Lewes History Group: Bulletin 179, June 2025

Posted on July 1, 2025 by EditorB

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 meetings: 3 Jun 2025, Ruth Thomson, ‘Grown in Lewes’
                   9 Jun 2025, Anthony Dicks, ‘The Piltdown Men’
2.    Heritage Open Weekend Committee (by Sue Berry)
3.    Dr Richard Russell
4.    The monastic diet at Lewes Priory (by Chris Grove)
5.    A Parish Boundary marker on Malling Street
6.    The burial of Henry Pelham, an MP for Lewes borough
7.    A sale at Malling House
8.    Joseph Rickman’s obituary
9.    Lewes Prisoner of War Depot, 1917
10.  1930s advertisement for the Phoenix Iron & Steel Works
11.  Eulogy for a Tin Hut, Lewes, 1902-2003 (by John Rose)

1.    Next Meetings
Rescheduled April Meeting 7.30 p.m.           King’s Church   Tuesday 3 June 2025
Ruth Thomson                       Grown in Lewes

 June Meeting                      7.30 p.m.          King’s Church   Monday 9 June 2025
 Anthony Dicks                   The Piltdown Men

This month we shall have two meetings, including our rescheduled April meeting.

In its day the discovery of ‘Piltdown Man’ caused quite a sensation and made a national reputation for the solicitor Charles Dawson, who claimed its discovery. Although he practised in Uckfield, Dawson’s home was at Castle Lodge House, Lewes, which at least some members of the Sussex Archaeological Society believed he had acquired by false pretences, at their expense.

Piltdown Man was not finally established as a fraud until after his death. Anthony Dicks will argue that while Charles Dawson was undoubtedly a fraudster, he could not possibly have carried out the fraud unaided. Indeed, it is likely that his early involvement was as an unwitting victim of the Piltdown forgery himself – although he certainly then  tried to take full advantage of it. He will review the other contenders as participants in the fraud (with a conclusion), and also several other examples of Dawson’s own fraudulent (and criminal) activities.

Admission to both meetings is free for members and there is no need to reserve your place. Everyone is very welcome, but there is an entry charge of £4 for non-members, with tickets available in advance via Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.

2.        Heritage Open Weekend Committee  (by Sue Berry)

The very successful Heritage Open Weekend which is held every September is organised by a small committee. We do not meet often but we need another committee member to help with planning the weekend and to help with the running of the weekend itself. This year’s festival, with an architecture theme, is to take place over the weekend of Friday 12 to Sunday 14 September.

For more information, please contact the Chair – Peter Earl on 07772 031269 or email at pgearl@tiscali.co.uk

3.         Dr Richard Russell

From ‘Baxter’s Guide to Lewes’, 6th edition, published in 1852:

“R.D. Russell, M.D., F.R.S., born in 1687, was the son of a surgeon at Lewes and was educated at the Free Grammar School. He removed to Brighton in 1747, where he not only established his own fame, but established the prosperity of the town. He was the author of several medical works, which greatly increased his reputation. He died in London on 25 December 1759 and was buried at South Malling”.

The 24 December 1759 Sussex Advertiser reports: ““On Wednesday last died, at London, Richard Russell of Malling, near Lewes, MD, a gentleman greatly esteemed in his profession in these parts”. He actually died on 19 December 1759, a few days before Christmas Day. His memorial in South Malling church includes the statement (in classical Greek) ‘The sea washes away the ills of man’.

Richard Russell was the eldest of seven children of the Lewes surgeon and apothecary Nathaniel Russell, who lived at 78 High Street in St Michael’s parish. He was apprenticed to his father and later studied medicine at Leyden, in the Netherlands. In 1719 he married Mary Kempe, heiress to Malling Deanery, without her father’s permission, though father and son-in-law were later reconciled. He began his medical practice in Lewes but moved to Brighton and in 1750 published a Latin treatise in which he recommended drinking and bathing in seawater, especially from the sea around Brighton, to treat enlarged lymphatic glands. His work was translated into English and published as ‘Glandular Diseases, or a Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in the Affections of the Glands’. Under this snappy title, it went through six editions before 1769. His Brighton house was on the site of the Royal Albion Hotel. After his death his son, the barrister William Kempe (who changed his surname after inheriting his maternal grandfather’s estate based on Malling Deanery) rented out the house to seasonal visitors. His tenants included the Duke of Cumberland, the brother of King George III and the general who vanquished Bonny Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1745. The Duke was visited there by his nephew, the Prince of Wales and the future George IV, which proved to be a key event in Brighton’s history.

Dr Richard Russell, painted about 1755 by Benjamin Wilson (1721-1788). This portrait is owned by the Brighton & Hove Museums and Art Galleries. The book by his left hand is the Latin edition of his most famous treatise.

Sources: Wikipedia; M.A. Lower, ‘The Worthies of Sussex’ (1864); L.W. Lauste, ‘Dr Richard Russell, 1687-1759’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol.67, pp.327-330 (1974).

4.         The monastic diet at Lewes Priory                        (by Chris Grove)

The Cluniac Order followed the Rule of St Benedict, which included strict directives for daily living including diet and the timing of meals in the refectory (the monastic dining room). The Rule allowed monks a midday ‘dinner’ every day and, additionally, a supper between Easter and Holy Cross Day on 13 September. Eating meat (the flesh of quadrupeds) was forbidden, except in cases of sickness, when meat was served in the Infirmary. The Prior’s high status meant he entertained many guests in his private dwelling where meat was served. The monks had a personal daily ration of a third of a kilogram of bread and there was a daily allowance of wine for its supposed health benefits (the Rule recommended half a bottle of wine for the sick and infirm).

