service in the Royal Navy by the press gang had to get an order to force his master to take him back when he returned. Another apprentice married six months before the end of his term, and was discharged by agreement – the magistrates decided that his marriage was a more binding commitment than his apprenticeship.

Source: Quarter Sessions Order book, ESRO QO/7-9; Familysearch.

4.         Not so Funny

The news from Lewes in the 12 May 1798 Hampshire Chronicle included the following items:

5.         Memories of a late-Georgian Lewes childhood

Henry Waller was born in Lewes in November 1815. He became a shoemaker, married Martha Weston in 1838 and had a family of at least ten children, though three died in infancy. In about 1850 they moved to Ringmer. There Henry became a postman delivering mail around the village, walking ten miles every morning after a 7 a.m. start, and a further two miles in the afternoon. When he eventually retired from this role in 1904 at the age of 88 he calculated that he had walked over 150,000 miles in this role, a distance equivalent to six times the diameter of the earth. He also walked for pleasure, thinking nothing of walking into Lewes and back at the end of a day’s work. You can see that his two roles as postman and shoemaker were complementary.

This remarkable career attracted the attention of the national press, with reports in the Daily Telegraph and the London Standard copied by other newspapers as far afield as the Baltimore Sun. He was noted as still strong and sturdy, and able to sort his deliveries without the aid of spectacles. Despite the distance he had covered, he had never in his life journeyed more than 15 miles from his native town. It was also noted that despite his 40 years employment by the Post Office, he did not qualify for a pension as he was only an auxiliary postman. He lived until 1912, so did qualify for the state pension when it was introduced by Lloyd-George. He died aged 96 at 3 Springett Cottages on Ringmer Green, cared for by two daughters one of whom was herself an old-age pensioner, and is buried in a family grave in Ringmer churchyard.

Looking back to his youth in Lewes he told the Daily Telegraph reporter that one of his earliest recollections was joining other boys running after the daily coach to Brighton when it left the Dorset Arms. There was also a daily coach to and from London, while parcels were carried in a big van. One of his pastimes as a boy was catching goldfinches, which were then abundant. The males were sent in batches in the van to dealers in London, confined in a cage, with the empty cage returned on the next trip containing the proceeds wrapped inside a stocking. The males were sold as cage birds, with the boys receiving seven or eight shillings per dozen. The female birds were killed and eaten.

He recalled the 1830 visit to Lewes by King William IV and Queen Adelaide. They drove from Brighton, and during their stay in Lewes visited some of the historical places in the borough. He also remembered the great rejoicings at the coronation of Queen Victoria. A whole sheep was roasted in the yard hard by the Dorset Arms, and in the “dripping pond” a big dinner was provided for all the poor people, men, women and children.

6.         Lewes subscribers to Dr Dodderidge’s theology

Rev Philip Dodderidge was one of the most influential non-conformist theologians of the 18^th century. His academy trained many non-conformist ministers, including Rev Ebenezer Johnston, a Scot who was minister at Westgate Chapel from 1742 until his death in 1781. He had an immense output of published work, including the ‘Family Expositor’, an edition of the Bible carefully annotated to make clear its meaning. These publications were financed by advanced subscriptions, and the subscribers names are included in the printed copy.

For Dr Dodderidge’s volume on Paul’s epistles to the Romans and Corinthians, published in 1759, there were five Lewes subscribers on the long national list. One of these was Rev Ebenezer Johnston, whose brother Rev William Johnston, a non-conformist minister at Tunbridge Wells, also subscribed. The other four Lewes subscribers were:

• Mr John Banister near Lewes, a Ringmer farmer whose children were baptised at Westgate
• Mr Chambers of Lewes
• Mr John Plumer of Lewes
• Mr Samuel Ollive of Lewes, son of Rev John Ollive, Ebenezer Johnston’s predecessor at Westgate and the future father-in-law of Thomas Paine.

