Lewes History Group

Please note: this Bulletin is being put on the website one month after publication. Alternatively you can receive the Bulletin by email as soon as it is published, by becoming a member of the Lewes History Group, and renewing your membership annually

1.    Next Meeting: 8 July 2024, Nick Kelly, ‘Canals and Inland Waterways in Sussex’

2.    Victorian & Edwardian Lewes introductory course

3.    Garden Street Auction Rooms (by Mary Anne Francis)

4.    The escape and recapture of three Russian prisoners (by Chris Grove)

5.    The Crown Hotel

6.    School Hill by Norbert Sullivan Pugh

7.    Lewes photographs from a holiday album

8.    Leisure activities in Lewes in 1900

9.    Lewes Racecourse Plan in 1903

10.  Amusements in Lewes in 1852

11.  A new owner for 1 Little East Street

12.  Lewes History for Sale: The Old Library on Albion Street

1.    Next Meeting    7.30 p.m.   King’s Church                Monday 8 July             Nick Kelly                  Canals and Inland Waterways in Sussex 

Before the arrival of the railways, and especially given the state of the roads across the Weald, the only practicable way to move heavy goods to and from Sussex was by boat, and Lewes owes its existence to its location on the navigable and tidal Ouse. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution the need for such transport greatly increased. The 18^th century especially saw huge developments in water transport, with new canals and navigations across the country connecting mines and factories with their markets and ports. In his talk Nick Kelly will relate the Ouse Navigations upstream and downstream of Lewes in this period to other contemporary Sussex endeavours to improve the capacity and convenience of the transport of goods.

This will be a live meeting at King’s Church. There is no need for LHG members to book – simply turn up in good time for the 7.30 pm start. There is an entry charge of £4 for non-members, with tickets available via Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.

2.        Victorian & Edwardian Lewes: introductory course

We have a handful of places remaining available for the introductory course on Victorian & Edwardian Lewes to be held on alternate Tuesday mornings at King’s Church starting on 24 September, and led by Dr Sue Berry. This course will set the context and offer guidance for more detailed studies of particular topics within the V&E Lewes theme, but joining the course does not commit you to join any of the research projects to be established nor, if you already have the necessary knowledge, is it essential for subsequent participation. There is a course fee of £20 to cover the costs of the five sessions. Book your place at Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.

Course sessions and topics:

Session 1: Tuesday 24 September Lewes 1837-1914, an outline of what we know

Session 2: Tuesday 8 October          Population and employment

Session 3: Tuesday 22 October        Worship

Session 4: Tuesday 5 November     Education and leisure Session 5: Tuesday 19 November   Local government and social and medical care.

3.        Garden Street Auction Rooms                                            (by Mary Anne Francis)

Lewes residents may be familiar with the two ‘tin’ huts on the site at the corner of Garden Street and Southover Road, which are also conspicuous to anyone waiting at the station, or passing through – on Platforms 1 and 2 at the London end. They are due to be removed very soon to make way for a housing development and there are plans, initiated by Cllr Edwina Livesey, supported by Lewes District Council’s Arts Tourism Manager, Helen Browning-Smith, to mark their passing. They have a fascinating history.

As the signs on the outside proclaim, the huts have links with Gorringe’s Auction Rooms, though from 2017 all their sales were at their North Street premises. The placards note too that Gorringe’s incorporated ‘Julian Dawson’ whose antiques business also ran from the huts when they were part of Lewes’ cattle market, which was located on the site from 1883 to 1992.

The present sheds were probably once the church at the North Camp, Seaford, which was used to train soldiers in the First World War. This gives them an even further reach, as the North Camp is said to have included British troops and the 1st Battalion of the West Indies Regiment.

This is, for sure, a history worth marking – but one with lots of gaps. If you have any information about the ‘huts’ – which are really more like sheds or hangars – please contact maryannefrancis@hotmail.com who is co-ordinating the research arm of the ‘huts project’. Photos, memories, any other documents – all are of interest. People working on this project, who include artist Marco Crivello, and school and college groups, are hoping to use the site’s current hoardings to tell the huts’ story. It’s possible there will be other commemorative events later in the year.

It is likely that the huts will be taken apart and stored, rather than demolished, until a site can be found where they can be reassembled – this is very much early flat-pack architecture! If you have any ideas for suitable locations in which the huts can be given a new lease of life, please contact Edwina Cllr.livesey@lewes-tc.gov.uk. See Bulletin no.143 for an account of the auction rooms under Julian Dawson

4.         The escape and recapture of three Russian prisoners            (by Chris Grove)

The account below appeared in the 3 April 1855 Sussex Advertiser. 

