South Street History > Acknowledgements, references, maps, images
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for information from various past and present residents of South Street, among them Chester Funnell, Paul Woolmer, June Eade and Colin Joy. I would particularly like to thank Jennifer Howard for research on houses 103-107, and Chris Morris for her contributions on the House of Industry, Union Square and the soldiers lost in the 1st World War. Special thanks to John Downie for much help and photos credited to JHD.
Heather Downie 2022
Selection of books and other material consulted:
Brent, Colin, Brent, Judith, Lewes House Histories. Link from Lewes History Group Resources section website: leweshistory.org.uk/research-resources/
Brent, Colin, Pre-Georgian Lewes c.890-1714: The Emergence of a County Town, Colin Brent Books, 2004.
Brent, Colin, Georgian Lewes, 1714-1830: The Heyday of a County Town, Colin Brent Books, 1993.
Brent, Colin; Rector, William, Victorian Lewes, Phillimore, 1980.
Cairns, Bob, Lewes in Old Picture Postcards, European Library, 1988.
Cairns, Bob, Lewes Through Time, Amberley Publishing, 2012.
Chapman, Brigid, The Chronicles of the Cliffe and South Malling, 688-2003AD, The Book Guild Ltd., 2003.
Chapman, Brigid, The Schools of Lewes, C12 to C21, CGB Books, 2012.
Davey, L.S., The Inns of Lewes Past and Present, The Friends of Lewes, 1977.
Elliston, Robert, Lewes at War, 1939-1945, SB Publications, 1999.
Friends of Lewes, Lewes 1952-2002: Fifty Years of Change, Pomegranate Press for the Friends of Lewes, 2004.
Hill, Alan F., Port of Lewes in the 20th Century : Lower Ouse Navigation, The Author, 2000.
Poole, Helen, Lewes Past, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 2000.
Russell, David; Russell, Lynda, The Pubs of Lewes, East Sussex 1550-2000, Lynda Russell, 2015.
Thomson, W., The Avalanche at Lewes in 1836, Sussex Express, 1863.
Thorburn, Margaret, The Lower Ouse Valley, Lewes to Newhaven: A History of the Brookland, Withy Books, 2002.
Young, Bill, with Cairns, Bob, Lewes Then and Now, SB Publications, 1998.
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Censuses 1841-1911 for Cliffe and South Malling Parishes
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Street directories for Lewes, including:
Brighton and Lewes Guide by JV Button, J.Baxter 1805
London and Provincial Directory, Pigot and Co, 1823-24
Melville and Cos Directory and Gazetteer of Sussex, 1858
Simpson’s Lewes Directory, 1865
Holman’s Lewes Directory, 1882, 1883
Pikes Lewes, Seaford and Newhaven Directory, 1900/1901 to 1920/1921
GMF Directory for Lewes, Newhaven and Seaford, 1922/23 to 1938/1940, 1952
Kelly’s Directory of Lewes, 1957 to 1974
Maps
Click on all maps to enlarge
1620 Randoll map [by kind permission of Lewes Library]
Map of Lewes Levels from Lewes Bridge to Newhaven by John de Ward, 1620. East Sussex Brighton and Hove Record Office [ACC 2187/1]
c1775 based on Figg map from Brent ‘Georgian Lewes’
1799 Edwards Town Plan
[by kind permission of The Sussex Archaeological Society]
OS maps
OS maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland [maps.nls.uk]
OS Map, 1873
OS map 1873, South Street detail, larger scale
OS Map, 1898
OS Map 1930
OS Map 1938
OS Map 1950
Pictures
Click on all images to enlarge
The earliest picture of the street to have been found is the Pollard of 1824. Published as a fold-out adjacent to title page from History and Antiquities of Lewes, vol. 1, by Horsfield, published 1824. It shows a timberyard and the cottages at the back, known as Green Cottages or Houses on the Green. These were a block of 6, dating from the early 18th century. They were distinctive in being built at right angles to the street and demolished around 1938.
The present houses, numbers 68-74 were built on the site.
Pollard: View of Lewes from South Side, 1824
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Lewes, Sussex, by W. Purser was published in the 1833 edition of ‘The Watering Places of Great Britain and Fashionable Directory’.
Lewes, Sussex, C Wallis engraving from study by W Purser
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Watercolour of a timberyard in Cliffe by an unknown artist from the 1830s. Reproduced as a postcard in 1980s. From the Collection of the Sussex Archaeological Society. Published in Lewes History Group Bulletin No. 115, February 2020.
Timberyard in the Cliffe, © Sussex Archaeological Society
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For many years the view to the town was dominated by Wharf House, built around 1760, and it can clearly be seen in this small watercolour painting by Benjamin Abbott. Abbott lived in Lewes and ran a school, the Castle Place Academy, from 1835 to 1845, so the painting is likely to date from this period, probably after the avalanche.
Benjamin Abbott watercolour, c. 1845. Reproduced by permission of the owner, a former South Street resident
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This picture dates from around 1850. The view is from in front of the Snowdrop and shows an early train on far left centre. Lewes’s first station opened in 1846.
Lewes: lithograph of the south-east view of the town by C.J. Greenwood [c.1850]
East Sussex Brighton and Hove Record Office [PDA L 4]
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View of the Southern end of South Street, showing, on left hand side of the road, the first site of the Rowing Club (bottom left, gate labelled Lewes Rowing Club), Wharf House, number 128 beyond and Green Cottages in the distance. On the right hand side are Chalk Pit Cottages (demolished by the time of the Cement works in 1902), the Snowdrop, three cottages (now numbers 113, 115 and 117) with two cottages behind, and a large building on the site of Wille Cottages, presumably part of the timberyard. The photograph is by Francis Frith, probably in 1890, when he photographed similar views in Lewes. The photo is labelled Frith Series 22740 but is not in the Frith Archive.
Southern end of South Street, Frith, c.1890
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This photograph is probably also by Francis Frith, around 1890. It shows more detail of some of the buildings and includes a boat at Highams yard.
Both photograph were posted on Lewes Past Facebook in 2015.
South Street, with buildings, and boat at Higham’s Yard
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The Rugby Portland Cement Company worked the old chalk pit beyond the Snowdrop from about 1902 to 1981, and was a major feature on the Street with its heavy lorries and white dust casting a pall over the Street.
Chalkpit, Lewes, Duncan Grant 1951 [by kind permission of South London Gallery Collection, Southwark Art Collection, Southwark Council]
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Photograph of South Street from the river, 1948. © Edward Reeves Photography, Lewes
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A similar scene from 2019, taken by JHD. Note how, with the closure of the cement works, the hillside and cliff are now well populated with plant and tree growth.
JHD photograph of South Street from the river, 2019
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South Street viewed from Cliffe Church Tower in 2015
South Street from St Thomas Church tower, 2015, by JHD
Newspaper Cuttings
Giant puff ball. This cutting appeared in the Ipswich Journal 27th May 1797. Mr Curtis lived at number 1 South Street, Lewes:
Life Saved by Crinoline. From The Berkshire Chronicle, 21 September 1861:
Lewes History Group 