Lewes History Group

A live talk at King’s Church

Philip Taylor: The History of Gorringe’s Auction Galleries

Philip Taylor takes a look over almost 100 years of Gorringe’s Auction Galleries’ history, from a local Sussex saleroom, to an internationally known business at the forefront of the online auction experience.

As with a number of successful provincial auction rooms, Gorringe’s largely owes its origins to one famous sale; theirs being the contents of Lewes House, conducted by Rowland Gorringe in 1929. The sale aroused international interest, resulting in Rowland becoming ‘’the man’’ to consult for the sale of Art and Antiques in Sussex.

Philip Taylor, a partner since 1981, will discuss and trace the firm’s journey through almost 100 years, from periodic ‘’on the premises’’ house sales, to the eventual opening of Gorringe’s Galleries, in North Street, Lewes, in 1945.

Philip will cover outside sales of the contents of country house, private schools, as well as looking at a host of remarkable individual sale results, including £24,000 for a lock of John Lennon’s hair and the £82,000 for Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London.

We will hear how sales ledger accounting has progressed to state-of-the-art digital online sales, which now expose every sale to over 3,000,000 potential buyers.

Gorringes Auction Galleries, Lewes

Venue: The King’s Church building on Brooks Road, Lewes, BN7 2BY. (Between Tesco car park and Homebase). Please don’t park in Homebase’s car park: they take deliveries in the evenings.

Entry: Entry is FREE for LHG members, and £4 for non-members. Due to limited seating, admission will be by advance ticketing only – no payments on the door. Please book in advance at https://ticketsource.co.uk/lhg. Tickets available until 5:30pm of the day of the talk. We will have lists of ticket-holders at the door and will check you in.

Covid precautions: Limited seating to allow for some spacing; no refreshments.

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

Battle of Lewes Festival: 10:30 on 13 May to 17:00 on 14 May, Medieval Trading Village at Convent Field, Lewes

A town wide reenactment on the streets of Lewes: 13th and 14th May at 3pm: the Battle at the Priory “Mise of Lewes”

King Henry retreats into Saint Pancras Priory for the final clash of the two Medieval armies of Henry III and Simon de Montfort. The afternoon concludes with the surrender of the King and his son, Prince Edward, to Simon de Montfort and Baron Gilbert de Clare, followed by the Commemorative reading of Mise of Lewes at the Monument.

Battle of Lewes 2023 timetable of events

Image from https://www.facebook.com/battleoflewes/ © Crown Events

Jane Clark: Recording Our Past with the Portable Antiquities Scheme – an update on local finds

Join Jane Clark, the Sussex Finds Liaison Officer who will tell us about the important role of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and the Treasure Act 1996 – the former in recording local archaeological objects, and the latter in securing treasure cases for our local museums.

Her talk will explore a selection of local archaeological objects and treasure cases discovered by members of the public – predominantly metal detectorists – and recorded through the Scheme from the Neolithic through to the Post-Medieval periods.

She will also look at some local treasure cases including the spectacular near Lewes Bronze Age Hoard which will be examined in some detail.

Jane is based at the Sussex Archaeological Society.

Post Medieval gold and rock crystal pendant, © The Portable Antiquities Scheme

Venue: The King’s Church building on Brooks Road, Lewes, BN7 2BY. (Between Tesco car park and Homebase)
(Please don’t park in Homebase’s car park: they take deliveries in the evenings)

Entry: Entry is FREE for LHG members, and £4 for non-members. Due to limited seating, admission will be by advance ticketing only – no payments on the door. Please book in advance at https://ticketsource.co.uk/lhg. Tickets available from 12 April 2023 until 5:30pm of the day of the talk. We will have lists of ticket-holders at the door and will check you in.

Covid precautions: Limited seating to allow for some spacing; no refreshments.

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