 “On Wednesday morning last, three of the Finns, located at the War Prison, managed to effect their escape from the building, but they were shortly after retaken. Lieutenant Mann, the governor, took a party of the prisoners the Downs for an airing, between 9 and 10 o’clock, being accompanied by the usual guard of pensioners and warders, and leaving about 100 prisoners behind, under the care of a small body of the staff. While thus left, three of the prisoners, having equipped themselves in private clothes, scaled the roof of the guard house, which reached to the top the outer wall opposite to Little East Street, and dropped themselves into the street, a depth of from 10 to 12 feet. They then very leisurely strolled down East Street, past the Railway Station, through Friars Walk, and Walwer’s Lane. They were dressed in slate coloured coats and trousers, figured waistcoats, fancy silk neckties, and cloth caps, and had very much the appearance of the German musicians that frequent this country. On their route they repeatedly addressed those whom they passed with “good morning” in broken English.

  Upon arriving at the top of Walwers Lane they solicited the services of a labourer, who was passing, to conduct them to a public house, and while he was the act of complying with their request, they suddenly took to their heels owing to a circumstance explained below. It appears that the act of their dropping from the wall, was witnessed by Captain Mailard, one of their officers, who is living opposite to the spot, and it is stated that he immediately caused alarm to be given at the prison. Some of the pensioners and wardsmen lost no time in pursuing the fugitives, and were speedily joined by a great number of men and boys.

  Having traced them to the bottom of School Hill, they solicited the services of the son Mr. Smith, the butcher, who was following his avocation on horseback. He at once joined in the chase and galloped off at full in speed the direction of Southover, as far as the Tunnel. Having learned that the run-a-ways had not taken that route, he retraced his steps to the bottom of St. Mary’s Lane. In the meantime, the prison guard after making enquiries at the Railway Station, with very little success, dispersed itself and went the various lanes leading to the High Street. The person who went up Dolphin Lane saw the prisoners at the top, under the escort of their obliging guide and they, perceiving that their escape had been discovered, immediately took to flight, as stated above.

  Two of them ran up the High Street, whilst the other took Market Street. The mounted pursuer, who was slowly coming up St. Marys Lane, saw them enter Fisher Street and was soon by their side. Being thus closely pursued, one of them turned into a narrow passage between the Corn Exchange and some stores behind the engine house, when his course being cut off he was soon captured. His companion ran through the Star Hotel kitchen, across the entrance hall, and out of the front door. His progress, however, was soon at a close, for he had only proceeded a few yards down the town before he was in the grip of one of the pensioners.

  The third run-a-way, being an expert pedestrian, and not having the disadvantages of a horseman behind him, gave his pursuers a little more trouble. He ran up the lane by Mr. Broad’s, the tallow chandler, across Market Street, and to Castle Banks, when he jumped over the fence and secreted himself, best he could, under some bushes. His pursuers consisted of a corporal of the 73rd, a greengrocer named Beck, and a host of boys, who appeared highly delighted with the chase, manifested by the earnestness with which they ‘gave tongue’.

  Mr. Patch, the purser at the prison, was also on the lookout, and from the road below he spied the prisoner who was quickly taken from his hiding place. Neither of them offered the slightest resistance, and they were at once marched off to their old shop, the crowd increasing every step the way. The prison guard, as might naturally supposed, were greatly annoyed at the escape, and their vexation was not diminished by the conduct of the fugitives, who had hearty laugh over the matter, and seemed to think it a fine joke. The arrival of the governor, however, shortly afterwards, caused them to put a different face upon it, and they were once confined in separate cells, and ordered to be kept upon short rations. The only explanation they give for their conduct is that they wanted to see a little of English life, that it was their intention to have stayed in the town during the night, and surrendered the next morning.

  The clothes were purchased of Messrs. Brown and Crosskey, who sell wearing apparel at the public market in the prison, but the Governor, although he allowed them to make what purchases they choose, strictly prohibited their wearing any other than their uniform. The whole circumstance, of course, has caused considerable talk in the town and neighbourhood, and, as usual, has been greatly exaggerated by rumours.

  On Saturday last, a number of the prisoners were again taken upon the downs.”

5.         The Crown Hotel

This postcard view of the Crown Hotel and the adjacent Market Tower by the Photochrom Company was taken in the 1920s, when H.W. Walton was the proprietor of both the White Hart Inn and the Crown.

Another postcard of the Crown in my collection with the same two gentlemen posed in front of the hotel also includes the war memorial.