Large volumes of low alcoholic ale were drunk every day. Monks complied with the strict Rule regarding the refectory diet, but as the standard of living rose from property gifted by landed gentry, greater quantities and varieties of food were consumed in the misericord, a room close to the kitchen where some relaxation of monastic rules was permitted. By the 12th century, the monks were eating as rich a diet as the landed gentry.1

Most of the food was grown or produced at the Priory’s own manor farms. The home farm, Priory Grange, 2 covered all arable land in Southover. Priory accounting records from 1533-34 were retained by Thomas Cromwell and confirm that substantial quantities of meat were consumed. The annual production by the home farm for consumption by the Priory included 69 oxen, 29 cows, 1 bullock, 21 calves, 779 sheep, 12 lambs, 115 pigs, and 83 piglets. More than 600 rabbits came from the Upper and Lower Rise south of the Priory. Nearly 1,000 doves came from Falmer and Swanborough, 84 geese from Falmer, Swanborough and Langney Grange (near Eastbourne), 3  and 36 hens from the same manor farms. More than 200 cheeses came from Swanborough, each weighing 22lb. Some 25,000 eggs and most of the fish were purchased, although some fish came from the Priory’s own ponds. Wheat and barley came from the downland manors and rectories, and more than 100,000 kgs of grain were used to produce more than 50,000 loaves per year. Nearly 100,000 litres of beer were produced. Oats and beans were used in pottage – a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and, if available, meat or fish. It is believed that the Priory was self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit grown within the Priory precinct. The monks’ diet was clearly deficient in fresh fruit and vegetables and excessive in meat. 4

Richard Lewis’ excavation of the Priory from 1969-82 included analysis of plant remains. The most common remains were sloe stones with grape seeds the second largest. Other remains included apple, blackberry, and elderberry. 5

The range of gardens in the Priory is indicated by the surviving accounting records of the granator (responsible for the sale and purchase of grain), the larderer (responsible for secure food storage, and abattoir activities), and the hosteler (responsible for looking after guests): Onions and garlic were grown in the vine garden (red wine was preferred to white wine but it is likely that most of the consumed wine was purchased). Mustard and saffron were grown in the ‘convent garden’. Apples, pears, onions, and hemp were grown in the hosteler’s garden.

Wheat was grown in the upper croft (this was probably the upper level where The Mount, Dripping Pan and upper Convent Field are today – the east of the Priory Precinct). Barley was grown in the lower croft (probably the lower Convent Field down to the Cockshut stream). Ewes grazed in the orchard and in the cemetery, alongside what is now Trinity Southover Church, and the ‘great garden’ next to the cemetery. 6 There were physic herb gardens for medicinal plants where raised beds prevented plants becoming waterlogged; kitchen gardens; rose and flower gardens; and orchards. Another garden was the Cloister garth, the formal area surrounded by the Cloister.

Sources: The information on monastic diet comes largely from Graham Mayhew ‘The Monks of St Pancras’; Barbara Harvey ‘Living and Dying In England 1100-1540:
The Monastic Experience’;

References: 1; From ‘Living and Dying In England 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience’ by Barbara Harvey, Chapter II Diet. 2; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastic_grange. The word grange comes through French graunge from Latin granica meaning a granary. 3; In Victorian times the Langney grange farm was incorrectly called a priory, and this has continued into modern times. 4; From Chapter 5 of Graham Mayhew’s ‘The Monks of St Pancras’. 5; Chapter 20 ‘Plant remains’ from Malcolm Lyne’s Lewes Priory Excavations by Richard Lewis 1969-82. 6; Page 197, ‘Pre- Georgian Lewes c890-1714, the emergence of a county town’ by Colin Brent.

5.         A Parish Boundary marker on Malling Street

A contributor to the Lewes Present Facebook page drew attention to this carved stone in the Malling Street pavement. It was placed there to mark the boundary between Cliffe parish and South Malling parish.

Cliffe parish and this part of South Malling are today both constituents of the area for which Lewes Town Council is responsible (which includes much of Malling Down and the chalkpits along the B2192). South Malling parish no longer exists – it has been carved up between Lewes, Ringmer and Glynde. However, before 1834 which side of this boundary you lived would have determined the parish from which you needed to seek help should you by mischance fall on hard times.

6.         The burial of Henry Pelham, an MP for Lewes borough

Henry Pelham (1759-1797) was born in July 1759 and died in January 1797, at the age of 38. He was the second son of Thomas Pelham, the 1st Earl of Chichester, and it was his elder brother, another Thomas Pelham, who was to inherit the title. As was usual for members of this family Henry was baptised at Stanmer, where the Earl had his country house, but buried in the Pelham family vault under the chancel of Laughton church, the family’s ancestral parish.

Henry Pelham was educated at Westminster School but did not attend university. Instead he joined the 3rd Foot Guards as a teenager in 1775, and followed a military career until he retired in 1792 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. His military career, which often took him abroad, did not prevent him from serving as MP from Lewes from 1780 (as soon as he reached the age of 21) until he stepped down in 1796. He was initially a Whig, like all the Pelhams, but became a supporter of William Pitt the younger when political allegiances became more complicated. His father and elder brother had both represented the county of Sussex in Parliament before they entered the House of Lords. In 1782 he was appointed Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and for part of the time he was in that post his elder brother, a more active and successful politician, held a more senior role in the government of that country.

