Lewes History Group: Bulletin 163, February 2024

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: 12 February 2024, Geoff Mead, ‘Daniel Defoe’s 1724 tour’
2.    Thomas Mantell walk
3.    Gregory Cromwell’s house in Lewes
4.    The penalty for begging
5.    An account of the Lewes Avalanche by W. Thompson, Esq
6.    Portrait of a little girl by Daniel Blagrove of Lewes
7.    Decency’s view of Lewes Bonfire in the 1884 Times
8.    Before the War Memorial
9.    The Avenue & Bradford Road
10.  A Stroudley B1 locomotive at Lewes

1.    Next Meeting               7.30 p.m.       Zoom Meeting            Monday 12 February

Geoff Mead    Daniel Defoe’s 1724 tour through South-East England’

Daniel Defoe is known to us as the author of Robinson Crusoe, but he was more than that…by a long way! Journalist, cloth merchant, tile maker, bankrupt…and a government spy! He was also a great travel writer and in this talk we accompany him on his tour through Southeast England in 1724. We welcome Geoff Mead back to speak to us again as amongst the most entertaining and best informed local history speakers

This meeting will be held by Zoom. Members will be sent a free registration link in advance. Non-members can buy a ticket (£4) at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/lhg. The emailed ticket will include a Zoom registration link for the talk, to complete in advance.  

2.        Thomas Mantell walk

Debby Matthews will provide an update of her research on Thomas Mantell (1750-1807) for the annual Gideon Mantell anniversary commemorations on 3 February 2024. This will be in the form of a guided walk around the significant sites and buildings of Lewes relating to Thomas’ life and times, starting at his house in St Mary’s Lane and ending at the Mantell family grave in St John sub Castro graveyard.

Thomas Mantell’s third son Gideon was born on 3 Feb 1790 in the house in St Mary’s Lane (now Station Street) in Lewes and left his own record of growing up in Georgian Lewes. Gideon Mantell went on to become the local doctor, but is today better known for his discoveries as an early palaeontologist and geologist. With a combination of the actions of the father and the words of the son we can get a clearer picture of Lewes at this time.

The walk will start at 10.30am, repeated at 1.30pm, and cost £4. Tickets will go on sale from 2nd January 2024 from the Lewes Tourist Information Centre. Max 15 per walk. 

Please email  debby.matthews@yahoo.co.uk for more information.Walk length will be approximately 1.5 hr, with some uneven ground. Gather at 23 Station Street Lewes BN7 2DB. See:  https://www.visitlewes.co.uk/whats-on/mantell-history-walk-p2079471

3.         Gregory Cromwell’s house in Lewes

 “Soon after the dissolution of the Priory a portion of the monastic buildings was fitted up as a residence for Gregory Cromwell, son of the vicar-general, who married Elizabeth Seymour, sister of Lady Jane Seymour, third Queen of Henry VIII. In an unpublished letter, in the British Museum, this lady speaks in high terms of the convenience and stateliness of this mansion; and from another letter of the same period, it appears that the bluff monarch meditated a visit to Lewes to see his kinswoman. Her husband, however, advises his majesty not to come, as the plague was then raging in the town. This fact has escaped all our local historians. There is little doubt that this seat was the one afterwards known as ‘Dorset House’, the residence of the Sackvilles, and erroneously stated to have been built by that family. The popular name of the site of the Priory is the Lords Place, from the lords of the manor having resided here. Dorset House was destroyed by fire, and some of its materials were employed in the erection of Southover House, long the seat of the Newtons and now the property of their representative W.C. Mabbott, Esq.”

These unpublished letters can be dated quite precisely to 1538-9. Thomas Cromwell acquired the site of the dissolved Lewes Priory in November 1537, and promptly demolished the great priory church and its abbey buildings, reportedly intending to establish his son Gregory in a mansion there based on the former prior’s lodgings. However, in 1539 Thomas Cromwell granted a long lease of the Priory to another man, and in 1540 (after the Anne of Cleves debacle) he was executed. King Henry VIII married Lady Jane Seymour in May 1536, less than a fortnight after the execution of her predecessor Anne Boleyn, and Queen Jane died in October 1537, shortly after having given birth to the future King Edward VI. Gregory Cromwell (born c.1520, so only a teenager) married Jane Seymour’s sister, already a widow, in 1537, thus becoming King Henry VIII’s brother-in-law. A young man who had himself considerable talent, he survived his father’s fall from grace and was a wealthy landowner with estates based in Rutland and Leicestershire. He died while still a young man in 1551. The house referred to as ‘Southover House’ is today Southover Grange, believed to have been built by William Newton in 1572. The Lords Place was not demolished until 1668. 

Source: The quotation is from Mark Antony Lower, ‘A Handbook for Lewes’ 2nd edition (1852); Bulletin no.128; Wikipedia; Judith Brent, ‘Southover House Histories’..

4.         The Penalty for Begging

The magistrates assembled at Lewes Quarter Sessions on 11 April 1771 heard that William Young had been arrested for begging in the streets of Lewes, and taken to the House of Correction. They ordered that he should be whipped in the Market Place at one o’clock on the following day and then discharged.                                                         

Source: Quarter Sessions Order Book, ESRO QO/23.

