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LEWES<br />
Wednesday 27th <strong>January</strong><br />
16:00 – 19:00<br />
EASTBOURNE<br />
Wednesday 3rd February<br />
16:00 – 19:00<br />
www.sussexdowns.ac.uk
112<br />
VIVALEWES<br />
Editorial<br />
“You are what you eat,” is the mantra of our ‘My <strong>Lewes</strong>’ interviewee this month, Tina<br />
Deubert, healthy-food cook, nutritionist and all-round good egg (of the organic, free-range<br />
and biodynamic variety, natch). Generally in <strong>January</strong>s we’ve gone down the ‘New Year’s<br />
Resolution’ route, trying out everything from colonic irrigation (I’ll never hear the end of<br />
that one) to giving up smoking. This year we’ve decided to think more about the other side<br />
of the self-improvement coin - pre-emptive health measures. And so we’ve decided on the<br />
obvious preventative-medicine-related saying as our theme: ‘an apple a day’ (with the knee<br />
jerk follow-on that’ll have sparked in your mind concerning the resultant remoteness of your<br />
GP). Which all begs the question: in this day and age when we’re being told that fat is where<br />
it’s at, and don’t drink too much of that evil orange juice – is an apple a day good for you?<br />
Over to Tina… “It’s one of the best fruits,” she says, “as long as you buy organic, because<br />
most of the nutrients are in the skin. It’s a good source of vitamin C, potassium and the antioxidant<br />
quercetin, it’s good for your cholesterol balance, and<br />
it’s high in fibre, so the sugars in it are released slowly. It<br />
may help reduce the risk of cancer, Type-2 diabetes, and<br />
heart disease. What’s more, food doesn’t get more local -<br />
you can grow them in your back garden.” Get the message?<br />
Eat. One. Now. Enjoy the issue… and Happy New Year.<br />
The Team<br />
.....................<br />
EDITOR: Alex Leith alex@vivamagazines.com<br />
SUB-EDITOR: David Jarman<br />
STAFF WRITERS: Rebecca Cunningham rebecca@vivamagazines.com, Steve Ramsey rambo@vivalewes.com<br />
ART DIRECTOR: Katie Moorman katie@vivalewes.com<br />
ADVERTISING: Sarah Hunnisett, Amanda Meynell advertising@vivalewes.com<br />
EDITORIAL/ADMIN ASSISTANT: Isabella McCarthy Sommerville admin@vivamagazines.com<br />
PUBLISHER: Lizzie Lower, lizzie@vivalewes.com<br />
directors: Alex Leith, Lizzie Lower, Becky Ramsden, Nick Williams<br />
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Jacky Adams, Michael Blencowe, Sarah Boughton, Mark Bridge, Emma Chaplin, Barry Collins,<br />
Moya Crockett, Mark Greco, John Henty, Mat Homewood, Paul Austin Kelly, Chloë King, Ian Seccombe, Marcus Taylor<br />
<strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> is based at Pipe Passage, 151b High Street, <strong>Lewes</strong>, BN7 1XU, 01273 488882<br />
Every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of our content. <strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> magazine cannot be held responsible for any omissions, errors<br />
or alterations. The views expressed by columnists do not necessarily represent the view of <strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong>.
VALUATION DAY<br />
Jewellery and Watches<br />
Wednesday 20 <strong>January</strong>, 10am to 4pm<br />
Brighton and Hove Office<br />
Bonhams jewellery specialist will be in the Brighton<br />
and Hove office to offer free and confidential advice<br />
on items you may be considering selling at auction.<br />
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01273 220000<br />
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bonhams.com/hove
the ‘apple a day’ issue<br />
Contents<br />
37<br />
Bits and bobs.<br />
8-23. Ian Seccombe’s jumping apples,<br />
vox populi advice on how to cure<br />
a cold, Tina Deubert’s <strong>Lewes</strong>, the<br />
county town’s health stats, and plenty<br />
more besides.<br />
Columns.<br />
25-29. A variety of muses for our<br />
columnists: for David Jarman it’s The<br />
Bard, Chloë King cites Jon Ronson,<br />
and Mark Bridge is inspired by his<br />
indestructible cat, Rupert.<br />
In town this month.<br />
31. We meet bumblebee expert Prof<br />
Dave Goulson.<br />
33. Holocaust memorial: Tim Locke<br />
on his Kindertransport mum.<br />
35. Economics funny-man Simon<br />
Evans at the Linklater Pavilion.<br />
37-41. Art. The cinematic hoardings<br />
at the Depot, Bill Knight’s refugee<br />
39<br />
portraits in the Town Hall, John Bratby<br />
at the Jerwood, and plenty more.<br />
43. Classical music. Paul Austin Kelly<br />
on… Paul Austin Kelly, and other artists.<br />
44-45. Cinema. Timbuktu,<br />
Abderrahmane Sissako’s powerful cry<br />
from the heart.<br />
47-51. Diary dates. What’s on, in<br />
chronological order, including, of course,<br />
<strong>January</strong> being <strong>January</strong>, St Mary’s Panto,<br />
in its 68th year.<br />
53-54. Gig guide. Angaleena Presley,<br />
bringing her country blues from<br />
Kentucky to the Con Club. And plenty<br />
more from pirate folk to cool jazz.<br />
57-61. Free time. What’s on for the<br />
U16s, photo of the month by Lizzie<br />
Archer, and ice skating at the Pavilion.<br />
Food and drink.<br />
63-71. Healthy stuff this month: onglet<br />
steak in the Limetree Kitchen, a zingy<br />
soup from Cashew Catering, water<br />
Kefir from Ana Frearson, and a posh<br />
full English at Le Magasin. Plus Chloë<br />
5
the ‘apple a day’ issue<br />
64<br />
King’s food news, and reader offers<br />
from The Barley Mow and The<br />
Griffin Inn.<br />
The way we work.<br />
73-77. Simon Potter visits three<br />
different smile enhancers in the<br />
same day.<br />
107<br />
Features.<br />
78-89. My space with Trish from<br />
Specsavers, John Henty shoots<br />
from the hip, Barry Collins meets<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Ladies’ new medic, Michael<br />
Blencowe on herbalist Nicholas<br />
Culpeper, trade secrets from St<br />
Anne’s Pharmacy, and we visit<br />
Chailey Heritage.<br />
Business Directory.<br />
90-105. Reputable <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
businesses at your fingertips, with<br />
the spotlight on intrinsic HEALTH<br />
and the award-winning wheelchair<br />
specialists Design Specific.<br />
Inside Left.<br />
106. Four rugged cyclists,<br />
from 1894… but only one with<br />
pneumatic tyres.<br />
VIVA DEADLINES<br />
We plan each magazine six weeks ahead, with a mid-month advertising/copy deadline.<br />
Please send details of planned events to events@vivalewes.com, and for any advertising queries,<br />
contact advertising@vivalewes.com, or call 01273 434567.
IT’S TIME TO STAND<br />
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Nuffield Health Brighton Hospital,<br />
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01273 987 089<br />
nuffieldhealth.com/hospitals/brighton
8
this month’s cover artists: photography firm<br />
This year’s first cover comes from husband-andwife<br />
duo Helen and Andrew Perris. Aided by<br />
their small team, they run Photography Firm, a<br />
commercial photography studio based in Cooksbridge.<br />
We approached them to come up with<br />
a concept for our ‘Apple a Day’ issue and they<br />
just so happened to be working on a similarlythemed<br />
project already. Helen explains: “We’ve<br />
been working on a large series which plays<br />
around with the idea of how we can change people’s<br />
opinions on sugar. If you wrap up chocolate<br />
in shiny paper and make it look really appealing,<br />
of course everyone’s going to want to eat<br />
it.” So rather than trying to make sugary foods<br />
and sweets look less attractive, they decided to<br />
focus instead on making fruit and veg look just<br />
as exciting.<br />
The project came about in part after having<br />
three children of their own and noticing the<br />
way that sugary foods are portrayed to children<br />
in particular. But as they shoot a lot of images<br />
for stock libraries, another important factor was<br />
the current popularity surrounding the sugar issue.<br />
“We do a lot of research into current trends,<br />
using information that’s available to everybody:<br />
half of it was just reading the newspapers and<br />
half was research into what’s trending in the<br />
microstock world.” In other words, finding out<br />
what people are searching for online.<br />
The duo work on the idea generation stage together,<br />
and the chosen concept is photographed<br />
by Andrew. Helen is a graphic designer, so her<br />
next role is the retouching of the images and<br />
producing the artwork. In a lot of cases they will<br />
sell their work through agencies, so they won’t<br />
always know where one of their images will turn<br />
up. “Sometimes we do bulk private commissions,”<br />
Helen says, “but when it comes to the rest<br />
of our work we won’t know where it’s being used.<br />
It’s a nice surprise when it pops up in a blog or a<br />
magazine somewhere.”<br />
During the coming year, the team are hoping to<br />
fit in some time working on their own projects,<br />
between commissions for their clients. When<br />
they find the time, they want to start merchandising<br />
and selling some of their own work, in the<br />
form of limited edition prints, amongst other<br />
things. Helen says: “These are the kinds of projects<br />
that we look forward to working on, just for<br />
the love of art and design.” RC<br />
See more of Helen and Andrew’s work at<br />
photographyfirm.co.uk<br />
9
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TICKETS £15<br />
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Nothing is a co-commission between Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House<br />
made possible with the help of MariaMarina Foundation, Arts Council England,<br />
The Chalk Cliff Trust, The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation, The Helen Wade<br />
Charitable Trust, The Charles Peel Charitable Trust, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable<br />
Trust, RVW Trust and investment from Glyndebourne’s New Generation Programme.
Photo bny Alex Leith<br />
my lewes<br />
Tina Deubert: Cook, nutritionist, teacher<br />
Are you local? My life has taken me in a little triangle.<br />
I grew up in Newhaven, went to Germany<br />
as an au pair, then moved to Brighton. In 1987,<br />
pregnant with my first child, I moved to <strong>Lewes</strong>.<br />
It seemed like a good place to bring up children.<br />
What was Newhaven like when you were a kid?<br />
It was a great place to grow up. It was before the<br />
ring road, when it had a proper high street. I had<br />
lots of freedom and played in the countryside.<br />
Lots of beach time, too; when I was a teenager me<br />
and my best friend swam from March to October.<br />
How did you come to run a healthy-food café?<br />
[Tina’s Kitchen on the High Street] My mum<br />
let me experiment in the kitchen from when I was<br />
about eight, but advised me not to take up cooking<br />
as a profession. I did all sorts of things – from<br />
temping to doing a teacher training course, but I<br />
always loved everything about good food. For four<br />
years I ran the Farmers’ Market, then I trained to<br />
be a nutritional therapist. This job brings together<br />
everything I’ve done which I’m passionate about:<br />
I use my teaching in my healthy eating courses<br />
and workshops, advise people on their diet… and<br />
I cook and love inventing new recipes!<br />
Can you recommend any other <strong>Lewes</strong> restaurants<br />
or pubs? It’s recently been discovered that<br />
humans don’t have a gluten-digesting enzyme,<br />
which is why so many people have a problem with<br />
it. I don’t eat (or serve) any food containing gluten,<br />
but once or twice a year I’ll treat myself and have<br />
one of the best pizzas ever at The Hearth. I’m not<br />
a great pub goer, but I enjoy a drink, mostly wine;<br />
my favourite treat is a Negroni. If I want a nice<br />
informal meal out, I’ll choose Lazzati’s (Famiglia,<br />
but still Lazzati’s to us).<br />
What did you have for breakfast this morning?<br />
The same as I had for dinner last night because<br />
it was so good! Cheese and ham in a beanjack<br />
(instead of bread) sandwich. It’s best to have a<br />
savoury breakfast with plenty of protein, which<br />
helps to stabilise your blood sugar levels and reduce<br />
cravings.<br />
What’s your favourite view? On a Sunday afternoon<br />
I love walking up to Black Cap and looking<br />
over towards Kingston. I’d look over to Newhaven<br />
if the incinerator didn’t get in the way. I used<br />
to walk every day before I opened the shop; if I<br />
can get away, I love climbing to the top of the castle<br />
and looking over the roofs and gardens below.<br />
We’re members of the SAS so it’s free; I wouldn’t<br />
pay £7. You could have a mushroom Scotch egg<br />
and a mixed salad for that!<br />
What don’t you like about <strong>Lewes</strong>? The house<br />
prices. I’d like my children to be able to afford to<br />
live here.<br />
Where in the world would you live if you<br />
didn’t live here? In Cornwall. I love the sea, and<br />
wild weather. Interview by Alex Leith<br />
11
TOUR THE<br />
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its and bobs<br />
ian seccombe’s point of view<br />
“Afal y dydd yn cadw y meddyg i ffwrdd” writes the ever-more-inventive Ian Seccombe, who this<br />
month hasn’t been able to get out and about, instead taking this trick shot from inside his house, in<br />
front of a cabinet full of old <strong>Viva</strong>s. But that hasn’t stopped him keeping on theme. “Apparently the<br />
common English idiom ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ has its origins in Wales.”<br />
town plaques #10: <strong>Lewes</strong> Dispensary – our first hospital<br />
For more than a century the town’s hospital has been on Nevill<br />
Road, and thousands of residents have had reason to be grateful<br />
for that local service. However, the first hospital was located<br />
at 11, High Street: a building which now has only financial<br />
connotations, being the home of NatWest Bank, across Friars<br />
Walk from Fitzroy House.<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Dispensary was established in 1847, funded by the Pest<br />
House charity and public subscription and soon moved to this<br />
building, emblazoning its name across the front over the top windows. Three accident beds were added<br />
in 1867 and the Victoria wards in 1888. The postcard here (from the <strong>Lewes</strong> Past Facebook collection) is not<br />
dated, but shows how [apart from the demise of the railway bridge] little this part of town has changed in<br />
a hundred years. The present hospital, named in memory of the Queen, was planned after her death and<br />
was opened in 1910. Marcus Taylor<br />
13 13
photo of the month<br />
saNta claws<br />
We thought we’d try to cheer those <strong>January</strong> blues with this picture sent to us by Robert Horscroft,<br />
who was busy in the run-up to the New Year [spoiler alert for the under-eights] in his role as Santa,<br />
for Drusillas and various other organisations. Not too busy to go for the odd walk, though, and he<br />
encountered this little creature while at Splash Point, near Seaford. “Somebody had obviously found<br />
these glasses on the beach, and decided to make an artwork out of them,” he says. And it’s quite an artwork,<br />
with the Ray-Ban-like frames over two eye-holes in the pebble, and the lobster (or is it a crab?)<br />
claw acting as a surrogate arm; if you look closely you can even see what passes for a mouth. “I take my<br />
Canon Powershot Sx500 IS nearly everywhere I go, and usually take shots of the light and the shades<br />
and the colour,” he says. “This one just fell into my lap.” There’s an epilogue to the story, too: “I put it<br />
on Facebook, and one of my ‘friends’ wrote: ‘here, those look like my glasses I lost on the beach a few<br />
days ago’. I told him where to look: I doubt if they were still there, somehow.”<br />
Please send your pictures, taken in and around <strong>Lewes</strong>, to photos@vivalewes.com. We’ll choose our favourite<br />
for this page, which wins the photographer £20. Unless otherwise arranged we reserve the right to use all<br />
pictures in future issues of <strong>Viva</strong> magazines.<br />
14