In 1788 Henry Pelham married. He had three daughters, but was in poor health by the 1790s. He died at his house in Jermyn Street, Mayfair, on 17 January 1797. The hearse with his remains set out for Laughton, with six of the undertaker’s men on board. A mourning coach containing family members followed. However, near Maresfield the hearse was overturned “owing to the badness of the roads and the cloudiness of the evening”. Two of the undertaker’s men were “considerably hurt”. The mourning coach only avoided the same fate because its frightened horses bolted onto the better side of the road. The hearse was righted, the journey was resumed and on the following day his body joined those of other distinguished members of his family in the Laughton vault.

In 2010 this vault was opened, apparently for the first time since the burial of the 3rd Earl of Chichester in 1886. The occasion was a crack in the entrance stone, that required repair. I was lucky enough to be able to enter the vault, which has 48 recesses, the majority occupied by the coffins of members of the family. They included those of two brothers who both served as 18th century Prime Ministers, Henry Pelham and Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle. The vault was still in good repair, ventilated and dry, and the air quality was excellent.

Sources: History of Parliament online and press reports of the journey and the burial.

7.         A sale at Malling House

The 4 October 1824 Sussex Advertiser noted the forthcoming auction on 6 & 7 October by Verrall & Son on the premises at Malling House of the valuable household furniture, fine old port wine, greenhouse plants, garden frames and lights, light waggon, cart, manure, etc, belonging to William Baldock esq (leaving the county). 

The household furniture included a set of mahogany dining tables (4 ft 9 x 13 ft 6); clawed, Pembroke, card, work, pier & dressing tables; high and low wardrobes and drawers; commodes; mahogany & painted chairs; two pier glasses (one 30 inches x 48, and one 24 x 42); 2 rich cut chandaliers [sic]; two mahogany bookcases (one 9 ft wide by 9 ft 3 high, one 8 ft by 7 ft high); Brussels, Wilton, Venetian & other carpets; a capital 6 ft 6 wide bedstead with dimity furniture and bedding complete; several tent and servants’ complete beds; a set of elegant chintz curtains; two clocks; a chamber organ; a grand rocking horse; a long dinner service of embossed white china; two sets of blue dinner ware; tea and coffee services; knives and forks; glass and stone ware; Slater’s patent range; kitchen and pantry requisites; 120 dozen of wine bottles; a few books; 12 beautiful orange and lemon trees set with fruit; about 500 other plants and pots; a marquee; a light waggon; a cart; a child’s carriage; harness; saddles; manure; two young sows; and numerous other effects. Together with 80 dozen of fine old crusted port wine, from 7 to 9 years in bottle, and about half of the favourite vintage of 1812.

8.         Joseph Rickman’s obituary

An 1810 newspaper obituary of Joseph Rickman read as follows:

 “At Dublin, aged 64, Mr Joseph Rickman, a native of Lewes, and formerly one of the people called Quakers. He had for the last two or three years held forth as a street-preacher in most of the principal towns of the kingdom, and particularly in the Metropolis, with a degree of eccentricity bordering on insanity. He was by profession a surgeon and apothecary, and practised many years at Maidenhead, Berks.”

Joseph Rickman (1749-1810) was a middle son of John Rickman (1715-1789), the founder of the Quaker Rickman dynasty of Lewes, who purchased the freehold of the Bear Inn, Cliffe, and established a brewery there. John Rickman’s eldest son, Richard Peters Rickman (1745-1801), inherited the brewery, while his youngest son, Thomas ‘Clio’ Rickman (1760-1834), was a celebrated but eccentric London bookseller best remembered as a biographer of Tom Paine, who he knew in his Lewes childhood. Another account of Joseph Rickman’s death describes him as a dissenting minister and says that he died as a result of a ruptured blood vessel.

Joseph Rickman was apprenticed to a Lewes surgeon & apothecary. He married in Staines in 1772 and had a large family. He practised as a druggist in Maidenhead, before returning to Lewes, in partnership with a son, Thomas. He and Thomas both left the Quakers, his son because he wished to marry his first cousin, which the Quakers did not permit. This Thomas Rickman (1776-1841) became very interested in architecture and it was he who introduced the terms Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular to describe the early varieties of Gothic architecture in our island. He has a Wikipedia entry. Generations of this Rickman family showed remarkable talents in a range of different fields but they were often unconventional in character.

Sources: 30 November 1810 Kentish Gazette; 27 November 1810 Kentish Weekly Journal; David Hitchen, ‘Quakers in Lewes’ (2nd edn: 2010); Mark Antony Lower, ‘The Worthies of Sussex’ (1865).

9.         Lewes Prisoner of War Depot, 1917

This postcard was offered for sale recently on ebay. The central sign reads “P.o.W. Depot, Lewes, Sussex, 1917”, while the image shows a hundred or so men, some wearing a variety of uniforms but others apparently dressed in civilian clothes.

According to the ‘Sussex in the Great War’ website the North Street prison was used to house German prisoners between 1917 and 1919. It had ceased to be a Naval Prison in 1910, and according to the Historic Environment Record for the site the building was transferred in 1911 to the Prison Commissioners, who promptly sold it to the Sussex Territorial Army. These Great War prisoners do not seem to have had the same positive impact on the local community as the Finnish prisoners captured in the Crimean War and housed there 60 years previously.