5.         An account of the Lewes Avalanche by W. Thompson, Esq.

 “At 2 pm on Saturday 24th December (Christmas Eve) 1836 I left London on the box of the Lewes coach, and we had but little snow until our arrival at East Grinstead, although the road was very slippery and dangerous. From this time the snow fell heavily, and as we had to pass the exposed and bleak range of Ashdown Forest we began to entertain serious doubts whether we should reach Lewes that night. The horses were scarcely able to keep themselves from falling, and the thickness of the snow in many places rendered the track of the road very indistinct. We, however, persevered, and the skill and self-command of our coachman (W. Sinnock) carried us through this open road until we reached hedges, when our line of proceedance was more clearly defined. Here, however, we had snowdrifts of great thickness in many places, but struggling through them we reached Lewes at 11 pm, two hours after the usual time of arrival.

On reaching my residence in the centre of the town, I found the snow had drifted over the front door, and on its being opened fell inwards and froze so hard and rapidly to the doorpost, that for nearly an hour the servants were unable to close the door. Sweeping had no effect, and the icy particles were obliged to be scraped from the woodwork.

The following day was Sunday and Christmas Day, and the non-arrival of letters plainly informed us that the roads had become impassable. Although but little snow fell after this day, yet so great had been the fall that for nearly a week all intercourse with London was cut off. The thermometer continued very low, and the snow gave no indication of wasting. 

To the south Lewes is bounded by a range of hills called the Middle Downs, being detached from the South Downs. They are composed of chalk and are about 300 feet above the Cliffe, the ascent to which from the back of several houses is almost perpendicular. A large portion of chalk had been excavated from the end of South Malling Street, called the South Pit. Over the edge of this pit, and a portion of the street containing cottages inhabited by labouring families, the snow had drifted, and presented an object of much interest and some apprehension should it become detached en masse, but this was thought very unlikely at any rate until a thaw commenced, and of that there was no appearance. The cottagers remained in careless and stupid indifference, and the authorities were either ignorant of the danger or neglected to guard against it. 

I left my home on Tuesday 27th December about 9.30 in the morning, with the intention of walking to the top of the Middle Downs to obtain a view of the Weald of Sussex deeply buried in snow, when Mr John Hoper junior, an eminent solicitor who resided in the town, ran towards me exclaiming “The snow has fallen and killed many; I have not nerve myself to face the scene, pray go as fast as you can, and do what may be necessary, only consider my purse as your own.” I waited not for further particulars but at once hastened to the spot where I conjectured the mischief must be. Not many minutes elapsed ere I reached the place and found of course great confusion. My first endeavour was to obtain something like order, therefore I sent for the Constable of the Cliffe, Mr Button, a gentleman conducting a large school there, who kindly came immediately, and forming a ring kept back the anxious and increasing crowd from impeding the necessary labours. 

An order to a neighbouring ironmonger produced several half dozen bundles of shovels, and a sufficient number of eager workmen around were selected to use them. A portion of them were employed in casting off the snow from the embedded cottages, while others threw the snow so cast off still further, so that the work might not be impeded in extricating those who were buried, with a view to preserving life if still remaining. From what I could learn (for there was little to be seen but snow) I found that seven cottages and their inmates were buried. The force of the descending mass of snow had absolutely driven the cottages from their foundations and carried them nearly across the public road, about 35 feet wide in this part. Opposite was a flint wall ten feet high. The upper portion of this was ordered to be demolished, that the snow might be thrown into the River Ouse, which was close by, and thus carried away by the next tide. I cheered the men at their work, and ordered them to be liberally supplied with beer. Some of the strongest however sickened as a dead body was extricated, or the groans of a living one were faintly heard. Still their efforts were unremitting. Relays of labourers relieved the workers, stretchers and blankets were obtained from the neighbouring workhouse, and we endeavoured when a body was disinterred from the mangled mass to remove it as much as possible unseen by the other workmen. The bodies were taken to the workhouse, where medical men were in attendance to afford their valuable services to the living.

From where the snow had fallen a large mass still remained, and fearing that another avalanche might occasion still greater loss of life, I detached a portion of workmen under the superintendence of an architect to cut through it, and workmen secured by ropes began the operation. In order that the force of any other falling mass should be broken, the work at the covered houses was reversed, and by casting the snow towards the hill an embankment was raised, which might intercept any falling portion from the workmen below. 

About 4 pm we ascertained that the persons buried amounted to fifteen, fourteen of whom had been extricated. Faint groans now informed us that the fifteenth was still alive. I promised the workmen that I would fix my attention on the snow above, and give timely notice of any falling quantity. A signal from the brow of the hill (which as I before stated was at least 300 ft high) gave me intimation, and I exclaimed “Run”. The workmen started for their lives and a second mass came thundering down. All the workmen passed me and for a few minutes I was blinded by the rebounding particles and enveloped in thick snow, but providentially escaped unhurt. One of the workmen was embedded to his neck, but was soon released, and proceeding with the work we happily dug out the last person, still alive but much injured. He was a lad of about 14 years old. Providentially the ruins of the cottages with which he was environed had fallen in such a manner that they so far protected him as to preserve his vital parts from injury, yet a rafter pressing upon his leg had fractured it in two places. When his head was uncovered he pitifully called for something to drink, his groans for so long a period and his bodily suffering having sadly dried his throat. This was speedily supplied him, but before he could be released from his painful position the rafter was obliged to be sawn asunder. This necessary operation was attended with much anxiety for us all, as we feared the removal of the timber might cause some heavier portions to press on his chest, and thus deprive him of the life which was, as it were, about to be restored to him. However, after lying seven hours, he was extricated from his precarious situation and carried in a state of extreme exhaustion to the care of the surgeons in the neighbouring workhouse.