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its and bobs<br />
vox pop Frankie Watts and Keri Thomas from sussex<br />
downs college ask: How do you treat a cold?<br />
“I believe in rest and sleep,<br />
taking a mixture of fresh<br />
lemon and honey, trying not<br />
to feel sorry for yourself!”<br />
Barry Shepard<br />
“Lots of sleep and<br />
healthy organic food,<br />
keep warm and take<br />
medication as needed.”<br />
Lauren Heely<br />
“Complain a lot.”<br />
“Vitamin supplements, fresh<br />
orange, lots of rest.”<br />
Helen Norman, Clair Hemett<br />
and Frances Bell-Davis<br />
“With difficulty, sleep<br />
mostly” Maureen Messer<br />
“Fill yourself with Harveys”<br />
Sam Hall<br />
“Take it easy and take<br />
medication!” Gill Pleose
Problems at work?<br />
Trouble at t’mill?<br />
We can help<br />
Call Simon Dodds or Quintin Barry on 01273 480234<br />
to book your free half hour interview.<br />
www.lawsonlewisblakers.co.uk<br />
Suite 4, Sackville House, Brooks Close, <strong>Lewes</strong> BN7 2FZ<br />
Offices also at: Eastbourne | Peacehaven<br />
Check us out on Twitter and Facebook
its and BObs<br />
A lewes worthy’s sad demise gideon mantell<br />
Around 1840, things weren’t going well for<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong>’ great dinosaur hunter, Gideon<br />
Mantell. Previously a country doctor,<br />
he’d tried and failed to set up a practice<br />
in fashionable Brighton. In 1838<br />
he’d had to sell his fossil collection.<br />
‘His wife and elder son left him the<br />
next year and his favourite daughter,<br />
Hannah Matilda, died of tuberculosis in<br />
1840,’ biographer Dennis Dean has noted.<br />
There followed ‘months of despair’.<br />
He was also suffering increasingly from spine<br />
problems. He partly blamed the country doctor’s<br />
lifestyle – lots of riding and walking and stooping<br />
over patients’ beds. Later, in London, he’d<br />
exhausted himself tending to a demanding-butwealthy<br />
patient, while also dealing with ‘my sweet<br />
girl’s malady, which required careful dressing night<br />
and morning, often occupying an hour, and which<br />
I would not transfer to a nurse’. And then<br />
there was his carriage accident in 1841.<br />
‘His fortitude in relation to the pains,<br />
spasms and neuralgia was impressive,’<br />
according to biographer Edmund<br />
Critchley, ‘though nothing like as remarkable<br />
as his activity and enormous<br />
output of books and lectures during<br />
that period.’ However, he ‘became increasingly<br />
dependent’ on painkillers, and<br />
died in 1852, aged 62, apparently from an accidental<br />
overdose.<br />
Mantell had said that, if his spine turned out to<br />
be medically interesting, it should be donated to<br />
the Hunterian Museum, at the Royal College of<br />
Surgeons. This is odd, as its curator at the time was<br />
his great rival, Richard Owen. The spine remained<br />
there until around 1969, when, according to one<br />
source, it was destroyed ‘due to lack of space’. SR<br />
ghost pubs: #15 The Grape Vine Inn, South Parade<br />
The Grape Vine started its days in the 1840s<br />
as the ‘Tunnel Arms’. The railway had come to<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> in 1846, and the entrance to the tunnel<br />
which runs under <strong>Lewes</strong> High Street was placed<br />
at South Parade, so the Tunnel Arms seemed an<br />
apt name for a new beer shop. However, by 1853<br />
its name had been changed to the ‘Grape Vine’,<br />
with one room selling beer, and another selling<br />
groceries. Horace Head ran it from 1879 until<br />
1892, and, despite having his greenhouse smashed<br />
by a woman he had barred, appears to have been<br />
a well-respected landlord. However, after Horace<br />
had left, the Grape Vine seemed to go downhill. It had seven landlords over the following six years, and<br />
was attracting a ‘very rough element’. Landlord Frank Woolven was heavily fined in 1904 for permitting<br />
drunkenness, and fined again just a few months later. It is perhaps unsurprising that the Grape Vine was<br />
another victim of the great <strong>Lewes</strong> pub cull of 1907. This photo (kindly supplied by John Davey) shows the<br />
Grape Vine around the time of its closure. The building was later demolished. However, it is nice to see<br />
that the modern house which stands in its place is called… ‘The Grapevine’. Mat Homewood<br />
19
photography<br />
CARLOTTA LUKE<br />
girl about town<br />
Our out-and-about photographer Carlotta<br />
Luke has been roving the district for pictures<br />
taken since our last deadline. Clockwise,<br />
from top left: Southover Grange ‘during the<br />
[Enchanted Space] light show, which was<br />
brilliant, by the way’; another image from the<br />
Grange Gardens spectacular; an art installation<br />
at the all-new Newhaven Library; and<br />
a scene from the Remembrance Day service,<br />
back in November: “I thought it was apt considering<br />
the state of the world and the MPs’<br />
vote to start airstrikes against Syria.”<br />
20
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book review: bowled over<br />
‘Let there be no doubt. For anyone interested in the history of<br />
bowls, as a game, <strong>Lewes</strong> must be their starting point.’ This is a<br />
quote from Bowled Over (the second in the excellent series of reference<br />
books Played in Britain) which is all about the ancient sport<br />
of bowling, in all its forms. The book, beautifully written and illustrated,<br />
tells you pretty much everything you might need to<br />
know about a game which was ‘first codified in 1670, long before<br />
other sports, such as football, cricket, and golf.’ One of the reasons<br />
the <strong>Lewes</strong> green is so heavily featured (it is awarded a whole<br />
chapter and there are 35 references to it, more than anything else<br />
in the index) is that it is thought to be the oldest green in the<br />
country, used for the same purpose since at least 1640. <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
Bowling Club, formed in 1753, is the equal-oldest in the country, as well, out of over 7,400 clubs. The<br />
rules of the <strong>Lewes</strong> game are unique, too, with our-very-own-shaped jacks and woods. Much more of that<br />
in the next issue, which we will dedicate to ‘<strong>Lewes</strong> at Play’. In the meantime, let there be no doubt, for anyone<br />
interested in reading up the history of bowls, as a game, Bowled Over must be their starting point. AL<br />
22
its and bobs<br />
lewes in numbers<br />
The 2011 Census questioned <strong>Lewes</strong>’s<br />
17,297 residents, of whom 83% considered<br />
themselves to be in good or very<br />
good health. 16.5% of the population, or<br />
1 in 6 people, declared themselves to have<br />
a long-term condition, lasting 12 months<br />
or more, which limited their ability to<br />
perform daily tasks. And 1,190 or 6.9%<br />
of that total felt their activities were limited<br />
‘a lot’. When asked if they provided<br />
regular unpaid care for a friend or relative,<br />
1,922 residents (11%) declared that they<br />
did. And 319 (16% of those giving care)<br />
provided 50 or more hours a week, with<br />
49 of these carers themselves suffering<br />
limits to their activities through illness or<br />
disability.<br />
spread the word<br />
This month Pearl-Imogen<br />
Leader has spread the word<br />
further than anyone has<br />
spread it before (as far as we<br />
remember). “I took November’s<br />
copy out to my <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
girls, Faith and Molly, who<br />
are staying in Melbourne,”<br />
she tells us. “This was taken<br />
at Williamstown Botanical<br />
Gardens.”<br />
Are you off anywhere for a<br />
winter break? Don’t forget to<br />
take <strong>Viva</strong> with you, and send<br />
us a picture (hint, if you’re<br />
worried about weight… just<br />
take the front cover.)
<strong>Lewes</strong> Theatre Youth Group<br />
is proud to present Robert Louis Stevenson’s<br />
Treasure Island<br />
(Ludwig) is presented by special arrangement<br />
with SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD.<br />
Directed by Tim Rowland & James Firth-Haydon<br />
Evenings on 29th Jan, 5th Feb & 6th Feb at 7:45pm<br />
Matinees on 30th Jan, 31st Jan & 6th Feb at 2:45pm<br />
Tickets cost 6gbp for children & 8gbp for adults<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Little Theatre , Lancaster Street, <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
Box Office 01273 474826
column<br />
David Jarman<br />
1966 and all that<br />
The most important<br />
date in this year’s Sussex<br />
calendar is probably<br />
14th October,<br />
the 950th anniversary<br />
of The Battle of<br />
Hastings. My school<br />
summer holidays were<br />
always spent in Hastings.<br />
I remember that<br />
in 1966 David Gentleman<br />
produced a set of<br />
stamps, based on eight<br />
episodes from the Bayeux<br />
Tapestry, to mark the 900th anniversary, and<br />
local mail was postmarked: ‘Hastings – popular<br />
with visitors since 1066’.<br />
Two years before, Gentleman had been commissioned<br />
to design another series, for the Shakespeare<br />
Festival that celebrated the playwright’s<br />
400th birthday. Characters from the plays were<br />
shown, flanked on one side by Shakespeare, on<br />
the other by the Queen. It caused a minor furore,<br />
because no commoner – ie non-royal person –<br />
had ever before appeared on an English stamp.<br />
The House of Commons exhibited its customary<br />
puerile attempts at humour. Questions were asked<br />
about the proximity of the Queen’s head, on one of<br />
the stamps, to Shakespeare’s Bottom.<br />
This April, it will be 400 years since the Immortal<br />
Bard’s death. Doubtless we’ll all be thoroughly<br />
fed up with him long before it’s all over, so I<br />
thought <strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> should get in early. To this<br />
end, I watched Orson Welles’ Falstaff: Chimes<br />
at Midnight, a film that’s chalking up its own,<br />
fiftieth, anniversary this year. I saw it when I was<br />
about 17, and remember rather enjoying it. Now<br />
it seems risible, and I can only imagine that it was<br />
the frequent glimpses of Jeanne Moreau’s (playing<br />
Doll Tearsheet) legs that enchanted me. Welles,<br />
as Falstaff, lapses<br />
regularly into not<br />
an American, but an<br />
Irish accent, as though<br />
he was reprising the<br />
ludicrous brogue he<br />
adopted for his role in<br />
The Lady from Shanghai.<br />
It’s not just that<br />
it’s all horribly dated,<br />
it’s difficult to imagine<br />
it ever being any good.<br />
After all, Tarkovsky’s<br />
film Andrei Rublev,<br />
also set in the Middle Ages, was released in the<br />
same year as Falstaff. I saw it again recently at the<br />
BFI. It’s a work of monumental genius. Falstaff is<br />
anything but.<br />
Fortunately, the genius of Shakespeare is such that<br />
he can withstand pretty well any rubbish imposed<br />
upon him. But it’s probably best when the end<br />
product is intentionally humorous. So the musical<br />
called Dirty Dick, where the future Richard III’s<br />
opening number goes I’ve got a hunch I’m going<br />
to be King, is fine by me. Likewise the rap version<br />
that renders ‘To be or not to be’ as ‘To hang right<br />
in there, or drop right out, Hey Man! that’s what<br />
it’s all about’. Or Aki Kaurismäki’s very funny<br />
film, Hamlet Goes Business, in which Claudius is the<br />
Chief Executive of a firm that makes rubber ducks.<br />
Anyway, it was always thus. And perhaps especially<br />
in England. In 1846, Hector Berlioz went to the<br />
theatre in London. He wrote to a friend: ‘They<br />
had condescended to give us Hamlet as written,<br />
practically complete, a rare thing in this country,<br />
where there are so many people superior to Shakespeare<br />
that most of his plays are corrected and<br />
augmented by the Cibbers and Drydens and other<br />
rogues who should have their bottoms publicly<br />
spanked.’<br />
25
column<br />
Chloë King<br />
The shame game<br />
I’m outside a local<br />
women’s business networking<br />
group, smoking.<br />
One of my companions<br />
left her e-cig at home<br />
so she puffs on an OP<br />
while empathising with<br />
the other, who admits<br />
ruefully that she smokes<br />
regularly.<br />
We hurry back inside for<br />
the speeches; how great<br />
it is that we have a group<br />
to help women like us<br />
feel like ‘proper’ business<br />
people. Afterwards, the<br />
woman sat opposite, a business coach, tells me<br />
how common it is for female clients to answer the<br />
straight question ‘what do you do?’ with a meandering,<br />
‘a little bit of everything’. I’m reminded<br />
of my overused phrase: ‘I’m a bit of a Jack of all<br />
trades’ - not even a whole ‘Jack of all trades’ and<br />
certainly not ‘a real Jack of all trades’.<br />
Over pudding, the woman next to me smiles as she<br />
realises we live on the same street. I feel a pang of<br />
dismay as she says she knows the house, the one<br />
with the dog who runs amok. “I’m so sorry,” I<br />
exclaim as she recalls the time my dog crossed the<br />
road unaccompanied to issue an aggressive hello to<br />
her spaniel.<br />
<strong>January</strong>’s meant to be all about old dogs learning<br />
new tricks: I’ve already written a column about my<br />
dog Oz - no exception to the rule - so I thought I’d<br />
focus on a new trick I am unlikely to learn. Giving<br />
up fags is one thing I’m attempting, but my big<br />
resolution is less clear, and also, I think, harder to<br />
accomplish.<br />
I’ve been reading Jon Ronson’s recent bestseller<br />
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, which explores<br />
the stories of people whose careers have been<br />
ruined due to sustained<br />
criticism and humiliation<br />
on social media.<br />
While it’s justified to call<br />
out the likes of bigotry<br />
and plagiarism, Ronson<br />
makes a good case that<br />
the damage wreaked<br />
by public shaming is a<br />
greater punishment than<br />
those commonly issued<br />
to criminals.<br />
One of Ronson’s case<br />
studies is a psychotherapist<br />
named Brad Blanton<br />
who preaches radical<br />
honesty as a method of eliminating the state of<br />
‘permanent adolescent concern’ that many of us<br />
now live in. I guess having a life column circulated<br />
among all of your neighbours is a form of radical<br />
honesty, so in ways I’m testing out a version of<br />
Blanton’s theory. Still, what I find most interesting<br />
is the idea that worrying constantly about how<br />
we appear to others is a form of teenage shame<br />
that many of us cannot outgrow due to the shop<br />
window-like nature of modern communications.<br />
It’s also, possibly, more prevalent among women.<br />
At the networking group I look around at the pool<br />
of ambitious, talented women. Many, it seems,<br />
think success will hinge on an ability to manage<br />
social media marketing, but unhelpfully, I think<br />
that simultaneously feeds a barrier: by enhancing<br />
our need for validation.<br />
I am vocally sorry for my failings, my poorly<br />
trained dog and unhealthy habits. But being<br />
apologetic doesn’t train dogs or regenerate lungs,<br />
and it’s not just unsociable things I try to excuse,<br />
often it’s something more abstract: like not being<br />
‘proper’, or doing more than one thing. It’s time<br />
for a change.<br />
Illustration by Chloë King<br />
27
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column<br />
Photo by Mark Bridge<br />
East of Earwig<br />
Mark Bridge’s philosophical cat<br />
It was towards the end of November when my<br />
wife and I first realised that Rupert the cat wasn’t<br />
well. Instead of having a bit of food, wandering off<br />
and coming back for more, it seemed he’d been<br />
forgetting to return. And then he stopped eating<br />
altogether. His weight dropped dramatically. Even<br />
his purr withered away. Our fifteen-year-old feline<br />
friend wasn’t just at death’s door; he’d pushed open<br />
the cat flap in death’s door and was preparing to<br />
jump through. Whilst his housemate Harry was in<br />
fine form - six fully working mice brought into the<br />