10.      1930s advertisement for the Phoenix Iron & Steel Works

This trade advertisement for the Phoenix Iron & Steel works dates the origins of the Every iron foundry to 1832, with steel added from 1900. At this date it will have been the town’s largest employer. The fourth generation of the Every family sold the business in 1951, but the Phoenix Ironworks was still in business in 1968, known as the East Sussex Engineering Company Ltd, North Place, Lewes. In 1976 the business was purchased and stripped of its assets by Aurora Holdings, finally closing when the last few workers were made redundant in 1986.

Source: image from ebay; information from https://www.abandoned-derelict.co.uk/old-foundry-workshops-sussex/

11.      Eulogy for a Tin Hut, Lewes, 1902-2003                         (by John Rose)

Your wrinkled skin was not to know
A gasp of admiration for your beauty.
You never heard the lilt of soaring strings
Nor glowed with works of splendid art
Nor yet afforded holy space
For simple worship for the poor.

No. An Isolation Hospital for you
Set down in a damp chalk-pit.
Your bolted panels served to give
Crude shelter to the victims of disease.
Eight men: eight women too
Cast out in horror as the smallpox raged.
Still you served as
Later on the burgers cowered
When TB came to plague the town.

Yet following the war to end all wars
And soldiers were returning to the hero land
You were transported to a field at edge of town
Set down by the grateful burgers
(Feeling sure the germs had mostly gone)
To make a pair of Council Houses.
Re-assembled. Semi-detached.

Still later
When the families had left their hollow homes
Your walls echoed shouts and laughter
Of naked football lads
And teams in whites athirst for
The ritual break for tea.

After a century of corrugated service
You’ve been unbolted yet again
This time to take the mournful route
To the knackers yard.
You’ll serve again no doubt
Perhaps remodelled as a myriad supermarket cans
For sausages or beans
So on
Ad infinitum.

A poem written by the late John Rose at Lewes in December 2004 in memory of the tin hut then lately removed from its final resting place in Southover.

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 (X):   https://twitter.com/LewesHistory

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Lewes History Group: Bulletin 178, May 2025

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Admin

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 May 2025, Debby Matthews, ‘The Station Street Story’
2.    Lewes Conservation Area Advisory Group (by David Attwood)
3.    Volunteer Archivist needed, Chailey Heritage (by Sharon Attfield-Davis)
4.    Mystery House identified (by Douglas Dodds)
5.    Did the arrival of the Railway benefit Lewes? (by Chris Grove)
6.    Drowned in the Ouse (by Sue Berry)
7.    Postcards of Landport (from Charlie Freeman)
8.    Ladies Hockey
9.    Lewes Tennis Club at the Priory
10.  Priory Crescent by Robert Taverner
11.  Lewes Borough Council’s response to the new NHS

1.    Next Meeting               7.30 p.m.          King’s Church       Monday 12 May 2025        Debby Matthews           The Station Street Story

At this talk Debby will share some of the information she has found out on this street, one of the main thoroughfares through the middle of Lewes. She will paint a picture of a thousand years of what was originally St Mary’s Lane, and given the name Station Street only on the arrival of the Victorian railway station at the bottom of the hill. Debby’s book on Station Street in the Lewes Street Stories series is scheduled for publication later this year. 

The book and the talk will provide an insight into the many shops, businesses, public institutions, manufacturers and social changes as they were experienced in this part of Lewes. They give us a picture of how ordinary people lived and worked over the years. This is a culmination of research begun over 15 years ago with a series of public exhibitions. Debby, who lives in the street, is grateful to all the many people who have helped by sharing their photos and stories.

Admission is free for members and there is no need to reserve your place. Everyone is very welcome, but there is an entry charge of £4 for non-members, with tickets available in advance via Ticketsource.co.uk/lhg.

The talk by Ruth Thomson on ‘Grown in Lewes’ that had to be cancelled in March has been rescheduled for 7.30 pm on Tuesday 3 June, and will be held at King’s Church. We apologise for the change of day, but the venue is not available for another Monday at this notice.

2.        Lewes Conservation Area Advisory Group   (by David Attwood)

The Lewes Conservation Area Advisory Group (CAAG) is looking for one or two new members. It was founded in 2009 to help protect and enhance the town, with a special focus on its two Conservation Areas. Our volunteer members include people with professional architecture, surveying and town-planning experience, as well as from heritage groups like the Georgian Group and the Victorian Society. CAAG’s core activity is meeting monthly to discuss and advise on new planning applications. If you have relevant interests or experience and would like more details about what we do, please contact the Chair, David Attwood on mail@davidattwood.plus.com.

3.      Volunteer Archivist needed, Chailey Heritage  (by Sharon Attfield-Davis)

The Chailey Heritage Foundation, founded in 1903 by the visionary and dedicated Grace Kimmins, is seeking to recruit a volunteer archivist.

With a rich and inspiring history, the charity has been a pioneer in supporting disabled young people, developing innovative fundraising methods, and even caring for injured soldiers during both World Wars. Our legacy also includes strong connections with the Royal Family and a lasting impact on the community. If you have a passion for local history, storytelling, and organisation, this could be the perfect role for you!