My work for the day now being concluded, and after placing a guard over the ruins, I returned to my home with great thankfulness to Almighty God that I was still spared to my family, while other parents had been so suddenly deprived of life. One instance of this was that a young person had come from Firle to spend the Christmas with her aged father: the old man and his daughter were killed, but the infant was saved.

A subscription was immediately opened at the Lewes Bank, and a sum of nearly £400 was placed at the disposal of the Chairman of the Committee. The money was allocated as follows.

Printing, hire of tools, stationery, hire of brooms, constables and other necessary expenses £   35  3s  6d
Labour at ruins, etc £   91  2s  0d
Assistance to families £ 193  0s  0d
Assistance to 8 children (in Savings Bank) £   75  0s  0d
 TOTAL   £ 394  5s  6d

The size of the falling masses of snow may be imagined when I say that one piece, and by no means the largest, crossed the turnpike road, a distance of 35 feet, filled for a short space the bed of the navigable River Ouse, and a portion of this immense snowball, undissolved, rolled upon the opposite bank of the river. 

Of the 15 who were buried alive, 8 were killed, 5 severely bruised or had fractured limbs, and two were infants of six weeks old, uninjured. One was in its mother’s lap. About forty people had slept in these cottages the previous night, and had the avalanche occurred a few hours sooner probably few would have escaped, but a brilliant morning had induced many of the inhabitants to wander out to view the unusual and magnificent scene.

The following day the ruins were further explored, with a view to saving what little property remained and removing the obstruction from the public road. A melancholy spectacle still awaited us, the furniture and clothes of the poor sufferers were mixed in utter confusion with broken roofs, black bricks from chimneys and ruined crockery, while occasional pieces of cake and plum pudding, intermingled with holly and other evergreens, exhibited bitter memorials of the festivity of Christmas, which had terminated so fatally to some, and so miserably to others. These relics were preserved and placed in one of the adjoining houses, and were afterwards delivered up, as well as they could be identified, to their several owners.

On the following Saturday seven of the bodies were interred in one grave in the burial ground of the Parish Church of South Malling. As the snow still continued to obstruct the roads, a deep cutting was made through which the waggons proceeded with their melancholy load. Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, a large crowd witnessed the sad spectacle, and seven coffins together containing the bodies of those suddenly, and perhaps some quite unprepared, hurried into Eternity. A marble tablet was placed in the Church, as nearly opposite as possible to the large grave. 

After the various expenses had been liquidated, the balance was placed in the Savings Bank for the benefit of the 8 children made orphans or injured by the snow, in the name of the Incumbent of the Parish of South Malling, to be given to them as they grew up for the purpose of their advancement in life. £193 was given to the families to replace their clothes and furniture, and the kindness was deeply and gratefully felt, I believe, by all.

That Christmas , though thus interrupted in its usual round of mirth and hilarity, may not have been unprofitable, and the serious thought and reflections engendered may have given occasion to many, while pondering on the melancholy end of their poor neighbours, to remember, with gratitude, for themselves.”

Source: a printed extract, probably from a local newspaper, from a longer manuscript by W. Thompson, Esq, preserved with a collection of local books donated to the History Group. Neither the identity of the author nor the location of his manuscript is known to your editor. The Snowdrop Inn now occupies the site of the cottages destroyed by the avalanche.

6.         Portrait of a little girl by Daniel Blagrove of Lewes 

This sweet portrait photograph of a very serious looking little girl in a sailor suit was taken by Daniel Blagrove of 73 High Street. 

Daniel Cornelius Blagrove (1821-1899) was the first commercial photographer to establish a studio in Lewes, arriving in the town from Kent in May 1851 and remaining here until his death. In 1855 he was running a tobacconist’s shop at 146 High Street, and he was also at different times recorded as a wood turner, cabinet maker and furniture dealer, as well as as a photographer. 

By 1859 his family were established at 73 High Street, on the corner of St Martin’s Lane,  and by 1871 photography was his main business. By 1881 he had taken into partnership his son Daniel Blagrove junior. The business traded as D. Blagrove & Son by 1881, and also opened a branch in Uckfield, then a much smaller town than Lewes. By the late 1890s other members of the family had joined the business, which became Daniel Blagrove & Sons. Their photographs are still quite commonly encountered today.

Source: Sussex Photohistory website

7.         Decency’s view of Lewes Bonfire in the 1884 Times

Even 140 years ago not every Lewes resident was an enthusiast for Bonfire, or the Salvation Army!

8.         Before the War Memorial

Another postcard showing the elaborate gas-lit streetlight that preceded the Lewes war memorial. This example, offered for sale recently on ebay, was postally used in 1912. Earlier in its history this location was the site of the ‘broken church’ of St Nicholas.

9.         The Avenue & Bradford Road

This Edwardian postcard of The Avenue and Bradford Road was sold recently on ebay.

10.      A Stroudley B1 locomotive at Lewes

The caption on this postcard says that it was taken at 9.45 a.m. on 16 April 1911 at Lewes. It features Stroudley B1 class locomotive no.217, with its crew preparing for its next trip with a passenger train. 

Altogether 36 0-4-2 B1 class locomotives were built for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway at their Brighton works, and this was one of the first of the class, built in 1883. When new they were employed to pull the largest LB&SCR trains, and each had a name, emblazoned on the arch of the second driving wheel. This one was called ‘Northcote’. However, when they were demoted to more local services the name was removed. In this locomotive’s case that happened in 1906, and the nameplate was replaced by an LB&SCR crest.