6.         School Hill by Norbert Sullivan Pugh

This attractive framed oil painting of School Hill signed Sullivan Pugh is currently on offer by Sulis Fine Art for £249 [see https://www.sulisfineart.com/norbert-sullivan-pugh-framed-20th-century-oil-lewes-high-street.html]. Norbert Sullivan Pugh was evidently quite a prolific artist, as Google reveals a range of broadly similar 20^th century paintings of traditional landscapes and streetscapes.

The earliest record I have been able to find about him is in the 1911 census, when young Bert Pugh, aged 6 and born in Ayrshire, was living in Wandsworth, with his parents and three younger brothers. The family was evidently a mobile one. His father had been born in Wigan and his mother in Suffolk. Bert was born in Kilmarnock in October 1904, but his younger brothers were born in Fulham in November 1905, in Morningside, Edinburgh, in February 1908 and in Tooting in 1910. This may be explained by his father’s occupation, which the 1911 census describes as ‘clerk of works, tramway, London County Council’. His father’s younger brother, living with them, was a contractor’s clerk involved in sewer construction, so it may be that they moved to wherever their construction projects took them.

According to an online biography Norbert Sullivan Pugh spent much of his life in London, joining the Chelsea Art Club. He studied for three years at a building school, at 17 becoming an architectural and ecclesiastical draughtsman, church craftsman and woodcarver, afterwards designing bookplates and practising calligraphy. While owning a commercial art studio in the Strand, he spent evenings studying from life and painting and began to exhibit in the capital. He also spent some years as a commercial artist with the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. The 1941-2 winter number of The Hippodrome noted that he had two works accepted for the R.A. Summer Exhibition, and reviewed a collection of his pictures at the Archer Gallery. He then had a studio in Buxted, Sussex. The magazine classified him as a romantic. It commented favourably on his atmospheric Downs country scenes, figure groups, portraits and still lives, and “the artist’s belief that anything is paintable that has emotional interest”. It is most likely that it was during his period in Buxted that he painted this Lewes scene. His mother and all three of his brothers were living in Kent at the end of their lives.

Pugh later lived in Cornwall, and many of his pictures are of village scenes in Devon and Cornwall. He continued to paint until he was 94, and died in 2001 in Salisbury, Wiltshire. His death was registered under the name ‘Bert Pugh’. His family was notable for its longevity. His brothers born in 1905 and 1908 died in 2001 and 2004 respectively, while his mother lived long enough to qualify for a telegram from the Queen.

7.         Lewes photographs from a holiday album

These two rather grainy photographs of Lewes High Street were included in a souvenir album of Sussex photographs created, probably after a holiday, by C.W. Murray dated ‘Summer 1902’. He also visited Newhaven, Hamsey, Ditchling, Westmeston, Hurstpierpoint, Southease and Litlington.The album attracted competitive bids when offered for sale on ebay.

8.         Leisure activities in Lewes in 1900

The first Pike’s Blue Book for Lewes, Seaford and Newhaven on the shelves at The Keep is the volume issued for 1900-1. The list of spare time activities noted as available in the town started with no fewer than five freemasons’ lodges. There were also the Lewes Priory Cricket Club, the Southover Cricket Club, the Lewes Football Club, the Lewes Rowing Club, the Lewes Chess Club (which met in the Fitzroy Library) and the Lewes Cyclist Club (which met in the Bear Hotel, under the captaincy of George Holman). There were also the Southdown Foxhounds in Ringmer, with their pack of 50 couples of hounds.

While women might be numbered amongst the cyclists and those riding with the hunt, it is obvious that the great majority of these activities were aimed at men. Perhaps women were not expected to have any spare time.

9.         Lewes Racecourse Plan in 1903

This plan shows the layout of Lewes racecourse as it was in 1903. The disassembled print from F.H. Bayles, ‘The Race Courses Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland’ was offered for sale on ebay at £110 by Antiqua Print Gallery Ltd, 80 Scrubs Lane, London.

10.       Amusements in Lewes in 1852

 “The inhabitants of Lewes are too commercial in their pursuits (and, shall we add, too intellectual in their character?) to need the excitement of public amusements. The Theatre, which existed in the last age, was never well supported, and gave way at length to a Mechanics Institution. Horse-racing too has seen its best days. Lewes races were formerly – especially during the regency of ‘the finest gentleman in Europe’ – among the most notable in the kingdom, lasting three days, and bringing a number of the sporting elite, as well as a still larger band of undesirable visitors, into the town. On the single day now dedicated to the sport a Queen’s Plate of 100 guineas is still run, or walked for, as the case may be. The race-stand is in ruins, having been accidentally burnt down some years ago by a party of Lancers from Brighton.