house one weekend - dear old Rupert had stopped<br />
joining us on the sofa every evening and had<br />
started to hide under the hedge. We’d bring him<br />
in, he’d take himself back out.<br />
Although Rupert seemed ready to give up on<br />
life, Mrs B and I weren’t going to let him quit so<br />
easily. We tried to tempt him with his favourite<br />
foods - sliced ham, tinned sardines, buttery toast<br />
crumbs, a little bit of Victoria sponge - but without<br />
success. I even stocked the kitchen cupboard<br />
with luxury cat food. We took him to the vet,<br />
where he was injected with vitamins, steroids<br />
and an antibiotic. “He seemed a bit unhappy”,<br />
the nurse told us when she handed him back. I<br />
thought he seemed fairly relaxed. We were the<br />
unhappy ones.<br />
Unlike me, Rupert was very good at living ‘in the<br />
moment’. He didn’t care what other people thought<br />
about him. He wasn’t raging against the unfairness<br />
of everything. He wasn’t regretting a misspent<br />
youth of goldfish-eating and frog-hunting. Despite<br />
the apparent passing of his ‘best before’ date, he was<br />
happy with his lot. It felt like I was being given a<br />
valuable lesson about stoicism and the philosophy<br />
of not worrying about the future.<br />
After the vet trip, we started keeping our increasingly<br />
frail cat indoors in case he became too ill<br />
to find his way home. The next morning, when<br />
I came downstairs, Rupert was lying on his side<br />
in the middle of the floor, looking more like a<br />
poorly constructed papier-mâché model than a<br />
genuine pet. He lifted his head wearily when he<br />
heard me. At least there was still hope, I thought.<br />
Perhaps he’d like some ham. He turned his<br />
head away apologetically. Didn’t I understand<br />
anything?<br />
I fed Harry, made a cup of tea and went for a<br />
shower. When I came downstairs again, Rupert<br />
stood and wobbled over to greet me. Was that<br />
a miaow? I cracked open the emergency tin of<br />
Waitrose ‘luxurious and delicate’ cat food that I’d<br />
bought in case his appetite returned. It had. He<br />
cleared the bowl and then looked at me optimistically.<br />
In fact, he gave the distinct impression he’d<br />
like something similar for breakfast tomorrow. I<br />
think it’s his way of reminding me he’s a cat, not<br />
a philosopher.<br />
29
30
IN town this month<br />
The lowdown on...<br />
Bumblebees<br />
Professor Dave Goulson<br />
This was what first got me interested in<br />
bumblebees, 20-odd years ago: I was sitting<br />
watching bees in a park near where I lived, and I<br />
saw these bees flying up to flowers but then not<br />
landing on them, veering away at the last second,<br />
and doing that perhaps two or three times before<br />
they actually landed on a flower. I thought -<br />
what’s wrong with the ones they’re not visiting?<br />
It turns out, every time a bee lands on a<br />
flower, she accidentally leaves behind a<br />
footprint. Subsequent bees come along, and essentially<br />
they give each flower a quick sniff, and<br />
if a flower smells of a recent visit by another bee<br />
then they don’t bother landing, because that bee<br />
will have taken the nectar already.<br />
Bees do all sorts of clever things that, for<br />
their size, are pretty astonishing. They have<br />
a magnetic compass built into their brain; they<br />
can also use the sun as a compass. Certainly their<br />
navigational abilities would put people to shame,<br />
which is pretty impressive when you think that<br />
they are quite tiny and their brain is considerably<br />
smaller than a grain of rice.<br />
Bumblebees have an annual life cycle. They’re<br />
started by a single queen, who builds a nest,<br />
on her own to start with, until she’s raised her<br />
first batch of daughters. Then it grows through<br />
the spring and summer, and the nest dies off in<br />
the autumn, and only leaves behind new, young<br />
mated queens. Honeybee nests live for years<br />
and years, so they have to survive the winter.<br />
That’s why they make honey. They have to<br />
store up enough honey to provide that huge<br />
workforce with something to eat for the four or<br />
five months of the year when it’s too cold to get<br />
out and about. Bumblebees don’t go through<br />
the winter as a nest, so they don’t need to collect<br />
honey.<br />
These declines [in bee numbers], they’ve<br />
been going on probably for 80 years. The<br />
danger’s pretty obvious, in the sense that roughly<br />
a third of the food that humans eat depends<br />
upon pollinators of one sort or another, of which<br />
bees are the most important. Our diets would be<br />
very poor without the help of bees. And natural<br />
ecosystems would essentially collapse without<br />
pollinators. So it couldn’t be much more important<br />
to look after them.<br />
Am I optimistic? Well, a lot of conservation<br />
stories are really doom and gloom, and people<br />
feel helpless, because they can’t do anything<br />
themselves about polar bears, or the rainforest<br />
being felled, and so on. The nice thing about<br />
bees is that people can do something themselves<br />
to help. They can grow some bee-friendly flowers,<br />
they can not use any insecticides in their<br />
garden, they can join in citizen-science schemes<br />
to help record how well our bees are doing. If we<br />
can get enough people involved, then that really<br />
would make a difference. As told to Steve Ramsey<br />
Prof Dave Goulson is the author of A Sting in the<br />
Tale, and founder of the Bumblebee Conservation<br />
Trust. He’s speaking at Seedy Saturday, 6th Feb,<br />
Town Hall.<br />
31
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in town this month<br />
Holocaust Memorial<br />
The end of childhood<br />
“I think they could see what was going to<br />
happen,” says Tim Locke. His mother, Ruth<br />
Neumeyer, born in 1923, had been having “a<br />
very happy childhood” in the Bavarian town of<br />
Dachau. But as the 1930s progressed, things<br />
started to get difficult for the Neumeyers, one of<br />
four Jewish families in the town.<br />
“They called them Judensau (sow Jew), which<br />
is a pretty nasty insult. They got stones thrown<br />
at them. The beginning of the end was really in<br />
1937. They used to do plays in their house, all<br />
the children dressed up, they got neighbours<br />
and friends round to watch them.<br />
“They were doing a nativity play for Christmas,<br />
and while they’re doing it there was a hammering<br />
at the door and these two Gestapo people<br />
came in and said ‘aren’t you ashamed to be in<br />
the house of a Jew?’ They sent them away, and<br />
the children burst into tears, and the lodger was<br />
arrested. That was kind of the beginning of the<br />
end. It was the end of their plays, and I think<br />
for her, that was the end of her childhood, that<br />
moment.<br />
“In November 1938, on Kristallnacht, they<br />
were told by the Gestapo that they had to leave<br />
the next morning by sunrise, which was the<br />
usual thing. So they picked up their stuff and<br />
scrammed to Munich. Eventually they got to<br />
stay in various people’s attics. I don’t quite know<br />
to what extent they were in hiding.”<br />
In May 1939, the Neumeyers got Ruth and her<br />
brother onto the Kindertransport – the trains<br />
which brought around 10,000 refugee children<br />
to Britain in the ten months before the war.<br />
Ruth initially lived in London with the family<br />
of the economist Frank Paish, but spent some of<br />
the war working as a housekeeper in Cambridge.<br />
She made friends easily, and “I think she forgot<br />
her former life quite a bit.”<br />
However, she had been expecting her parents<br />
to join her in Britain at some point, Tim thinks.<br />
This didn’t happen; they’d left it too late. They<br />
were able to send brief messages, via the Red<br />
Cross, saying they were okay. In 1942, these<br />
messages stopped. She later discovered that her<br />
parents had died in concentration camps.<br />
Ruth was the kind of person who, “if it was<br />
tipping down with rain, she’d say ‘oh, I expect<br />
it’ll clear up in a moment,’” Tim says. “She had<br />
this stoical and positive outlook on things, and<br />
I think she just kind of pushed it to the back of<br />
her mind somehow. She didn’t really confide…<br />
she never said she was feeling upset; it just<br />
wasn’t her style.<br />
“But I’m sure it did have a long-term effect. It<br />
must have done. To have lost your parents at<br />
that age, and to be stuck in another country... I<br />
think she must have had to grow up incredibly<br />
quickly.” Steve Ramsey<br />
There are several events and exhibitions in <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
this month to commemorate the Holocaust. On<br />
Holocaust Memorial Day itself, Weds Jan 27th,<br />
there’s a free event at the Town Hall, with speakers<br />
including Tim Locke, as well as music and<br />
readings. Tim’s family-history blog is ephraimneumeyer.wordpress.com<br />
33
in town this month: comedy<br />
Simon Evans<br />
Funny money<br />
“Well, that’s an<br />
interesting set of<br />
assumptions you’ve<br />
made there,” says<br />
Simon Evans, the<br />
Hove-based stand-up<br />
whose niche is making<br />
economics funny. I’d<br />
been asking him about<br />
the economics of his<br />
own industry. Virtually<br />
all stand-ups are<br />
extremely intelligent,<br />
I claimed, and could<br />
be earning much more<br />
money in another<br />
field – so why don’t<br />
they? Doesn’t that say<br />
something interesting<br />
about what motivates<br />
people?<br />
“I think comedians are intelligent in certain<br />
respects. I was going to say they tend to be intellectually<br />
curious, but actually even then, they’re<br />
not always curious at all; some of them have<br />
simply observed the dynamics of human relationships<br />
and can spin endless hours of comedy<br />
which will have people roaring with laughter,<br />
just out of the ways that men and women behave<br />
with one another that are slightly different. They<br />
relate it with such gusto that it really works. It’s<br />
not necessary, and I don’t think it’s universal at<br />
all, for comedians to be particularly intelligent,<br />
and to have lots of other career options.<br />
“The other thing you have to remember about<br />
career options is they’re not really based on intelligence,<br />
they’re based on things like reliability<br />
and discipline and the ability to focus for long<br />
periods of time on fairly mundane, repetitive<br />
tasks, as you work your way up the career ladder.<br />
They’re based on the ability to make sound<br />
decisions based on research and insights and<br />
then having made those decisions, to see them<br />
through to fruition. And those are all skills which<br />
a lot of comedians<br />
might well struggle<br />
to display, either in<br />
comedy or in any<br />
other field.<br />
“So I would dispute<br />
that most comedians<br />
have lots of options.<br />
I would actually say<br />
that one of the funny<br />
things about comedy<br />
is it provides a source<br />
of income (quite often<br />
unexpectedly, a decent<br />
source of income) to a<br />
lot of people who have<br />
wondered if they’d<br />
ever find one. Maybe<br />
because they just don’t<br />
quite gel with what<br />
society expects from<br />
working life - working hours, the repetitive nature<br />
of tasks, and the quite substantial chunk out<br />
of every day that most careers demand.<br />
“There are people - Harry Hill of course was<br />
famously a doctor, Paul Sinha was a doctor,<br />
Adam Kay. But by and large, I think, there’s<br />
at least as many comedians that couldn’t have<br />
done anything else as there are that have made a<br />
deliberate sacrifice.<br />
“And if you look at somebody like Jimmy Carr,<br />
for instance, who I think did have a decent career<br />
in the marketing department of Shell - he has<br />
actually applied a lot of that nous to his career, if<br />
not actually to writing his jokes then certainly in<br />
learning how to present himself as a very marketable<br />
commodity. He’s probably one of the most<br />
financially successful comedians this country’s<br />
ever seen, and that’s probably in large part down<br />
to him being one of the few comedians who did<br />
have transferrable skills.”<br />
Steve Ramsey<br />
Simon Evans performs at the Linklater Pavilion,<br />
Sun 24th, 7pm<br />
35
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art<br />
Photo by Carlotta Luke<br />
Focus on: Depot Cinema Mural<br />
Blackboard paint on white-painted hoardings, 6x50’<br />
“It works on two different levels,” says Carmen Slijpen,<br />
the Creative Manager of the Depot Cinema,<br />
in Pinwell Road. “The first level is that people will<br />
be interested in what’s on the hoardings, and be excited<br />
week by week as more goes up…”<br />
What is on the hoardings, you’ll have noticed, if<br />
you’ve been down that way since September, is a<br />
growing series of well-designed and executed largeformat<br />
black-and-white images from the history of<br />
cinema, whether a Hollywood star, a Fellini heroine<br />
or snapshot reference to a Hitchcock thriller.<br />
“But what’s maybe more interesting is that people’s<br />
interest will be piqued about what’s going on behind<br />
the hoardings,” she continues. Hoardings being<br />
hoardings, that means building work: the old depot<br />
(built for use by the Post Office, later employed by<br />
Harveys) is, of course, being converted into a cinema,<br />
due to open in Spring 2017.<br />
The images have been created by the graphic designer<br />
Peter Bushell, and a group of volunteers<br />
culled from a film group who used to meet up at<br />
the Depot before the builders moved in. Carmen<br />
has given Peter a list of films she feels incorporates<br />
the wide range of genres that will be shown at the<br />
cinema, then he has sought out iconic and striking<br />
images of these films, upped the contrast on them<br />
to make them silhouetty, and put them on an A4<br />
grid. This grid has been enlarged onto the hoardings,<br />
and the volunteers – including Carmen herself<br />
– have painstakingly reproduced the images onto<br />
the white-painted wood, using blackboard paint<br />
(after learning acrylic runs in heavy rain). The volunteers<br />
meet on Wednesdays and Sundays; they’ve<br />
so far completed 25-30 of the 70 images planned.<br />
“It’s something you couldn’t afford to pay for,” says<br />
Carmen, “if you wanted to commission it.”<br />
You might notice I’ve been cagey about revealing<br />
exactly who is depicted in this massive artwork. It’s<br />
great fun trying to identify who’s who and which<br />
film they’ve come from, but… “We’re not giving<br />
anything away because we’re going to have a<br />
competition when the artwork is finished, offering<br />
some free tickets to people who can identify all of<br />
the films,” reveals Carmen.<br />
Alex Leith<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Depot Cinema/lewesdepot.org<br />
37
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Large showroom<br />
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01273 814317<br />
The Old Forge, <strong>Lewes</strong> Road, Ringmer BN8 5NB<br />
www.theold-forge.co.uk
in town this month: ART<br />
art & about<br />
In town this month<br />
Mid-month you’ll notice a series of portraits<br />
appearing in windows up and down the High<br />
Street. The Refugee’s Gift is an exhibition of<br />
photographs by Bill Knight that, along with<br />
their captions, tell the story of 39 refugees<br />
who’ve benefitted from our long tradition<br />
of offering asylum. Arriving from recent<br />
conflict zones, or having fled decades ago<br />
from Hitler’s Germany, the men and women<br />
in the photographs have all arrived with an<br />
unstoppable determination and made positive<br />
contributions to life in the UK. Originally<br />
taken for a project with the Refugee Council,<br />
they will be on display in <strong>Lewes</strong> from 16th –<br />
30th and Bill will be speaking about the project<br />
at the Don’t Stand By Holocaust memorial<br />
event at the Town Hall on 27th.<br />
Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley photographed by Bill Knight<br />
Mehrad Ramazany photographed by Bill Knight<br />
The exhibition Mr Gregson Went to Work continues<br />
at Pelham House until 21st with their second<br />
annual Open Art Exhibition up from 22nd.<br />
Featuring works in a variety of media from over<br />
70 local artists, the show is partly curated by staff<br />
at the hotel and a percentage of each sale goes to<br />
support the Rockinghorse Appeal. The show is<br />
free, open daily from 9am to 9pm and runs until<br />
3rd March.<br />
Chalk Gallery take a rest for refurbishment from<br />
1st to 10th and will re-open on 11th with the<br />
raku-fired cows, pigs, sheep and horses of Mary<br />
Clarke taking centre stage.<br />
Mary Clarke John at the Olympic Marathon by Mervyn Hathaway at Pelham House<br />
39
Beautiful art, affordable prices<br />
Friends by Mary Clarke<br />
A friendly<br />
welcome awaits<br />
you at the<br />
Chalk Gallery<br />
Chalk Gallery<br />
4 North Street<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong>, BN7 2PA<br />
t: 01273 474477<br />
w: chalkgallerylewes.co.uk<br />
FREE<br />
EXHIBITION<br />
BODY, MIND AND MEDITATION<br />
IN TANTRIC BUDDHISM<br />
Until 28 February<br />
Tuesday–Sunday until 18.00, Thursdays and first Fridays until 22.00<br />
183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE Euston, Euston Square<br />
wellcomecollection.org/secrettemple
out of town: art<br />
Holyland, John Bratby, 1961 © The Artist’s Estate The Bridgeman Art Library<br />
Just down the road...<br />
Towner presents Art from<br />
Elsewhere from 23rd; a major<br />
Hayward Touring exhibition<br />
of international contemporary<br />
artworks that have recently been<br />
collected - thanks to a special<br />
programme created by the Art<br />
Fund - by Towner and five other<br />
UK museums. Around 50 works<br />
by 27 significant artists working<br />
in a variety of media examine the<br />
ideas of global change, migration,<br />
postcolonial experiences and<br />
failed utopias. Highlights include<br />
works by Omer Fast, Imran<br />
Qureshi, Yto Barrada, Mohamed<br />
Bourouissa and Jenny Holzer.<br />
Until 3rd April.<br />
Further afield...<br />
From 30th, Jerwood exhibit Everything but the Kitchen Sink Including<br />
the Kitchen Sink; a major show of works by radical realist and original<br />
‘angry young man’ John Bratby. A founding member of the Kitchen<br />
Sink School, prolific painter, writer and enfant terrible on the British<br />
art scene during the 50s and 60s, he died whilst walking home from<br />
the chip shop in his adopted home town of Hastings, just a day after<br />
his 64th birthday. Rather than create a traditional retrospective, the<br />
Jerwood cast their nets about for privately owned works by Bratby,<br />
along with personal recollections, letters and photos. Bratby’s wife,<br />
Patti, has also been involved with the exhibition so expect personal<br />
keepsakes from his studio alongside works from his prolific career.<br />
Tibet’s Secret Temple, at the Wellcome Collection (Euston Rd,<br />
London) is inspired by an exquisite series of 17th century murals<br />
from a private meditation chamber for Tibet’s Dalai Lamas in Lhasa.<br />
Bringing together the Lukhang mural images with a unique set of<br />
objects, the show uncovers stories behind the ancient, esoteric and<br />
once secret practices depicted and their relevance to the growing<br />
interest in meditative wellbeing today. Until 28th February.<br />
41
music<br />
Classical Round-up<br />
Britten, Broughton... and bassoons<br />
<strong>January</strong> is often a<br />
quiet month for music<br />
concerts. Many<br />
of us, I suspect, are<br />
hunkering down<br />
and recovering from<br />
holiday exertions<br />
and excesses. However, for those happy to sally<br />
forth, we have a few goodies this month that will<br />
likely satisfy the need for your classical fix.<br />
First, conductor Andrew Sherman will lead the<br />
Musicians of All Saints in two premieres: the first<br />
performances of Sussex composer Barry Mill’s Bassoon<br />
Concerto, featuring soloist Ian Glen, and Julian<br />
Broughton’s Aria, with solo violin by Mr. Sherman<br />
doing double duty. They will also perform John<br />
Ireland’s Concertino Pastorale and Handel’s Concerto<br />
Grosso in F major, op6 no 2.<br />
Sat 16, 7:45pm, All Saints Centre, £10, 01273 473229,<br />
mas@lewes.uk<br />
Next, the young British cellist Ella Rundle will be<br />
featured by the Corelli Ensemble in a programme<br />
including Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings as well<br />
as his Andante Cantabile. Ms Rundle will be soloist<br />
in Spanish composer Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen,<br />
or Gypsy Airs. This 1878 work is based on<br />
Roma folk themes and is one of the composer’s<br />
most popular pieces.<br />
Sun 17, 4pm, Cross Way Church, Seaford, £10-12,<br />
corelliensemble.co.uk<br />
Lastly, I will take off my <strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> writer’s cap<br />
and don my tenorial singing attire for a Nicholas<br />
Yonge Society recital. My pianist is the estimable<br />
Carol Kelly, who also happens to be my estimable<br />
wife, and together we will present a programme<br />
of songs by both British and American composers<br />
called A Very Special Relationship: Song Cycling the<br />
Pond, comprised of Britten’s Winter Words, Barber’s<br />
Hermit Songs, Copland’s folksong arrangements<br />
and a set of songs by Peter Warlock and EJ Moeran.<br />
Fri 22, Sussex Downs College, 7:45pm, £15, nyslewes.<br />
org.uk, or <strong>Lewes</strong> Travel<br />
Paul Austin Kelly<br />
43
Timbuktu<br />
A cry from the heart<br />
The opening scenes of Abderrahmane Sissako’s<br />
new film, Timbuktu, starkly present<br />
the brutality meted out to Mali’s traditional<br />
culture by occupying forces of Islamic jihadists.<br />
Wooden tribal statues are shot to obliteration;<br />
a terrified gazelle is chased by a truckload of<br />
heavily armed men. As Sissako explained to me<br />
during his visit to the London Film Festival in<br />
October 2014: “The gazelle is our culture; it is<br />
being hounded. It is too weak to fight and can<br />
only run. If the statues being destroyed offer an<br />
objective metaphor, this pursuit of the gazelle<br />
provides a simple vehicle for empathy.”<br />
Timbuktu, nominated for the Best Foreign<br />
Language Film at the 2015 Academy Awards<br />
and playing at the All Saints this month,<br />
portrays a place ruled by religion and a people<br />
traumatized by division. It also honours the<br />
rich and humane traditions of the ancient city<br />
of Timbuktu, and the central place that music<br />
occupies in Malian culture.<br />
The film was shot soon after the French<br />
military operation in Mali to push back the<br />
jihadists in 2013. The impulse to make the film<br />
came as a direct result of the occupation, and<br />
the crimes being committed in its wake. “The<br />
government in Bamako abandoned northern<br />
Mali, and jihadists took over as there was no<br />
social structure, no police, no order.” Yet after<br />
the liberation of Timbuktu – originally seized<br />
by Touareg separatists before their uprising<br />
was hijacked by Al Qaeda-affiliated militants –<br />
Sissako’s plans had to adapt quickly. “The idea<br />
initially was to make a documentary about the<br />
actions of hostile groups whose foreign members<br />
included mostly Libyans and Algerians,<br />
but we had to fictionalise the characters in order<br />
to preserve the safety and security of those<br />
who told us their stories. Then it was a short<br />
step to re-imagining the film as a fictional tale,<br />
but one very much born in reality.” Ironically,<br />
this move from a non-fictional mode to a fictional<br />
one allowed for a more naturalistic mode<br />
of cinema; poetic, lyrical, yet truthful.<br />
This cinematic storytelling is evident in many<br />
scenes based on actual events, such as when a<br />
market fishmonger refuses to wear gloves so<br />
as to hide her hands for modesty’s sake, daring<br />
the armed militants ordering her to do so to<br />
cut off her hands instead. Other seminal scenes<br />
are wonderfully imaginative cinematic devices<br />
to challenge, and ridicule, the draconian laws<br />
of the governing Islamists. Most memorable is<br />
the balletic portrayal of boys playing football<br />
44
cinema<br />
without a ball, thus escaping the iron justice<br />
of the jihadists. This idea arose from the bans<br />
imposed on activities from playing any sport<br />
to performing any kind of music. “This is<br />
forbidding something one cannot forbid. If<br />
you forbid someone to sing, he will sing in<br />
his head; he will sing lullabies in the ear of<br />
his child. You cannot stop him from doing<br />
that.” Sissako says that he decided to film<br />
the football game without a ball, beautifully<br />
choreographed to syncopated music, “to show<br />
resistance. That was important to me,” he says.<br />
“Art must be optimistic.”<br />
However, such optimism is extremely difficult<br />
to sustain. In one of the film’s most<br />
heartbreaking scenes, Fatoumata Diawara,<br />
the young rising star of Mali’s female singers,<br />
plays a powerful cameo as ‘la chanteuse’, a<br />
local young woman who is publicly flogged<br />
after being caught with friends simply singing<br />
and playing music. Her fierce resistance is<br />
encapsulated by her insistence on continuing<br />
to sing, louder and more profoundly, with<br />
each beating. As Sissako explains, this central,<br />
iconic scene was created late in the process:<br />
“Fatoumata heard through the grapevine of<br />
exiled Malian artists that I was shooting the<br />
film, and she contacted me, insisting that she<br />
be a part of it. We talked it through and the<br />
role of ‘la chanteuse’ was born.”<br />
Yet the film contains much ironic humour too,<br />
again using ridicule as a weapon of resistance.<br />
When singing is heard in the town, a dumbfounded<br />
jihadi assigned to root out its source<br />
calls his superiors to ask for instructions since<br />
the music he hears is a song praising Allah.<br />
This comic moment is balanced by more serious<br />
interrogations of the perversions of true<br />
faith by the militant Islamists. Tellingly, the<br />
local imam attempts to uphold the traditions<br />
of benevolent and tolerant Islam and appeals to<br />
a militant leader to refrain from such extreme<br />
brutality, asking, “Where is the mercy?<br />
Where is God in all this?”<br />
This singular moment encapsulates the bravery<br />
and timeliness of such filmmaking, as well<br />
as its authenticity. The film is performed by a<br />
mix of professional actors and local non-professionals<br />
and musicians – most significantly<br />
Ibrahim Ahmed who plays Kidane, an honourable<br />
man who accidentally kills a neighbouring<br />
fisherman in a dispute involving a trespassing<br />
cow that drives the tragic narrative, highlighting<br />
the inequity at hand when such governing<br />
authorities assume ultimate control in meting<br />
out justice. In some of the most emotionally<br />
affecting scenes, Kidane can be seen as<br />
the most contented man in the world – in his<br />
humble tent, with his loving wife and 12-yearold<br />
daughter, and his guitar. Until, that is, his<br />
world is destroyed. Yoram Allon<br />
Sun 24th, 4pm, All Saints, <strong>Lewes</strong> Film Club<br />
45
Saturday 6th February <strong>2016</strong><br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Town Hall<br />
10am - 3pm<br />
Adults £1.00 Kids free<br />
Seed swap Talks Children’s activities<br />
Community growing projects Café<br />
Usual and unusual seeds and plants<br />
Saving our Bumble Bees -<br />
a talk by Prof Dave Goulson<br />
Pruning Soft Fruit by Tom Maynard<br />
Caring for Roses by Kevin Martin<br />
Tool Sharpening with Peter May<br />
E: seedysaturdaylewes@gmail.com<br />
www.commoncause.org.uk/seedysaturday
JANlistings<br />
sat 2<br />
Farmers’ Market. Fresh, local produce and lots<br />
of interesting stalls. Cliffe Precinct, 9am-1pm.<br />
commoncause.org.uk<br />
Theatre. The Pirates of Penzance. Touring<br />
production by Opera Anywhere of Gilbert &<br />
Sullivan’s masterpiece. <strong>Lewes</strong> Little Theatre,<br />
7.30pm, £15, £10 for u18s. Tickets from Box Office<br />
or operaanywhere.com<br />
Film. X + Y. (12) Developed by director Morgan<br />
Matthews from his own award-winning 2008<br />
documentary Beautiful Young Minds, about young<br />
British mathematicians on the autistic spectrum.<br />
All Saints, 8pm, £5.50. lewes-filmclub.com<br />
Sat 9- Sat 16<br />
Pantomime. Robin Hood. Traditional family<br />
panto, with a topical and local twist. Remarkably,<br />
they’ve been going for 68 years! St Mary’s<br />
Social Centre, Sat 2pm & 7pm, Sun 12 noon &<br />
5pm, Tue-Fri 7pm, Monday no performance,<br />
£9/£5/£3. stmaryspanto.org or 01273 477733<br />
Thu 7<br />
Sun 3<br />
Firesite Dash. Run or walk just over four miles<br />
around <strong>Lewes</strong>, visiting the firesites of the seven<br />
different Bonfire societies. Prizes and trophies to<br />
be won. Railway Land, 11.30am, £5/£4. Finish at<br />
the Snowdrop in time for Sunday lunch. firesitedash@yahoo.co.uk<br />
or 07951000048<br />
Comedy at the<br />
Con! 5th Anniversary<br />
Special.<br />
Mandy Muden, Joe<br />
Bor and Lee Hurst<br />
(of They Think It’s<br />
All Over fame) take<br />
to the stage, with<br />
MC Neil Masters. Con Club, 8pm, £7.50-£11.<br />
Tickets from Union Music, wegottickets.com or<br />
07582408418<br />
Sat 9<br />
Film. How to Change the World. Much<br />
recommended documentary about the origins of<br />
Greenpeace and a Q&A with the locally based<br />
director, Jerry Rothwell. Fundraiser for <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
District Green Party. All Saints, 7.15pm, £9/£6.<br />
imtonyr@gmail.com, wegottickets.com<br />
Sun 10<br />
Fri 8<br />
Food Market. Food and produce from local suppliers.<br />
Market Tower, weekly, 9.30am-1.30pm.<br />
Christmas Tree Collection. Real trees will<br />
be collected for recycling from the following<br />
areas; Malling, Southover, Wallands, Nevill,<br />
Houndean/Barons Down, High Street, Pells and<br />
Kingston. 10am-2pm, minimum £3, proceeds to<br />
local charity. lewesbarbicanrotary.co.uk<br />
47
<strong>Lewes</strong> District Council<br />
www.lewes.gov.uk
JANlistings (cont)<br />
Mon 11<br />
Talk. <strong>Lewes</strong> in Art. The excellent John Bleach<br />
gives an overview into how the town and its<br />
surroundings have been depicted from 1600 to<br />
1950. Bring along your own prints and paintings<br />
to share (please email in advance leweshistory@<br />
gmail.com) King’s Church Building, 7.30pm,<br />
£3/£2. leweshistory.org.uk<br />
Tue 12<br />
Film. National Diploma. (U) An accomplished<br />
fly-on-the-wall documentary follows a group of<br />
Congolese high school students as they prepare<br />
for their National Diploma exam in Kisangani.<br />
All Saints, 8pm, £5.50. lewes-filmclub.com<br />
Wed 13<br />
Tour. Behind the scenes tour of The Keep<br />
Archives, including the stores where the documents<br />
are housed and the conservation studio.<br />
The Keep, Falmer, 1pm, free. Booking essential,<br />
limited to 10 places per tour. thekeep.info/events<br />
or 01273 482349<br />
Thu 14<br />
Talk. Sussex Storms.<br />
Alan Grey, former Head<br />
of Geography and Geology<br />
at Varndean College,<br />
discusses the storms of<br />
2003/4 and their lasting<br />
impact on our local<br />
coastline. Priory School,<br />
7.30pm, £5/£2.<br />
Needlewriters: Poetry & Prose Readings.<br />
Tara Gould reads short fiction, with tributes to<br />
the late Irving Weinman, the renowned poet<br />
and author who founded the organisation. Clare<br />
Best presents new poems from Them, a sequence<br />
about two strangely compatible people who<br />
enjoy a thoroughly dysfunctional relationship.<br />
Needlemakers Café, 7.45pm, £5/£3. Tickets<br />
from Skylark or on the door. needlewriters.co.uk<br />
Fri 15<br />
Talk. Bridge Farm, near Barcombe Mills. Rob<br />
Wallace and David Millium present the latest<br />
report on the Romano-British settlement. Town<br />
