Members’ talks
Three short talks (15-20 minutes each), reporting the results to date of research being undertaken by Lewes History Group members:
Ian McClelland has been creating a catalogue of the available maps of Lewes. Ian’s database will be made available on our website, leweshistory.org.uk, and will list what maps are known to exist, which parts of the town they cover and where they can be found. This is an excellent example of the kind of work that a local history group should undertake, because it makes life so much easier for people undertaking other projects (including the two below).
Sue Weeks’ topic is the street where she lives, St John Street, which runs between West Street and Lancaster Street in St John sub Castro parish. Today it is only a short residential street, with a mixture of modern and older housing, and is at first sight much less ‘historic’ than some other parts of the town. However, when carefully explored, it is astonishing just how much history it has.
Ron Gordon will be telling us about the windmills that were for centuries present in the town and on the downland immediately surrounding it, prominent landmarks that would have been known to every Lewesian until a century ago. They were of course in competition with each other (and large scale businesses up and down river at Barcombe and Tidemills) so their individual fortunes waxed and waned.
Venue: The new King’s Church building on Brooks Road, Lewes. (Between Tesco car park and Homebase)
See the Meetings page for a list of forthcoming monthly talks organised by the Lewes History Group.