Several of the class were scrapped before the Great War, but the rest carried out wartime duties and were taken over by Southern Railway. This one was scrapped in 1927. The last of the class was withdrawn from service in 1933. However, the prototype of the class, ‘Gladstone’, built in 1882, was selected for preservation. It is now on show in the National Railway Museum at York.

Source: Wikipedia; the image is from a postcard in my collection.

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

Posted in Art & Architectural History, Ecclesiastical History, Legal History, Lewes, Local History, Social History, Uncategorized, Urban Studies | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Lewes History Group: Bulletin 163, February 2024

Lewes History Group talk: The Life and Times of John Whitfield, Cliffe Merchant – John Kay

Monday 11th March 2024, 7:20pm for 7:30pm start via ZOOM

John Whitfeld appears in Lewes as a young merchant in 1720 and remained a significant member of the town community for the next 35 years. He married the daughter of a Huguenot clock maker working in the town, and he acquired the business premises and wharves that now accommodate Harvey’s Brewery. He dealt in a range of commodities, rescued cargoes from ships wrecked on the coast, and engaged in the Wealden iron industry in its dying days. He played an active role in the town’s politics, and could be a tricky man to deal with. Some alleged he was a smuggler. He was not an ideal next door neighbour, and was unusually litigious. He made a strong impression on his fellow citizens and has left his mark on the town. The house he built for his family survives today. In early 1756 he abruptly sold up and moved to Vlissingen (Flushing). 

To join this talk, you need to:

1) register your intention to attend in advance
2) receive our confirmation email with a link to the talk itself. Save that email, and
3) click on that emailed link to attend the talk 5 minutes before it starts

LHG Members can attend our talks for free. We will send members emails with a link to Zoom registration. Then please follow steps 1, 2, and 3 as above. 

Non-members can buy a ticket (£4) from TicketSource. The ticket will provide a link to Zoom registration. Then please follow steps 1, 2, and 3 as above.

Please join the webinar at 7:25pm.

We would recommend a computer screen or an iPad as a minimum screen-size for viewing our webinars.

Our presenters will be speaking live, and you can ask questions by typing in the Q&A box in Zoom.

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

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Lewes History Group: Bulletin 162, January 2024

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 January 2024, Arthur Redmonds, ‘Lewes Castle’
2.    A.G.M. Report
3.    Treasurer’s Report (by Ron Gordon)
4.    Contacting the Lewes History Group
5.    Meet the Georgians
6.    The view from the Castle before 1883
7.    Trouble and Strife in Green Walk
8.    A Quarrel at the Market
9.    School Hill in 1905
10.  A James Cheetham postcard of Friars Walk
11.  Churches & Chapels in Lewes c.1847
12.  Southern Railway locomotive no.41 at Lewes           

1.    Next Meeting               7.30 p.m.       Zoom Meeting            Monday 8 January
Arthur Redmonds    Exploring the Medieval History & Archaeology of Lewes Castle

Our first 2024 talk will explore the medieval history and archaeology of Lewes Castle, focusing on its relationship with Lewes and the surrounding Sussex countryside, and how it might have impacted and influenced the everyday lives of people around it. As part of an academic study at the Universities of Exeter and Cardiff, funded by the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, Arthur Redmonds has been exploring how the medieval castle influenced those who experienced them within their localities and landscapes, and has studied Lewes castle as one of his key examples. His talk will explore the impact of the castle on everyday life in the medieval town, and will touch briefly on the sources and methods used.

He will start with considering how medieval castles operated, who worked within their lands and the types of sites and landscapes we might associate with them, before contextualising Lewes within the story of other castles both within Sussex and nationally. Next, he will explore the castle’s biography, and its influence on the town and countryside at each stage of its life. This will include its construction, occupation, and finally its decline and partial abandonment. Along the way, he will briefly touch on some of the more important historical events in which the castle played a part, including its role in the 1264 Battle of Lewes and its assault during the 1381 Peasants Revolt. 

This meeting will be held by Zoom. Members will be sent a free registration link in advance. Non-members can buy a ticket (£4) at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/lhg. The emailed ticket will include a Zoom registration link for the talk, to complete in advance.  

2.        A.G.M. Report                                     

  1. The annual reports were approved.
  2. Appointment of officers. The following officers were appointed for 2024: 
    1. Chair: Neil Merchant;
    1. Treasurer: Phil Green; 
    1. Secretary: Krystyna Weinstein; 
    1. Executive committee: Ann Holmes (Chair for EC meetings), John Kay (Bulletin editor), Victoria Moy (Communications), Ian McClelland (Chair for evening meetings & ‘Street Stories’ lead), Barbara Merchant (Website manager) & Chris Taylor (Membership).
  3. Membership subscription. It was agreed that the annual subscription should remain at £10 p.a. per member, and that admission to evening meetings should be free for members. Admissions charges for non-members should remain at £4 per meeting. 

3.         Treasurer’s Report                                                                               (by Ron Gordon)

The Lewes History Group accounts for 2023 have now been audited and approved by Mike Stepney, as below.

The History Group is most grateful to Ron Gordon, now stepping down as treasurer, for the way he has guided our finances for over a decade, ever since the first establishment of the group.

4.         Contacting the Lewes History Group

Please note that our contact email address is now info@leweshistory.org.uk.

The old address (leweshistory@gmail.com) is to be retired.