Hall, 7.30pm, £4/£3, u18s free. lewesarchaeology.org.uk<br />
Sat 16<br />
Farmers’ Market. Fresh, local produce (see cabbage<br />
above)and lots of interesting stalls. Cliffe<br />
Precinct, 9am-1pm. commoncause.org.uk<br />
Wed 20<br />
Talk. <strong>Lewes</strong> in Storm and Flood. A Friends<br />
of <strong>Lewes</strong> talk focusing on the human impact<br />
of floods and the ‘great storm’ of 1987 on the<br />
people of the town, with personal reminiscences.<br />
Southover Church, 7.45pm, £3. friends-of-lewes.<br />
org.uk<br />
Thu 21<br />
Memorial event. We Won’t Stand By. Evening<br />
of poetry, song, music and drama, featuring<br />
students from Priory School. Musicians include<br />
the amazing Runamok Collective. Staged by<br />
the <strong>Lewes</strong> Holocaust Memorial Day Group. St<br />
John’s sub Castro, 7pm, £5.<br />
49
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JANlistings (cont)<br />
Fri 22<br />
Film. Difret. (12)<br />
When 14-year-old<br />
Hirut kills the leader of<br />
a gang of men who are<br />
trying to force her into<br />
marrying him, she captures<br />
the attention of a<br />
tenacious lawyer who is<br />
willing to risk everything to gain justice for her.<br />
All Saints, 8pm, £5.50. lewes-filmclub.com<br />
Sat 23<br />
Party for Patina. Ditch the Detox. Live music,<br />
DJs, cocktails, photo booth, roulette and more.<br />
Town Hall, 7.30pm, £8/£7. Tickets from King’s<br />
Framers, Si’s Sounds or on the door. patinalewes.com<br />
Sun 24<br />
Comedy. An Evening with Simon Evans.<br />
Linklater Pavilion, 7pm, £5. coordinator@<br />
railwaylandproject.org<br />
Film. Timbuktu. (15) A cattle herder and his<br />
family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu<br />
find their quiet lives, which are typically free of<br />
the jihadists determined to control their faith,<br />
abruptly disturbed. All Saints, 4pm, £5.50. See<br />
page 44. lewes-filmclub.com<br />
Tue 26<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Literary Society Talk. Leading style<br />
columnist and broadcaster Sali Hughes shares<br />
her beauty secrets on and off the page. All<br />
Saints, 8pm, £10. lewesliterarysociety.co.uk<br />
Fri 29<br />
Talk. End of an era? Has globalisation passed<br />
its sell-by date? Talk by Emeritus Professor<br />
Raphie Kaplinsky, followed by discussion. Elly,<br />
8pm, £3. annabinger@btinternet.com<br />
Fri 29 & Sat 30<br />
Film. Straight Outta Compton. (15) Biographical<br />
drama about the group NWA, who<br />
emerged from the mean streets of Compton in<br />
Los Angeles, in the mid-1980s and revolutionized<br />
Hip Hop culture. All Saints, Fri 8pm, Sat<br />
4.45pm, £5-£6.50. filmatallsaints.com<br />
Fri 29 & Sun 31<br />
Film. Love and Mercy. (12A) Based on the<br />
life of musician Brian Wilson, showing two key<br />
periods in his life, during the 1960s and 1980s.<br />
All Saints, Fri 5.30pm & Sun 8pm, £5-£6.50.<br />
filmatallsaints.com<br />
Sat 30 & Sun 31<br />
Film. Everest. (12A) Inspired by incrediblebut-true<br />
events, Everest documents the aweinspiring<br />
journey of two different expeditions<br />
challenged beyond their limits by one of the<br />
fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by<br />
mankind. All Saints, Sat 8.15pm, Sun 5.30pm,<br />
£5-£6.50. filmatallsaints.com<br />
Wed 27<br />
Memorial event. Don’t Stand By. A rich mix<br />
of words, photos, films and music for Holocaust<br />
Memorial Day. Town Hall, 7pm, free. Doors<br />
6.30pm - arrive early, as last year people had to<br />
be turned away.<br />
51
gig guide<br />
gig of the month<br />
Even before you’ve listened to her music or heard her pitchperfect<br />
backstory, Angaleena Presley’s name indicates that you’re<br />
dealing with a country music star. The coal miner’s daughter and<br />
native of Beauty, Kentucky is a direct descendant of the original<br />
feuding McCoys, a former single mother and cashier at Wal-<br />
Mart and Winn-Dixie, and a member of the platinum-selling<br />
country supergroup Pistol Annies. Her debut solo album, American<br />
Middle Class, casts a bright, unflinching eye over rural life in<br />
modern America, and scored rave reviews when it was released<br />
last year. In the grand country tradition, Presley paints a bleak<br />
picture of dead-end jobs, teenage pregnancies and drug addiction<br />
through songs that are full of life. She appears at the Con<br />
Club with backing from <strong>Lewes</strong>’s The Jamie Freeman Agreement.<br />
“I have lived every minute on this record,” she says. “My mama ain’t none too happy about me<br />
spreading my business around, but I have to do it.” Sunday 24, Con Club, 7.30pm. Advance from Union<br />
Music Store: £12 (members £8). Door: £14 (members £10).<br />
january listings<br />
sat 2<br />
Shepherds Arise! Traditional Sussex folk carols<br />
and tunes. Elephant & Castle, 8pm, £6<br />
Ally Mobbs. Electronica. The Lansdown.<br />
7.30pm, free<br />
Sun 3<br />
Dance tunes session. Traditional English folk.<br />
Bring instruments. Lamb, 12pm, free<br />
John Marsh. Acoustic. Con Club, 3pm, free<br />
Open mic. Elephant & Castle, 7.30pm, free<br />
Mon 4<br />
Daphne Roubini. Jazz. Snowdrop, 8pm, free<br />
Tue 5<br />
Dance tunes session. Traditional English folk.<br />
Bring instruments. John Harvey, 8pm, free<br />
Fri 8<br />
Cam Penner. Rock ‘n’ roll folk, plus support.<br />
Con Club, 7.30pm, £10 (members £8)<br />
Sat 9<br />
Wassail. Traditional English folk, with fire and<br />
candles. Elephant & Castle, 8pm, £4<br />
Sun 10<br />
Wildwood Jack. Acoustic. Con Club, 3pm, free<br />
Mon 11<br />
Sammy Mayne. Jazz sax. Snowdrop, 8pm, free<br />
Fri 15<br />
The Captain’s Beard. Pirate folk rock. Con<br />
Club, 8pm, free<br />
Sat 16<br />
Annual Sussex All-Day Singaround. Traditional<br />
English folk. Royal Oak, Barcombe, 11am-<br />
11pm, free<br />
Sun 17<br />
Dance tunes session. Traditional English folk.<br />
Bring instruments. Elephant & Castle, 12pm, free<br />
Mon 18<br />
Quinto Latin Jazz. Featuring Raul D’Oliviera<br />
and Tristan Banks. Snowdrop, 8pm, free<br />
Fri 22<br />
Louisiana Lightning. Country rock ‘n’ roll (see<br />
overleaf). Con Club, 8pm, free<br />
53
gig guide (cont)<br />
Sat 23<br />
Just Floyd. Pink Floyd tribute act. Con Club,<br />
8pm, £5 (members free)<br />
Molly Evans. Folk singer. Elephant & Castle,<br />
8pm, £5<br />
The Reform Club. Snowdrop, 9pm, free<br />
Sun 24<br />
John Cave, Trevor & Michael Curry and<br />
Iris Bishop & Jim Ward. Folk. Westgate<br />
Chapel, 2.30pm, £5<br />
Mon 25<br />
Chris Coul. Jazz. Snowdrop, 8pm, free<br />
Fri 29<br />
The Kondoms. Rock. Dorset, 9pm, free<br />
Sat 30<br />
John Morgan. Folk. Elly, 8pm, £6<br />
Louisiana Lightning (Friday 22nd)<br />
JAN<br />
FRI & SAT<br />
@ The Con Club<br />
8 CAM PENNER<br />
A UNION MUSIC STORE PRESENTATION<br />
15CAPTAINS BEARD<br />
PIRATE FOLK BAND YARRR!<br />
16 LOOSE CABOOSE NIGHT<br />
WITH DJ’s RACHELLE PIPER, MARTIN JACKSON & SIMON PENFOLD<br />
22 LOUISIANA LIGHTNING<br />
DISTINCTIVE BLEND OF COUNTRY ROCK & ROCK’N’ROLL<br />
23 JUST FLOYD<br />
SIMPLY THE BEST PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE<br />
ANGALEENA PRESLEY<br />
24 A UNION MUSIC STORE PRESENTATION<br />
SEE WEBSITE FOR DETAILS & ENTRY<br />
54
Are you looking to<br />
make a move in <strong>2016</strong>?<br />
In the New Year there is a huge spike in<br />
property internet traffic. <strong>January</strong> shows a 27 %<br />
increase in enquiries over December year on year.<br />
source Rightmove<br />
The Forward Thinking Estate Agency<br />
oakleyproperty.com 01273 487444
With its excellent and imaginative<br />
approach, the Steiner Waldorf<br />
curriculum has gained everwidening<br />
recognition as a creative<br />
and compassionate alternative to<br />
traditional avenues of education.<br />
But just how does it feel to be a child<br />
in the classroom, soaking up this<br />
stimulating and rewarding teaching?<br />
“ The number of Steiner students attending Oxford and Cambridge is well above the<br />
National average. Universities favour Steiner school pupils because they’re great<br />
Find out for all-round yourself... thinkers and exceedingly good at their own research.<br />
“This school is a beacon of professionalism among UK Steiner schools and the<br />
children who emerge are confident, articulate, international, open-minded and<br />
grounded, lucky them!” Good Schools Guide<br />
“<br />
Find out for yourself...<br />
All welcome, please register at 08:30<br />
Tours leave at 09:00 - Closes 13:00<br />
We look forward to meeting you.<br />
www.michaelhall.co.uk<br />
Kidbrooke Park, Priory Road, Forest Row. East Sussex, RH18 5JA<br />
Tel: 01342 822275 - Registered Charity Number 307006<br />
Open Mornings<br />
Thursday 28th <strong>January</strong> <strong>2016</strong> - 08:30<br />
Thursday 3rd March <strong>2016</strong> - 08:30<br />
A Day in the Classroom<br />
Saturday 19th March <strong>2016</strong> - please book
under 16<br />
êêêê<br />
shoes on now: Brighton Pavilion<br />
Like bears emerging early from hibernation, we ventured out this week to ice<br />
skate at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Open every year from November until<br />
mid <strong>January</strong>, the ice rink offered us the perfect opportunity to work off some<br />
of those mince pies.<br />
At first we took to the ice tentatively, clinging onto the side like nervous fawns.<br />
Whilst my older children found their skating feet with my husband, my toddler<br />
and I made our way to the special area designated for younger children.<br />
Conveniently, the ice rink provides younger children with special ‘bob’ skates<br />
which consist of two blades, making balancing a whole lot easier. Furthermore,<br />
toddlers can cling onto a life-size ‘penguin’ skate aid which they push in<br />
front of them as they learn to skate. Meanwhile my older children soon left the<br />
safety of the sides and, despite a few tumbles, began to skate with increasing confidence around the rink.<br />
We had chosen to go at night and the pretty way in which the lights illuminated the rink made us think of<br />
a Disney fantasy-land where anything could happen. Our hour of skating passed quickly and although my<br />
toddler peaked after 20 minutes or so, the older boys were begging to come back next week and we had<br />
such a fun time that we will be happy to oblige them. Jacky Adams<br />
Open daily from 10am-10pm until <strong>January</strong> 17th <strong>2016</strong>; entry is by ticket only. Onsite café with child friendly<br />
menu. Penguin skate aids are on a ‘first come first served’ basis. royalpavilionicerink.co.uk
Explore... and experience<br />
our way of learning<br />
Junior School Open Morning<br />
12 <strong>January</strong> <strong>2016</strong> - 9:30am to 12:30pm<br />
• small classes<br />
• co-educational<br />
• emphasis on individuality<br />
• tailored learning<br />
• 3 to 18 years<br />
For more information please contact: The Admissions Secretary<br />
office@logs.uk.com 01273 472634 www.logs.uk.com
under 16<br />
êêêê<br />
FreeTIME<br />
What’s on<br />
Until Mon 4<br />
Winter Wonderland Illuminations. Animalthemed<br />
light show, synchronised to music.<br />
Drusillas Park, 4.30pm daily. drusillas.co.uk<br />
Tue 5<br />
Tiny Towner. Weekly drop-in for under 5s.<br />
Get creative and stimulate the senses with<br />
pattern, line and material. Towner, Eastbourne,<br />
10.30am-12.30pm. townereastbourne.org.uk<br />
Sat 30<br />
Art club. Castle Creatives. Take inspiration<br />
from the Castle and its treasures and explore<br />
the use of clay, past and present, and produce a<br />
piece of work to take home. For children aged<br />
8-12. <strong>Lewes</strong> Castle, 10am-12.30pm, £8. Booking<br />
essential. 01273 486290 or sussexpast.co.uk<br />
Sun 31<br />
Sat 9- Sat 16<br />
Panto. Robin Hood. Traditional family panto,<br />
with a topical and local twist. St Mary’s Social<br />
Centre, Sat 2pm & 7pm, Sun 12 noon &<br />
5pm, Tue-Fri 7pm, Monday no performance,<br />
£9/£5/£3. stmaryspanto.org or 01273 477733<br />
Fri 15- Sun 24<br />
Panto. Jack and the Beanstalk. Family fun<br />
with lots of jokes and songs. The Barn Theatre,<br />
Seaford, Fri 15 & 22 7.30pm, Sat 16 & 23 2.30<br />
& 7.30pm, Sun 17 & 24 2.30pm, £10/£7 (family<br />
ticket £30). ticketsource.co.uk/thebarntheatre<br />
Fri 29- 6 Feb<br />
Theatre. Treasure Island. <strong>Lewes</strong> Theatre<br />
Youth Group present Robert Louis Stevenson’s<br />
classic. <strong>Lewes</strong> Little Theatre, Fri 29 7:45pm,<br />
Sat 30 & Sun 31 2:45pm, Fri 5 7:45pm, Sat 6<br />
2:45pm & 7:45pm, £8/£6. 01273 474826<br />
Film. Pan. (PG) 12-year-old orphan Peter is<br />
spirited away to the magical world of Neverland,<br />
where he finds fun and danger, and ultimately<br />
discovers his destiny… to become the<br />
hero who will be forever known as Peter Pan.<br />
All Saints, 3pm, £5-£6.50. filmatallsaints.com<br />
School Open Days<br />
Tue 12, <strong>Lewes</strong> Old Grammar Junior School<br />
Wed 13, <strong>Lewes</strong> New School<br />
Wed 27, Sussex Downs College<br />
Thu 28, Michael Hall School<br />
get your<br />
tickets now<br />
Book now for the World Premiere of new<br />
youth opera Nothing. Glyndebourne, 25-27<br />
Feb, £15. glyndebourne.com
under 16<br />
êêêê<br />
young photo of the month<br />
This month’s photo was<br />
taken by 13-year-old Lizzie<br />
Archer, in Sheffield Park. We<br />
love the way she’s made it<br />
monochrome, to add to the<br />
bleak feel of the image, as this<br />
tree stubbornly holds onto its<br />
last leaves. Lizzie wins a £10<br />
book token, kindly donated<br />
by Bags of Books bookshop<br />
on South Street. Under 16?<br />
Please email your photos and<br />
age to photos@vivalewes.com,<br />
with your contact details and<br />
any comments about why and<br />
where you took the photo.<br />
‘Local<br />
Producer of<br />
the Year’ *<br />
Mays’ Farm Cart<br />
Quality meats from our pasture to your plate ‘We do it naturally’<br />
From our farm... to<br />
Riverside... to you!<br />
Grass-fed beef and freerange<br />
pork from our<br />
small family farm, plus<br />
locally-sourced lamb,<br />
chicken and game.<br />
Great prices too.<br />
RIVERSIDE<br />
By Cliffe Bridge, <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
www.riverside-lewes.co.uk<br />
*<strong>Lewes</strong> & District Round Table Fatstock Awards 2015
food<br />
Limetree Kitchen<br />
High steaks on Station Street<br />
As we’re enjoying our<br />
amuse-bouches (Nocerella<br />
Del Belice olives and crispy<br />
home-cured fennel pork<br />
scratchings) I give my companion,<br />
an old friend I’ve<br />
known since Priory School<br />
days, a choice. I’ll let her<br />
pick the most expensive<br />
item on the main course<br />
menu – rib-eye steak (£22)<br />
– if she agrees to let me use<br />
her real name in this review.<br />
There’s a bit of humming<br />
and hawing… then<br />
Caroline - Caroline Wade<br />
that is, from Barcombe -<br />
chooses the rib-eye.<br />
We’re in Limetree Kitchen<br />
on Late Night Shopping Night, and with the<br />
rain pelting down outside, it’s a fine place to be,<br />
all white-painted wood, French-themed posters,<br />
and charming service. We can tell, in fact, from<br />
the quality of the scratchings (the best I’ve ever<br />
tasted, hey) that we’re going to have a good<br />
experience.<br />
Caroline’s already sunk a pint and a half of<br />
scrumpy in the Lansdown, so she’s on water; I<br />
choose a large house red (a South African Pinotage,<br />
£4.65) and pretty soon we’re settling into<br />
our starters. I enjoy three extremely succulent<br />
medallions of salmon carpaccio (£8), served on<br />
a black slate with blobs of aioli sauce and other<br />
visually-engaging accoutrements; Caroline<br />
rather plods her way through a large cup of<br />
mushroom soup (£7). I try some of it, and it’s<br />
very tasty, actually, though there’s no chance of<br />
food envy on this course.<br />
But what about the next? I’ve gone for a humble<br />
cut of onglet, the least expensive steak on offer<br />
(£17); not because I’m a<br />
cheapskate, but because I<br />
think it’s a great cut of meat,<br />
often served with skinny<br />
frites in everyday French<br />
cafés. Skinny frites are an<br />
option today, and they arrive<br />