What You’ll Do:

  • Organise and catalogue important charity records, documents, and photos
  • Help digitize materials to make our history more accessible
  • Preserve the stories of the people and projects that have made an impact
  • Work closely with our team to ensure our history is celebrated and remembered

This is a flexible role that can be fitted in around work or other commitments.  The archiving will be mainly on site but much can also be done from home.  It may sometimes be helpful to visit the Keep in Brighton. If you would like to arrange a visit and find out more about volunteering at Chailey Heritage Foundation, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator on 01825 724444 ext 402 or 07909 234187.  Email volunteering@chf.org.uk

4.         Mystery House identified                                         (by Douglas Dodds)

The mystery house shown in Bulletin No.175 seems to be 59 The Avenue, Lewes – see the image below from Google Street View. At some point someone has demolished part of the garden wall to insert a small shed where the original front gate was. They’ve relocated the entrance pillars and reduced the length of the wall as a result.  The postcard even shows the beginning of the flint garden wall of the house next door, still visible on Street View. The house itself looks much the same – you can still see details such as the slightly fancy chimneys, the top of the downpipe and the tiles above the bay window. The tree on the postcard obscures the archway over the front door, but that’s just about visible too.

Postcard View

Google Street View

5.         Did the arrival of the Railway benefit Lewes?        (by Chris Grove)

LHG Bulletin no.177, in referring to the Victorian & Edwardian Lewes course, concluded that there is “very clear evidence that the arrival of the railway did not lead to the growth and increased prosperity of Lewes that was seen in many other communities, locally and nationally. Indeed, the rapid growth of Georgian Lewes was curtailed once the railway arrived.” My own research presents a less black and white picture as the following graph, which shows the percentage change in population between each census for both Lewes and Brighton, indicates:

As can be seen, both towns flourished in the early nineteenth century with Brighton’s royal patronage and, being a seaside resort, allowed its growth to far outstrip the population growth in Lewes. However it is evident that the rate of population growth declined in both towns and had stagnated by the start of the twentieth century. The rate of growth for Brighton more than doubled between 1841 and 1851, the decade following the arrival of the railway, but then again slowed. For Lewes, the railway network that centred on the town, was constructed over a 12 year period from 1846. The graph shows that the rate of growth in Lewes’s population accelerated over this period before also declining from 1871.

What is clear is that both towns were expanding in terms of accommodation (for example, the number of inhabited properties in Lewes grew by 70% between 1841 and 1911) but population was growing far more slowly (for Lewes, the population grew by just 20% between 1841 and 1911). While both towns were expanding in terms of property, something was causing a slowdown in population growth. I would argue that it was increased prosperity that was causing this slowdown in population growth. As the residents of Brighton and Lewes became more affluent, along with rest of Victorian England, they wished to live more comfortably:

  • Residents wanted more space and were less inclined to sublet spare rooms (in Lewes, the number of households per property, including those for lodgers, fell by 18% over the 60 years to 1901);
  • Residents were less inclined to employ live-in domestic staff (in Lewes, the number of domestic staff per household fell by a third over the 60 years to 1901 as more day staff were employed);
  • As mortality rates improved, particularly for children, residents reduced the number of children they would have;
  • Shopkeepers and merchants were less inclined to live at their places of business and purchased more comfortable properties elsewhere in town.

The impact of these trends is best evidenced by comparing the average number of residents per property in Lewes in 1841 of 5.6 persons per property to 4.4 persons per property by 1901. It is also interesting to examine the rate of population growth in Lewes by parish. The following graph compares the growth rate in Brighton with a selection of the parishes of Lewes.

What is most striking is the rate of population change in the parish of St Anne which, by 1871, was growing four times faster than the rate of growth in Brighton. More modest growth can be seen for St John-sub-Castro but its growth was matching and then out-pacing the rate of growth for Brighton at that time.

The parish of St Michael is also interesting as its population fell by 14% over the 60 years to 1901 when the number of inhabited properties in the parish barely changed and then grew again between 1901 and 1911. The explanation is that there was no new building with the small parish of St Michael until a large meadow was sold for development and became St Swithun’s Terrace in the first decade of the twentieth century.

I would conclude that there is evidence that the coming of the railway to Lewes did contribute to growth in terms of population and the construction of houses but only where expansion was possible. However, I accept that there is less evidence of the railway bringing new businesses to Lewes but there is some (e.g. Russell & Bromley). There is also clear evidence that the building of new properties in Lewes is constrained by a number of other factors:

  • Parishes such as All Saints and St Michael are relatively small with limited scope for new building other than demolition and rebuilding or until green spaces are sold for development;
  • The Downs and flood plains constrain development in Southover and Cliffe;
  • There are historical sites throughout Lewes where, even in Victorian times, restrictive covenants prevented construction;
  • In contrast to the above constraining factors, the largest parishes of St Anne and St John-sub-Castro expanded rapidly to the west and less rapidly to the north as the town grew.

The following is an annotated (additional white text) version of the 1831 Lewes Borough boundary change map showing the parish boundaries:

6.         Drowned in the Ouse                                        (by Sue Berry)

A coroner’s inquest held on 24 July 1801 found that James Lempriere, going into the Ouse at South Malling to bathe, was drowned accidentally. As the inquest was so close to Lewes the coroner charged only the basic fee of £1. For inquests held further afield he also charged travelling expenses.

Drownings in the Ouse and other bodies of water occur regularly in the coroners’ records, and not all of them were accidental.

Source: East Sussex Coroners’ Records 1688-1838, Sussex Record Society volume 89 (2005), edited by R.F. Hunnisett, case 130.