  Cricket seems at present a more fashionable amusement, and the Dripping Pan witnesses the usual amount of ‘splendid’ bowling and ‘magnificent’ batting. There is an excellent Bowling Green within the Castle precincts, to which strangers are admitted under certain regulations. During summer the South Saxon Archers hold periodical meetings at Conyboro Park, three miles from Lewes. The club is limited to the gentry.

  Exhibitions and concerts frequently take place at the Corn Exchange, connected with the Star Hotel, where also the South Downs Ball is given soon after Christmas. The winter balls of the nobility and gentry take place at the County Hall.”

Source: Mark Antony Lower, ‘Handbook for Lewes’, 2^nd edition (1852)

11.       A new owner for 1 Little East Street

Back in July 2023 [Bulletin no.156] we noted that the grade II-listed late-18^th century terraced cottage at 1 Little East Street, adjoining Eastgate Baptist Church, was offered for sale at £350K by a local estate agent.

Failing to find a buyer by the traditional route, it has now been sold by auction. According to the Sussex Express the price realised was £154K. It is a very small cottage, and it does need a little work to bring it up to 21^st century standards.

12.       Lewes History for Sale: The Old Library on Albion Street

Currently offered for sale by Oakley Commercial at £650K is the grade II-listed Old Library building on Albion Street, presently used as offices. Designed by the Lewes stonemason and architect John Latter Parsons, it was built in 1872 to house the Lewes School of Science and Art that had been formed four years previously. After the School of Science and Art closed in 1932, it became the home of the Lewes Borough Museum, and later the Lewes Library.

Sources: Oakley Properties website; LHG Bulletins nos.86, 116 & 154.

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/

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/LewesHistoryGroup            
Twitter:   https://twitter.com/LewesHistory

Please note: this Bulletin is being put on the website one month after publication. Alternatively you can receive the Bulletin by email as soon as it is published, by becoming a member of the Lewes History Group, and renewing your membership annually

1.    Next Meeting: 10 June 2024, John Lamb, ‘The 150^th anniversary of Lewes Rowing Club’
2.    Victorian & Edwardian Lewes introductory course
3.    Victorian & Edwardian Lewes: research projects
4.    A view of Lewes from the South East
5.    The Lewes Union in 1852
6.    Lewes Trades and Professions from Pigot & Co’s 1828 Directory
7.    An Edwardian postcard of Malling Street
8.    Ashley Cooper’s Botanical Purifying Pills (by Chris Grove)
9.    The Ragged School in St John Street
10.  Lewes History for Sale: The Riverside Centre, Railway Lane
11.  Guided church tower tours at St Thomas à Becket, Cliffe (by Peter Varlow)
12.  Lewes Street Stories: South Street by Heather Downie

1.    Next Meeting               7.30 p.m.            King’s Church                Monday 10 June   
John Lamb                   The 150^th anniversary of Lewes Rowing Club

1874 saw Disraeli’s Conservatives win a thumping victory over Gladstone’s Liberals in the general election. It was also the year that Levi Strauss patented his jeans with copper rivets and the year that the Lewes Rowing Club was born, at a meeting in the Lamb Inn.

In this talk John Lamb, current club chair and a former Mayor of Lewes, will trace the development of one of the oldest sporting clubs in the town. Founded at a time of increasing leisure and a quest for new ways of filling it, Lewes Rowing Club gave the citizens of the town access to one of its greatest assets; the Ouse. 150 years after its formation, the club is still going strong with members taking to the river in canoes, traditional wooden rowing boats, up-to-date motor boats and sailing yachts, venturing up and down the river and out to sea. In recent years rowing races between Newhaven and Lewes, a big feature of the early days, have been reinstated. The club’s main contribution to the life of the town is that it has enabled residents to enjoy the delights of boating on the Ouse ever since its formation.

This will be a live meeting at King’s Church. There is no need for LHG members to book – simply turn up in good time for the 7.30 pm start. There is an entry charge of £4 for non-members, with tickets available via Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.

2.        Victorian & Edwardian Lewes: introductory course

Booking is now open for the introductory course on Victorian & Edwardian Lewes to be held on alternate Tuesday mornings starting on 24 September, and led by Dr Sue Berry. The venue will be the meeting room at King’s Church. We hope that this course will set the context and offer guidance for more detailed studies of particular topics, but joining the course does not commit you to join any of the research projects to be established nor, if you already have the necessary knowledge, is it essential for subsequent participation. There will be a course fee of £20 to cover the costs of the five sessions. Book your place at Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.

Course sessions and topics:
Session 1: Tuesday 24 September    Lewes 1840-1914, an outline of what we know
Session 2: Tuesday 8 October           Population and employment
Session 3: Tuesday 22 October         Worship
Session 4: Tuesday 5 November       Education and leisure
Session 5: Tuesday 19 November     Local government and social and medical care.