- along with four slices of<br />
meat - in a tin bucket.<br />
Caroline has gone for Dauphinoise<br />
potatoes with her<br />
steak (£22, did I say?), something<br />
she makes at home. It’s<br />
never a good idea, I believe,<br />
to order things you’ve<br />
become an expert at making<br />
in your own kitchen, and,<br />
indeed, I end up finishing<br />
them (yum, for the record)<br />
while she tucks guiltily into my frites. I try her<br />
steak, as well; it’s beautifully tender; but I prefer<br />
the onglet, for its rich, gamey taste.<br />
The dessert, which we have with espresso coffee,<br />
is of the great-fun variety. It’s vanilla icecream,<br />
which comes with a little jug of warm<br />
salted caramel to pour over. The game is to try<br />
to eat the mixture before the ice cream melts. A<br />
plateful of contrasts - salty-sweet, hot-and-cold<br />
– it’s gone in an entertaining flash. Talk about<br />
amuse-bouches.<br />
The chef and owner, Alex, comes to chat<br />
afterwards, and tells us about onglet. It’s technically<br />
offal, he reveals, as it’s an offcut from the<br />
diaphragm: that’s one of the reasons it has such<br />
a powerful taste. Then he heads off, leaving the<br />
evening end-game in the capable hands of the<br />
young French waitress who’s been daintily serving<br />
us all night. I pay the bill (£78.40, before the<br />
tip) and bid adieu to both her and, once outside,<br />
the well-sated Ms Wade. Alex Leith<br />
63
64<br />
Photo by Rebecca Cunningham
food<br />
Butternut squash and white miso soup<br />
John Bayley at Cashew Catering prepares a healthy, hearty winter soup<br />
My interest in cooking and nutrition really<br />
started in my late teens when, like several of<br />
my mates, I decided to become a vegetarian. I<br />
quickly realised that if I was going to keep myself<br />
healthy I needed better kitchen skills and a<br />
greater understanding of nutrition. Ever since,<br />
I’ve done my best to make sure that the food I<br />
prepare for myself and my family at home and<br />
for my customers is nutritionally balanced and<br />
nourishing.<br />
This soup is easy to make, full of protein & vitamin<br />
B and beta-carotene. I like to top it with a<br />
vegan pesto, wasabi and cashew cream, an ume<br />
and raspberry dressing and a sprinkling of shiitake<br />
crisps. This recipe serves two to four.<br />
For the soup:<br />
1kg Butternut (or other) squash<br />
2-3 onions<br />
1 clove garlic<br />
1 can coconut milk<br />
1/4 cup white miso<br />
400ml water<br />
salt (to taste)<br />
Cut the squash into big chunks and rub with a<br />
little oil. Roast the squash and the onions – you<br />
can leave these whole - in the oven at a medium<br />
heat until soft. Then peel the onions and<br />
scrape out the flesh from the squash. Liquidise<br />
them together with the garlic, coconut milk and<br />
water until the mixture is completely smooth.<br />
Gently simmer the soup for about 20-30mins<br />
to cook through that raw garlic that went in,<br />
then take off the heat. Instead of a stock I use<br />
miso paste – you can use any kind but I like<br />
white miso because it’s particularly sweet and<br />
the yellow colour blends into the dish nicely.<br />
Rather than cook the miso – because it’s a fermented<br />
food – I just stir it in at the end. Add a<br />
bit of salt to taste.<br />
The first of the topping is the pesto. This pesto<br />
has a specifically Asian twist to it - you wouldn’t<br />
want to serve it to an Italian! My reasoning behind<br />
it is that with this meal you’ve really got<br />
carbs and vegetables and fermented foods, then<br />
the pesto adds protein from the cashew nuts<br />
and green nutrition from the mix of coriander,<br />
mint and chive.<br />
If you really want to fortify the soup you could<br />
add some red lentils to give it more protein.<br />
Put 15g mint, 15g chive, 15g coriander, 60ml<br />
mild-tasting oil, the juice of one lime and one<br />
lemon, one green chilli, 10g ginger and a tablespoon<br />
of water into a food processor. Add<br />
half a teaspoon of salt, then blitz until smooth.<br />
Add 50g toasted cashews, then blend again until<br />
they are breadcrumb-sized.<br />
To make the wasabi and cashew cream, liquidise<br />
half a cup of cashews, with ¾ cup of water, a<br />
tablespoon of wasabi powder – or horseradish<br />
works just as well – and salt to taste. This makes<br />
about 8-10 servings.<br />
For the ume & raspberry sauce blend a tablespoon<br />
of ume, half a cup of fresh or frozen raspberries,<br />
a teaspoon of agave syrup, and enough<br />
water to make a smooth sauce.<br />
The shiitake ‘crisps’ need roughly two mushrooms<br />
per portion, but do as many as you fancy.<br />
Slice them to about 2mm thick and coat the<br />
slices in oil, then season. Roast on medium heat<br />
in the oven until crisp, making sure you check<br />
them and turn where necessary. If any crisp up<br />
more quickly, take those out first. Leave to cool<br />
and serve. As told to Rebecca Cunningham<br />
North Rd, 07786 226220/cashewcatering.co.uk<br />
65
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Beautiful Provencal house with pool and large garden<br />
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Available for rental <strong>2016</strong> WiFi <strong>Lewes</strong> owners<br />
ali@hahlo.demon.co.uk<br />
www.roussillonholidayhome.co.uk<br />
a Great British pub, a warm welcome,<br />
wonderful food & ambience<br />
New Year’s eve!<br />
Book now for great food, great music,<br />
good times & free Prosecco at midnight!<br />
Open New Year’s Day as normal<br />
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*T&Cs apply, see our website for details
food<br />
Le Magasin<br />
The full anglais<br />
For a while Le Magasin, on Cliffe High<br />
Street, nodded to the fact that it had replaced<br />
the newsagent Moorey’s by selling newspapers<br />
– only a few mind, and I don’t remember any<br />
tabloids – from an antique cabinet. That was<br />
when they had fewer tables, I guess – nowadays<br />
they manage to pack thirty or so covers<br />
into the smallish space, which is just as well,<br />
as when I arrive there’s only one table left<br />
free. It’s Monday, it’s 11.30am, and I am starving<br />
for one of their full English breakfasts.<br />
There’s plenty to look at, as I wait to be<br />
served. A huge iron safe, for example, in<br />
the corner, begging the question who the<br />
hell managed to lift it in. A corrugated zinc<br />
ceiling decorated with silver painted leaves.<br />
Naked pendant light-bulbs reminding you of<br />
anywhere that’s opened in the last three years<br />
in Brighton. Blackboards: enough blackboards<br />
to justify a change of name to ‘L’École’.<br />
The breakfast is splendid, as I’ve been led to<br />
expect. Real meaty bacon, a proper butcher’s<br />
sausage, a perfectly poached twin egg, what I<br />
take to be sourdough toast, button mushrooms,<br />
sweet cherry tomatoes, and best of<br />
all – and I didn’t like the look of them on the<br />
menu – some new potatoes that have been<br />
boiled, cut in half, and fried in their skins. All<br />
this washed down by a second black Americano<br />
(I’d already had one while waiting).<br />
The only reading matter available nowadays<br />
is a discreet pile of <strong>Viva</strong>s – I’ve already read<br />
it cover to cover, obviously - but the food and<br />
people-watching potential are both high quality<br />
enough to fully absorb my attention. The<br />
damage? A rather posh £12.80. AL
drink<br />
Water Kefir<br />
Full of yeast and promise<br />
Fermentation’s<br />
on the rise. I’ve<br />
been advised of<br />
this by people<br />
who know these<br />
things. Apparently,<br />
fermented<br />
food and drinks<br />
(of a certain kind<br />
– I don’t think<br />
they mean beer)<br />
contain billions<br />
of cultures that<br />
are beneficial for the gut and the immune<br />
system. Ana Frearson of Fermentally has<br />
become a passionate advocate, making and<br />
selling a variety of fermented products<br />
and running workshops on how to make<br />
them yourself. I go along to her stall at the<br />
Weekly Food Market in Market Tower to<br />
meet her. Her tubs of food are in vibrant,<br />
pretty colours. I try the red beet kraut,<br />
ginger slaw and spicy Korean kimchi (made<br />
with cabbage and packed with chilli and<br />
garlic) and salty, but surprisingly delicious,<br />
kale cortido – all £4 a tub. She says they’re<br />
all simple to make – you just mix the ingredients<br />
and leave them to ferment. For this<br />
review I’ve been asked to try her new line of<br />
drinks, £2.50 for a 250ml bottle. She makes<br />
ginger beer and something I’ve never heard<br />
of, water kefir. This is made with water and<br />
kefir grains (which include a yeast/bacterial<br />
fermentation starter). The ginger beer has a<br />
slight effervescence, is vastly less sweet than<br />
most brands and has a whack of ginger that<br />
knocks your socks off. The water kefir tastes<br />
slightly sweet, with a bit of a yeasty backtaste.<br />
It’s certainly an easy way to consume<br />
something virtuous. Emma Chaplin<br />
Ana Frearson, Fermentally. Six workshops in<br />
Jan, two hours each, £25 fermentally.co.uk<br />
07900 827839
food<br />
Edible Updates<br />
FOOD<br />
Locally sourced and<br />
freshly prepared by<br />
our chefs.<br />
DRINKS<br />
A range of wines,<br />
craft beers and hot<br />
drinks available<br />
throughout the day.<br />
Forty<br />
L U N C H M E N U<br />
2 Courses £10 ~ 3 Courses £15<br />
WINKS<br />
Staying for a few days?<br />
…we have a boutique<br />
double room with<br />
ensuite.<br />
Please note this is a typical lunch menu and is subject to change<br />
due to availability of ingredients and seasonal produce<br />
starters<br />
Leek and potato soup with chicken dripping and artisan bread.<br />
Cauliflower pakoras, tandoori, tomato and coriander.<br />
mains<br />
Ginger beer battered halloumi, hand cut chips, pea purée<br />
and smokey ketchup.<br />
Fish pie, sea herbs and leaves.<br />
desserts<br />
Ice cream and sorbet - selection of the day.<br />
Caffé Gourmand.<br />
Tea or coffee with homemade treats on the side.<br />
Limetree Kitchen<br />
14 Station Street, <strong>Lewes</strong>, East Sussex. BN7 2DA<br />
Call 01273 478636 to book your table…<br />
or room.<br />
www.limetreekitchen.co.uk<br />
limetreekitchen<br />
Illustration by Chloë King<br />
<strong>January</strong>: the<br />
month cleaneating<br />
advocates<br />
have been waiting<br />
for. If you’re<br />
not cutting out<br />
alcohol, sugar,<br />
wheat, dairy and<br />
frankly anything<br />
enjoyable<br />
this month, then I don’t know what magazines<br />
you’ve been reading.<br />
Fortunately, in <strong>Lewes</strong> we have a whole load<br />
of healthy, organic, locally grown produce<br />
available all year round, including brilliant box<br />
schemes from Ashurst Organics, Barcombe<br />
Nurseries and May’s Farm Cart.<br />
At Pestle & Mortar, you can discover a cleansing<br />
brew in the form of their new Burmese<br />
green teas, or feast on a vegan Thai curry made<br />
with homemade paste, and ‘no shrimp!’ Curry,<br />
of course, is a great way to up your veggies,<br />
and fortunately, Community Chef is holding<br />
a workshop on 30 Jan, making ‘quintessential<br />
Udupi’: pure vegetarian, healing dishes from<br />
Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu’. [communitychef.org.uk]<br />
Eating well expert (and this month’s My <strong>Lewes</strong>)<br />
Tina Deubert is launching her new recipe<br />
collection this month. ‘Cards with a difference,’<br />
she says, featuring all our favourite dishes sold<br />
in Tina’s Kitchen and more; pick up in store.<br />
At the <strong>Lewes</strong> Friday Market, Ana Frearson (see<br />
page 68) sells homemade fermented vegetable<br />
pickles like sauerkraut and Kimchi. You can<br />
speak to Ana (07900 827839) about attending<br />
her fermentation workshops. ‘Such an interesting<br />
process,’ she tells us, ‘and the resulting food<br />
and drinks are so good for you.’<br />
And those still satisfied with a well-constructed<br />
sandwich, a slice of something sweet and a<br />
good cuppa on a cold day will welcome the new<br />
branch of old favourite The Runaway Café;<br />
now open on Station Street. Chloë King<br />
69
Hut Therapy<br />
Bed and (wholefood) breakfast<br />
‘Miso soup, for breakfast?’ I wonder, watching<br />
Gilly Webber stir the steamy, seaweedy<br />
broth that I’m used to seeing a bit later on<br />
in the day. Gilly is the host at Hut Therapy,<br />
a Bed and Whole Food Breakfast run from<br />
her home in East Chiltington. I’ve arrived<br />
on a brisk winter morning to sample her<br />
macrobiotic cooking.<br />
Macrobiotic, she explains, means ‘big life’<br />
and stems from oriental principles of the five<br />
types of energy: tree, fire, ground, metal and<br />
water. Tree energy comes from foods which<br />
grow upwards, so the leeks in the miso soup<br />
she’s making, or the barley which the miso<br />
is made from. Fire energy includes foods<br />
which grow outwards, like mushrooms, and<br />
ground energy comes from those which<br />
grow close to the ground, like pumpkin or<br />
squash. Metal energy covers foods which<br />
grow under the earth, like root vegetables.<br />
Water energy really speaks for itself.<br />
We sit down to our first course; the soup is<br />
accompanied by sauerkraut rolls with a tahini<br />
and white miso dip, and some steamed<br />
greens. I’ve quickly become an energy spotter<br />
and am keen to identify the types of energy<br />
found in every single ingredient in the<br />
meal. The carrots, of course, give us metal<br />
energy, while the kale, I think, is tree. But<br />
what about the seaweed? My first thought is<br />
tree energy because of the shape, but then it<br />
does grow under water, so perhaps it’s water<br />
energy? It turns out it’s both.<br />
Gilly goes along with my guessing game for<br />
a while, but really this isn’t what her cooking<br />
is about. “It’s about the balance,” she ex-<br />
70
health<br />
plains, “coming into your body and knowing<br />
which foods you need.” She has been<br />
eating this way since suffering ill health<br />
several years ago, a period of her life which<br />
made her re-think what she was eating<br />
and what she needed to be well. It’s not all<br />
about cutting out sugar, or dairy, or gluten,<br />
like many current health crazes, but rather<br />
about gaining a sense of which foods you<br />
need as you go about your life.<br />
Our second course is a millet porridge<br />
cooked with apple and topped with toasted<br />
pumpkin seeds, which I chose a few<br />
days ago from a menu of delicious-sounding<br />
options. Gilly explains that the millet<br />
is ‘grounding’ and believes that even<br />
without knowing why we choose certain<br />
foods, subconsciously we are selecting<br />
those which give us the energies we need.<br />
I’m not sure that I could have known last<br />
week, when I chose the millet, that on this<br />
particular morning I was going to need<br />
grounding. Still I really enjoy talking to<br />
Gilly because she is keen to share with me<br />
what she has learnt through her own experiences,<br />
but she’s not looking to impose<br />
her ideas onto me. I think she can tell that<br />
I’m naturally sceptical, but it’s a learning<br />
process. I think that if I had the chance to<br />
stay for an entire weekend, I might come<br />
out as convinced as she is.<br />
Rebecca Cunningham<br />
Photos by Rebecca Cunningham<br />
71
the way we work<br />
This month we asked portrait photographer Simon Potter to visit some of the town’s<br />
dentists, but not for a check-up. He’s used his natural, relaxed shooting style to capture a<br />
usually nerve-wracking scenario in an uncharacteristically welcoming light. During each<br />
visit he has asked the practitioner: what’s your tip for white teeth?<br />
simonpotter.photoshelter.com<br />
Steven Kell, <strong>Lewes</strong> High Street Dental Practice<br />
“Don’t smoke, see your dentist and hygienist regularly and follow the advice<br />
they have shared with you. If you’re not happy don’t be too embarrassed to<br />
discuss it with your dentist - everything can be sorted!”
