Lewes History Group

Sussex Archaeological Society talk via Zoom

A talk by Dr Jonathan Foyle

Anne of Cleves, the fourth queen of King Henry VIII,was given a house in Lewes as part of their divorce settlement. Called a ‘Flanders Mare’ only after her death, she was well regarded in her lifetime and an active stepmother to Elizabeth I. But what remains of her personal environment?

Broadcaster, writer and researcher Dr Jonathan Foyle will share his detective work on Anne.

More details and tickets on the SAS website (SAS members free, non-members £5)

Image at Sussex Archaeological Society website

Sussex Archaeological Society talk via Zoom

A talk by Dr Susannah Maidment

When Gideon Mantell discovered some large fossilized teeth in the rocks of Cuckfield, Sussex, he immediately recognised them as something unknown to science: they were reptilian, but far larger than the teeth of any reptile alive today. He concluded that a giant, now extinct reptile must have once lived in the area.

Mantell’s discoveries, along with others from Sussex and Oxford, eventually prompted Richard Owen, the founder of London’s Natural History Museum, to name these giant reptiles the “Dinosauria”.

In Dr Maidment’s talk, she’ll discuss the dinosaurs of the Weald, the state of knowledge today, and the methods and techniques being used to put flesh on the bones of these historic discoveries.

More details and tickets on the SAS website (SAS members free, non-members £5)

Image at the Sussex Archaeological Society website

A Zoom Webinar

John Kay: How well do you know Lewes?

Our December talk will take the form of a self-assessment photo quiz for all the family, conducted in the privacy of your own home, to test your local knowledge about Lewes and its immediate neighbourhood.

We shall be showing a number of images taken about a century ago in and around Lewes, almost all in the reigns of King Edward VII or King George V. There will be some churches, a few country houses, the occasional windmill and lots of views of the Lewes townscape.

Almost all the images will include buildings that are still here today, although some of them may now look a little different. English provincial towns today do not look quite as they did in our grandparents’ day, and not all the changes are for the better.

Some of us are excellent at visual recognition; others don’t find it so easy. The aim will be to see how many of the images shown you and your family can identify.

This talk will be followed by a brief AGM for our members.

We will email members a link to register for the talk in advance, as usual, plus another link to join the AGM.

Non members can buy a ticket for the talk (£4) from TicketSource – see below.

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 7:20pm.

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.