3.         Victorian & Edwardian Lewes: research groups

The overall aim of the Victorian & Edwardian Lewes project is to increase our knowledge and understanding of the way our town developed in a critical period of English history for which there are a good range of reasonably accessible sources that you do not need to be a professional historian to be able to interpret. The project is modelled on our successful Street Stories, which have seen a number of individual and group studies brought through to a successful conclusion, with some formally published in our ‘Street Stories’ series and others on our website. We hope that there is the interest, and we are confident that we have the sources available, to develop a much clearer picture of the town’s history in this period than is currently available. As with the Street Stories projects, we expect that some topics will attract small teams of researchers, but others may prefer individual studies. The key LHG contribution will be to ensure that our researchers in one area know what others in related areas are doing – we can learn from each other’s experiences and cooperation is generally more productive, and more fun, than duplication of effort.

We already know that Lewes, a large Georgian town by Sussex standards, grew much more slowly in the study period than many others in Sussex, and more slowly than the national population increase. This is despite the arrival of the new railways early in Victoria’s reign, with later additions that made Lewes a local transport hub. While the situation of Lewes is not unique, it does demand an explanation, and this will most likely prove to be related to the impact of industrialisation on the town’s economy, and its competitive situation compared to nearby rivals that developed far more rapidly. New jobs and new commercial opportunities certainly appeared in Lewes during the study period, but did others disappear? What went, and why? Case studies of particular trades and businesses may help explain.

History bequeathed Lewes a healthy number of Anglican churches, and all seven survived until 1914 – six are still active today. There were also a fluctuating number of non-conformist churches and chapels with quite a variety of broadly Christian beliefs. Victorian evangelical preachers were the celebrities of their day, attracting large crowds. We already have a small group interested in researching church and chapel activities and their roles in the town’s commerce, its politics and its social life. Again, we shall start by seeking to establish the facts, and then progress to explanation.

Education and leisure both saw huge changes. School attendance became compulsory in the 1870s, with a school system established that has developed to today’s, and literacy the norm for those born from that decade onwards. But how widespread was working class children’s education before it became compulsory, and how was it provided? And what became of the Georgian town’s network of private schools, that recruited from the town, the surrounding countryside and in some cases from across the Empire? In 1837 most leisure activities were for the benefit of the affluent and genteel – the Sussex Archaeological Society, founded in 1846, is one example. By 1914 Saturday afternoons were free time for most people. A whole host of sport and social clubs were established and many flourished – one such Lewes club is the subject of this month’s Monday evening talk. Who were the key movers and shakers?

Other areas in which we already know there is interest include the changes in local government; the progressive expansion of the Borough and its powers; the change in its Parliamentary representation from mainly Whig/Liberal to reliably Tory; and the changes in the provision of health and social care. But we are also sure there will be many other areas of interest that we have not, so, far identified. We are relying on our members to fill the gaps. All ideas welcome.

4.        A view of Lewes from the South East

My thanks to Chris Grove and Heather Downie for pointing out that the view of Lewes from the south-east by C.J. Greenwood included in Bulletin no.166 cannot possibly have originated from an 1825 issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine as stated, as it clearly shows an early railway train travelling towards Lewes, and the railway did not arrive in Lewes until 1846! The error is mine, and does not appear in the website cited as the source.

The artist C.J. Greenwood does not figure in Christopher Wood, ‘The Dictionary of Victorian Painters’, indicating that he did not exhibit at any of the main academies of his day. Unusually for an artist, he does not have a Wikipedia entry. He was however quite a prolific commercial topographical artist, but most of his works survive as lithographs or etchings. Churches, gentlemen’s country seats and early railway scenes predominate. He has one lithograph in the Government Art Collection – a view of Petworth House, described as the seat of Colonel Wyndham, but his subjects range across the Great Britain. His dated works are all from the 1840s or early 1850s. Colonel George Wyndham, the eldest illegitimate son of the 3^rd Earl of Egremont, inherited Petworth from his father in 1845, and became Lord Leconfield in 1859.

5.         The Lewes Union in 1852

“The Lewes Union comprises the seven parishes, embracing an area of about the same number of square miles. The number of Guardians is 11, viz for St Anne’s, one; St Michael’s, two; All Saints, two; St John’s, two; Cliffe, two; Malling, one; Southover, one. The average annual expenditure during the three years preceding the formation of the Union was £5,770. The expenditure for the year ending 25 March 1852 was £3,391 18s 6d.