5.         Meet the Georgians

Dr Sue Berry will be leading a 5-week course called ‘Meet the Georgians’ from 10.30 to 12.30 on Tuesday mornings starting on Tuesday 20 February and running until Tuesday 19 March. The course will be held in Room 1 at King’s Church and there is a course fee of £25 to cover room hire costs. The course will cover the history of ‘The long 18th century’, from 1680 until 1830. He course will cover the heyday of the country house, the rise of the towns and their impact, the improvements in agriculture and the start of the industrial revolution, the development of service industries and the rise of non-conformity.

You can reserve a place, subject to availability, via https://ticketsource.co.uk/lhg

6.         The view from the Castle before 1883

Marcus Taylor has acquired a pair of photographs taken from the Castle and looking towards the south-east, that together provide a panorama of Southover, from the railway station to the King’s Head.

The second photograph features prominently the Mount, Mountfield House and the Dripping Pan, and on the right hand side Garden Street, the end of Priory Street and some of the trees in the garden of Southover Grange. To the far left can just be seen the second version of Lewes railway station (replaced by the present station in 1887). Marcus points out that the cattle market by the station, created in 1883, has not yet appeared – the image shows the tannery previously on that site, remembered in the street name Tanners Brook. According to ESRO DL/D 145/22 Mountfield House was built in 1863. Are there any other dating features to spot?

Prominent in this view, just to the left of centre and accessed from Mountfield Road opposite the Dripping Pan, is a large villa identified from a late 19th century map by Mick Symes as Priory Villa. This was later known as Priory House, and was demolished in the 1960s. 

The first known owner and occupier of Priory Villa was a railway engineer called Edward Oliver, for whom this villa will have been very conveniently located. He was born in County Durham about 1826, and his father and at least two of his brothers became civil engineers, specialising in the development of the Victorian railway system and settling in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He is first noted in St Michael’s parish Lewes in the 1851 census, just five years after the arrival of the railway here, when he was described as an unmarried railway contractor aged 25. Later that same year, at Slaley in Northumberland, he married the daughter of a land agent and farmer living there.

Edward & Margaret Oliver then had two daughters born in Lewes in 1858 and 1861. The 1861 census finds the family living at Priory Villa, and in that record Edward Oliver’s occupation is described as ‘railway inspector engineer’s department’. A large railway contractors’ partnership that included Edward Oliver and two of his brothers had been dissolved in 1854. Their eldest daughter, aged just 3, was buried at St Michael’s later in 1861. Edward Oliver and his family continued to live at Priory Villa until in 1877, when they left for Croydon, perhaps an even better location for a Victorian railway engineer. The local newspapers record that their surviving daughter died in 1877 aged 16. She is buried in Queens Road Cemetery, Croydon, where in due course she was joined by her parents Edward Oliver (1826-1891) and his wife Margaret (1829-1904).

In the 1881 census the resident at Priory Villa was the prosperous boot manufacturer Albion Russell, whose shop at 187/188 High Street was on the corner of Fisher Street and High Street, next to the Star Inn, the premises currently occupied by the Tourist Information Centre. He was the son of a Chiddingly cordwainer, who had established himself in business in Lewes on a substantial scale, initially at 37 High Street. In the 1861 census, when he was living over the shop at 187/188 High Street, he was described as a master bootmaker employing 30 men and 6 boys. He was still there in 1871, but by 1881 Albion Russell was in partnership with his son Albion Russell junior, who had recently married and lived over the shop. 

Albion Russell senior died at Priory Villa in 1888, and the departure of his funeral cortege from there was described in detail in the local press. His executors were his son Albion Russell junior and his son-in-law George Frederick Bromley, who had initially managed his Eastbourne shop – the business that eventually became the London department store Russell & Bromley. 

By 1891 Albion Russell junior was living at Priory Villa with his wife and six children, who were all under ten. However, his much loved second daughter died at there in 1892, and by 1901 the family had moved to King Henry’s Road. Resident at Priory Villa in 1901 was the retired brewer John Hampton, whose mother had been a Miss Monk and who had been the last brewery manager of the Monk family brewery in Bear Yard, which closed in 1898. John Hampton died at Priory Villa in 1908, and after his widow’s death there in 1910 both Priory Villa, standing in an acre of land, and the household furniture and effects were put up for auction.

By the 1920s Priory Villa had become Priory House, and the new owner was Frederick Thomas Tickner, a draper’s son who had for many years been a china, glass, boot and shoe dealer. He had previously lived over his shop at 8 Cliffe High Street, but he also owned other properties across the road. He died in 1929 aged 66, but his widow continued to live at Priory House until the end of World War II, when she returned to her native Worcestershire, living on to the age of 90.

The final occupier of Priory House was the antique dealer Elgar Alfred Geering, who had married in Brighton in 1909, but who in 1911 was a Brighton-born cabinet maker living in St Pancras, London. 

His antiques business was based at 1 South Street, and he remained at Priory House until at least 1964. Later in the 1960s the house was demolished, to be replaced by the present flats.

Sources: Familysearch website; The Keep online catalogue; British Newspaper Archive; image above from ebay.

7.         Trouble and Strife in Green Walk

Three local newspaper reports of cases brought before Lewes magistrates for their decision between 1848 and 1855 illuminate aspects of Lewes social life that are now largely forgotten, not featuring in the everyday experience of the diary-writing classes. All three cases involve the same woman, Ann Evans, who was living in Green Walk.

