moving on 2008 Lewes district primary schools annual ... - Viva Lewes

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Freshly Pressed Apple Juice 

Soft vanilla tones and a hint of English 

orchards offset the lemony acidity of 

this mellow, fruity juice… alternatively, 

freshly picked apples, pressed and 

bottled. Delicious. 

Lewes: 56 Cliffe High street 

BrigHton: the Depot, 100 north road 

www.billsproducestore.co.uk

vivaLEWES i s s u e t w e n t y - t w o j u l y 2 0 0 8 

e d i t o r i a l 

Ra ra ra. It’s July: summer’s upon 

us, and everything that entails. 

Flies in the kitchen, sand in your 

sandwiches, middle order collapses 

by the England batsmen. 

Blockbuster novels, crowded 

airports, why’s it bloody raining? 

Daytime children’s TV, dips in 

the Pells, exam results, turned 

out nice again. Cider drinkers 

in the Grange, foreign tourists 

with maps. Long walks on the 

Downs, al fresco pub meals, 

numbers on spoons, where’s my 

bloody order? Memories of ’76: 

The Isle of Thorns, long rides 

in hot cars. Tidemills, painful 

pebble walks to the sea. God, 

it’s cold. 99 flakes: I scream, 

you scream, we all scream for 

ice cream. Pimm’s. Cucumber 

sandwiches. A gaping hole in the 

ozone layer: slip on a shirt, slop 

on the sun cream, slap on a hat. 

Jolly boating weather at Barcombe 

Mills, jump in the Ouse, 

don’t swallow the water. Throw 

it on the barbie: burnt sausages; 

why’s the smoke always blow in 

my direction? Check that chicken’s 

cooked right through. Daft 

hats, short skirts, long shorts, 

sunglasses after dark. Flip flops: 

flip, flop; flip, flop. Irritating 

pan-European hit records on 

the radio while you’re stuck on 

the motorway. Unaccustomed 

dancers in wedding marquees. 

The average UK temperature in 

Celsius in July is seventeen. Sese-se-se-seventeen. 

Rain stopped 

play. It’s July: summer’s upon us, 

and everything that entails. 

Enjoy the month. 

c o n t e n t s 

4. Bits and Bobs: Breakfast, dinner and lunch offers, plus an egg-cup camper 

7. My Lewes: Jenny Mumford – don’tcha just love her? 

9. Bricks and Mortar: Harveys Depot, now and then and who knows when 

10. Art: How two ladies brought Matisse and Renoir to Lewes High Street 

13. Art: Peter Messer and what he’d hang on his desert island palm tree 

15. Art: Artist Emilia Telese reveals all about life modelling 

19. Cinema: Sex and the market town 

21. Music: Ska Toon network 

23. Classical Music: Floral chorals from the Glyndebourne lot 

25. Gig guide: Glam rock singer in wall of flame spectacular 

27. Diary Dates: Proms in the Paddock and all that 

29. Food: Pailin - the only Lewes restaurant in the Good Food Guide 

31. Drink: The making of Tom Paine Ale, a revolutionary brew 

32. Food: Bill Collison welcomes in cherry season 

35. The Nibbler: Our secret foodie loves it al fresco 

37. Patina: Lewes’ year sixes take to the streets 

45. Slow food: sustainable fish and local chips 

47. Shopping: Orchids, with meaty leaves and stalks like newly washed fingers 

49. Viva Kids: Affordable holiday fun for the littl’uns 

52. Viva Villages: Cooksbridge – more than just a level crossing on the A275 

55. Sport: Sussex in Twenty20 vision loss 

57. Literary Lewes: David Jarman cries Fowles 

59. Column: Norman Baker gets alarmed 

61. Local history: Is the Dripping Pan the oldest English sports stadium? 

63. Trade Secrets: Claire Jeary, advising the citizens of Lewes and beyond 

65. Health: Nick Williams gets stoned 

78. Lewes of old: Where did they get those hats? 

Cover designed by the multi-talented Neil Gower 

Editor: Alex Leith alex@vivalewes.com Deputy Editor: Emma Chaplin emmachaplin@vivalewes.com Sub-editor: David Jarman 

Designer: Katie Moorman katie@vivalewes.com Arts: Emma Robertson 

Advertising Manager: Steve Watts steve@vivalewes.com Publisher: Nick Williams nick@vivalewes.com. 

Viva Lewes is based at Pipe Passage, 151b High Street, Lewes, BN7 1XU 

For information about advertising or events you would like to see publicised, call 01273 488882 or e-mail info@vivalewes.com 

Every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of our content. The Viva Lewes Handbook cannot be held responsible for any omissions, 

errors or alterations. 

3

This month’s cover 

4 

When our cover artist Neil Gower discovered that 

one of the features this month would be about the 

Ladies of Miller’s – a pair of indomitable upper crust 

sisters who briefly converted their stables on Western 

Road into the most avant-garde art gallery in the 

country (see page 10 ) – he had an idea. One of the 

artists who was exhibited in ‘Millers’ was Matisse, and 

he reckoned the French fauvist’s ‘The Red Dining Table’ 

would make a fine starting point for this month’s 

cover. The original work he’s created refers to three 

of the articles inside the pages of this month’s issue. 

Who needs to clog up the face of their magazine with 

cover lines, when artistic references can do the same 

job? Neil’s website is at www.neilgower.com: it’s well 

worth a look. 

Seasonal veg in July: 

W W W. V I V A L E W E S . C O M 

Competition 

The Bookroom Art Press have donated this wonderful 

limited edition giclee print by Edward Ardizzone, 

‘Tim and Towser’ (worth £65) as a competition prize 

for VL readers. Ardizzone’s ‘Tim’ series of children’s 

books were extremely popular in the 50s and 60s, 

and he was the first artist to win the Kate Greenaway 

prize for illustration. The Bookroom Art Press 

specialise in producing fine giclee prints from carefully 

selected artists such as Ardizzone, Eric Ravilious, 

Edward Bawden and Vanessa Bell [see page 7]. 

The company is based in St George’s Road, Kemptown 

(www.bookroomartpress.co.uk/01273 625112) 

and their prints are also on sale in Kings Framers in 

Lewes. To get into the draw, simply answer this question: 

What species of animal was ‘Towser’? Send your 

answer to competition@vivalewes.com by July 22nd. 

Usual competition rules apply. 

Yours for a fiver 

Eating eggs for breakfast was demonised in the nineties, 

but scientific research is increasingly suggesting that a 

couple of boiled ones a day has no significant impact 

on ‘bad’ cholesterol levels in your blood. With this in 

mind we went out last month looking for the coolest 

egg-cup in town, and came up with this VW Camper, 

from Bright Ideas 

on School Hill, 

which sets you 

back a cool £2.99. 

They also come in 

pink. The egg, incidentally, 

is freerange 

and from 

Full of Beans. 

Which just leaves 

space for an eggsasperatingly 

bad 

pun. Job done. 

Broad beans, French beans, courgettes, spinach, chard, black kale, spri 

globe and Jerusalem artichokes, new potatoes, herbs. Rhubarb, gooseb 

ducers who help her compile this list. The Farmers Market runs on t

Hey, isn’t that me...? 

If you’re this girl in the flip-flops pictured walking 

down Western Road on June 23rd, pop into our 

offices to claim your £10 book VL book token, redeemable 

in any bookshop in town, including the 

one nestling among our offices on Pipe Passage. Last 

month’s token went to Glenda-Slagg-placard-carrying 

Peter Mumford, whose wife Jenny we are interviewing 

on page 7. A set-up? Honest Injun, we didn’t 

have a clue. 

What’s going on tonight? 

For up-to-date weekly listings of what’s going on in 

and around Lewes, and much more, visit our awardwinning 

website at www.vivalewes.com. We’ve recently 

taken up scrolling downwards, but we never fail 

to offer a sideways look at Lewes life. 


B I tI tS S A n d B O B S 

Reader offers 

£££s off restaurant food and wine, 

all through the day 

20% off at Robsons 

To celebrate their 10 years in School Hill, Robson’s 

are offering a 20% discount to customers who 

spend £20 or more per table in one sitting at their 

café, open for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, 

throughout July 2008. You can enjoy a garden view, 

or eat and drink al fresco, too. Just cut out this coupon 

and present it on arrival. 

22a High Street, 01273 480654 

Free wine at Pelham House 

Pelham House are offering a free half carafe of wine 

with every meal for two people in their recently 

opened international-cuisine restaurant. To qualify 

you need to spend over £10 a head on food. Valid 

12-2pm, Sunday to Thursday, throughout July 2008. 

Just cut out this coupon and present it to staff: please 

phone to book in advance, mentioning this offer. 

Pelham House, St Andrews Lane, 01273 488600 

Two courses for £10 at the Real Eating Company 

A modern British menu using local ingredients, right 

in the heart of Cliffe. Viva Lewes readers can eat two 

courses for just £10, from 6.30pm - 8.30pm on Tuesday, 

Wednesday and Thursday nights throughout July 

2008. Pre-booking essential: please mention Viva 

Lewes. 18 Cliffe High St, 01273 402 658 

ng cabbage and greens, lettuce, salad leaves, cucumbers, radishes, bunched carrots, spring onions, shallots, green garlic, 

erries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, tayberries, loganberries. Thanks to Deb Cook of Common Cause, and the prohe 

first Saturday of every month. Next up: July 5th (world food produced locally) and August 2nd (sunny day market). 

5

A r t

MYLEWES 

I meet Jenny Mumford in the garden café at the back 

of Lewes Patisserie, where with some irony, we can hear 

drilling from the very developments (Baxters Printworks 

and Lewes House) to which she has been drawing the 

public’s attention with her Glenda Slagg ‘More development? 

Aren’tcha sick of it?!’ cartoon. 

Profession: I’m an artist and illustrator. After studying 

fine art and graphics, I ended up on Fleet Street working 

for a publishing firm, designing book jackets. One 

lunchtime, a rep saw me doodling and asked me to illustrate 

a series of Enid Blyton books. Then I went to 

work for Decca records, designing record sleeves and 

booklets for opera sets and classical albums. Twenty 

years ago, I did a comic illustration of the fictitious Private 

Eye figure Glenda Slagg to use during the Railway 

Land dispute. She was up for a year, and we won. The 

proposed supermarket and shops were never built. Private 

Eye recently featured it following Lewes Council’s 

attempt to prosecute me for putting it up again. But 

she doesn’t only come out for protests. When The Kiss 

came back to Lewes, Glenda’s speech bubble said: ‘Rodin 

– don’tcha love him?! Give us a kiss sweetie!’ 

Are you local? What’s local? I’ve lived here for 36 years. 

I grew up in West London, but my husband grew up 

in Seaford. He used to eat shellfish off the beach and 

signal to ships from the cliffs. My daughter, a cellist, has 

been drawn back to living in Lewes after attending the 

Guildhall. 

How does she feel about your campaign? I suspect 

she thinks ‘Mum’s mad’, but it’s better to have a mother 

who does something than one who does nothing. 

What do you like about Lewes? I like how compact it 

is. It’s still a proper town with boundaries. And it’s beautiful. 

I also love Bonfire. A neighbour once complained 

about the noise of it, but for me, it is what makes Lewes, 

Photograph: Katie Moorman 

Lewes. 

What do you dislike about it? The race for (over) development. 

It felt significant that the rooks, for me an 

essential symbol of the town, left Lewes House shortly 

before the work began there. 

Where’s your favourite landmark? Church Twitten 

was one of the only twittens that was relatively untouched. 

It was so beautiful, with trees lining both sides. 

A quiet, secret passage with a breath of the country; it 

did everything a twitten was supposed to do. Sections of 

the walls will be demolished for access, then reinstated 

with new arches. Also, the twitten will be overlooked by 

three-storey flats. 

