Lewes History Group

The Lewes History Group is announcing an engaging new series of talks for 2018.

These events take place on the second Monday of each month, beginning at 7:30pm and finishing by 9.00pm. Doors open at 7:00pm for free refreshments and updates on the Group’s activities.

We welcome Lewes History Group members and non-members.

The entry fee for the meetings is payable at the door: £1 for members, and £3 for non-members. Please note that we are piloting a reduction of the entry fee for members from £2 to £1.

Venue: The King’s Church building on Brooks Road, Lewes, BN7 2BY. (Between Tesco car park and Homebase)

Image of sheep fair in front of Lewes Prison, courtesy of Karen Tillstone and Lewes Past Facebook Group

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David Millum and Rob Wallace: The Barcombe Mills Roman Dig Discoveries

The Lewes area was already well-populated in the Roman era. Caburn was already an ancient feature in the landscape. The field systems created by Romano-British farmers are evident on Malling Down, and the footings of their roundhouses have been discovered in local digs.

There were Roman villas at Plumpton, Barcombe, Ringmer, Laughton and Beddingham and a surprisingly large detached bathhouse was discovered near the medieval Barcombe church. There were iron workings in the Weald and Roman roads criss-crossed the district.

However, King Alfred’s burh at Lewes was still many centuries in the future, and four years ago David and Rob told us about the discovery of the major Roman settlement on the navigable Ouse, near Barcombe Mills. It was created soon after the Roman invasion and remained active for the greater part of the Roman occupation period.

Since then the Culver Archaeological project, led by David & Rob, has completed four more seasons of excavation at the site. They have used geophysical techniques to explore the neighbourhood, to establish the extent and nature of the settlement and its relationship to the local road and river transport systems. In this talk David ad Rob will be telling us what they now know, and what remains to be learnt from future work.

Visualisation of aisled Roman building

All are welcome from 7.00pm for free refreshments and updates on the Group’s activities. The talk will begin promptly at 7:30pm and will finish by 9.00pm.

There is an entry fee for these meetings, payable at the door, of £1 for members, and £3 for non-members.

Venue: The King’s Church building on Brooks Road, Lewes, BN7 2BY. (Between Tesco car park and Homebase)

See the Meetings page for a list of  forthcoming monthly talks organised by the Lewes History Group.

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Grange Road in Lewes is the latest “street story” to be told on our website by members of the Lewes History Group.

The story covers the development of Grange Road starting in the mid 19^th Century, and through to the current day. It looks at the occupations of the early residents, the makeup of households, and includes the accounts of 5 residents who remember their neighbours and the events which took place. Grange Road residents have provided many of the photos and images used, as has the county archive at The Keep.

The Lewes History Group aims to encourage and help its members to do their own original research, and to make their findings publicly available. You can find out about the on-going Street Stories Project, and the resulting histories of Sun Street, Chapel Hill, Riverdale, and now Grange Road on this website.

Grange Road: a Funnell’s Series postcard

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