In November 1848 Ann Evans was prosecuted for assaulting a neighbour, Jane Sales, who had reportedly taunted Mrs Evans about her husband being transported. The case report noted that Ann Evans, “perhaps acting on Lord Mansfield’s dictum that the greater the truth, the greater the libel, had taken it upon herself to inflict summary punishment, which she did instantly and according to the evidence with hearty good will”. The magistrates found the case proved, and Ann Evans was fined 40 shillings plus costs, or in default one month in the House of Correction. She will not have had the money – more than a month’s income for her single-parent family.

Six months later in July 1849 another woman, Frances Evans, who also lived in Green Walk, prosecuted Ann Evans for assault before the same bench of magistrates. Her case was that when passing the defendant in the street she was insulted by being “holloaed at”. On her return she said she was swinging a basket as she passed the defendant, who “fixed her by the bonnet”, which she then tore into ribbons. The complainant was then dragged into the house, where defendant cried “bring me a poker, young’un”. The complainant said she was so stunned by the encounter that she didn’t know who hit her with the poker, but she was struck by it. Ann Evans (Frances’s teenage daughter) deposed to having seen her mother in a state of insensibility. The defendant denied any assault, and called a witness who had seen the complainant strike her with her basket as she went past her. The poker was not used. The bench dismissed the case as unproven.

In a third case in April 1855 Ann Evans was the prosecutor, alleging an assault by her neighbour Barbarie Puttick, who pleaded not guilty. Ann Evans gave evidence that she had a girl of about 14 ‘very apt to run away’, in consequence of which she locked up her clothes. Her daughter had run away from her last two places. On 13 April she sent the girl downstairs to have breakfast with her brother, but instead she absconded, which she was able to do because the defendant had lent her a bonnet. Even an unruly teenager could not be seen out bareheaded. When the girl returned at seven that evening Ann Evans took the bonnet, lit it and carried it to the defendant’s house. However, it was wet, and would not burn properly, she took it home again, put it on the fire, and then carried it to Mrs Puttick’s house on a stick. While she was doing so she alleged Mrs Puttick came out and rushed at her with a broom, hitting her in the face and then on the head, knocking her down. In getting up she accidentally broke the defendant’s window. She had not entered her neighbour’s house. Another neighbour supported her account, adding that Mrs Puttick had said that she had plenty more bonnets she would give the girl, and also that she had not stolen a sheep or been transported. She also confirmed that the window had been broken accidentally when Ann Evans got up after being knocked down. The defendant said that the girl had come to her in the morning, saying that she was hungry, and asking to borrow a bonnet. In the evening the complainant had opened her door and put a lighted bonnet in her house, so her aunt, who had breathing difficulties, was almost suffocated. She had put the broom, which she had in her hand, up to keep the plaintiff out of her house. The window had been broken deliberately. Her aunt was still too unwell to attend court. The magistrates found the assault proved, fining the defendant half a crown, with 7s 6d costs. She was allowed a week to pay. Ten shillings was the best part of a labourer’s weekly wage. 

The people concerned in these incidents are all readily identifiable, and some aspects of their lives are recoverable using the online family history resources available today. 

Ann Evans had been born in Ringmer as Ann Oliver, where she was baptised in April 1821, the elder of two children of labourer John Oliver and his wife Caroline. A younger brother was born in 1823, but her mother was buried at the parish expense the following year, 1824. Her father was one of a group of Ringmer labourers who found it especially difficult to find regular employment, so was frequently to be found amongst the parish labour gang, whose activities included work on the local turnpikes. It was the Ringmer parish gang, including John Oliver, who dug the cutting for the Lewes-Brighton road that divides Falmer north from Falmer south. Like others of this group, he was despatched as one of the Ringmer contingent to the Sussex militia, and when harvest was over he was given a small sum of money by the parish to go hop-picking in the Weald. He lived in a cottage in the particularly impoverished Ringmer hamlet of Ashton Green, called by the vicar ‘Sodom’ when he entered the baptisms and burials of its residents in his parish registers.

John Oliver was, of course, unable to both work and care for his two young children, and was perhaps not especially interested in their welfare. A neighbour was paid five shillings a month by the parish to look after them, with the parish doing its best to reclaim at least some of the cost from their father – and on occasion taking him to court for “failing to support his family”. He was himself several times before the magistrates, jailed for 6 months for larceny in 1826, and with several other convictions for poaching and assault before his 1855 death. He had two younger brothers, Thomas and William, both of whom fell foul of the authorities. Thomas Oliver was one of the members of the ‘Ringmer Gang’ taken to the assizes in 1827 for a string of local burglaries and sentenced to hang but reprieved to be instead transported for life. William Oliver was also in prison on more than one occasion, including for poaching, participating in a riot against the 1835 introduction of the New Poor Law system and for absconding, leaving his wife and children destitute. In the 1841 census, shortly after his wife’s death, William Oliver’s children were abandoned to the care of the Chailey Union workhouse. He too was sentenced to transportation in the 1840s for another offence, stealing fowls. The 1851 census finds him in a convict barracks in Kent and in 1852 he was actually sent to Tasmania. John Oliver certainly knew people who were actually transported to the Antipodes – he was the intended recipient of an 1845 letter addressed to ‘Ringmer Oliver John, Sussex, England’ that was detained by the Australian post office for lack of the necessary postage.