What do you think about development in Lewes? It’s 

over-development I’m against, not development. I like 

good modern buildings. What I object to is when developments 

are too high and too dense for their location, 

or when they ruin beautiful places, like the twittens. 

What’s your poison? Red wine or gin and tonic. 

Which newspaper do you read? Independent, the Observer 

and the Sussex Express. Although, amazingly, I’ve 

never even met Steve Holloway! 

What did you have for breakfast? Almond croissant 

and Nescafe Alta Rica coffee. 

How would you spend a perfect Sunday afternoon? 

Walking in Sussex with friends, including several artists, 

a poet and a barrister. We call ourselves the Antiques 

Road Show and it’s more of a shamble than a ramble. 

Can you recommend a good film? Jules et Jim, which 

I last saw as a student in a little Richmond arts cinema. 

I believe it’s recently been re-released. I’d never seen 

anything like it. It’s unusual and charming, and the 

music is beautiful. Given the First World War setting, 

Jeanne Moreau’s character is a very modern, independent 

woman. Interview by Emma Chaplin 

V

HARVEYS DEPOT 

It’s the first thing you see from the station. But for how long? 

There’s a quaint old worldliness about one of the views from 

the train as you enter Lewes. Slightly Trumpton-esque, the 

large signage attached to the red-roofed building says: ‘Welcome 

to Lewes Home of Harveys Brewery’ and ‘Prize Sussex 

Ales’. On top of the building is a clock tower under a black 

wrought-iron weather vane, adorned with ivy-leaves and 

carved with the initials H&S, for Harvey and Sons. What is 

slightly misleading about this picture is that these attractive 

features, along with the long brick wall and huge wrought-iron 

gates that bring to mind Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, have 

only been there twelve years. Records show that in 1873 the 

site was a back lot with trees. By 1910, a sorting office existed at 

the extreme south-west corner of the site. The current building 

was actually constructed by the GPO in 1937 as a sorting 

office. By 1960, when the whole area flooded, the building was 

being used as a repair depot for Post Office vehicles. I speak to 

Miles Jenner, Harveys’ Joint Managing Director, who tells me: 

“Thirty seven houses were going to be erected here, and it was 

only after a struggle that Harveys were able to buy the site in 

1996 to use as a depot. We upgraded it as a goodwill gesture 

to the community.” So why did they sell it? “Basically we out- 


B r I C K S A n d M O r t A r 

grew the site, and sold it last year after finding 

a purpose-built alternative. After the failure of 

the Lewes community project bid, we decided 

against the higher residential offers, instead 

choosing a mixed-development option by a 

local developer.” This is Martin Elliott, who 

along with local architecture firm, BBM Sustainable 

Design, has come up with a proposal 

called Harvey’s Yard. These plans have led to 

heated debate, particularly amongst local residents 

who fear the development would result 

in them losing views and light. I meet Ian 

McKay from BBM to discuss the plans, noticing 

as we go through the gates, a large yellow 

banner hanging from the back of a number of 

Lansdown Place houses saying: ‘Enjoy the view 

– it’s your last chance’. As we enter the building, 

I breathe in a strong whiff of petrol inside 

a large industrial space with high ceilings and 

concrete floors. Ian shows me BBM’s model 

of the development, constructed for the two 

recent public consultation meetings, which he 

tells me were ‘lively.’ What would happen to 

the building we are standing in, I ask? “This 

would become a restaurant, and there would 

be a permanent fruit and vegetable market.” 

He points out a thoroughfare through the 

centre and a public courtyard. No residences 

would be on the ground floor, because of flood 

risk, and businesses would be constructed with 

flood-resistant materials. I ask about concerns 

about light and views, and Ian says that the design 

has been drawn up in such a way that not 

even winter sunlight would be blocked. “There 

would be a communal garden on the roof, with 

a Sky Harvester, featuring 300 square meters 

of electric panels for solar water heating. Harvey’s 

Yard would be as near to carbon neutral 

as you can get. It would feature a charge point 

for electric mopeds and provision for bicycle 

storage.” I ask Ian how he feels about the reaction. 

“We knew there would be controversy, 

but we didn’t expect it to be so personal and 

aggressive. We’re still only at the consultation 

stage.” As I walk back along Pinwell Road, I 

look at Pinwell House, a BBM construction I 

think works well, and wonder how Lewes can 

balance keeping what makes it beautiful with 

meeting the needs of future generations. V 

Emma Chaplin 

9

THE LADIES OF MILLER’S 

Two women briefly turned Lewes into an oasis in the pre-war cultural desert 

Frances Byng-Stamper and Caroline Lucas were 

two wealthy and eccentric sisters known in 1940s 

Lewes as the Ladies of Miller’s – so nicknamed because 

not only was it evident by their bearing and 

manners, their lace and sequined clothing that they 

were indeed ladies, but the home on Lewes High 

Street which they purchased had been the location 

for a family of millers - the house, in fact, of Lewes’s 

main flour merchants. What the nickname does not 

indicate, is that these Ladies can claim a place of central 

importance, both in the history of regional art 

development, and in the history of printmaking in 

Britain. 

Picture above:The Sisters [aka The Upper Classes] by Cedric Morris. Above right: The Schoolroom by Vanessa Bell 

The Ladies of Miller’s initially came from Kent, 

from an aristocratic family (the ‘Byng’ in their name). 

Caroline, the youngest, was very much the apple of 

her mother’s eye and inherited the entire Byng wealth 

– a not inconsiderable fortune. She remained unmarried 

throughout her life, but her sister, Frances, married 

Edwin Stamper and soon after all three moved 

to Rodmell, where they purchased the Northease 

Estate. With its fine Queen Anne manor house (now 

the Northease Manor School) the Estate, when first 

bought by the sisters, had over a thousand acres and 

extended across the entire Ouse Valley. 

Caroline, particularly, always had an interest in the

arts and would spend some of her time painting in 

one of the many Manor rooms. And were it not for 

a tragic event in the sisters’ lives, the extent of engagement 

with the arts might simply have remained 

at this level: they might have continued to live their 

life of lady farmers: socializing, enjoying the privileges 

of their station - the hampers of food delivered from 

Tunbridge Wells, the pheasants hanging over the 

cases of wine in their cellars and the painting of an 

occasional picture. But Frances and Stamper had one 

child, Douglas, and he, inadvertently, would change 

the direction of the two sisters’ lives. 

Douglas was a bright and winsome boy, much liked 

by all at the Manor. Sent to Eton where he excelled, 

he would regularly write letters home in which he 

lamented his absence and looked forward to seeing 

them all on his return. A holiday was planned in Scotland. 

Douglas was to meet his parents there and, along 

with a few of his Eton friends he boarded the night 

train from London in order to do so. When his parents 

arrived to meet the train, however, Douglas was 

nowhere to be seen; he never arrived at the station 

in Scotland, and his body was found on the tracks 40 

miles from Carlisle a short while later. 

The cause of Douglas’s death was never fully known; 

but it left the Ladies distraught. The Estate and extravagance 

of life-style that they had hitherto enjoyed 

seemed empty, and they decided as a consequence to 

devote their time to the advancement of the arts. Having 

used Manorbier Castle in Wales as a base for their 

activity for a decade, they decided to buy Miller’s, a 

house on Lewes High Street, and in 1941, in the stables 

of the property, they opened Miller’s Gallery. 

The sisters were ambitious from the start. Northease 

Manor had always been a seat to which society 

could be invited, and they had many friends whose 

help, advice and connections they could count upon. 

The Ladies had a slightly de haut en bas approach, 

and whilst this was not always appreciated – the Bells, 

for instance, felt that perhaps they took their social 

position in life a mite too seriously – this served its 

purpose in cajoling artists and the art world generally 

to support their venture. It was difficult to say no to 

the Ladies, and in their first exhibition they included 

works by nobody but the most acclaimed: Matisse, 

Cézanne, Pissarro, Augustus John and Sickert. It met 

with considerable success, and very soon regular exhibitions 

were being held. Writing to Frances Partridge 

- in a tone wherein, to be sure, slight sarcasm can be 

detected, but not enough to undermine the point he 

makes – Clive Bell would note: ‘I suppose you know 

that Lewes (Miller’s) is now become one of the cultural 

centres of Europe. The two indefatigable ladies 

are chiefly responsible….There is said to be bitter 


M I L L E r ’ S g A L L E r y 

jealousy in Brighton’.* 

But it wasn’t only the Gallery that the Ladies established 

in Lewes. Their other, equally - perhaps more 

important - contribution, was to revitalise the art of 

lithography in Britain, and to encourage painters to 

experiment with printing. On the whole expertise in 

printmaking in the country was not high, and it was 

due to this that the Ladies, having by now established 

the Gallery, decided to set up Miller’s Press. They 

wanted to assure a certain quality of print, and they 

commissioned work by many of the more eminent 

artists of the time: Vanessa Bell, Ceri Richards, Graham 

Sutherland, Paul Nash and John Piper amongst 

them. 

The Gallery at Miller’s closed after a last show in 

1946. Miller’s Press did not survive for long either, 

partly because paper during the war was in short supply 

and increasingly, after commissioning work from 

artists, the actual printing of the Press’s images was 

done in Paris. But the Press lasted into the mid-1950s, 

and then the baton of excellence in printmaking 

would pass to Robert Erskine at St. George’s Gallery, 

London; and Erskine in turn would help Stanley 

Jones in the late fifties start the famous Curwen Press. 

It is certain, however, that the first tranche of exceptional 

lithographs from the Miller’s Press was done in 

Lewes; and it is equally certain that amongst the first 

eight prints ever published by the Ladies was the image 

Girl Reading by Vanessa Bell. 

Darion Goodwin 

The Bookroom Art Press is now reprinting Vanessa Bell’s 

Girl Reading as a Limited Edition Print (1/850). They are 

also publishing a further print by Bell, School Room. 

You can purchase the prints directly from The Bookroom 

Art Press at The KempTown Bookshop, 91. St. George’s 

Road, Brighton tel 01273-682110; alternatively you can 

buy on-line at www.bookroomartpress.co.uk, or from 

Kings Framers, 57 High Street, Lewes. 

*Quoted in The Ladies of Miller’s, Diana Crook, p 21. 

Dale House Press 1996. 

V 

1 1

haydn cottam 

journey: 

oil paintings 

1990–2008 

the Foundry gallery 

market lane garage 

32 north street 

lewes Bn7 2ph 

5–19 july 2008 

weds–sat 12–5pm 

artemis|arts 

www.artemis-arts.co.uk 

artemis-arts@macdream.net 

01273 486595/470376

The Garden (detail) by Helen Turner art 

&ABOUT 

Focus on… 

‘Snow Effigy’ by Peter Messer 

When I meet Hadyn Cottam to talk about his forthcoming 

exhibition at the Foundry Gallery, he looks strangely 

familiar, but it isn’t until he mentions his bag-pipes that 

I remember seeing him perform at an Arts Lab event, 

also held at Market Lane Garage. Many of his paintings 

are large landscapes ‘with a contemporary twist’, but his 

work has won him awards for portraiture and taken him 

up the Amazon, facing fierce men with machetes. He 

says his paintings are ‘concerned with the depiction of 

obviously romantic landscape within the context of postmodern 

urban mind-set.’ EC 

Oil Paintings 1990-2008 

The Foundry Gallery, Market Lane Garage, 5th-19th July, 

Wed-Sat 12-5pm 


A r t 

How did the painting come about? My stepson Tom made 

two tomb effigies in the Grange after it snowed earlier this 

year, one of a knight, one of a lady. This is the knight the next 

day, partially thawed. 

How long did it take to paint? Fifty-four years! Actually 

about a couple of weeks full-time. 

What materials did you use? Egg tempera on gesso. 

How much is it going for? About £1,800, although the price 

hasn’t been fixed yet. 

What would your detractors say about it? Old-fashioned. 

What would your fans say about it? Timeless! 

What are the most common themes and subjects in your 

work? Minutely observed local corners and aspects of daily 

life around Lewes. 

