Lewes History Group

A Zoom Webinar

Christopher Whittick – To the Manor Born: Manorial Records for Local Historians

Christopher Whittick, former East Sussex county archivist, will be focusing on manorial records for local historians. He will cover the role that manors played in Sussex history, a particular issue for Lewes.

In the 11th Century, there was a manor of Lewes, originally held by the de Warennes, but later subdivided between their heirs. However, it did not cover every property in Lewes – we have a town in which many different manors had a stake.

William Figg’s survey of the tenements of the manor of Laughton, 1822
ESRO ACC 2327/1/4/30    (Click to enlarge)

To join this talk, you need to
1) register your intention in advance
2) receive our confirmation email with a link to the talk
3) click on that link to attend the talk 10 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.

The third edition of this book is now available!

First published on 1 September 2020, this book was updated and reprinted in October 2020. We have now reprinted it again, and this January 2023 version contains a small update regarding the St John sub Castro Church Hall.

As part of the Lewes History Group’s Street Stories series about our town, this book  documents with maps, artwork, documents and photographs, how the uses of this area changed over time. It looks at long-gone features such as sacred springs, medieval swanneries, a river navigation lock and a paper mill – and how these have contributed to the current landscape and natural history.

It also tells the story of the 19th century ‘pleasure grounds’, swimming pool, and recreation ground – remarkable achievements for a small market town.

The story includes the history of the former farmhouse, the oldest dwelling in the Pells, once part of the Shelley family’s domain, and reveals how the Lewes Cattle Market Company, which bought the farm as a site for a cattle market, became an accidental housing developer to help pay its bills.

Click on image for a sample page

The richly-illustrated, 160-page book covers many other intriguing elements of the Pells and is available from the Lewes Tourist Information Centre at £12.50, or by mail order. There are also copies for sale at the Pells Pool kiosk.

Press coverage, and readers’ comments.

Marcus Taylor looks at two streams in Lewes which, though very short, have had a significant effects on the town over the centuries.

One made possible the building of Lewes Priory and supplied its advanced drainage systems and ponds with water. The other, with its seasonal flow and thus a dry channel for much of the year, has brought disruptive flooding to Southover on many occasions.

This online article is based on Marcus’s talk to the Friends of Lewes in May 2022.

This article was first published on the Friends of Lewes website in July 2022. Since then, Marcus has been given additional photos and has added them to this updated version, along with some new text.

Winterbourne and Cockshut – the streams of Western Lewes

Flooding in Lewes, 1960