7.         Malling from the Coombe

This undated postcard by an anonymous publisher shows the view from the southern slope of the Coombe towards Malling Mill, its Mill House and Mill Road. The original turnpike track steeply up the hill, used until the new route round Malling Down was constructed in 1830 but by this date reduced to a footpath, can be seen to diverge from Malling Street just beyond the junction with Spences Lane. Spences Lane at this date had just a handful of houses, most of them well above flood level. On the west side of Malling Street there were quite a cluster of houses, cottages, barns and other buildings between the Brewery and the junction with Spences Lane, all now replaced. Some of the cultivated ground there appears to be ridged up for potatoes or a similar crop. This postcard image must predate the destruction of Malling Mill by fire in 1908.

8.         The recipe for twenty gallons of soup

After the introduction of the New Poor Law via the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act some local groups tried to relieve winter poverty amongst the poor by the provision of free soup and coal, the cost of which was covered by voluntary subscriptions. The charitable residents of the parishes of Cliffe and South Malling worked together to establish such provision, and an edition of the Sussex Express carried the recipe for making 20 gallons of soup’

The ingredients required were 20 lb of beef, a bushel of split peas, a gallon of oatmeal, 6 lb of carrots, a gallon of onions, a gallon of turnips, two or three heads of celery and pepper and salt. The mixture was then simmered for 16 hours. The peas were to be put in a coarse bag and suspended by a stick across the copper to prevent them burning. The total cost of the soup was ninepence per gallon.

The 11 January 1840 Sussex Express reported that South Malling parish alone was now providing 40 gallons of soup twice every week in the winter. In addition to the 40 lb of beef there was now also a bullocks head included in the mixture, along with turnips, carrots onions and peas. Potatoes were now also included, along with a little celery, 3½ lb of salt and 5 ounces of pepper. The soup was boiled for 12 hours before it was ready.

9.         Lewes photographer Frank Shoulder

Frank Shoulder, a carpenter and one of the Lewes photographers more rarely encountered, was active as a photographer in the 1880s [see Bulletin no.142]. Another of his cartes de visite was recently offered for sale on ebay. This was again a simple studio portrait, of a married couple with their dog. The reverse is just stamped with the photographer’s name, without an address.

10.      The Lewes Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery

This original photograph by the Lewes photographer Bliss shows the 3^rd (Lewes) Company of the Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery posed in front of a large villa was offered recently on ebay by a Sussex-based dealer. It probably dates from the first two decades of the 20^th century. The Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery were a volunteer army unit.

The detailed image below shows the unit’s buglers, seated on the ground at the front, and their officers and senior NCOs seated in the row behind them.

11.      Lewes Building Society advertisement

This advertisement for the Lewes Building Society, taken from a 1930s publication, was recently offered for sale on ebay. It was based at 11 High Street, later and until quite recently a branch of the National Westminster Bank. Local directories list it as the Lewes Co-operative Benefit Building Society up to 1938, but just as the Lewes Building Society by 1951.

The Lewes Cooperative Benefit Building Society was established by the Lewes Co-operative Industrial and Provident Society in 1870 and incorporated in 1876. Its first premises were in the Co-operative Society’s offices in West Street, but it moved to 1 Fisher Street in about 1897 and then to the former Lewes Dispensary premises at 11 High Street in 1920. In the 1960s and 1970s it had branch offices in Seaford, Uckfield, Brighton and Hastings, but then merged into the Southdown Building Society, which in turn merged into the Leeds Permanent Building Society and then the Halifax Bank.

Source: The Keep online catalogue

12.      St Martin’s Lane by Greg Parmenter

This small ink and watercolour drawing by Shoreham artist Greg Parmenter is dated 2 February 1980 and appears to be painted with sufficient accuracy to become in the course of time a useful historical record. I imagine that St Martin’s Lane will already have changed significantly since 1980.

John Kay                                             01273 813388                                       johnkay56@gmail.com 

Contact details for Friends of the Lewes History Group promoting local historical events
Sussex Archaeological Society:  http://sussexpast.co.uk/events
Lewes Priory Trust:  http://www.lewespriory.org.uk/news-listing
Lewes Archaeological group:  http://lewesarchaeology.org.uk and go to ‘Lectures’
Friends of Lewes:  http://friends-of-lewes.org.uk/diary/
Lewes Priory School Memorial Chapel Trust:  https://www.lewesprioryschoolmemorialchapeltrust.org/

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