What do you wear to paint? A disgusting old apron from 

Ingram’s of Cliffe, a shop which no longer exists. 

What are the titles of some of your other paintings? A 

Death in the Avenue; Good Day Mr Mantell. 

What do you think of the Turner Prize? It’s like asking 

musicians to judge a competition for air guitar. 

What’s your favourite gallery? The National in London 

– specifically the Sainsbury Wing. 

If you had to hang one painting from your desert island 

palm tree, what would it be? Swan Upping at Cookham by 

Sir Stanley Spencer. 

1 3

The Star Gallery

SHOCK OF THE NUDE 

Artist Emilia Telese tells Alex Leith about life as a life model 

“When my mother first discovered what I was doing, 

she was absolutely horrified,” says Emilia Telese, 

sitting in the living room of her Lewes home. 

For over a decade Emilia has been a life model, 

starting in Florence, where she studied for her degree 

in Painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti. 

Nowadays she’s making a living as a visual artist, 

working in installation, public art and performance: 

in 2005 she exhibited at the Venice Biennale. 

But she hasn’t entirely given up nude modelling; 

she still poses regularly for the Lewes-based Star 

Group, which she calls ‘the best group I have ever 

modelled for’. 

“Where I saw ‘nude’, my mother saw ‘naked’,” 

continues Emilia, putting her finger on a subtle 

but important distinction between the two words. 

“The difference was that she was a scientist, and 

had never studied the body in an artistic way. But 

being an artist, I have. So I’ve never seen life modelling 

as a sexual thing.” 

Emilia is very keen to stress the non-sexual nature 

of the role. “All my poses are very classical; I never 

have anything which could be defined as vulgar,” she says. 

“I think the important thing to do is to remove the self 

consciousness of the body and use it as a conglomerate of 

shapes and forms from which to study the beauty of human 

anatomy.” Certain simple tactics can help ‘desexualise’ 

the situation. “I never take my clothes off in front 

of the artists,” she continues. “I take them off elsewhere, 

and put on a dressing gown: when I take that off I’m not 

taking my own clothes off.” 

Emilia learnt it was very important to lay down ground 

rules. She was extremely careful about who she posed for, 

and how she posed. “I wouldn’t model for artists who 

didn’t depict their subject with dignity,” she continues. 

She has had bad experiences in the past. “In Worthing 

there was an art class whose teacher put me in a pair of 

Mickey Mouse ears and I found that very disrespectful. 

I guess it was quite funny for them, but it wasn’t funny 

for me. When he gave me an inflatable chair, I said no.” 

She never lets artists get closer than three feet, and never 

allows photographs. 

Emilia has studied ballet and anatomy, both of which 

have stood her in good stead for life modelling. “I always 

make sure that when I pose that there is a lot of torsion 

in my body so the artists can see all the muscles,” she 

says. Posing for a long time without <strong>moving</strong> can be very 

difficult. “It is very physically demanding. You need both 

fitness and patience. There is a lot of stress and claustrophobia 

from staying in the same position for a long 

time. So when I choose a pose I detach my mind from my 

body and go into a completely different frame of mind. 

It is a form of meditation.” Once, before she learnt to do 

this, she fainted while balancing on a plinth in front of 25 

‘giggly’ students at Brighton Technical College. 

Emilia takes me on a tour of her house, showing me different 

paintings of her by different members of the Star 

Group, including one she unfurls by the collective’s mentor 

Hugh Longhurst, who died last August. You get the 

feeling, from the way she talks about him, that they were 

very good friends, and that she still feels a strong bond 

with the rest of the group. “The relationship between 

model and artist is a strange one,” she concludes. “But 

I’ve always seen it as being that of a peer rather than a 

muse.” V 

Members of the Star Group are exhibiting in ‘ Faces, Figures, 

Feet’ at the Hop Gallery, July 3rd-8th 


A r t 

1 5

4637.64x190.VL-ad 16/6/08 15:06 Page 2 

By GEORGE! 

LEWES TOWN HALL JULY 21ST - AUGUST 2ND 2008 

GEORGE 

BAXTER 

1804 -1867 

Pioneer 

of colour 

printing 

Son of 

Lewes 

An 

exhibition 

of over 250 

of his works, 

in Lewes for 

the first 

time in over 

40 years 

ENTRANCE 

FREE 

Last month a group of Swedish scientists announced 

that they had discovered similar characteristics 

in the brain shared by gay men and straight 

women governing emotions, moods and anxiety. To 

that list they might have added ‘love of the American 

sitcom Sex and the City’. The good news for 

those concerned is that the makers of the series 

have produced a feature-length film about the four 

predatory New York women and their sexual adventures 

in Manhattan (All Saints 18th, 19th, 20th). 

Reviewers were generally divided as to whether the 

film was worth watching, but our bet is that if you 

enjoyed the series, you’ll enjoy the movie, which is, 

in effect, a four-episode shift stitched into one, starring, 

of course, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, 

Cristin Davies and Cynthia Nixon. 

There are obvious similarities between this Hollywood 

blockbuster and Caramel (All Saints 4th and 

6th), a glossy Lebanese movie set in a beauty parlour, 

looking at the diverse sexual anxieties of four 

women. But the differences are worth noting, too: 

Caramel is sharper, deeper and a lot smarter, and 

has been an unexpected worldwide hit in arthouse 

cinemas. It stars Nadine Labaki (above), who also 

directs. 

The last film definitely scheduled as we go to 

press by Lewes Cinema in July (and the last until 

September) is The Edge of Love, (18th-20th 

July)which looks at the ménage à trois between 

Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), his wife (Sienna 

Miller) and his former flame (Keira Knightley), and 

the tensions which ensue when it becomes ménage 

à quatre, when Knightley’s bloke (Cillian Murphy) 

returns from the war. Check out www.vivalewes. 

com for up-to-date listings of all the films on at the 

All Saints, as well, of course, as everything else going 

on in town. V 

Dexter Lee 

1 7 


C I n E M A 

July round-up 

Lots of women and a ménage à quatre

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art &ABOUT 

Girl in Green by John Skinner 

HQ are holding their Summer Show from July 

12th to Aug 10th, and it will feature paintings by 

Newhaven artist, Susan Ashworth, as well as work 

by John Skinner, Emma Wilson and Brighton ceramicist 

Stacey Manser-Knight, whose mugs and 

jugs feature allotment landscapes, including relief 

snails and bunches of carrots peeking up from the 

ground (www.hqgallery.co.uk). Another colourful 

ceramicist, Andrew Wood, is showing work in his 

new studio at Vipers Wharf, near the new pet shop. 

Opening hours are erratic, he tells, me, so best 

phone first on 07773 327513 (www.andrew-wood. 

com). And at the Chalk Gallery, the Hot! Hot! Hot! 

Exhibition, featuring work by 20 local artists, continues 

until July 27th. 

Bird Cup by Susan Ashworth 

1 9

June round-up 

Define ‘ska’ music: Originally it was American 

rhythm and blues filtered through the 

Jamaican consciousness. The offbeats were 

beefed up to make it more danceable. 

Offbeats? If a beat goes ‘one and two and three 

and four’ the offbeat is played on the ‘and’, 

originally with the horns and piano, latterly 

with the guitar and piano. 

What sort of ska music do you play? We 

do ska-jazz interface. Boomshakalaka is the 

sound when the drum break kicks into a ska 

tune, bedoodlybebop is a soulful horn solo. We 

do some ska classics, like Guns of Navarone 

and The Liquidator, mixed with ska’d up jazz 

and even pop standards. Anything from Glen 

Campbell to Kurt Weill. 

Do you do any Madness songs? No. 

Can you ‘ska up’ any tune? Waltzes would be 

a mathematical impossibility. Otherwise, just 

about anything. A girl asked to do a Johnny 

Cash song for her dad the other day at the 

Joogleberry, but we didn’t know one, so we 

didn’t. She was very sweet, but a bit drunk. 

Do people get up and dance, then? That’s 

the whole point. And, yes, they do. All sorts of 

dancing. Some people are very, shall we say, 

inventive. Then we get aficionados, who know 

what they’re doing. Even original Mods from 

the 60s, skanking. 

Skanking? The skank is the offbeat guitar you 

hear in reggae and skanking is an energetic 

dance in which you swing your arms and knees 

to the rhythm. 

Why the name? It’s a pun really. I’m an illustrator. 

Ska Toons? Cartoons? Never mind. We 

thought we were being original, then we found 

there are two other bands with the same name, 

one in Southampton, one in Hamburg. They 

both do more ska-punk. The German lot look 

a bit scary, in the nicest possible way. 

How many others in the band? At least 

once a year we’re the Ska-kestra, a 21-piece 

big band. But generally there are eight of us: 

drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, trombone, tenor 

and baritone sax, soprano and flute, and our 

singer, Helen. 

Tell us more about Helen. She’s got a great 

voice, and she’s very charismatic, theatrical and 

stylish. She’s got great clothes, too. 

Do you write any of your own songs? A few. 

Andy the saxist has written one called Night 

Train to Fez about a journey he took from 

Preston Park to Morocco. I’ve written one 

called In the Borehole about falling into a water 

cistern one midnight when I was having a 

piss on the way home from a gig. 

Does the band have a ‘look’? I went to Vietnam 

once, and had a silk suit made. I had plans 

for the whole band to wear the same suits made 

in the same place. But it didn’t happen. Everyone’s 

too original. Our 16-year-old drummer 

wears a pinstripe suit, with blingy medallions. 

16? Jupyra’s the youngest in the band. I’m the 

oldest, at 106. We recruit musicians from the 

Starfish project to keep our average age down 

below 50. 

And what’s the average age of your crowd? 

Difficult to say. Let’s say 9-90. That sounds 

good actually. Maybe we’ll start using it in our 

publicity. 

Boomshakalakabedoodlybebop. 

Boomshakalakabedoodlybebop. V 

The Ska Toons are playing the ConClub, 8pm July 

5. Tickets (on the door) £3 for non-members 

S K A M u S I C 

Boomshakalakabedoodlybebop 

Michael Munday, founder member of the Ska Toons, gets all 

offbeat about our probing questions

FLORAL CHORALS 

Members of the Glyndebourne Chorus sing for Madagascar 

In 1977 the late Nora Roberts, who worked in 

Glyndebourne’s staff bar, asked the chorus to provide 

a charity concert as part of St Pancras’ flower 

festival. (It is said that those who did not participate 

experienced some difficulty in being served at the 

bar). This and the ensuing annual concerts were 

medleys: mostly party pieces, the running order 

being determined at the last minute in the vestry. 

There was some fine music and some fine musicmaking, 

and the occasions were enjoyed, but every 

concert had much the same flavour. In the memory 

they merge together. 

After the rebuilding of the opera house the concerts 

resumed in a rather different form. Believing that 

opera belongs in the theatre and ignoring the maxim 

‘something for everyone’ as both unachievable and 

pernicious, we confined ourselves to song. The difference 

between chalk and cheese is of less interest 

than the difference between Caerphilly and Wensleydale, 

and if a Verdi aria and an English madrigal 

are performed side by side, neither is flattered. Each 

concert has a specific theme or scheme: not so restrictive 

that we risk monotony, or scraping the barrel 

to perform music which we hardly think worth 

performing for its own sake, but narrow enough to 

lead performers and audience to explore in greater 

depth the vast, and vastly rich, repertory of pianoaccompanied 

song. 


C L A S S I C A L M u S I C 

Any fears that the new departure might lead audiences 

to riot and tear up the pews because we didn’t 

offer Nessun dorma were dispelled by a concert of 

sea songs in 1999 in aid of the RNLI. The Italian 

songs of 2005 raised fears that the church might 

overflow. It was partly to avoid this embarrassment 

that we chose for 2006 the subject of Classical Antiquity. 