7.         Postcards of Landport                   (images from Charlie Freeman)

The three images below are photographic copies of three postcards of the Landport Estate that appear to have been taken after the completion of the pre-war phase 1 but before the addition of the prefabs soon after the end of the war. I have cropped most of the sky from the images below. Bob Cairns has identified the publisher as Kent photographer E.A. Sweatman.

8.         Ladies’ Hockey

This postcard by an anonymous publisher featuring a ladies’ hockey team was mailed from Lewes to Miss F. Kenward, Hamsey Place, Hamsey, in March 1904. It was offered for sale on ebay.

9.         Lewes Tennis Club at the Priory

This postcard by an anonymous publisher shows a busy afternoon at the Lewes Tennis Club, down by the Priory. The two older ladies in the foreground appear engaged in a game of croquet. Hats were worn for both games.

10.      Priory Crescent by Robert Taverner

This 45 x 30 cm watercolour of Priory Crescent, with Southover church in the middle distance, was painted, probably in the 1980s, by Robert Taverner (1920-2004). Born in London, he taught for over 25 years at Eastbourne College of Art and Design, retiring as vice-principal in 1980. He was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy and at Glyndebourne. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Eastbourne in 2010. This painting is believed to date from the 1980s. It was recently offered for sale at £245 (or best offer) by a private seller on ebay.

Also offered on ebay at £75 by the same seller, whose stock includes a number of the artist’s works, was this hand-coloured lithograph by the same artist of the view up to the Castle barbican.

11.      Lewes Borough Council’s response to the new NHS

In February 1944 the wartime coalition government announced, in Command Paper 6502, their intention to establish a comprehensive, ‘free for all’ National Health Service. The service was to be designed to cover the whole field of medical advice, including attention at home, in the consulting room, hospital or sanitorium for everything from minor ailments to major diseases. It was to include the ancillary services of nursing, midwifery and, ultimately it was hoped extended to dentistry, ophthalmology and mental health treatment. The cost of the new Health Service was to be borne partly from central funds, partly from local rates and partly by the contributions of the public from a new scheme of social insurance.

Lewes Borough Council had already established a Post-War Development and Housing Sub-Committee to plan the post-war future of the town. Its initial plans, published in June 1944 (the same month as D-Day), included:

  • the provision of the right amount of high-quality housing to remedy the shortage that had arisen from the cessation of building operations during the war, which they estimated at 1,800 new homes in the decade after the war;
  • improved sewers and surface water drainage;
  • new, brighter, streetlights;
  • new public conveniences at the Market Tower, Westgate Street, Nevill Crescent and Western Road;
  • demolishing the Fitzroy Library, and replacing it by a modern library building of twice the size on the same site;
  • the creation of a new public abattoir;
  • road improvements including the demolition of most of the north side of the High Street to create a new A27 dual carriageway that would leave St Michael’s church on an island between the two carriageways;
  • the provision of over 100 acres of new public open space; and
  • the acquisition of Southover Grange gardens to accommodate a new swimming bath and additional car parking.

Their report included detailed designs and specifications for many of these projects, and they were all fully costed.

It was left to this forward-looking body to respond to the new government proposals to establish the NHS. It had already identified as an issue “the inadequacy of proper modern maternity and child welfare and general health treatment facilities available to the townspeople of Lewes”, including the provision of a new health centre (for which they offered a detailed design) and a new maternity centre, the latter to be located on the Victoria Hospital site.

They thus warmly welcomed the coalition government’s intentions, as detailed in the White Paper. They expressed the hope, however, that individual local authorities would be consulted in the framing of the general plan for their area.

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 (X):   https://twitter.com/LewesHistory

Posted in Lewes, Local History, Social History, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Lewes History Group: Bulletin 178, May 2025

Lewes History Group: Bulletin 177, April 2025

Posted on May 1, 2025 by EditorB

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: 31 March 2025, Ruth Thomson, ‘Grown in Lewes’
2.    Victorian & Edwardian Lewes
3.    Prince Edward’s Road Street Story project
4.    Changes planned at Harvey’s Brewery
5.    Royal Birthday Salutes
6.    Default at the Stag
7.   The Pells in postcards
8.    Southover Manor School (by Chris Grove)
9.    Duncan Grant’s view of the South Malling Chalkpits
10.  Cliffe Bridge by Phyllis Robinson
11.  Monday Night at Janet’s (by Sally Howard)

1.    Next Meeting               7.30 p.m.          King’s Church       Monday 31 March 2025
Ruth Thomson              Grown in Lewes

Following the publication of ‘Grown in Lewes’ last November, Ruth Thomson, one of its co-editors, will expand upon two of the topics that she researched and wrote about. One is the history of Elphick’s, the well-loved (and much-missed) family-run seed merchant and garden shop, that traded in Cliffe High Street for more than 150 years; the other is the rise and fall of the early 19th century Leighside estate, which has been partly incorporated into today’s Railway Land Nature Reserve. Ruth will recount how its owner, Burwood Godlee, left his mark on the Cliffe area of Lewes – having a hand in the building of several of its key landmarks. Ruth will also explain where the idea for the book came from and who has been involved.

Tony Elphick outside the shop

Part of the gardens at Leighside

This will be the first of our live events for 2025. Free admission for members and no need to reserve your place. Non-members are very welcome, but there will be a small admission charge.