the way we work<br />
Mhiran Patel, Albion Dental<br />
“It’s important to limit sources of staining such as tea, coffee and red wine,<br />
as well as giving up smoking for your New Year’s resolution! Discolouration can be due<br />
to a variety of internal and external factors; your dentist can advise you if and<br />
how an improvement can be achieved.”
the way we work<br />
Katie Henry, <strong>Lewes</strong> High Street Dental Practice<br />
“There are many different causes of discoloured teeth. If you have concerns about the<br />
colour of your teeth then speak to your dentist, who will be happy to discuss your options.<br />
Smoking should be avoided and frequent consumption of certain drinks such as<br />
black tea or coffee will cause more staining.”
Meet Our Team<br />
KIMBERLEY CARWITHEN<br />
Solicitor<br />
We are delighted that our Kimberley Carwithen<br />
has just qualified as a solicitor. Kimberley<br />
joined our team in September 2013 to start<br />
her training contract, having completed her<br />
studies to become a solicitor.<br />
Kimberley specialises in residential conveyancing,<br />
wills & lasting powers of attorney.<br />
Outside of work she enjoys trampolining, aerial<br />
hoop, shopping, swimming & socialising. She<br />
also enjoys travelling & tries to visit as many<br />
places as possible - when we allow her any<br />
holiday!<br />
kimberley@morgan-kelly.co.uk<br />
Our clients say<br />
Efficient, effective & helpful throughout<br />
- thank you, Kimberley & team, for your support<br />
through the sale process<br />
Local, specialist,<br />
quality & affordable<br />
solicitors<br />
www.morgan-kelly.co.uk<br />
Castle Works<br />
Westgate Street<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong><br />
BN7 1YR<br />
01273 407 970
the way we work<br />
Hakan Bystrom, St Anne’s Dental<br />
“A good daily hygiene routine, limit intake of black tea and coffee, do not smoke,<br />
see a hygienist regularly, talk to your dentist about teeth whitening”
Specsavers<br />
Store Director Trish Lofting<br />
I’ve been with Specsavers 25 years, in the<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> branch for 13. I came from the Horsham<br />
branch with optometrist Louise Finbow and four<br />
other staff. <strong>Lewes</strong> is a loyal town, so it took a long<br />
time for us to get established, but we are now.<br />
Our customers are 65% glasses wearers, 35%<br />
contact lens wearers and we do about 120 eye<br />
tests a week.<br />
Wearing glasses has become fashionable. I<br />
only started needing to wear them a couple of<br />
years ago, but I’ve grown to like them. I’ve got<br />
ten pairs.<br />
We have about 1,200 different frames to<br />
choose from here. We are trained to help<br />
people find frames that suit their faces. I look at<br />
people and consider what I think will look good<br />
on them, but I’m not always right. There are so<br />
many subtle variations on shape these days. It’s not<br />
just round, square or oblong like it used to be.<br />
The most expensive piece of kit we use is the<br />
electronic eye chart unit.<br />
The biggest changes have been with the<br />
technology we use. We don’t take measurements<br />
manually, it’s all digital. We use an iPad for dispensing.<br />
As well as having the more traditional reading<br />
card, it simulates looking at a mobile phone, because<br />
that’s what people do these days. Customers put<br />
their frames on and we add a device we call ‘Fred’.<br />
Fred’s sensors measure pupil distance, frame size and<br />
work out whether your prescription is suitable for<br />
the frames.<br />
As part of our pre-screening procedure we do<br />
a number of tests. The auto-refractor gauges the<br />
ability of your eyes to focus. It’s a double-checking<br />
procedure and gives us an idea of your prescription<br />
before you have your eye test.<br />
We use the fundus camera for some customers,<br />
78
my space<br />
Photos by Katie Moorman<br />
particularly those over 40. It takes a photo which<br />
allows a more in-depth look at the back of the eye,<br />
looking for anything abnormal. It’s become part<br />
of the standard eye test, although you used to have<br />
to pay for it. We also do a field-of-vision test with<br />
the visual field screener.<br />
The tonometer checks pressure in the<br />
eyeballs (intra-ocular pressure), it’s the one using<br />
puffs of air. Everyone hates it, but it’s important, it<br />
helps check for risk of glaucoma. In all instances,<br />
we’re looking for anything abnormal, which indicates<br />
that the customer may need a referral.<br />
As told to Emma Chaplin<br />
79
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column<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Out Loud<br />
Plenty more Henty<br />
First of all – a very<br />
Happy New Year<br />
and thanks to<br />
several of you who<br />
have given my new<br />
approach to this<br />
page a ‘thumbs-up’.<br />
I don’t do names<br />
but you know who<br />
you are. As far as<br />
<strong>2016</strong> is concerned,<br />
for someone like<br />
me who was born in 1936, I have to say I view<br />
the New Year with a fair degree of trepidation.<br />
However, following my tried and tested KTTT<br />
philosophy (Keep Taking The Tablets) I<br />
popped into Boots the chemist locally in late<br />
November to purchase, in addition to the pills,<br />
one of their scribbling diaries for <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
You see, I’m not into the other sort of tablets<br />
and an A4 desk diary has been an established<br />
part of my daily routine for at least 25 years.<br />
“We don’t stock them” I was told, “You should<br />
try our big branch in Brighton – they carry<br />
those sort of things”.<br />
Not any more they don’t, as I discovered a few<br />
days later. After much searching upstairs, with<br />
the help of an assistant, we established that<br />
the Nottingham-based company had ceased<br />
to manufacture the iconic scribbler. As far<br />
as it is concerned then, I said to the woman,<br />
<strong>2016</strong> won’t happen. She laughed nervously as I<br />
headed back to <strong>Lewes</strong> and good old WH Smith<br />
in the precinct.<br />
Later in Cliffe, I enjoyed a chat with friend<br />
Caroline who told me she is concerned, like<br />
others, about cars using the road we were in,<br />
parking there illegally and causing difficulties<br />
for pedestrians - especially children. Amongst<br />
other things,<br />
Caroline would like<br />
to see improved<br />
signage in Railway<br />
Lane and she’s<br />
actively pursuing<br />
matters with the<br />
council and hopes<br />
for action in <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
As we spoke, we<br />
were passed by<br />
a sizeable 4 x 4<br />
vehicle which compounded the issue by loudly<br />
hooting at a wayward pigeon. “Bollards!”<br />
commented a cheery local woman, overhearing<br />
our conversation. At least I think that was her<br />
comment! “They’ve got ’em in Chichester –<br />
retractable ones… and they work!”<br />
Caroline’s friendly dog, Billy, was not amused<br />
either. I’m told he regularly visits local care<br />
homes and is a great favourite with residents.<br />
I love these impromptu sessions which seem to<br />
be so much a part of our lively town. In <strong>2016</strong><br />
I reckon we should create a Speakers’ Corner<br />
somewhere central – a semi-permanent soap<br />
box where locals could air their views and opinions<br />
in the true spirit of Thomas Paine.<br />
Meantime I’ll have to make do with Cliffe, and<br />
the aisles in Waitrose where numerous issues<br />
are resolved, and not always serious ones. Most<br />
recently I recall a lengthy discussion with John<br />
and Gill from Norton, close-by Bishopstone,<br />
on the varying merits of cherry or lemon drizzle<br />
cake.<br />
Finally, I have been asked to identify the<br />
smiling woman in the December issue who<br />
was walking her rescue dogs when we met in<br />
Grange Road. Thank you to Val and I don’t<br />
have the names of her dogs - yet! John Henty<br />
81
football<br />
Olivia Rowlands<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Ladies’ medic<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Ladies are used to<br />
beating the odds. Having<br />
fought their way into<br />
the Women’s Premier<br />
League, they now stand<br />
shoulder to shoulder with<br />
sides such as Tottenham<br />
Hotspur, West Ham and<br />
local rivals Brighton &<br />
Hove Albion.<br />
This season, it’s not only<br />
been the vastly superior<br />
resources of their rivals<br />
that the Rookettes have<br />
had to contend with, but<br />
a crippling injury list. At<br />
one point, the entire back<br />
four was out of action, a<br />
couple with problems that<br />
could keep them out for<br />
the rest of the season and<br />
beyond.<br />
Drafted in to bolster the Ladies physio and sports<br />
therapy section was Olivia Rowlands, who works<br />
with Debbie Bradbury to ensure the women are in<br />
the best possible physical shape. That doesn’t just<br />
mean treating players when they take a knock,<br />
but working with the players and coaches to avoid<br />
injuries occurring in the first place. “I assess the<br />
players coming in for treatment,” says Rowlands,<br />
“either injuries that have occurred during the<br />
game or it can be screening them to see whether<br />
they’re fit to play or not.”<br />
“In collaboration with the coach and the strength<br />
and conditioning coach, we then formulate a plan<br />
for return to play. We also discuss with the players<br />
about how to manage those injuries.”<br />
Rowlands says one of the hardest parts of her job<br />
is convincing players it’s not in their best interests<br />
to cross that white line on a Sunday afternoon.<br />
“Obviously, everyone’s<br />
keen to<br />
play and football’s<br />
their overriding<br />
passion. It’s about<br />
being honest with<br />
the players and<br />
saying ‘if you do<br />
continue playing<br />
with this injury,<br />
the likelihood is it<br />
will get worse’. It’s<br />
about managing<br />
those injuries and<br />
getting people<br />
back into play as<br />
soon as you can.”<br />
This is the first<br />
time Rowlands<br />
has worked in<br />
football. However,<br />
she’s used to a much riskier sport: she used<br />
to be into parkour – running, jumping and rolling<br />
over obstacles – before she settled down into<br />
a day job as a physiotherapist with the NHS. She<br />
says the breadth of the knowledge she’s picked up<br />
working at Eastbourne hospital will serve the club<br />
and its players well. “I rotate between different<br />
areas of the hospital. I’m a very general physio,<br />
but it’s a really good way to start to go into sports<br />
for the long term. I know a lot about neurological<br />
physiotherapy, I know about acute injury management,<br />
I know about respiratory problems, about<br />
intensive care and looking after spinal injuries,”<br />
she says. “All that is very important.”<br />
Given the bad luck with injuries the Rookettes<br />
have suffered this season, it probably won’t be too<br />
long before she can put all those different skills<br />
into practice at the Dripping Pan.<br />
Barry Collins<br />
83
feature: wild MEDICINE<br />
Nicholas Culpeper<br />
Better living through botany<br />
Exactly 400 years ago, in 1616, a legend was born;<br />
a rebel who partnered up with Mother Nature to<br />
revolutionise British medicine. The herbal hero,<br />
the botanical bad boy, the father of alternative<br />
medicine, ladies and gentleman I give you, Nicholas<br />
Culpeper.<br />
Culpeper did his growing up upstream in Isfield.<br />
The lanes around <strong>Lewes</strong> and the starry Sussex skies<br />
were his classroom and the hedges and the heavens<br />
taught him botany, astronomy and astrology. And<br />
he learnt about love too. In 1634 Culpeper and his<br />
Sussex sweetheart planned a secret <strong>Lewes</strong> wedding<br />
and a speedy elopement to the Netherlands. But<br />
tragedy struck when his lover’s carriage was hit by a<br />
lightning bolt en route to <strong>Lewes</strong>. She died instantly.<br />
There’s no cure for a broken heart and Culpeper<br />
left Sussex and started a new life in London. He<br />
threw himself into his work as a lowly apothecary’s<br />
assistant, cataloguing medicinal herbs on<br />
Threadneedle Street. At this time medicine was<br />
only practiced by elite physicians. They would<br />
charge exorbitant prices for their secret remedies<br />
and would not even demean themselves to talk to<br />
patients; instead requesting a sample of urine to<br />
make their diagnosis. Culpeper agreed with them<br />
on one thing; they were all taking the piss. He<br />
believed medical treatment should be available to<br />
all - not just the privileged.<br />
Setting up his own practice in a poorer part of<br />
London, Culpeper started treating 40 patients<br />
a day with herbal cures derived from English<br />
plants. Then he dropped his botanical bombshell.<br />
Culpeper published an incredible book which<br />
instructed people how to pick their own remedies,<br />
free of charge, from the hedges and meadows. The<br />
book was The English Physitian (1652, later enlarged<br />
as The Complete Herbal). His book promoted<br />
and preserved folk remedies at a time when physicians<br />
and priests were discrediting village healers<br />
and preventing them from passing along their<br />
traditional knowledge. The medical establishment<br />
was enraged and accused Culpeper of practicing<br />
witchcraft. But his book endured. In fact it’s been<br />
in continuous print longer than any other nonreligious<br />
English language book.<br />
No doubt Culpeper’s herbal remedies could have<br />
come in useful for some of you over the festive<br />
period; wild privet (for headaches), blackthorn<br />
(for indigestion), rosemary (for flatulence) and the<br />
juice of ivy berries ‘snuffed up into the nose’ (for<br />
hangovers). Culpeper also has cures for those with<br />
sore breasts, worms, itches in the ‘privy parts’ and<br />
bruises. Hey – I don’t know what you lot have been<br />
getting up to over Christmas.<br />
So start <strong>2016</strong> by raising your Nutribullets and<br />
ginseng teas to the healing properties of Mother<br />
Nature and to four centuries of Nicholas Culpeper.<br />
Michael Blencowe, Sussex Wildlife Trust<br />
Illustration by Mark Greco<br />
sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk<br />
85
TREKKING<br />
TRAIL RUNNING<br />
SKIING<br />
CAMPING<br />
SKIING<br />
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HIKING
trade secrets<br />
St Anne’s Pharmacy<br />
Co-owner Debbie Baker<br />
Photos by Mark Bridge<br />
The business is run by me and Karen Smillie.<br />
We first worked together at another pharmacy in<br />
the town: Karen was the manager and I joined as<br />
a technician when I was 16. After several years I<br />
left to do my pharmacy degree but eventually we<br />
got together again and agreed that <strong>Lewes</strong> needed<br />
another pharmacy, so we put the wheels in motion.<br />
We’ve just celebrated our tenth anniversary of being<br />
in business.<br />
Being an independently owned pharmacy is unusual<br />
these days. There’s a huge amount of background<br />