It seems fair to assume that Ann Oliver’s childhood will not have been easy, but when she married James Evans at Cliffe church on 15 September 1839 she was jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Both parties were just 18, and within a very few weeks the new family was joined by a baby daughter Louisa, who may have been the teenager ‘very apt to run away’ in the 1855 case. James Evans was one of a family of eight sons and two daughters who also grew up in Ashton Green, where his father, a labourer but the son of a former proprietor of the Cock Inn, was the headborough – responsible for law and order in the days before the 1841 formation of the Sussex police. He was not very successful in instilling respect for the forces of law and order amongst his own sons. James’s elder brother John Evans spent his life on the run after stealing a donkey in Ringmer and selling it to a Dorking dealer, only for the dealer to sell it on to a gypsy who brought it back to South Malling, where it was recognised. The police were amazed to discover that the gypsy’s story checked out – but the dealer gave them enough information to identify the real culprit. Despite advertising his detailed description in the regional newspapers the police never caught up with John Evans, though the 1851 census finds him, his wife and children camped by the roadside in Ashdown Forest on census night. Two other brothers, George and Caleb Evans, were convicted and sentenced to transportation in 1841 as part of the ‘Barcombe Gang’ for crimes including poaching, vicious gang attacks on gamekeepers, barn-breaking, burglary and sheep stealing. George Evans was regarded as the ringleader. Caleb Evans had enlisted as a soldier, but deserted. They were both sent to Tasmania on the convict ship ‘Tortoise’ in 1841. Another brother, Edward Evans, was also in and out of prison for the relatively minor crimes of poaching and assault. To be fair it should be noted that the oldest and youngest Evans brothers appear to have lived unblemished lives, raising large families and the youngest rising to the post of farm bailiff.

James Evans, however, was no such paragon. He had two convictions as a teenager, before his marriage to Ann Oliver. In 1837, aged 16, the magistrates fined him a shilling, with 16 shillings costs, for malicious damage to a duck, despite an alibi from his father to which the magistrates gave no credence. A few months later he was up before Quarter Sessions for the theft of four tame rabbits from a village shoemaker, and for this more serious crime he was given 6 weeks hard labour. A high proportion of country crime involved the theft of meat. James and Anne’s eldest daughter was baptised at Barcombe, but after the arrest of the Barcombe gang they moved on to Hurstpierpoint, where the 1841 census finds the couple, both 20, with their 1-year old daughter, and also James’s youngest sister, aged 12. Another daughter was born in Hurstpierpoint. A son Henry followed, baptised at Ringmer early in 1843, though said in the 1851 census to have been born in Laughton. Then disaster struck – in the autumn of 1843 James Evans was arrested for stealing a sheep from Broyle Place Farm (where his father worked), convicted at Lewes Quarter Sessions and sentenced to 10 years transportation. He followed his brothers George and Caleb to Tasmania, travelling on the ‘London’ in 1844.

This left Ann Evans with no easy way to support her brood of young children, the oldest just four. Another daughter, Cordelia, was added in May 1844. This daughter, born after her father’s transportation, was baptised at Chailey, after Ann and her children were sent to the Union workhouse there. A woman in this position was in a desperate situation, as women’s wages were too low to support a family. A young widow could try to find a new husband, but this option was not open to the wife of a transportee. However, Ann Evans managed to escape the workhouse, and had established herself in Green Walk by 1848. She is found there in the 1851 census, with her three children Louise (11), Caroline (9) and Henry (7). She was described in the census as a pauper, ‘husband a convict’. Her last baby, Cordelia, had died before her first birthday. In the 1850s she had two more children whose births were registered in Lewes, a daughter Agnes in 1854 and a son Lewis in 1856. By the 1861 census she was a lodging house keeper in William Street, Brighton, living with her two youngest children and three lodgers. I then lose sight of her – Ann Evans is a very common name – but by 1871 Agnes was a teenage servant in a Hove household, and Lewis a teenage house-painter boarding in a painter’s household in Brighton.

Jane Sales (1804-1886), born Jane Taylor, was a native of Lewes and nearly 20 years older than Ann Evans. She married Richard Sales in 1828, and had at least 7 children. She lived in Green Walk in the 1841 census, but had moved to North Street by 1851. Her husband did labouring jobs – a fishmonger’s labourer in 1851 and a farm labourer in 1861 & 1871. One of her unmarried sons became a bricklayer’s labourer, another a railway porter.

Frances Evans (1814-1853) was Ann Evans’ sister-in-law. Born Frances Barrow at Heathfield in 1814, she married George Evans there in 1832 when they were both 17. They had two children baptised at Ringmer in 1833 (Ann) and 1837 (John) before they moved to Barcombe, where George was arrested and transported. In the 1841 census Frances and her two children John (4) and Harriet (2) were in the Chailey Union workhouse at Chailey. Her eldest daughter Ann, aged 7, was in the Ringmer workhouse, used  by Chailey Union to house its school-age children. Frances was pregnant with another daughter, born several months after George’s departure for Tasmania, who she called Georgina. Two years later she had another child, Charles, baptised at Chailey. In 1851 she and her family were living in Green Walk, where she was a charwoman and her teenage son John an errand boy. She was buried at Ringmer in 1853, aged 39.

Barbara Puttock (1820-1906), born Barbara Pannett, lived in 1851 with her chalk pit labourer husband, her two small children and her widowed mother in her aunt’s house in Pleasant Place. Her aunt had also been married to a chalk pit labourer. Widowed later in life she became an upholsterer, sharing a home in Station Street with her adult children.

James Evans and his elder brothers George and Caleb Evans all survived their convict ship journeys and were in due course granted their tickets of leave. Transportation almost invariably resulted in a married man’s family being permanently split asunder. A descendant reports that all three Evans brothers later married (George in his first wife’s lifetime) and fathered new families. 