 No general poor house has been established, but the old parochial houses have been appropriated to the purposes of the Union. The able-bodied paupers occupy the poor-house of the Cliffe, the aged poor that of All Saints and children that of St Anne’s. The number of persons who received relief last year was 783 and the number admitted to the poor-houses 118. Board Day, Friday. Clerk, W.P. Kell, Esq. Relieving Officer, Mr J. Cooke.”

Source: Mark Antony Lower, ‘Handbook for Lewes’, 2^nd edition (1852)

6.         Lewes Trades and Professions from Pigot & Co’s 1828 Directory

Pigot & Co’s 1828 Directory is the earliest of the many 19^th century county, regional or local directories to be found on the library shelves at The Keep that include lists of the various tradesmen practicing in each town and, later in the century, village within the area covered. As there were many local entrepreneurs keen to earn their livings using whatever opportunities became available to them, directory job descriptions can be abbreviated and over-simplified, but they do offer an impression of the way a town’s inhabitants made their livings at a particular date.

I have selected as examples three different business areas in Lewes in about 1828 – ‘about’ because the date is not printed in the directory itself, but handwritten by a later scholar. These are the town’s boarding schools, its breweries and its watch and clock makers.

Boarding Academies: At this date Lewes was a popular location for boarding academies for young ladies and gentlemen – the later censuses show that in the Victorian era boys and girls were despatched from home to boarding school at really quite young ages. There were a dozen establishments listed under this heading, seven for ‘gentlemen’ and five for ‘ladies’. The boys’ academies were invariably run by gentlemen and the girls’ by widowed or unmarried ladies. Despite the category heading, it was noted that one boys’ school also accepted day students and one girls’ establishment was entirely for day pupils. They were, listed alphabetically:
Ade, Miss (ladies), High Street                                   Denham, Rev Mr (gents), High Street
Boys, William (gents), High Street                             Dunn, James Tracey (gents), Friars Walk
Brown, Mary & Lucy (ladies), High Street                   Godlee, Miss (Quaker ladies), High Street
Button, Miss (ladies), 3 North Street                          Holman & Francis (ladies, day), St John Street
Button, William (gents), Cliffe                                   Horsfield, Rev T.W. (gents), High Street
Carleton, Edward (gents), Cliffe                                 Mullens, James (and day), Market Street

Some of these schools were long-lasting and had high reputations, such as the Lewes Free Grammar School, and William Button’s school for non-conformist boys in the Cliffe. Miss Godlee’s school for young Quaker ladies attracted pupils from across the country, and the Victorian censuses show that by then some Lewes schools recruited children from British families living across the Empire. Others might have only a small number of pupils – in the case of Rev Thomas Walker Horsfield to supplement his income as minister of Westgate Chapel – and last only for so long as their proprietor was interested in the project. An odd feature is that all the proprietors listed in 1828 had surnames starting with a letter in the first half of the alphabet. In the earlier, 1823, edition, there were a similar number of academies, but over half the proprietors differed.

Brewers: In 1828 there were five breweries in Lewes, all of them easy to identify.
Beard & Chitty, Fisher Street                              Verrall, William junior, Southover
Berry, Thomas junior, Malling Street                  Wood & Tamplin, Bear Yard
Langford, Benjamin & John, Castle Brewery

At this date there were still those, such as John Ellman, who advocated that a good housewife should brew her own beer, and also small scale commercial operations, but most people now purchased their beer ready-brewed from a large scale brewer. As the century progressed each brewery tried to build up its own pub chain. The story of the Castle Brewery, bankrupt in 1856, has been told in Bulletin no.144, but the others all survived until the end of the 19^th century. Harvey’s, Ballard’s and the Hillmans’ breweries lay in the future.

Watch and Clock Makers: In 1828 there were still five clockmakers listed in Lewes, four of them also producing watches.
Atwood, William,  184 High Street                     Holman, John,  Keere Street
Davy, Ebenezer,  193 High Street                       Hooker, William, (clocks only), 12 Cliffe High Street
Gold Isaac,  School Hill

By this date watchmakers especially, while still marketing instruments under their own names, were beginning to buy in more and more components ready-made from centres of mass production elsewhere. The same five names appeared in the earlier 1823 edition.

7.         An Edwardian postcard of Malling Street

Most of the section of Malling Street shown in this Edwardian postcard was demolished in the 20^th century to make way for first Phoenix Causeway and later the Cuilfail tunnel. The inn sign visible on the left is that of the Hare & Hounds public house.

8.         Ashley Cooper’s Botanical Purifying Pills                                   (by Chris Grove)

The advertisement below appeared in the 29 July 1839 Sussex Advertiser: Messrs Lee, the proprietor of the newspaper, were not only printers and publishers but also bookbinders, booksellers and stationers and ran a medicine warehouse.