work, whereas the multiples have a head<br />
office that deals with all the red tape and that sort<br />
of thing. But they haven’t got the flexibility we have.<br />
Most of our business is from prescriptions, not overthe-counter<br />
sales. It’s different for the multiples because<br />
they have a huge retail side.<br />
We buy all the drugs. A lot of people don’t realise<br />
this. So if you go into a pharmacy with your prescription<br />
and they’ve got your medication on the<br />
shelf, it’s because they’ve ordered the products and<br />
are hoping someone will need them. We can buy<br />
thousands of pounds of drugs but it comes out of<br />
our pocket. The NHS will only pay us when we’ve<br />
given a patient the medication that’s listed on their<br />
prescription.<br />
People tend to contemplate New Year’s resolutions<br />
in <strong>January</strong>, so it’s a good time of year to think<br />
about health: diet, exercise and giving up smoking.<br />
It’s relatively quiet for us, although the lead-up to<br />
Christmas is absolutely manic. Some people get in<br />
a panic about having enough medication because<br />
we’re closed for four days, which causes a horrendous<br />
workload.<br />
There’s a lot we can do to help people manage<br />
their medical conditions. Often your pharmacist<br />
can help with extra information about your prescription.<br />
We also provide a particular service called<br />
a Medicine Use Review, where patients can discuss<br />
how they’re using their medication and what problems<br />
they’re having. You can come in and have a<br />
completely private consultation with a pharmacist.<br />
I wish people would keep their medication in its<br />
original packaging. The appearance of tablets and<br />
packaging can change, which means people can get<br />
muddled up and start taking the wrong amounts.<br />
And please don’t order things you don’t need. The<br />
NHS pays for the medicine - and if it’s not used, the<br />
NHS also pays to have it incinerated.<br />
Sometimes I cringe when people come in and<br />
say “I’ve got flu”. It’s very unlikely you’d be able to<br />
walk in if you actually had flu. I’m a big fan of those<br />
fizzy vitamin tablets like Berocca if you have a cold<br />
or you’re surrounded by people who have colds.<br />
And Difflam Spray for really sore throats. But ask<br />
your pharmacist first! As told to Mark Bridge<br />
50 Western Road, <strong>Lewes</strong> BN7 1RP<br />
01273 474645<br />
87
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icks and mortar<br />
Chailey Heritage<br />
The Commandant’s caring creation<br />
There’s a story about Grace Kimmins’s benevolent<br />
scheming. It was told by her granddaughter,<br />
so it’s probably true. Kimmins was trying to buy<br />
an extra bit of land for her school, but the owner<br />
wouldn’t sell. So she waited for this big event,<br />
when the Bishop of London came down, and<br />
she got up in front of everyone and thanked the<br />
owner for donating the bit of land. And it worked.<br />
Kimmins was born in <strong>Lewes</strong> in 1870. She’s characterised<br />
as a savvy fundraiser and publicist, a<br />
determined and charismatic figure who knew<br />
what she wanted and had no doubt she could<br />
make it happen. She earned the affectionate<br />
nickname ‘Commandant’.<br />
Living in London as a missionary, working with<br />
poor people, she “realised that there were people<br />
who had disabilities who could work, but weren’t<br />
being given the training, so they were being<br />
marginalised,” says Chailey Heritage Foundation’s<br />
chief exec, Helen Hewitt. “That’s why she<br />
created the Heritage. She came from London<br />
with seven young men who were disabled. She<br />
decided they should be taught a trade.”<br />
This was in 1903. The school was founded in a<br />
decrepit former workhouse, with a leaky roof and<br />
a rat problem and no gas or electricity. The boys<br />
were taught carpentry, and then Kimmins used<br />
her connections to get them apprenticeships.<br />
Admitting girls from 1908, Chailey Heritage<br />
grew until, at one point, it had four sites in the<br />
village and an outpost at Tidemills. The curriculum<br />
shifted away from carpentry and bootmaking<br />
and needlework. As more of a focus on<br />
medical care developed, operating theatres were<br />
built, and children were cared for on nurse-run<br />
wards.<br />
The original building, the former workhouse, is<br />
still there. Part of it houses the charity’s offices,<br />
and does feel a bit ancient, with its low beams<br />
and narrow corridors. But the rest of the building<br />
is a modern-looking and immensely well<br />
equipped ‘Life Skills Centre’, for disabled adults.<br />
The school itself is in the latter style; it even has<br />
a wireless ‘wheelchair-guidance system’ in the<br />
corridors, with anti-crash technology.<br />
Nowadays the school deals with much more<br />
complex disabilities than in Kimmins’ time. Of<br />
the 78 current students, more than half need<br />
medically-assisted eating; the vast majority are<br />
‘non verbal’. And yet, the founder’s basic idea –<br />
to prepare students for as independent a life as<br />
possible – is still the school’s ethos.<br />
“We’re committed to their lives being as fulfilling<br />
as they can possibly be, to help them fulfil<br />
every bit of their potential,” Hewitt says. “For<br />
some, maybe it’s the blink of an eye that says<br />
they understand, and they want this rather than<br />
that - for them that’s an achievement, because<br />
they’ve been able to make a choice.<br />
“If you imagine someone with cerebral palsy,<br />
who doesn’t have very much physical control,<br />
but actually has a lot of ability; if the school can<br />
provide the mechanism, whether it’s through<br />
Eye Gaze [eye-tracking computer software], or<br />
a communication book, or even making them<br />
comfortable enough so that they can concentrate<br />
on learning, then that’s absolutely massive.”<br />
Steve Ramsey<br />
89
usiness news<br />
On a small industrial estate at the edge of Ringmer<br />
is a company that proudly claims to produce<br />
the widest range of wheelchair platforms<br />
and recliners in the world. For example, they<br />
make a portable device that tilts a patient in a<br />
wheelchair, enabling that person to receive dental<br />
treatment without being transferred onto a<br />
dentist’s couch. And there are motorised chairs<br />
that’ll adjust to fit bariatric patients weighing<br />
over 50 stone, making it easier for medical staff<br />
to transfer and treat people on a single piece of<br />
equipment. It means undignified and potentially<br />
dangerous hoists can be consigned to the past.<br />
The company was born from a project at the<br />
University of Brighton. Richard Fletcher was<br />
leading the MSc Product Innovation and Design<br />
course when a London hospital asked for<br />
help designing a wheelchair recliner platform.<br />
Not only did Richard’s solution win an award,<br />
it led to the creation of his own business almost<br />
16 years ago. He’s CEO of Design Specific Ltd,<br />
working with a dedicated staff of five who cover<br />
all technical aspects as well as marketing and<br />
support.<br />
In its way, Design Specific is a very traditional<br />
firm. Every new product starts with a pencildrawn<br />
sketch. Components are ordered from<br />
local suppliers where possible, with all assembly<br />
– including circuit boards – taking place on<br />
site. Yet the results are perfectly suited to<br />
21st-century medicine. Instead of inconvenient<br />
cables and noisy motors, there are silky-smooth<br />
castors, rechargeable batteries and quiet<br />
hydraulic lifts. What’s most notable about the<br />
products is how attractive they are. “We like to<br />
make things that look good”, Richard explains.<br />
“You can have style as well as function.” Meanwhile<br />
John Walters, Design and International<br />
Marketing Manager, talks about a compliment<br />
he was paid at a European trade show. “The<br />
Germans said ‘It looks German’. That was high<br />
praise, as far as I was concerned.”<br />
Last year, Design Specific won the coveted<br />
Award for Business Innovation during the<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> District Business Awards. The company<br />
sells its products around the world, so why<br />
did it enter a local competition? “I don’t chase<br />
awards”, Richard tells us. “It was for everyone<br />
here. These guys work hard, they put a lot in. I<br />
wanted to give their efforts an airing.”<br />
And what’s planned for <strong>2016</strong>? Richard points to<br />
the motorised ‘fifth wheel’ hidden underneath<br />
their latest bariatric conveyance chair. At the<br />
moment it’s ordered from Germany but will<br />
soon be replaced with a home-grown design.<br />
“They use cams; we’ll be using linear drives.<br />
We’ve done a lot of sketches.”<br />
Mark Bridge<br />
Design Specific, Caburn Enterprise Park, The<br />
Broyle, Ringmer, 01273 813904<br />
The <strong>2016</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> District Business Awards<br />
will launch in March. Celebrating excellence<br />
in local business, it’s free to enter and open to<br />
organisations of all sizes and sectors. It’s an opportunity<br />
to give your staff the recognition they<br />
deserve, boost your company profile and - if<br />
you’re shortlisted - enjoy a jolly good night out.<br />
Speaking of awards (and good nights out), our<br />
congratulations to the winners of the 2015 Fatstock<br />
Awards. Prizes went to May’s Farm Cart<br />
for Local Producer, Bone Clothing for Business<br />
of the Year and Mary Masters for Personality of<br />
the Year. Over £8,000 was raised on the night<br />
for Southover Counselling and MIND.<br />
90
DIRECTORY<br />
Please note that though we aim to only take advertising from reputable businesses, we cannot guarantee<br />
the quality of any work undertaken, and accept no responsibility or liability for any issues arising.<br />
To advertise in <strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> please call 01273 434567 or email advertising@vivalewes.com<br />
Directory Spotlight:<br />
intrinsic HEALTH<br />
Ruth Wharton, Biodynamic Cranial<br />
Osteopath and Naturopath;<br />
Jak Measure Licensed Homeopath<br />
and Cease Therapist; Sally Galloway<br />
Nutritional Therapist and<br />
Naturopathic Chef.<br />
RW: We’d known each other for a<br />
long time, and, as established <strong>Lewes</strong><br />
practitioners, had the shared vision<br />
of creating a dynamic space where<br />
we can practise in the heart of our<br />
town. We treat people of all ages, sometimes<br />
whole families. The reception is also open for people<br />
to buy homeopathic remedies as well as green<br />
juices and healthy ready meals to take home.<br />
JM: For me homeopathy is an art as well as a science,<br />
balancing the holistic health of mind, body<br />
and spirit. Having an ongoing dialogue with each<br />
patient allows me to address their needs at that<br />
moment and avoid being too prescriptive.<br />
One size doesn’t fit all.<br />
SG: Nutritional Therapy is about<br />
treating the causes of symptoms, and<br />
I am as interested in the individual’s<br />
cellular health as well as what they<br />
have in their fridge. It’s never too late<br />
to be healthy; it’s the body’s default<br />
setting. Everyone can start by drinking<br />
more water, avoiding processed<br />
foods and eating more greens. They<br />
really are a profoundly rich food source.<br />
RW: We all share the view that the potential for<br />
wellness is inside us and – given the right approach<br />
– we can empower people to draw this out. Used at<br />
its best, all of what we do is preventative.<br />
Lizzie Lower<br />
Tuesday to Saturday, 32 Cliffe High Street<br />
01273 958403, intrinsichealthlewes.co.uk.<br />
91
home
home<br />
PVC Windows<br />
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Doors and Conservatories<br />
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Call for a free, no obligation quote!<br />
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CP <strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong> Ad (Qtr Pg)_62 x 94mm 18/02/2011 1<br />
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AHB ad.indd 1 27/07/2015 17:4
home & garden<br />
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health & wellbeing<br />
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health & Well-being<br />
OSteOpathy & Cranial OSteOpathy<br />
Michaela Kullack & Simon Murray<br />
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health & wellbeing<br />
Iyengar Yoga<br />
SUBUD, 26a Station St from 11 JAN 16<br />
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Andrew Wells_<strong>Viva</strong> <strong>Lewes</strong>_AW.indd 1 25/06/2012 09:05
inside left<br />
smooth operator<br />
There were two big revolutions in the design of the bicycle, and they both took place just before this<br />
picture – entitled ‘Mr Jefferies and friends on machines’ - was taken, at the back of Reeves studio, on the<br />
High Street. This was some time in 1894.<br />
The first was the invention of the ‘safety bicycle’, as opposed to the penny farthing, on which both<br />
wheels were the same size, and a chain joined the pedals to the back wheel. The basic shape of bicycles<br />
has changed very little since. The second was the development of the pneumatic tyre, which increased<br />
the top speed of the bicycle by a third, and made it a considerably more comfortable riding experience.<br />
The chap on the right of the picture – the one with the smile, which we’re presuming is Mr Jefferies<br />
– has got pneumatic tyres on his bike, the other two haven’t, they are still on ‘boneshakers’. In fact the<br />
right-hand bike, according to cycling history expert Ian McGuckin, is “quite a swanky machine, with a<br />
chain guard, and quite a complicated front brake. The other two [bikes] are fairly generic, and both have<br />
cushioned tyres (a last attempt by the makers to stave off the rise of pneumatics).” The fourth man has<br />
no bike at all; he is in the classic pose of the time-trial assistant, holding the rider back until the clock<br />
starts ticking. Time-trialling was a British invention, as simultaneous racing was banned on public roads,<br />
and so cyclists took to competing against the clock.<br />
Notice that the four chaps have all got cap badges on, and that they are dressed in similar gear. This is<br />
very much the cycling club gear of its time, with jackets, and knee length socks over the trousers – very<br />
different from today’s light-weight Lycra. Which racing club the chaps belong to is a mystery: Chris<br />
Martin, archivist of the <strong>Lewes</strong> Wanderers, tells us that the original incarnation of that club (which folded<br />
before WW2, reformed shortly afterwards, and is still going strong today) was founded in around 1894,<br />
but did not have a shield-shaped badge. We assume these gentlemen must have been based in or around<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong>, or they wouldn’t have been using the Reeves studio. If anyone could shed any light on the matter<br />
we’d be much obliged. Picture courtesy of Reeves, 159 High Street, 01273 473274/edwardreeves.com<br />
106