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

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