Month: December 2022

Lewes History Group talk: Lewes in Storm and Flood – Monday 9 January 2023, 7:20 for 7:30pm start

A Zoom Webinar

Marcus Taylor: Lewes in Storm and Flood

For our first 2023 talk Marcus Taylor will speak about the flooding of the river Ouse in October 2000 and the so-called Great Storm of 1987. Both had a huge impact on Lewes and its residents; if you were here then, you will have memories of your own. Many people had to leave their homes for months after the relatively brief but deep and sudden surge of water.

However, such floods have happened on quite a number of occasions over the past century or so. Using interviews and many previously unseen photographs, the effects of this natural disaster are vividly outlined.

Similarly, in the middle of an October night, ‘the hurricane that wasn’t’ caused widespread damage to buildings throughout the town in 1987, uprooting trees, closing roads and affecting businesses. First-hand accounts will remind many of us of the chaos that met our eyes the next morning.

Lewes flood 2000; Storm Southover Church, Lewes 1987
Lewes flood 2000 © Heart Radio; Storm damage at Southover Church, Lewes 1987 © Alan Pilfold (Click image to enlarge)

To join this Lewes History Group talk, you need to
1) register your intention in advance
2) receive LHG’s confirmation email with a link to the talk
3) click on that link to attend the talk 10 minutes before it starts

Lewes History Group Members can attend their talks for free. They will send members emails with a link to Zoom registration. Then please follow steps 1, 2, and 3 as above. 

Non-members of LHG 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 these webinars.

The 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 Friends of Lewes is looking for a new Treasurer

The Friends of Lewes is looking for a new Treasurer to assist the Charity in contributing to the preservation and enhancement of our special town.

You will oversee the financial affairs of the organisation, ensure proper record keeping and financial procedures, monitor and report on the financial health of the organisation, and oversee the production of necessary financial reports/returns, accounts and audits.

We estimate that the role will involve under an hour a week.

Further details are at Reach Volunteering:

Reach Volunteering

 

Become a Friend of Lewes

 

Friends of Lewes plant trees in Malling, Wallands, and Saxonbury House

We are now into the 2022 tree planting season and the Friends of Lewes Urban Arboretum team is focussing on Malling, the Wallands, Winterbourne, and Landport areas. First up on Sunday 20th November was Malling, where the team planted 12 street trees on the verges and open spaces on Fitzgerald Road, Queen’s Road, and Barn Road. On Prince Charles Road they planted a new Elm to replace the marvellous Wheatley Elm which had to be felled because of Dutch Elm Disease. The replacement Elm is an Ulmus “Homestead”, a hardy variety with very good resistance to Dutch Elm Disease and fungal infections. All twelve trees will be funded by a donation from the Rotary Club of Lewes as their contribution to the Queen’s Green Canopy.

During National Tree Week, which ended on 4 December, the team planted seven more trees in Ferrers Road in the Wallands, in response to requests from the residents. The varieties of Hawthorne, Crab Apple, Judas Tree, and Field Maple will all grow into relatively small trees and provide a variety of blossom and fruits.

In all the team plans to plant 45 trees this season, and are very grateful to the Lewes District Council and East Sussex County Council officers who gave the Friends of Lewes permission to plant the trees, and supplied the service maps of underground utilities. They have also generously included FoL in their Local Authorities Treescapes Fund grant – which will pay for 20 of the 45 trees we are planting this season.

If this wasn’t enough, the team also planted 46 whips at the Lewes District Council’s Saxonbury House on Juggs Lane, to start off their wildlife hedge, plus a Liquidambar as a specimen tree at the end of the wildflower meadow which they sowed there earlier this year.

More information and photos on our Tree Planting page.

LUA plants trees on Fitzgerald Green, Lewes
Friends of Lewes Trees Committee team with a new planting on Fitzgerald Green

 

Become a Friend of Lewes

 

The Friends of Lewes response to the SDNPA consultation on their draft Brooks Road Lewes Planning Brief

Much of the Brooks Road area is protected as a principal employment site under Policy SD35 of the South Downs Local Plan. In recent years there have been several planning applications and enquiries for sites within the Brooks Road area for redevelopment, such as mixed-use development including residential use. In response, the SDNPA have prepared this Planning Brief in recognition that a level of change is happening in the area.

The Society has a number of significant concerns which it considers need to be addressed before the Brief is formally adopted. In this context, it is suggested that a more detailed understanding of the opportunities and constraints on the area might be a useful part of the SDNPA’s review of the responses to the consultation.

Friends of Lewes response to the SDNPA Brooks Road Planning Brief consultation [28 November 2022, pdf 134KB]

Map of Brooks Road area, Lewes

Become a Friend of Lewes