We succeeded too well; a Friday evening instead 

of a Saturday, a heat wave, and a theme that 

might appear forbidding but, I insist, is not so in 

practice, led to a half-empty church. The next year’s 

Spanish songs restored our audience. 

This year’s programme is of flower songs. Wolf 

sang of the Christmas rose, Vaughan Williams of 

the sunflower, Schumann of the snowdrop, Sibelius 

of the blue anemone, Rakhmaninov of lilac, Schubert 

of dame’s violets. If you think this concert is 

not for you, then you are probably right. ‘A man 

should stand in awe of his prejudices. They may in 

the end prove wiser than he’ – Hazlitt. If you think 

‘well, perhaps’ then do come to St Pancras church, 

in Irelands’ Lane at 7.30pm on July 19th. Admission 

is free. There will be a collection for Sister Mary 

Bennett’s Medical Mission in Madagascar, a small 

but valuable charity. Sister Mary grew up in Lewes; 

the charity’s overheads amount to little more, I understand, 

than the odd stamp, but there is always the 

urgent need for medical supplies. V 

Charles Kerry 

2 3

gigGUIDE W I t h g r A h A M d E n M A n ( g I g S @ V I V A L E W E S . C O M ) 

PICK OF THE MONTH 

HIGHLIGHTS 

Tongue and Groove at the Pells Pool. 

If you’ve never seen Tongue and Groove, the outrageous local covers band who 

specialise in psychedelic sounds from the 60s to the present day (think Bowie, 

think Beatles, think Scissor Sisters) you haven’t quite lived. Lead singer Phil 

Rhodes, who always has a gob-smacking surprise up his (flared) sleeve, promises 

to jump through a wall of fire into the pool during the performance. “Those 

worried about health and safety issues after God of Hellfire and Damnation 

Arthur Brown caught fire at one of our gigs last year,” he says, “can rest assured 

that even if my costume goes up in flames, it will immediately be doused by the 

fresh spring water of the oldest outdoor pool in the country.” Unmissable. 

Fri 4th, 7.30pm, £5/£3, kids free. Tickets from the King’s Head 

Thur 3rd: Cooper and Bolton. That’s Peter C and Richard B, on English roots fiddle and guitar. Royal Oak, 8pm, £5 

Fri 4th: The Varlies. Punchy, poppy ‘rock-funk-soul’ fivesome from Tunbridge Wells. John Harvey Tavern, 8pm. 

Sat 5th: Ska Toons. Ska-jazz biggish band return home. Wham bam skank you mam. Con Club, 8pm, £3 non members. 

Sat 5th: Clinic in the Hill. Much-awaited and once postponed debut gig from a young jazz-funk trio. Lansdown, 8pm, free 

Tues 8th: Richard Chapman Group. Guitar hero Richard returns home with his band. All Saints, 8pm, £10/£8 

Thur 10th: Jim Causley. Top young ‘Devon Incarnate’ folk singer of Waterson:Carthy fame. Royal Oak, 8pm, £5 

Thur 10th: Aguilera Flamenco Duo: Brighton-based flamenco-jazz fusion guitar duo. Pelham Arms, 8pm, free 

Fri 11th and Sat 12th. Rock in the Bog. Cliffe Bonfire fund-raiser with Laser Crabs and others. Malling Field, 8 till late. 

Fri 11th: Fat 45. 11-piece jump-jive big-band mayhem, with support from Ukes of Hazzard. All Saints, 8pm, £10/£8 

Sat 12th: Mike Dobie. Polished Verve, Stone Roses and Beatles covers on acoustic guitar. Pelham Arms, 8pm, free 

Sat 12th: Storm Engine. Heavy supercharged funk, with facepainted drummer. Lansdown, 8pm, free 

Thur 17th: Mandy Murray. All-Ireland anglo-concertina player with a fine voice. Royal Oak, 8pm, free 

Fri 18th: Chris Callow. ‘Berries’ – more hip breaks from this talented local DJ. 8pm, Lansdown, free 

Sat 19th: Starfish in the Park. End of term party for the youth music organisation. 12pm, Paddock. 

Sat 19th: Alvin Sawdust. Glam tribute geezer ooh-ooh-my-kookachoos it up at the Pelham Arms. 8pm, free. 

Sat 19th: Zen House. Eclectic cover set from Nelly Furtado to the Four Tops. Con Club, 8.30pm, £3 non-members 

Sat 19th: Drookit Dogs. ‘Leonard Cohen meets the Clash on a dark night on the West Pier’. Lansdown, 8pm, free 

Thurs 24th: Transports of Delight. Masterson and Littledale sing of planes, trains and automobiles. Royal Oak, 8pm, free 

Thurs 24th: Pavarotty. Gypsy-jazz-tinged busking foursome from Brighton. Pelham Arms, 8pm, free 

Sat 26th: Kick. Female-fronted Blondie-like indie-pop band back by popular demand. Pelham Arms, 8pm, free 

Sat 26th: Rebel Control. Andy Baron and Concrete Johnson play poppy reggae i ’n’ i toons. Lansdown, 8pm, free 

Thur 31st: Folk at the Oak Open Night. End of season everyone’s-welcome-to-play shindig. Royal Oak, 8pm, free 

3 


2 5

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PICK OF THE MONTH - Proms in the Paddock 

Saturday 12th July 

Fireworks from the Commercial Square Bonfire Society and 

rousing music from the Glynde and Beddingham Brass Band, in 

one of Lewes’ most coveted green spaces. Expect Land of Hope 

and Glory, expect Jerusalem, expect the 1812 Overture, expect 

Sussex by the Sea. Expect amazing explosions in the sky. Over 

1,000 turned up last year: all proceeds go to CSBS. 

The Paddock, 6pm, £7 on the gate, £5 in advance for adults, half 

that for kids. 

HIGHLIGHTS 

Tues 1st (till 4th). 

Art: Picture This. Sussex Downs students present their visual artwork in the college. 470831, free. 

Tues 1st (and Wed 2nd) 

Theatre. A Slight Ache, by Harold Pinter. Performed by Lewes Repertory Theatre. £17.50 with wine, £35 with dinner, 

Pelham House. 470584. 

Sat 7th 

Lewes Farmers’ Market. Celebrating world food produced locally. 

Cliffe Precinct, free. 

Sat 5th. 

Classical Music. The Musicians of All Saints perform Alberto Ginastera, Peter Copley and Ludwig van Beethoven. 

All Saints, 7.45, £8/£6, 473229. 

Fri 12th-26th. 

Theatre. Flat Spin, by Alan Ayckbourn. A tripartite production of this comic thriller with the Oast Theatre in Tonbridge and 

the Archway Theatre in Horley. Lewes Little Theatre, 7.45pm, Sat mat 26th 2.45pm, 474826. 

Sat 12th. 

Societies Fair. Check out Lewes’ odd socs, from astronomy to literature via Amnesty International and theatre groups. 

Town Hall, 10am-2pm, free entry. 

Thurs 17th and Fri 18th. 

Theatre. Castle Theatre Company, celebrating their 30th anniversary, perform Shakespeare’s The Tempest al fresco. 

Mount Harry House, Offham, 7.30pm, £12, 07780 871996. 

Sat 19th. 

Music 1940’s Jazz Night: Glenn Miller-style music in a WW2 setting. Pennsylvania six-five-oh-oh-oh and all that. Newhaven 

Fort, 7.30-10.30pm, 517622. 

Sun 20th. 

A Celebration of Local Food. Tastings, music and a bar from Slow Food Brighton and Transition Town Lewes. 

Pelham House, 6-9.30pm, free. 

Tues 29th. 

Morris dancing. The Knots of May and the Brighton Morris Men do their jangly thang. 

John Harvey Tavern, 8pm, free. 


2 7

R E S T A U R A N T • B A R 

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Edburton, Nr Henfield, West Sussex BN5 9LJ 

Tel: 01903 815757 

E: info@tottingtons.co.uk W: www.tottingtons.co.uk 

Great venue 

for a party!

Photographs Emma Chaplin 

PAILIN THAI RESTAURANT 

The only place in town with a mention in the Good Food Guide 

I have to confess to having held a prejudice against 

Pailin. The problem was tempura. As a devotee of 

Japanese food, I love pieces of fresh vegetable or fish 

briskly fried inside ethereally light batter. I was unimpressed, 

therefore, at being served tempura in Pailin 

with a thick coat of batter more akin to that found in 

a fish and chip shop. Not horrible, but not right for 

‘tempura’. This was years ago, and I never went back. 

This despite foodie friends assuring me that they had 

eaten well there. I raised a dubious eyebrow at the list 

of awards for ‘good hygiene’, saying I’d rather go somewhere 

recommended for its food. Well, now I’ve had to 

eat my words and some very nice food at Pailin, because 

they are the only restaurant in the Lewes area to 

be given a mention in the new Good Food Guide. I’ve 

noticed, walking past, that it can be busy in the evening, 

but I visit on a quiet, weekday lunchtime with a colleague. 

We sit next to the window. Although located on 

car-clogged Station Street, the restaurant feels airy and 

calm. Pailin is the Thai word for blue sapphire, and the 

decorative scheme is pale yellow picked out with bright 

blue. Thai music plays quietly in the background, and 

on the walls are a number of wood-carvings. We are 

handed a number of menus. Perhaps, it must be said, 

too many. The list of lunch specials is most straightforward, 

with each dish, priced around £6-8, coming as 

a complete meal (for example, a large bowl of soup, or 

meat served with rice). I order a large bottle of Hildon 

sparkling water at £2.75, my colleague chooses Singha 

Thai beer at £2.50, and decisively orders two lunch 

specials; rice noodle soup with red pork £5.90, followed 

by roast duck and rice at £7.50. Our charming wait- 

er looks a little perturbed by this and tries to explain 

that both are meal-sized portions. ‘No problem,’ my 

colleague assures him, ‘I’m very hungry.’ I love Thai 

soup, so I choose tom yam gung from the main menu 

at £6.20, which is prawn in coconut milk. I dither about 

a main course. I’d heard the herb marinated chicken is 

delicious, but I decide to try crispy salmon at £11.50, 

and ask the waiter which sauce he recommends. He 

suggests chilli, so I choose that, and order sticky rice, 

which I haven’t had in years (£2.90). The food takes 

a little while to arrive, but is worth waiting for. Mine 

comes in a normal-sized bowl, my colleague’s is vast, so 

I feel like Goldilocks. Lovely fresh flavours, with lemon 

grass, slices of galangal root and zesty lime leaves. The 

‘red’ pork is served in slices on top of a clear broth, and 

is equally delicious. Whilst waiting for the next course, 

I take a look at the little rooms out the back, noticing 

healthy-looking pot plants and what at first sight seems 

to be a Thai dolls’ house. The waiter comes over and 

points out the little ceramic models of an older man 

and woman: ‘In honour of our ancestors,’ he explains. 

I return to the table as my salmon arrives, which is indeed 

crispy, generously covered in a zesty, tasty chilli 

and fresh pepper sauce. The sticky rice is as delightful 

as I remember. My colleague eats his way through his 

second meal with little difficulty. The duck, flavoured 

with garlic and ginger, is declared ‘lovely and juicy’. I 

enjoy my meal very much and will return one evening 

soon. Not the place to go if you’re in a hurry, but that’s 

no bad thing. V 

Emma Chaplin 

19, Station Street, 473906 

Closed Mondays 


f O O d 

2 9

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Photograph by Alex Leith 

TOM PAINE ALE 

The revolution starts at closing time 

Tom Paine, as we all know, was an intellectual revolutionary who 

lived for a few years in Lewes then went on to change the world. 

In 1784, ten years after Paine left town, John Harvey, who was 

destined to build the Bridge Wharf Brewery in its current Ouseside 

location, was born. Every year since 1991, in June, Harveys 

have brewed a new batch of Tom Paine Ale in Paine’s honour. It’s 

a strong dry-hopped premium bitter, which is sold on draught 

throughout July in various pubs in Lewes and beyond, and bottled 

for sale throughout the year. 