 “Ashley Cooper’s Botanical Purifying Pills, as established by 30 years’ experience, are prescribed by most of the eminent Physicians and Surgeons in London, and are always administered at several public Hospitals as the only certain remedy for Gonorrhea, Gleets, Strictures and all other forms of venereal disease, either sex, cured in a few days, by one small pill for a dose, with ease, secrecy and safety. Their operation is imperceptible: they do not require the slightest confinement, or any alteration of diet, beverage or exercise. They do not disagree with the stomach, nor cause any offensive smell to the breath, as is the case for all other medicines for use in these complaints, and after a cure effected by the use of these pills the party will not experience any return of the complaint, as generally occurs after taking Balsam of Copaiba, and other drugs of the like nature, which only possessing a local action, merely suppress the complaint for a time without eradicating it from the constitution, and the patient on undergoing a little more fatigue than ordinary finds all the symptoms return, and that they are suffering under the complaint as much as at first, and are at last constrained to have recourse to these pills as the only certain cure. They are likewise a most efficient remedy for pimpled faces, scurf, scorbutic afflictions, and all eruptions of the skin. Captains of vessels should make a point of always taking them to sea, their unrivalled efficiency in curing scurvy being known throughout the world.    Local agents: Lee & Co, Medicinal Warehouse, 64 High Street, Lewes, Brew, Medical Hall, East Street, Brighton.”

9.         The Ragged School in St John’s Street

When the trustees of the Lewes Ragged School decided to bring their work to an end in 1916 it was stated that the school had existed for ‘upwards of seventy years’. The 19 May 1916 Sussex Express, reporting the decision, states that this marked the end of 72 years’ work. This suggests that the school was formed before 1846, making it an early member of the Ragged School movement. Ragged schools are first recorded in London in 1840, established for children of the poor whose clothing and footwear was unsuitable for attendance at the normal schools of the day, and who were educated free of charge by philanthropists. The London Ragged School Union was established in 1844, with Lord Shaftesbury as its president. Charles Dickens visited a London Ragged School in 1843, and experience that inspired him to write ‘A Christmas Carol’. The inspirational Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon and his Metropolitan Tabernacle were important later sponsors of the Ragged School movement.

The movement included day schools, evening schools and Sunday schools, but the Lewes Ragged School seems to have been primarily a Sunday School with volunteer teachers, though its activities also included at least some evening classes for young adults. It appears to have originated well before children’s education became compulsory in the 1870s, but continued for several further decades after that change. The school was supported financially by voluntary donations and legacies. In its later years its proprietor and leading light seems to have been the solicitor Isaac Vinall (1843-1907), whose father and grandfather were both pastors of Jireh Chapel and who was himself a leading member of that chapel.

The origins of the Lewes Ragged School are not recorded, but it operated in rented premises. It is tempting to imagine that the self-educated Methodist shepherd-schoolmaster John Dudeney (1782-1852) may have played a role in its foundation. He is said to have started a school in Lewes as early as 1804, when he was still a young man, and by 1814 he had moved his school to St John’s Street. His school remained there until 1864, when his son, also John Dudeney (1810-1886), moved it to Abinger Place. The Lewes Ragged School is first recorded in St John’s Street in 1870, and it occupied the former Dudeney school premises in 1877 & 1879, when they were first mortgaged and then sold by the younger John Dudeney.

In 1879 the trustees of the Ragged School, displaced by the sale, purchased their own freehold premises in St John’s Street. They bought the building that had formerly accommodated the Bethesda Chapel. Flush toilets were installed in 1882 – doubtless a novel experience for at least some of the scholars. The school remained there until the Ragged School closed in 1916. The closure was caused by the collapse of much of this building following a heavy fall of snow, as tenders for rebuilding proved unaffordable. The trustees decided to sell the building, as they believed there were by then more than enough other Sunday Schools in the town and social conditions had improved. The proceeds of the sale eventually went to supplement the resources of the Lewes Exhibition Fund, though it took several years to conclude the necessary formalities to the satisfaction of the Charity Commission. 

A snapshot of the operation of the Ragged School comes from Holman’s Lewes Directory of 1887. At that date there were 470 scholars on the school roll, with an average attendance of 247. Isaac Vinall was the superintendent. There were 136 teachers, attending monthly in rotation, and 15 librarians. In addition to the Sunday School there was a Young Men’s Weekly Evening School and a Sunday evening prayer meeting attended by teachers, parents and scholars.

The archives of the Vinall family included a substantial number of glass lantern slides thought to date to the mid-1890s. These include local pastoral scenes but also several slides of members of Jireh Chapel and its Sunday School processing to their annual summer picnic at the Dripping Pan, and eleven other slides featuring boys and girls who were Ragged School pupils.