2.        Victorian & Edwardian Lewes

Health & Social Care project group: Four members of this new group have now met to plan our research on this subject.  Our next meeting will be at the Keep where we will begin our hunt for the documents relevant to our study.  We hope to uncover lots of fascinating details about public health, medical doctors, hospitals and social policy, especially about provision for the poor.  We are also interested in changes in social attitudes throughout this period. 

We are, of course, open to more ideas and hope that others will join us. Please email Ann Holmes [annholmeslewes@yahoo.co.uk].

Education project group: This is a promising area, and in the introductory course we thought we could see a fairly clear trend. In late-Georgian and early-Victorian Lewes there were a plethora of small and diverse private schools in the county town, some taking pupils from the Lewes market area, but others recruiting from much further afield, indeed across the empire. Some were day schools, others mainly or entirely for boarders. There seemed, however, to be rather a shortage of educational opportunities for the town’s poorer children.

By 1914 education had been compulsory for all for over 40 years, and many of today’s primary schools had been established. There were also more advanced opportunities for able children. However, many of the private schools had disappeared from the town – perhaps migrated to other communities on the coast.

It would be very useful to document this trend in more detail, and it should not be too challenging. We have excellent collections of local directories for the town, both in Lewes Library and at the Keep, and many schools ensured their schools featured regularly in the local press. Do we have any members who would be interested in taking part in this project, and in particular do we have a volunteer group coordinator? Please contact johnkay56@gmail.com.

Businesses project group: The introductory course also provided very clear evidence that the arrival of the railway did not lead to the growth and increased prosperity of Lewes that was seen in many other communities, locally and nationally. Indeed, the rapid growth of Georgian Lewes was curtailed once the railway arrived. A likely explanation is that the arrival of the railway facilitated the importation of cheaper factory-made goods, at the expense of local artisan production. Businesses that had both manufactured and sold products to local customers became just retailers, and employed fewer staff.

In addition many of the businesses that survived this initial impact were in fields where the trend was towards larger and larger scale operations, examples including the towns mills and breweries. Lewes was perhaps too small a base, and the local businesses either closed in the face of competition or were taken over by larger rivals based elsewhere. With the exception of the Phoenix Ironworks, no new mega-business developed that was based in the town.

This area offers a whole host of opportunities for more detailed work on particular trades or professions – the professions and trades such as printing and publishing being of particular importance to a county towns. We have several people interested in specific topics in this area, and Chris Grove has developed an impressive overview, but we don’t yet have a formal group.

3.         Prince Edward’s Road Street Story project

Are you interested in joining others to create a Street Story for  Prince Edwards Road? Two LHG members, Barbara Abbs and Ana Kirby, both residents of Prince Edwards Road, are interested in exploring the facts and figures as well as the history and stories that have resulted in the present day Prince Edwards Road. Whether you live in Prince Edwards Road or would just like to be part of this exploration please contact Ana via ana.kirby2@icloud.com.

4.         Changes planned at Harvey’s Brewery

In new proposals to the South Downs National Park Authority John Harvey & Sons plan to convert 1-2 Cliffe High Street into a new public house; to convert the present John Harvey Tavern in Bear Yard into a visitor centre; and to convert some former office and ancillary space within the brewery itself into new visitor accommodation.

1-2 Cliffe High Street, about half a century ago

Sources: Planning applications SDNP/25/00909, /00928 & /00929; image of 1-2 Cliffe High Street from Ian Freeston.

5.         Royal Birthday Salutes

The 24 August 1798 Kentish Weekly Post and Canterbury Journal included a report from Lewes that on 20 August the Park of Artillery at Ringmer and the 2nd Battalion of Grenadiers at Lewes barracks had formed up together and fired a royal salute and vollies in honour of the birthday of the Prince of Wales.

The 12 June 1815 Sussex Advertiser reported that the Ordnance stationed at Ringmer, near this town, had fired a royal salute in honour of the birthday of His Majesty. By 1815 King George III was permanently unwell, and the Prince of Wales had become the Prince Regent. The Ringmer artillery company were lucky to have only ceremonial duties to perform – less than a week later many of their contemporaries were fully engaged at the battle of Waterloo.

6.         Default at the Stag

The 7 March 1848 Sussex Advertiser noted that debtors whose cases were to be heard at Lewes County Court on 3 April included Richard Eager, late of the Stag Inn, North Street, Lewes, licensed victualler who had also been licenced to let out horses.

7.         The Pells in postcards

The establishment of the Pells as an area of parkland surrounding water bodies once used to power the paper mill has been fully described in ‘The Pells of Lewes’, edited by Ruth Thomson & Sarah Bayliss and published by the Lewes History Group in 2020. Their importance in the town’s recreation in the first quarter of the 20th century is well illustrated by the large number of picture postcards of the area published in this period. The majority of these postcards are hand-coloured – a laborious process in the days before colour photography. Below are some examples of these postcards, showing where townsfolk and visitors would gather, walk, and feed the ducks and swans.

The islands would provide safe havens for wildlife, though a safety perhaps undermined by the punt shown in the second postcard above.

Swans and ducks feature in a good number of these postcards.

The majority of the postcards shown above date from the Edwardian era, but the final Photochrom Company postcard is from immediately after the Great War.
Our thanks to Charlie Freeman, who provided several of the postcards shown above.