I arrive at the brewery at 6.30am to watch the birth of this year’s 

TPA, to find head brewer Miles Jenner waiting for me, wearing 

a white cotton coat over his sharp suit-and-tie combo. He takes 

me up a sweet-smelling room full of pipes and tubes and tubs and 

gauges where the first part of the process is being carried out. A 

copper ‘mash tun’, which wouldn’t look out of place in a Jules 

Verne submarine, is being filled with malt and ‘liquor’. One of the 

first rules I learn about brewing is that water might be used, but it 

is never referred to. Harveys’ liquor comes directly from springs 

situated below the site, and is not, as many assume, Ouse water. 

I walk up some stairs to see an employee poking his head into a 

white-painted iron vat, with ‘Grist Case No. 1’ stencilled on the 

side. He’s helping direct the last of the malt through with a stick. I 

wander down again in time to hear him yell a series of seemingly 

unconnected syllables from above. Miles yells something equally 


unintelligible back, leaps onto a 

small stepladder, and bashes a stopgap 

into the funnel with a rubber 

hammer. There is to be a lot of yelling 

and bashing over the morning. 

Over the next eight hours I witness 

every stage the beer goes through 

in its first day of existence, from 

the mash tun to the cleansing tun, 

where it is left to ferment. Hops 

are added in the ‘copper’, then the 

‘wort’ is dropped to a ‘hop back’ 

tank, where it is circulated and filtered 

through a bed of hops. It then 

gets directed back upstairs via a 

cooler to another tun, where yeast 

is added, and more liquor if necessary. 

There is plenty of chalking on 

boards, measuring of gravity, and 

dipping of dipsticks. 

I watch the brewing process until 

the ‘collection period’ after which 

the beer is left to ferment for a week 

before being ‘racked’ into casks. Ten 

days after that it will be ready to 

drink. I can’t wait that long. I leave 

the brewery and head straight into 

the Harveys shop, where last year’s 

batch is on sale in bottles. As soon as 

I legally can, I crack one open and 

take a sip. ‘This full-bodied beer 

has a rich multi-layered flavour; 

floral notes are followed by a spiciness 

and then citrus… underlying 

these top notes is a clean bitterness, 

distinct maltiness and sweetness,’ 

reads the blurb Miles has given me. 

Perhaps my palate isn’t discerning 

enough to detect all that, but there 

is a great ‘aaaahhh’ factor. 

The successful experiment with 

Tom Paine Ale, incidentally, led 

to Harveys brewing a succession 

of seasonal ales. Other breweries 

noted this, and started using the 

same strategy. As Miles puts it, ‘now 

they’re all at it.’ Fittingly, then, 

Tom Paine Ale stirred up a brewing 

revolution. V 

Alex Leith 

d Ay d r OI nuK t 

3 1

Photograph by Katie Moorman 

SWEET AS CHERRY PIE 

Cherries are in season, and you need to eat as many as you can while you can, says 

Bill Collison. And not only because they’re delicious – British cherry growers are 

doing their best to revive the market and they need our support. 

“Peachy peachy, Tanner eachy, Cherries ripe at tuppence 

a pound.” I used to shout that when I was 

selling cherries on the beach in Brighton and I expect, 

back in the day, cherries were just tuppence 

a pound when they were grown in abundance. But 

ever since I can remember they’ve been a treat – a 

handful for everyone and enough for jam and pies 

in a good year. 

The British cherry is in crisis and, according to 

FoodloversBritain.com, 85% of our cherry orchards 

have been lost in the past 50 years and we now import 

95% of the cherries we eat. The situation is 

so dire that the organisation has launched CherryAid, 

a campaign to save the British cherry. “We 

need people to be aware of the situation and to go 

out and buy British cherries during the season, not 

only because they are delicious but to support the 

growers,” says Chris Young from FoodLoversBritain.com. 

And there is hope. Fruit farmer Graham Love is optimistic 

that the British cherry is on the up. Many 

of our cherry orchards were planted in the 1920s 

and thirties with enormous trees that could take up 

to 15 years to start cropping. To add to that, many 

would succumb to bacterial canker in their sixth or 

seventh year. And when they did crop, the farmers 

had to be out from 4am every day, using every ingenious 

means possible to scare the birds away…all 

in all it was a labour of love that often didn’t pay 

off. 

But during the last ten to fifteen years growing 

cherries has become more viable as dwarf root systems 

have been developed, meaning smaller and 

more manageable trees. Graham planted two acres 

of cherries in 2002 and last summer was his first 

crop, protected from the birds by canopies of netting. 

“This summer’s crop isn’t going to be as plen- 

tiful as last year,” he says. “A warm winter, followed 

by a cold and hard Spring aren’t good conditions 

for cherries or plums. They’re not easy to grow 

– too much rain at the wrong time and they can 

split as they ripen – but there are definitely more 

farmers planting cherry trees again.” 

One of the best ways to eat cherries is straight out 

of the bag, spitting stones as you go or you can wait 

till you can get home and do the same but without 

anyone watching. You can also warm them through 

to spoon over ice cream, add them to any summer 

fruit dessert such as summer puddings and pavlovas, 

make a cherry pie or jam. The main thing is to 

get some in while they’re around. V 

Andy Pellegrino’s Cherry Custard Tart 

Line a 10/25cm flan tin with pastry - bought or home 

made, any type is fine. 

Blind bake the pastry case and leave to cool. 

1lb stoned cherries* 

To make the custard: 

4 egg yolks 

1 pint whipping cream (UHT is best) 

Zest of 2 oranges 

Zest of 1 lemon 

Sugar, to taste 

Finely shredded geranium leaves, if you have them 

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly. 

Put about 1lb stoned cherries into the cooled pastry 

case. Pour over the custard and put into the oven heated 

to 180° C. Cook for about 35-40 minutes, but turn 

the oven down to 150° C after about 10 minutes. You 

can brush a little apricot jam glaze over the top when 

you take the tart out of the oven if you like. 

Serve with crème fraîche. 

You can make this tart with just about any fruit. Rhubarb 

is good (slightly grilled first), so are bananas. 

*Bunces’s on Cliffe High Street sell cherry pitters for 

£1.79 

Bill’s Fruit and Veg boxes delivered to your door. 

Order in store or call us on 01273 476918 


B I L L C O L L I S O n 

3 3

LAZZATI’S 

R E S T A U R A N T 

Fresh seasonal 

authentic Italian food 

Opening times 

Mon-Fri 5-10pm 

Sat-Sun 12-10pm 

Bambinos eat free 

Free meal from the childrens’ 

menu with every adult 

ordering a main course 

Mon-Fri 5-6pm 

Sat-Sun 3-6pm 

17 Market Street, 

Lewes BN7 2NB 

Tel: 01273 479539 

www.lazzatis.co.uk

ElEgant tarts 

ClassiC Croissants & 

traditional frEnCh brEad 

dEliCious pastriEs, light 

lunChEs & aftErnoon tEas 

now being served in our 

café or courtyard garden 

5 station st, lEwEs 

telephone: 01273 483211 

open Tue-fri 7am-6pm Sat 9am-6pm 

AL FRESCO 

Eating out options in town 

Whilst eating at a window table 

in ASK, the Nibbler was recently 

enchanted to notice the fantastic 

view sweeping all the way down 

School Hill and up to Malling 

Down. It led to thoughts about 

other Lewes eating establishments 

with views, or (dare she 

suggest it without tempting fate 

to send us a summer of rain) 

where you can eat outside. If it’s 

a view you’re after, the outdoor 

tables in Pelham House’s pretty 

garden offer lovely ones over 

the Downs and to Newhaven 

beyond, similar to those from 

the terrace behind the White 

Hart. The Grange Café has the 

best garden setting, but Shelley’s 

garden is also pretty, albeit with 

sadly fewer mature trees and 

shrubs than there were a couple 

of months ago. 

The smoking ban, of course, 

has led to more outdoor eating 

possibilities. The Lewes Arms’ 

new bandstand-like section to 

the right of the pub door is a 

fine place to eat, though bear in 

mind its primary purpose. The 

Brewer’s Arms and the Elephant 

have also created new gardens, 

albeit paved ones: the Brewers 

have planted herbs to make it 

feel like less of a yard. Those of 

you who haven’t ventured into 

Prezzo’s have missed out: there’s 

a nice terrace which sits, almost 

literally, in the shadow of the 

castle. 

Finally, to my favourite three 

al fresco spaces in Lewes. Most 

Lewesians never make it as far 

as the Swan, which is a mistake. 

It’s worth it just for the garden 

round the back, where you can 

eat in the company of a colony 

of white doves hanging out on 

the roof. If it’s solitude you’re 

after, though, or a place for 

an illicit tryst, Station Street’s 

Garden Room Café and Lewes 

Patisserie have pretty, almost secret, 

garden areas to sit out in. 

Happy summer nibbling…

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

Restaurant 

�� 

��

<strong>moving</strong> on 2008 

Lewes district primary schools annual leavers’ parade 

PATinA presents: 

creatures 

of the deep 

Friday July 11th 

Lewes High Street 

12.30 onwards 

�� 

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MOVING ON PARADE 2008

MOVING ON 2008 

Friday 11th July 2008 Schedule 

11-11:30: Participating schools assemble at the Paddock. 

12:30: The Great Parade leaves the Paddock 

Between 12:40 and 1:20 There will be a rolling road closure in place on 

the High Street and all along the route. 

Route: Paddock Rd, right into New Rd, Westgate, Left into the High Street, down to the 

War Memorial, left to Market Street, Left at West Street, through Mount Pleasant and 

left into Paddock Rd, into the Paddock Park for Live gig of two Starfish bands! 

2:30: End of event – participating children welcome for a free swim at 

the Pells (but take your Parade costumes off first!)

MOVING ON PARADE 2008 

PATINA is an established voluntary association of 

parents, with teachers, local businesses & others, 

working in partnership with local schools since 

September 2001, to increase practical creative 

opportunities equally for all children & young 

people in Lewes District. PATINA is a community 

initiative - organised entirely by the voluntary 

energies and enthusiasm of its members. 

‘MOVING ON’ is a celebratory arts event that has 

taken place in Lewes every 2nd Friday of July 

since 2002. It started with 12 schools and grew 

over the years to 20 schools across Lewes District, 

bringing together children from 20 local 

primary schools in a spectacular carnival parade 

through the town. It was conceived as a ‘passing 

out parade’ for all local Year 6 school children to 

mark & celebrate their transition to secondary 

schools. 

Moving On is designed to celebrate and showcase 

one of any town’s main glories: the energy 

and imagination of its children and young people. 

All the carnival costumes and structures are 

made by the children themselves in an intensive 

three-day arts workshop process organized in 

each school - working with parents and teachers, 

under the guidance of local professional artists 

and supported by project assistants drawn 

from local secondary schools. 

Themes over the years: 

2002: Birds & Flights of Fancy 

2003: Space and Worlds beyond 

2004: Fruity Tutti 

2005: Whatever the Weather 

2006: Transformations (or Morphing On..) 

2007: Thank You for the Music 

2008 THIS YEAR’S theme: 

Creatures of the Deep

Thanks for your kind support!

MOVING ON PARADE 2008 

Patina would like to thank the following businesses, which form ‘The 

Well Wishers Club’ and donate in kind or financially, to the success of the 

parade. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Photograph: Alex Leith 

SLOW FOOD 

Local fish for local restaurants 

Slow Food is an international movement, set 

up in the 80s to combat the creeping menace of 

fast food chains in Italy, the land where cooks 

may spend several hours perfecting the tomato 

sauce for their pasta. 