Sources: British Newspaper Archive, especially the 4 November 1848 Sussex Express and the 21 July 1849 & 24 April 1855 Sussex Advertiser; birth registration indexes on www.gov.uk; overseers of the poor records for the parish of Ringmer; online prison and convict records; FindMyPast & Familysearch websites. 

8.         A Quarrel at the Market

The article below was published in the 11 Jan 1879 Sussex Advertiser

 “The hour at which the stock market is to be closed and the wattles cleared ought to be clearly understood. At present the owners of stock do not seem to have any definite ideas as to what time they may keep their animals exposed for sale, and the want of this knowledge on Tuesday week led to a disgraceful disturbance in the High street.

  It appears that the owner of two large pigs had not removed them at the time the person employed to clear the hurdles came to cart them away.The official accordingly placed the wattles in his van, leaving the pigs to wander whither they would. The owner of the animals naturally resented this summary proceeding, and after loud and angry disputation attempted to prevent the horse and van from moving on, whereupon the driver struck him a violent blow in the face, followed by a second, knocking the man down. Blood was copiously shed, the poor fellow being apparently too much stunned to attempt to protect himself. Meantime the the pigs had wandered some distance up the street, but were subsequently taken charge of and removed.

  We do not know whether the owner of the pigs was infringing the market rules or not; be this as it may, the market authorities will hardly support their servant in such proceedings as disgraced the High street on Tuesday, and which would probably not have occurred had it been the rule that the hour of removal of the wattles and the closing of the market should be thoroughly explained to all who bring animals for sale. A “knock-down” argument may be very effectual, but it is not one that in the long run is likely to attract persons to select Lewes for the disposal of their stock.”

9.         School Hill in 1905

This colour-washed Edwardian postcard shows the view from the top of School Hill, including the gas streetlight replaced in 1920 by the war memorial. The publisher did not add his name, but the number 42068 appears on the reverse. Like many Edwardian postcards this one was printed in Germany – the printer added this information in the square that was to be covered  by the stamp.

10.      A James Cheetham postcard of Friars Walk

This Edwardian postcard has the caption ‘Victoria Hospital, Lewes’ in James Cheetham’s distinctive handwriting, though this is not one of the minority of his postcards that carry his name as publisher on the reverse. The prominent corner building, until recently the National Westminster Bank, is inscribed ‘Lewes Dispensary’ on the cornice but ‘Victoria Hospital, Lewes Dispensary and Infirmary’ over the Friars Walk entrance. To its rear can be seen Browne & Crosskey’s furniture store on Friars Walk, while across the road are the first Lewes railway station building and, beyond that, the Railway Inn. 

11.      Churches & Chapels in Lewes c.1847

The 1st edition of schoolmaster Mark Antony Lower’s ‘Handbook for Lewes’ is not dated, but describes the 1845 excavations at the Priory, the arrival of the railway in 1846, the resignation of an MP in 1847 and names the minister of the Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary’s Lane as a man known to have been in Lewes for 1845-7. The handbook’s second edition was dated 1852.

In it he lists the capacities of the various churches and chapels in the town.

All Saints church                     750                Tabernacle                              1200
St Anne’s church                    450                 Jireh chapel                            1200
St John’s church                   1000                 Old chapel                                450
St Michael’s church                600                Baptist chapel                           600
Cliffe church                            500                Unitarian chapel                        400
Southover church                   400                Wesleyan chapel                      350
Malling church                        250                Bethesda chapel                       350

Noting the total capacity of the seven Anglican churches at 3,950 and the seven chapels at 4,550, he calculates that the total number of 8,500 places could accommodate 85/92 of the 1841 census population of 9,199. As most held two services on a Sunday “it shows that no one can reasonably neglect a regular attendance on divine service of the ground of insufficient accommodation.”

12.      Southern Railway locomotive no.41 at Lewes

This photograph by H.C. Casserley of Berkhamsted dated 9 October 1932 shows Southern Railway 4-4-2 locomotive no.41 at Lewes railway station, heading towards Eastbourne. Henry Cyril Casserley (1903-1991) was a prolific railway photographer, who travelled all over the country to photograph steam engines in the 1920s and 1930s. He was the author of almost 20 books, mostly written during his retirement during the 1980s and 1970s, after the end of the age of steam.

The locomotive shown is an H1-class 4-4-2 locomotive, built by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1905-6. Only five engines of this class were ever built, and this was the last, completed in 1906. They weighed over 100 tons, and initially pulled the London-Brighton express trains, such as the Pullman ‘Southern Belle’, described by the LB&SCR as ‘the most luxurious train in the world’. Replaced as the company’s top locomotives in the mid-1920s, they were then employed on other express services such as the boat trains for the Dieppe-Newhaven ferry. It’s LB&SCR number was 41, and initially retained that number when the Southern Railway was formed in 1923. In 1931 it was decided to renumber the fleet, with no.41 becoming no.2041. It was withdrawn from service in March 1944

In this photograph the tender carries the ‘Southern’ name, but still the old LB&SCR number 41. I think the building in the background over the tender is the old entrance lodge to Leighside.

Sources: Wikipedia; the photograph was offered for sale on ebay.

John Kay                     01273 813388                  johnkay56@gmail.com  

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Posted in Art & Architectural History, Ecclesiastical History, Legal History, Lewes, Local History, Social History, Uncategorized, Urban Studies | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Lewes History Group: Bulletin 162, January 2024