8.         Southover Manor School                                   (by Chris Grove)

It seems fitting that Lewes had an educational establishment like Southover Manor School centuries after its Priory was lost. Before the Dissolution and the Reformation, the English aristocracy and landed gentry sent their daughters to Catholic convents. While that practice continued in Europe, in now-Protestant England, an alternative was needed. Governesses were employed to educate girls at home and the debutante system evolved to allow girls to find ‘a suitable partner’.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the diminishing availability of governesses resulted in the establishment of exclusive girls’ boarding schools. Southover Manor School was founded in 1923 at Undercliffe House, a turreted Gothic house built by architect James Berry in 1865, visible through woodland from School Hill and Cliffe; it was owned by Lord Monk-Bretton, the school’s principal sponsor. Themain driving forces were Beatrice Malcolm, the first headmistress, and parents who wanted a better education for their daughters.

By 1925, the school had 21 students, including eight boarders, and moved to the roomy Southover Manor and grounds, rented out by Frank Verrall on a 14 year lease for an annual rent of £300. By 1930, the school was listed in The Public Schools Yearbook (now The Independent Schools Yearbook)alongside Eton, Harrow, and Charterhouse, where, no doubt, the girls’ male relatives had long been educated. During its 60-year history, the school’s most famous pupil was Camilla Shand, now Queen Camilla, daughter of Major Bruce Shand, the vice Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex with a country estate at Plumpton. She started at the school, aged 11, in 1958 but soon moved to Queens Gate School in London.

To maintain its reputation as an exclusive school, Southover Manor School required fine premises, and attractive grounds and facilities. As pupil numbers rose, the school expanded its premises, purchasing Southover Old House in 1929 – formerly a large private house with an extensive lawn, a mature mulberry tree, well-stocked flowerbeds, and a greenhouse/ conservatory.

Over time, the school bought further buildings, including the Malt House, Southover Manor House itself and a number of properties along the south side of Southover High Street for boarders. A large two-storey annexe was built alongside the Manor House. This housed the administrative offices, including the office of the headmistress, the dining hall, and further classrooms. The school estate had many established trees, a swimming pool, tennis courts and playing fields for hockey and lacrosse.

The School Gardener: In 1954, at the Lewes and District Horticultural Show, the-then school gardener J. H. Reynolds, swept the board. He won four trophies,14 first prizes, seven second prizes, and three third prizes out of 350 show entries. He won the President’s Trophy for the most first prizes, the Champion Perpetual Challenge Bowl for the most points in all classes, the Chrysanthemum Cup, and the Jubilee Perpetual Cup for the highest points in monthly meetings and the annual show.

The School’s decline: The manor site and its many sprawling properties were never ideal for a boarding school, despite its extensive grounds and playing fields. A ministerial inspection in 1966 emphasised the inappropriateness of the buildings for education and deemed the capital programme to address the issues as beyond the means of the school. The school had faced closure in 1962, and again in 1966, but was saved by friends and parents, after the limited company was converted into a charitable trust. In the early 1980s, the school sold Southover Old House, and Southover Cottage as the first stage in securing more appropriate premises. But in 1983, the school governors agreed to close the school. The sale proceeds were used to establish a new charitable trust, the Southover Manor General Educational Trust, a grant-giving body now supporting schools and other educational organisations serving the young people of Sussex and, occasionally, the education of individual Sussex-based young people.

The school finally closed in 1984 and its properties and contents auctioned in 1985. The financial difficulties had taken their toll on the gardens, and the grounds became a temporary car park for local residents until redevelopment.

Sources: Photocopy of various pages on the history of Southover Manor School (with thanks to East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office at The Keep) [ESRO AMS 6799-15-2 ] The Schools Of Lewes c13th to c21st by Brigid Chapman; Sussex Agricultural Express, 05 November 1954; https://southovermanortrust.org.uk/about-us/; Southover Manor School photographs archived by the Friends of Lewes [ESRO ACC 7987-13-1].

9.         Duncan Grant’s view of the South Malling Chalkpits

This picture of the South Malling chalkpits by the River Ouse was painted by Charleston resident Duncan Grant (1885-1978). Painted in about 1933 in oil on board, it is in the collection of the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery.

10.      Cliffe Bridge by Phyllis Robinson

This acrylic painting on board of Cliffe Bridge by Phyllis Robinson is offered for sale on ebay by a private seller. Also offered was a still life by the same artist. The artist’s viewpoint appears to have been on the bridge at Phoenix Causeway.

11.      Monday Night at Janet’s                                           (by Sally Howard)

The 19 November 1948 Sussex Express reported that Lewes now had a new literary circle, meeting at
8 p.m. on Monday evenings in Janet’s Tea Rooms and sponsored by the local branch of the Liberal Party. The aim was to foster literary appreciation, and use the winter months to attract all tastes for talks and informal discussions as monthly ‘Monday Nights at Eight’. After its first meeting the Monday Literary Club had a membership of 30.

At the first session experts at many branches of the pen had thrashed out a wide variety of questions on the subject. Mr F. Masters was question master of this Brains Trust and the team consisted of Miss Ruth Cobb, the well-known illustrator, Miss K.O. Morgan, history specialist at Southover Manor School, Mr Richard Finlay, a short story writer, and Mr Ian Parsons, a publisher.

The questions included the necessary ingredients for a best-seller; whether book reviewers should reveal the plots of the books they reviewed; and why women wrote better thrillers than men. They also considered wartime poetry and novels, and whether modern fiction was of a higher standard than that written a century ago. They also recommended fairy tales for children.

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 (X):   https://twitter.com/LewesHistory

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