Its remit has since grown, and SF now particularly 

advocates the consumption of locallygrown 

food within any given eco-region. Slow 

Food Brighton and Lewes, together with Transition 

Town Lewes have set up an evening, ‘A 

Celebration of Local Food and Drink’ in the 

hotel and garden of Pelham House, to help 

get their ideas across, with a number of local 

suppliers setting up stalls to promote their onmessage 

wares. 

An entrée to the evening, at 6.30, is a short presentation by Dr Malcolm MacGarvin, a marine biologist, 

and Caroline Bennett, director of Moshi Moshi. These two are the co-founders of PISCES, an initiative to 

encourage restaurateurs to source a large variety of locally caught, in-season fish to combat the increasing 

problem of diminishing stocks caused by over-fishing of popular species. 

A worthy cause, then, but it also should be quite a fun do, with a barbecue, bar, food and music. Plus samples 

from local outlets and producers, such as Hepworth’s and Fallen Angel breweries, Cheese Please, Ashurst 

Organics, and Ben’s Butchers. AL Pelham House, 6-9.30pm, Free entry 


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ORCHIDS 

Locally grown since 1879 

Supermarket flowers are fine, 

but if you want something really 

beautiful, locally sourced or striking, 

your best option is to go to a 

florist. In Lewes, we have Hilary 

Moore at 85 High St www.hilarymooreflowers.co.uk 

or Miss 

Bloomsbury at 1 Station St, but 

there are other shops in Lewes 

that sell elegant flowers, including: 

Flint at Home, 49 High St, Bill’s 

or May’s General Store, both on 

Cliffe High Street. Recently in 

search of something more unusual 

as a gift, I decided to take a 

trip to McBean’s Orchids, North 

of Cooksbridge, to have a look at 

their specimens. Orchid growing 

has been huge in Britain since 

the days of the Empire, although, 

perhaps fortunately, the price has 

come down. In the 1920s, a single 

orchid could cost the equivalent 

of a year’s wages. Partly that was 

because of the difficulty of transporting 

them to Britain – many 

perished at sea. Neville Chamberlain’s 

father grew orchids, which 

allowed his son to wear one in 

his lapel everyday in the House 

of Commons. I talk to Tony, who 

has been working at McBeans for 

thirty-nine years, and ask him if 

orchids are difficult to look after: 

“Not really,” he assures me. “Keep 

them out of direct sun and water 

them with rainwater.” McBeans 

have been trading since 1879. 

James Ure McBean, built the original 

glasshouse, an when his son, 

Albert, took over, he would lead 

the workers in prayer every morning 

at 6am. The work of McBean’s 

principal grower, award-winning 

Mr Schlegel, who won awards for 

breeding new hybrid orchids, was 

curtailed during the First World 

War because he was interned for 

being of German parentage. The 

Nursery has developed ten new 

hybrids every year, which means 

they now have thousands of varieties. 

Prices now start from a more 

affordable £10. 

www.mcbeansorchids.co.uk 

4 7

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e: david@davidsmithjewellery.com

HOLIDAY KIDSTUFF 

We all remember the long, endless summer days of childhood. 

But for parents, the endless quality of the school 

summer holidays can be a little more, shall we say, challenging. 

We’ve come up with a list of suggestions for 

what to do with your kids, including free activities and 

some playschemes. 

PLAYSCHEMES/CAMPS 

YMCA holiday play scheme 

Arts, sports, music, crafts, outings, educational projects 

(Ages 9-11). 8.30am (breakfast club) - 4pm 

T: 474599 www.lewesymca.co.uk 

Firecracker Circus children’s summer workshops 

Ages 5-9 

Opportunity to learn real circus skills with experienced 

professionals 

11th - 15th August 10-3pm 

St John’s Community Hall 

Contact Felicity or Muddlehead t: 0777 922 0729 

www.myspace.com/firecrackercircus 

Kaleidoscope Theatre Co 

Ages 5-11 

Drama, dancing, art and crafts summer school 

28 July - 1 Aug 10-4pm 

Sussex Downs College 

Contact Deirdre Daly t: 473554 

e: deirdredaly@btinternet.com 

Lewes Football Club 

Ages 5-12 

Daily football camps 

Darren Ford, Community and Education Manager 

t: 472100 

community@lewesfc.com 

Premier Sport 

Ages 4-12 

Daily football camps, held in schools 

9.30-3.30pm 

t: 0871 230 9455 

www.premiersport.org 

Junior Southdown Sport Club 

Tennis Camp 

Ages 4-8, 9.30-11.30am 

Over 8s, 9.30-3pm 

www.southdownsportsclub.co.uk 

FREE ACTIVITIES 

Baxter’s Field 

Lewes has lots of nice parks and play areas. One that may 

not be so well known is Baxter’s Field, a large, community 

owned space with beautiful castle views, wonderful 

for picnics, games and running around. Entrance at the 

end of Paddock Road by Irelands Lane. No dogs, fires 

or bikes. 

www.baxtersfield.co.uk 

The Railway Land Project 

Nature Reserve by the Ouse. Go up the spiral mound 

to view the Heart of Reeds, the lovely living sculpture 

designed by Chris Drury, as well as 365 species of wild 

plants, 9 types of dragon fly, 22 kinds of butterfly. 

www.railwaylandproject.org 

Newhaven 

You can take the train here, walk along the harbour, buy 

fresh fish and look at the boats and Dieppe ferry. There is 

a seafront cycle path to Seaford too. 

Stanmer Park 

Huge open space and woodland walks next to the University 

of Sussex. 


V I V A K I d S 

4 9

SEA SWIMMING 

Tidemills 

A fabulous widely known ‘secret’ spot for swimming is 

from near the demolished remains of the ‘ghost’ village 

of Tidemills near Seaford. Free car park by the bus stop 

just before Bishopstone, and you can cycle on the Ouse 

Estuary Project too. 

Cooden Beach 

You can get to this lovely beach near Bexhill, with views 

across to the Seven Sisters, by train When the tide is out, 

there is sand between the groynes. The only toilets and 

shop are by the train station. 

Seaford Beach 

You can get here by train or car. The Salts Recreation 

Ground behind the beach has great play areas for all 

ages, including a skate park, and there is a very nice café 

too. 

ROCKPOOLS 

Eastbourne Beach 

Accessible by train, this is a classic beach with a pier and 

rockpools. 

www.visiteastbourne.com 

Birling Gap 

Free parking, and rockpools when the tide is out. For 

a posh picnic, go to Frith & Little Deli in nearby East 

Dean. 

OTHER ACTIVITIES 

Friston Forest and Abbots Wood 

www.forestry.gov.uk 

Brighton and Hove Parks 

Many have great cafés and play areas, including: Queen’s 

Park, Preston Park, Blakers Park, and St Anne’s Well 

Gardens, Hove. There is a wonderful paddling pool at 

King’s Road playground on the seafront near the West 

Pier. 

Booth Museum 

Strange but fascinating collection of taxidermy. 

www.booth.virtualmuseum.info 

Brighton Museum 

By the Pavilion Gardens. 

www.brighton.virtualmuseum.info 

Hove Museum 

Small but great. Excellent café and children’s museum. 

www.hove.virtualmuseum.info 

POOL SWIMMING 

Lewes Leisure Centre 

Summer holiday programme highlights: 

• WaterWalkerz – become a human hamster ball on water. 

“It’s the most fun you can have in a swimming pool 

without getting wet” 

• Dance Zone (8-12yrs) – three styles in one session 

• Parkour (10-14+yrs) – core moves, jumps, rolls and 

hand placements 

• Cheerleading (6-8yrs) 

t: 486000 

Also Seahaven Pool at Newhaven 

For both: www.waveleisure.co.uk 

Pells Pool 

Brook St, 472468 

Heavenly outdoor pool in the centre of Lewes, open 

from midday. 

www.pellspool.org.uk 

Saltdean Lido 

Stylish 1930s lido by the sea. 

www.saltdean.info 

The Triangle 

Triangle Way, Burgess Hill 

Flumes, splashing and all the hellish stuff kids love so 

much. 

www.olymposcentres.com 

5 1 


V I V A K I d S

Photographs: Alex Leith 

Cooksbridge 

A whole lot more than just a level crossing 

I cycle the two-and-a-half miles from Lewes to 

Cooksbridge, and, of course, the level crossing barriers 

go down in front of me before I get across the 

tracks. I suppose this is what Cooksbridge is to most 

people who encounter it: an annoying hurdle on the 

A275, which seems to trip you up a disproportionate 

number of times. 

When I get through, I’ve got a bit of time before I 

meet my guide, local historian Sue Rowland, to take 

photos of the local landmarks: the level crossing, of 

course; the recently closed Pump House pub; the 

hundred-year-old Hamsey Community Primary 

School; the quaint (apparently listed) structures 

on the station platform, with their splendid loopy 

wooden awnings. Oh, and the Malthouse, a long low 

slope-roofed flint building that was until last year the 

village hall, and is now to be converted into flats. 

I wander over the tracks to the village green to inspect 

Beechwood House, the recently built and extremely 

sustainable new village hall, and to see how 

much noise the wind turbine on the other side of the 

field makes. A faint fluttery slap, is all; nothing compared 

to the significant traffic din from the road. The 

development was the result of a long consultation 

process with the villagers, who were slowly won over 

to the project after examining the plans, I’ve heard, 

like the characters in Twelve Angry Men. 

Sue arrives, with a friend, Lynda, and immediately 

disabuses me of my romantic notion of how Cooksbridge 

got its name. I’d heard said that Simon De 

Montfort’s troops stopped on the little bridge that 

goes over the North End stream on their way to the 

battle of Lewes, and were fed their last square meal 

there by the rebel army cooks before the battle. Sadly 

this is unlikely to be the case: it is much more likely to 

be named after landowner Edward Cooke, who lived 

in the area in the 16th century. 

Sue’s brought a folder full of information on the village, 

which is split into two parts. ‘New Cooksbridge’ is the bit 

around the station, which hardly existed before the stop on 

the London-Lewes line was built, in the mid 19th century. 

‘Old Cooksbridge’, half a mile up the main road, is centered 

around the Rainbow Inn, now a gastro pub. To make matters 

more confusing, the parish boundary runs to the west 

of splendidly-named Deadmantree Hill, putting the greater 

part of the village in the parish of Barcombe. 

We have a little look at the neat, well-kept allotments behind 

the 50s housing estate opposite the station, where Sue 

and Lynda have a bountiful plot. Then they drive me in 

their green Cinquecento to the Rainbow, where Sue continues 

her discussion, this time about the old part of the village. 

She’s a wonderfully informed host: she has recently been 

involved in an historical survey of the parishes of Hamsey 

and Barcombe, which is published on the internet, and the 

most recent of her series of oral histories, Washed, Pressed 

and Ready to Go, transcribes the memories of Joyce Pratt, 

who grew up in Old Cooksbridge in the 40s. 

The best bit of my visit comes after we leave the Rainbow, 

and wander up the road behind it. We walk up the private 

path towards Conyboro House, the estate of the Monk 

Bretton family, trying to catch a significant glimpse of the 

building hiding behind a line of sentinel trees. A big black 

4X4 stops, and an American-sounding woman wonders 

what we want. She soon warms to our presence, and tells 

us a nice story. It seems that in the 60s Lord Monk Bretton 

sold Conyboro, which had been built by his grandfather in 

1867, and moved to the smaller Shelley’s Folly on the other 

side of the road. And that his son, then aged nine and now 

her husband, vowed to his nanny he’d buy it back when he 

was grown up. Which is exactly what he did. 

Shelley’s Folly, not a folly at all but a large country house, 

is deemed to be too far away to bother walking to, but we 

do inspect a splendid topiary in a front garden opposite 

the entrance to Conyboro House. I’m also pointed out the 

buildings that used to serve this tiny hub of the local rural 

community: the laundry house where Joyce Pratt lived; the 

old forge; the old wheelwright; the former brewery (burnt 

down in 1912) which served the local pubs and households 

with beer and mineral water; what used to be the post office 

and grocer’s shop, all now private residences. 