Sources: Wikipedia; British Newspaper Archive; ESRO AMS 6918/3; ESRO DL/A 25/3; the slides featuring Ragged School children are AMS 6918/2/26-36.

10.      Lewes History for Sale: The Riverside Centre, Railway Lane

Offered for sale at £825K by Flude Property Consultants, Brighton, is the Riverside Centre on Railway Lane, backing on to the River Ouse. The building is currently set out for office use. It was built in 1901 as the Sunday School for the Lewes Tabernacle, which stood nearby on the High Street. The architect was E.J. Hamilton of Brighton and the builder Edward Hammond of 73 North Street, Lewes. Tabernacle itself was demolished in the 1950s, to be replaced by Christ Church on Prince Edwards Road, but the former Sunday School building passed to East Sussex County Council, who for many years used it for further education classes.

Sources: Flude Property website; https://christ-church-lewes.org/church-history; ESRO DL/A 25/178;

11.      Guided church tower tours at St Thomas à Becket, Cliffe   (by Peter Varlow)

Three years ago, the tower spiral stair of St Thomas in Cliffe was impassable, and no-one could see and admire or wind up its 350-year-old clock every day. Neither could they see its belfry and 15^th century oak bell frame and four bells.

The earliest bell came to Cliffe from the South Malling collegiate church, thanks to a survey in 1555, by Lewes bellfounder William Wynberry, of Malling’s remaining assets, already crumbling and robbed after its suppression in 1547. One bell was “delyvered to Mr. Everarde and Browne, parishioners of Mallinge, to the use of the churche of Clyff”; other goodies that came with it included “A cope of grene vellett, A Chalesse, A paire of Awlter canstickes, and ij other greate cansticks, the sealinge of or Ladie chapell, the setes of the churche, the case of a paire of organs, the stone walles of the churche, an Awlter clothe, A towell, iij curtynes of silke, and the lente Clothe”. This munificence perhaps reflected the Catholic Queen Mary’s re-furbishing ambitions.

In 2021 St Thomas’s took the plunge and raised nearly £27,000 for stonework, lighting, a new handrail made by Tom Gontar at Glynde Forge, and a lot of oak floorboard repairs. Scores of Lewes people chipped in, and special thanks were due to donors including Friends of Lewes, the National Park, the Town Council, and even the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. Now guided tours are starting again, fortnightly from 18th May, and culminating in two tours during September’s Heritage Open Days. After an introduction to the church interior, the tour is a rare, if not unique, chance to climb a parish church tower, up 57 steps of the spiral stair to the (reputedly) second-oldest turret clock in Sussex – James Looker, blacksmith of Ditchling, made it in 1670 for £5 10s and was to keep the same in repair for three years. Visitors will see and hear the clock strike 12 noon at close quarters on the big tenor bell. Also in full view is the ‘lovely and very special’ oak four-bell frame which may date from c1400 – and is ‘very pretty’, with its bell gear.

Tours are all on Saturdays at 11.30 am, on 1,15 & 29 June, 13 & 27 July, 10 & 24 August, and 7 September. Tickets are £5, booked in advance at the Lewes tourist information centre (01273 483448; now relocated to the District council office in the shopping precinct). The Lewes HOD tour details will be in their leaflet when published, and will be bookable free online.

Sources: J.R. Daniel-Tyssen, ‘Survey of the Church of the College of Malling’, Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 21, p182; Thomas Woollgar, Spicilegia, vol. II, p. 342; ‘The Church Bells & Clock’; Peter Hayward, Blyth & Co, site visit, 29 April 2023; Michael Royalton Kisch, site visit, 14 May 2023; https://st-thomas-lewes.org.uk.

12.      Lewes Street Stories: South Street by Heather Downie    

Sales of this new volume in our Street Stories series have been very encouraging to date, due both to its excellent content and some outstanding illustrations, such as this remarkable watercolour of South Street by Benjamin Abbott, dating to 1835-1845, and made available by kind permission of Nick Darton.

Copies of ‘South Street’ are available at our monthly meetings and can also be ordered for postal delivery via our website: https://leweshistory.org.uk/2024/03/26/lewes-street-stories-south-street-story/.

A major outlet for our other recent publications has been the Tourist Information Centre by the Town Hall. This has unfortunately had to close for urgent repairs, and its re-opening date is uncertain. However, the TIC has established a temporary base in the Lewes DC Information Office in the pedestrian precinct, but whether it will be able to resume its full range of activities, including the sales of our publications, in the limited space there remains to be seen.

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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