I’m driven back to my bike in the ‘new’ part of the village, 

over the virtually non-existent bridge where Simon de 

Montfort’s soldiers probably weren’t fed. I unlock it, and 

cycle swiftly through the barriers, while they’re still open, 

musing that the next time I stop here, much as I’ve enjoyed 

myself, will probably be when they drop in front of a vehicle 

I’m in. V Alex Leith 


C O L u M n 

V I V A V I L L A g E S 

5 3

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Photograph of Matt Prior courtesty of snapitnow.co.uk 

Sussex lack Twenty20 vision 

And their County Championship defence doesn’t look too sharp, either 

After five years of hugely gratifying, but always faintly baffling success 

for Sussex County Cricket Club, the 2008 season seems to be unravelling 

along more familiar lines. Sussex came bottom of their regional group in 

the 50-overs Friends Provident Trophy, a competition which they won in 

2006 in a previous incarnation as the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy. 

At the time of writing they are similarly placed in their Twenty20 

group after five consecutive defeats. And on June 1st at Hove, Sussex 

went down to a defeat in three days at the hands of Durham. This was 

their first home defeat in the county championship since 2004. Disappointing, 

but nevertheless an extraordinary, sometimes bizarre, day’s 

cricket. For long periods the sun shone and queues doubtless formed for 

the Harveys beer, on special offer in the ‘Shark Shack’ (in one-day cricket 

the county play as the ‘Sussex Sharks’). Conversely, play was suspended 

for twenty minutes for bad light, and this was before lunch! There was a 

Steve Harmison hat-trick and an extraordinary innings by Sussex wicketkeeper, 

Matt Prior. Rejected by England, Prior is making an excellent 

case for a recall as a specialist batsman. At 138 for 8, he was still 28 runs 

shy of his hundred with partners disappearing fast. He accelerated, going 

to his century with successive sixes off Harmison carved over backward 

point and third man. He celebrated by dispatching Harmison’s slower 

ball for a breathtaking back-foot six over the sightscreen, finishing on 

133 not out. His success this season has been variously attributed to his 

new mentor, Alec Stewart, his dispensing with an earring, and his get- 


ting married. Perhaps his wife was 

watching from the ‘Family Players’ 

Enclosure’, situated next to the 

‘Shark Shack’. This opened last year 

as the ‘Wags Shack’, but after protests 

that notice was taken down. It 

is, however, still on display inside the 

enclosure, clearly visible when the 

double doors are open. 

1st June was also the occasion for 

the annual invitation extended to all 

former Sussex players. Five ex-captains 

were among the large group 

assembled for a photo-shoot outside 

the new, temporary museum at 

the Sea End – a strange mélange of 

fawn-coloured blazers, suede sneakers 

and tired-looking wigs. Ted 

Dexter was the personification of 

old-world courtesy and patience as 

he signed autographs and posed for 

photographs alongside members of 

his predominantly female and exclusively 

septuagenarian-plus fanbase. 

In July the focus moves away from 

Hove to the smaller, more picturesque 

grounds at Arundel Castle and 

Horsham. Worlds away from Wags’ 

Shacks, gentler, more civilised rules 

apply. Sometimes, though, the primitive 

forces of nature intervene. Wisden, 

reporting on a one-day match 

at Arundel in June, 2004, recorded a 

Yorkshire victory over Sussex, concluding 

‘Gale and Wood added 92 

for the second wicket and Yorkshire 

won with 18 overs to spare. They did 

so in dark blue kit after Wood went 

out to toss in their intended yellow 

away shirt and was attacked by a 

swarm of insects.’ V 

David Jarman 

July fixtures 

Wed 16-Sat 19: 

Hampshire at Arundel Castle 

Sun 20 (Pro 40): 

Somerset at Arundel Castle 

Wed 30 to Sat 2 August: 

Somerset at Horsham 

C r I C K E t 

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to Devil’s Dyke, Ditchling 

Beacon and Stanmer Park 

by bus from Brighton 

Phone the council on 01273 

292480 or Brighton & Hove 

buses on 01273 886200 

visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk 

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THE COLLECTOR 

David Jarman examines John Fowles’ first novel, set just outside Lewes 

“I’m going to spend, spend, spend,” was Yorkshire 

housewife Viv Nicholson’s famous reply when 

asked what she planned to do with her £151,319 

pools win in 1961. And spend she did, notching 

up, like the Wife of Bath, five husbands along the 

way. Frederick Clegg’s pools win in John Fowles’ 

1963 debut novel, The Collector, is a more modest 

£73,091. Quite enough, though, to buy a van 

and an old cottage in the Sussex countryside – advertised 

in a Sunday paper as being ‘Far from the 

Madding Crowd’ – which comes equipped with 

extensive cellars ideal for incarcerating the young 

art student Clegg intends to abduct. 

Where is this cottage? The clues provided seem 

to contradict each other. The advertisement says 

that it is two miles from the nearest village. The 

estate agent who shows Clegg round has driven 

out from Lewes. One theory advanced concerning 

the original purpose of the cellars is that smugglers 

travelling from Newhaven to London used 

them for storing contraband, and there is said to be a 

fine view from the south-facing cottage, presumably 

towards the sea. This all suggests that we are south 

of Lewes. Elsewhere, however, we are told that the 

sea is ten miles distant. The clearest descriptive detail 

Fowles provides is that ‘to the East there are woods 

both sides of the road running up the valley towards 

Lewes’ but, consulting a map, I don’t find this any 

help in pinpointing the cottage’s location. 

Anyway Lewes is sufficiently close by that Clegg, 

spurning the blandishments of the village traders, 

can do all his shopping there. And the Lewes of The 

Collector seems very well served by specialist shops. 

Eclectic needs such as fine art books and half bottles 

of champagne are easily accommodated. It is only 

the search for a dress with very demanding specifications 

that necessitates a visit to Brighton, but this, of 

course, was Lewes pre-Capriccio and Susanne Wolf. 

The total absence of topographical detail suggests 

that Fowles chose Lewes as his setting entirely arbitrarily, 

but how delightfully archaic his Lewes is. To 

give just one example: Clegg’s victim, Miranda, falls 

ill, and Clegg, fearing detection, ignores her increasingly 

frantic pleas for medical attention. Eventually 

panicking, Clegg drives into Lewes at dead of night 

in order to summon aid. Parked outside the doctor’s 

house while he plucks up courage, Clegg is moved on 

by a patrolling bobby. At 1.30 in the morning! Happy 

days! 

The Collector was an immense critical and popular 

success, made into a film starring Terence Stamp 

within two years of publication. But its disappointments 

as a ‘Lewes novel’ aside, I found it badly written 

and thoroughly unpleasant. The protagonist is 

entirely lacking in redeeming features. Rather pretentiously, 

Fowles has Miranda variously identify 

Clegg with Caliban, Arthur Seaton in Sillitoe’s Saturday 

Night and Sunday Morning, and Mr Elton in 

Austen’s Emma. A toxic mix indeed, but not one to 

deter three notorious serial killers citing The Collector 

as an inspiration. 

It’s butterflies that Clegg collects, if you’re wondering, 

but girls may become his consuming passion. 

Certainly one fears for the girl Clegg spots at a zebra 

crossing in Lewes at the end of the book, and tracks 

down to behind the sweet counter at Woolworths. V 


L I t E r A r y L E W E S 

5 7


Norman Baker 

...on an alarming trend 

I was left asking myself this yet again, as, yet again, 

a peaceful Sunday afternoon was shattered by a now 

all too familiar ear-splitting sound. This one came 

from a shop in the High Street which, needless to 

say, had not been attacked in any way. The likely 

cause, I imagine, was a light breeze within 20 yards. 

The mega-decibel noise, and its deeply unpleasant 

two-tone nature, is presumably designed to drive intruders 

from the invaded premises. In the absence 

of any such intruders, all it did was cause, within a 

minute or so, all the open windows in residences 

within a considerable radius to be hastily closed. 

Even so, the alarm could still be heard, through double 

glazing and above a recent Paul McCartney LP 

I was trying to listen to. Maybe I should have tried 

playing Block Buster by Sweet, about the only track 

I can think of where the ghastly alarm may have 

blended in. 

Perhaps when shop and car alarms were invented it 

was thought that when they went off, it would lead 

to public spirited citizens calling the police, or otherwise 

intervening. My goodness, they would say. A 

crime is under way. We must act. 

Have you ever seen anyone act in this way? No. But 

it is not because people have become less public 

spirited. Far from it. Just think of the tremendous 

and spontaneous response recently to the robbery at 

John Clark’s jeweller’s shop on Cliffe Bridge. Rather, 

it is because the public know that when an alarm 

goes off, the chances of that signifying a break-in 

are minuscule. That in turn means that, in the unlikely 

event that a crime is being committed, all the 

intruder has to do is to look embarrassed, apologise 

to anyone nearby and curse the alarm. 

If the aim is to protect property, wouldn’t it make 

more sense for a shop break-in to trigger a silent 

electronic message to the police or the alarm company? 

And wouldn’t it be more sensible if cars had 

tracking devices that enabled the owner to pinpoint 

its location? 

Last year, I introduced a Bill to the House of Commons 

which would effectively have banned car 

alarms. This resulted in letters of support from across 

the country, but the Bill was lost when the government 

blocked it. I think it is time to try again. 

P.S. I received a brilliant surprise when I arrived back 

in my office to find a kind constituent had dropped 

in a copy of the Georgie Fame LP I’ve been after for 

years, as mentioned in my column for Viva Lewes 

last month. And it’s great! V 


C O L u M n 

5 9

Tel. 01323 490085 | Design and Print 

sales@zetacolour.co.uk 

www.zetacolour.co.uk

Image courtesy of Sussex Archaeological Society 

The Pan, home to Lewes Football Club, fits snugly 

into the north-eastern corner of the former Priory 

precinct. And when the boundary wall built by the 

Cluniac monks was breached recently, to allow access 

to the ground from Ham Lane, observers from South- 

Eastern Archaeology noted that the spectator terraces 

round the Pan were made with soil mixed with debris 

from the church, cloister and chapter house of the 

Priory, toppled in 1538 by the artful Italian engineer, 

John Portinari. 

So the Pan is POST-MEDIEVAL, and was never a 

monastic salt works, tapping the saline riches of tides 

in the Ouse estuary, as some believed. And what of the 

Mount next door? If post-medieval too, then other 

theories bite the dust. The ‘Tumulus’ was not the pivot 

of a Neolithic zodiac clock, orchestrating Fertility 

in the South Downs. Nor was it a castle motte, thrown 

up perhaps in the troubled reign of King Stephen, by 

a tiresome baron seeking to wrestle Lewes from Earl 

Warenne up on the hill. Nor did the monks erect 

there an image of Christ Crucified each Easter, as a 

warning to ploughmen and milkmaids lustily frolicking 

beyond the wall. 

Together the Pan and the Mount occupy a neat rectangle, 

the Tumulus claiming the western third. So probably 

they were laid out at the same time – between 

1538 and in June 1604 when a cow strayed into ‘the 

Mount Garden’. But by who? Well Local Tradition 

yields a garbled clue. In 1772 Parson Robert Austen 

wrote to the eminent antiquarian, Francis Grose: ‘It 

THE DRIPPING PAN 

The oldest English stadium? 


L O C A L dh Ay I S t O ru yt 

[the Mount] is said to have been raised by an Earl of 

Dorset, between whom and a brother of his Living at 

Lewes, a Difference arose on Account of being over 

looked by each other.’ 

Certainly the first Earl, Thomas Sackville, who died in 

1608, Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Treasurer (‘Fill Sack’), 

did own the former Priory precinct, and being Lord 

Lieutenant of Sussex he sometimes resided at the 

Lord’s Place, a mansion, once the Prior’s Lodging, 

which he duly embellished. And doubtless he laid out 

a pleasure garden, eastward from the Place, and closed 

the vista by erecting a Prospect Mound, all the rage at 

the time. But what about the brothers? Well, Thomas 

had two sons, and the younger, Henry, showed great 

promise. His ‘rare curled head’ aroused the ‘very special 

liking’ of Queen Elizabeth. But he succumbed to 

madness, died at Dr. Panton’s on School Hill and was 

buried at Southover. Perhaps he was confined at the 

Lord’s Place – the brother ‘Living at Lewes’. 

And what of the Pan laid out beyond the Mount? Was 

it an elaborate knot garden, its intricate patterns of 

box viewed to advantage from the tumulus? Or were 

the terraces designed for spectators? In 1616 the profligate 

third Earl, Henry’s nephew, was amused while 

at Southover by bowling – tame enough – but also 

with bull-baiting – at the Pan, maybe. Perhaps jousting, 

another aristocratic pastime, was also staged. If so, 

is there an older stadium? Apart, of course, from the 

amphitheatres at Dorchester and Caerleon. But they 

are Roman, not English. V 

6 1

Name: Claire Jeary 

What do you do? As of July 1st, I’m the new manager of 

the Lewes and Seaford Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) 

Where is the CAB based? 3 North Court - the alleyway 

off Cliffe High Street near Oyster Lingerie. 

How long have you been involved with the CAB? - 

It’s been nearly four years as a volunteer and an advisor. 

Why did you choose to work for the CAB? Because it’s 

a fantastic service offering clear practical advice, which I 

passionately believe in. Also my mum was a volunteer. 

So what’s on offer at the CAB? When the CAB was 

originally set up during the 1940s, it focused on re-uniting 

people affected by the war - helping with housing, 

food, benefits and grants. Nowadays, our remit is to provide 

free, impartial and confidential advice to everyone 

in the Lewes District. We offer a totally inclusive service 

covering issues as diverse as debt management, benefits 

advice, relationship problems, housing, employment, 

immigration and consumer issues. 

What’s the quality of the advice? Any advice given will 

have been cross-checked and approved by one of our supervisors. 

The advice itself comes from our central UK 

database, and that is constantly being checked and audited 

by independent assessors. So we’re confident that 

we are always offering current and accurate advice. 

So what happens on a ‘normal day’? Every day is very 

different, but I’d say that on an average day we have 4 or 

5 of our 45 advisors offering practical advice either over 

the phone (01273 473082) or directly in our offices to 

anyone who needs our help. 

Who uses the CAB’s services? I’d like to stress that 

our services are here for everyone to use. At the moment 

we’re sure that there are many more people who could 

be benefiting from the service and we encourage anyone 

with a worry or an issue to contact us. 


t r A d E S E C r E t S 

Are there any plans to widen the range of services 

or move offices? We’re happy with the office space - we 

have three private interview rooms and an office - and 

just want more people to use us! 

What is your favourite shop in Lewes? Sussex Stationers, 

as I seem to spend much of my spare time there 

looking at and buying books… 

Recommend somewhere to eat out? The Jolly Sportsman 

at East Chiltington 

What sort of businesses do you think Lewes needs 

to attract? There appears to be a gap in the market for a 

wine bar in the town. 

Would a redeveloped Phoenix area be good for the 

town? Potentially. The Riverside is seriously under-utilised 

and would clearly benefit from some form of development, 

but this has to be closely managed. What we 

don’t need is something which looks like a cut and paste 

city development. 

Any thoughts on the Lewes parking scheme? I think 

it’s crippling the town. It’s unnecessarily aggressive with 

its enormous team of wardens. And it’s shocking that it is 

now cheaper and easier to park in Brighton. 

If you could change one thing about Lewes, what 

would it be? I’d make the town more pedestrian and 

cyclist friendly. 

Give a top tip to our readers: If you need help, the 

sooner you come to see us, the easier it is going to be 

for us to help. 

Is there anything you always get asked? Q - Are you 

really a charity? A - Yes, we receive no central government 

funding, so we’re always keen to hear from companies 

and individuals able to help us. 

What are your opening hours? 9.30 - 3.45pm Mon, 

Tues & Thurs, 9.30 - 12.45pm Weds & Fri. V 

Interview by Nick Williams 


6 3

HOT STONE THERAPY 

An ancient treatment for a modern pain in the neck 

Until recently, my knowledge of stones was limited to the 

ones on Brighton beach, and as Monty Python fans will 

know, there is a classic scene in the Life of Brian where 

the women dress up as men to hurl stones at the blasphemer. 

So being told that I was going to be ‘treated’ to 

a hot stone therapy didn’t immediately fill my mind with 

positive images. However, with a couple of quick clicks 

on google, I was able to discover that whilst relatively 

new to the UK, the practice has been used in Russia, Hawaii, 

Japan and North America for thousands of years. 

The stones used will be volcanic basalt stones smoothed 

off by movement in rivers and sea-beds. So, relatively 

re-assured I wasn’t heading for a ritual stoning, I entered 

the Clinic to meet massage therapist Daisy McKie. 

Daisy explains that Hot Stone treatment methods can 

vary dramatically in the UK. (Another quick flick around 

the web also showed me that the price you pay can vary 

massively as well). Her own method uses the stones as 

part of an overall treatment, also incorporating elements 

of a vigorous Swedish massage, Shiatsu, Reflexology, 

Aromatherapy, Manual Lymphatic Drainage and Cupping. 

While Daisy and I talk through the forthcoming 

treatment, the stars of the show, the stones themselves, 

are simmering in a cauldron in the corner of the room. 

The last time I remember seeing a similar container, it 

was called a slow cooker and a friend produced a particularly 

poor meal from it - but I digress. As I lay on the 

massage table, Daisy suddenly announces that the stones 

are ready, but that as they are quite hot she will run them 

under the cold tap first to cool them a little. I tense up as 

Daisy says that the treatment is about to begin… 

Initially I’m oiled up and Daisy gets to work with a traditional 

sports-style massage. The stones then come in 

to play, and as they’re moved around my body, the heat 

rapidly sinks into my willing back. I relax and go with 

the flow, as every minute or so the stones are turned and 

then replaced with new hot ones from the container. As 

Daisy talks me through the process, it becomes clear that 

she’s an old-school skilled masseuse using the stones as 

part of an overall treatment, and has little time for some 

of the trendier practitioners who apparently often simply 

lay the stone on your back and leave the room. My 

own treatment continues apace with the introduction of 

cupping, which involves my skin being sucked up in to a 

glass <strong>moving</strong> around my back. Before I have time to express 

my scepticism about this ancient method - apparently 

designed to drain excess fluid and toxins - I realise 

that a tight knot that’s been aggravating my shoulder 

blade for months has completely disappeared. 

A few minutes later and the treatment’s complete. Slowly 

rising from the bench, I feel slightly light-headed, but 

relaxed - pleasantly stoned. V Nick Williams 

Nick’s treatment took place at The Lewes Clinic in Fullers 

Passage, Lewes. For further details you can call Daisy on 

01273 474428 


h E A L t h 

6 5

LEWES 

DIRECTORY 

Please note that though we aim to only take advertising from reputable businesses, we cannot guarantee the 

quality of any work undertaken, and accept no reponsibility or liability for any issues arising. To advertise in 

VivaLewes please call Steve on 01273 48882 or email steve@vivalewes.com

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

HEALTH AND WELLBEING 

Restore natural 

balance to your life 

Try our naturally healthy drug-free 

treatments, courses & workshops: 

Acupuncture Allergy Testing Aromatherapy Baby Massage 

Bowen Technique Childrens Clinic Chinese Herbs 

Chiropractic Counselling Cranio-sacral Therapy Dr Hauschka 

Homeopathy Hypnotherapy Iridology Life Coaching NLP 

Massage (Deep Tissue, Holistic, Indian Head, Pregnancy, Thai, Foot) 

Nutrition Osteopathy Physiotherapy Refl exology Shiatsu 

Spiritual Counselling Yoga Pilates Reiki Tai Chi 

...and many more! 

To fi nd out more call 01273 470955 

16 Station Street, Lewes BN7 2DB 

www.equilibrium-clinic.com

VIVA BUSINESS SERVICES 

L’ASSISTANT 

Do you need assistance? 

If so, we can come to your rescue 

07974 359 483 

(Available Days and Evenings) 

Based in Lewes and its environs 

Odd jobs – Gardening – Office 

Email – Computers – Fix things 

Full clean driving licence 

Non smoker - Police Vetted 

We do not provide services involving 

children or vulnerable people 

£10 - £20 per hr (min 2hrs) 

Invoiced at the end of the job 

Pay by cheque cash or credit card 

Visit us at www.lassistant.co.uk

BUSINESS, HOME AND GARDEN 

PLASTERER 

For all your plastering 

needs 

Steve Baldwin 

01273 814799 

Free Estimates, Competitve Rates, 

P E G L E R 

Building Services 

General Building - Loft 

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01273 486776 / 

07711282152 

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design 01273 476343 / 07724993123 

www.arrandesign.com 

L’ASSISTANT 

07974 359 483 

01273 475 946 

for 

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Custom-made windows, doors, staircases, 

fitted furniture and roof lanterns. 

Designed, manufactured and installed 

to your individual requirements. 

www.parsonsjoinery.com 

01273 814870 

Parsons Joinery are now FENSA registered. 

Please refer to our website or call us for further information. 

�� 

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LESSONS AND COURSES 

L’ASSISTANT 

07974 359 483 

01273 475 946 

for 

WHATEVER

TAXIS 

gM taxis 01273 473737 

Lewes district taxis Ltd 01273 483232 

Lewes hackney Varriages 01273 474444 

Len’s taxis 01273 488000 

PHOENIX CARS 

now with eight seater 

TO BOOK CALL 01273 475 858 

S &g taxis 01273 476116 

yellow Cars 01273 472727 

USEFUL NUMBERS 

Emergency/utilities 

Electricity and gas 0800 783 8866 

gas Emergency 0800 111 999 

Water Emergency 0845 278 0845 

floodline 0845 988 1188 

Bt fault Line 0800 800 151 

Lewes Victoria hospital 

01273 474153 

Sussex Police (non-emergency) 

0845 607 0999 

Crimestoppers 0800 555 111 

transport 

gatwick Enq 0870 000 2468 

heathrow Enq 0870 000 0123 

national rail 08457 484950 

Public transport travel line 

0870 608 2608 

Other 

Childline 0800 1111 

Citizens’ Advice 01273 473082 

Lewes Chamber of Commerce 

01273 488212 

Lewes district Council 

01273 471600 

Lewes Library 01273 474232 

Lewes tourist Info 01273 483448 

the Samaritans 08457 90 90 90

I 

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Y 

S I 

L 

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S 

F T 

This bunch of likely lads are crowding round the gutted front of Charles Thompson’s Drapers on 19-20 Cliffe 

High Street on the morning of 24th April, 1911. The site is currently home to Theo Antique Shop and Lewes 

Antique Stores. The fire took hold at 3.30am, but luckily a passing lamplighter – Edwin Fuller – was walking 

by, as were police constables Bromley and Simmons. The fire brigade were alerted and the twelve people sleeping 

above were rescued, though £2,000 of damage was done. They had had to rescue the same people just two 

months earlier after another fire caused £200 of damage. Thomson’s was not listed in the subsequent Pike’s 

Directory, so presumably went out of business. We love the adult way the kids were dressed in those days: some 

of the older ones towards the back would certainly have been called up during The Great War. The picture was 

taken by Henry John Bartlett, a solicitor and gifted amateur photographer, from a prominent Lewes family. He 

was a familiar sight around town, always wearing a smart suit and a bowler hat. The photo is in the collection of 

the Sussex Archaeological Society: please contact them if you recognise any of the long-dead characters. 

V 

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moving on 2008 Lewes district primary schools annual ... - Viva Lewes

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