Viva Lewes Issue #124 January 2017

Photo by Alex Leith
MY LEWES: JULIAN DAWSON, AUCTIONEER
Are you local? I was born and bred in Chichester.
I actually spent a year teaching nine year olds
in a prep school near Worthing before coming to
Lewes to do my articles of clerkship with George
Carey at Thornton’s. I started off doing various
evaluations in agriculture, 57 years ago, and ended
up selling pigs and sheep in the Cattle Market. I did
hundreds of markets.
And you’ve carried on being an auctioneer...
Yes; of course I moved on from the livestock to the
furniture business in Garden Street. I’m retiring
at the end of the year and my partners are moving
the whole operation down to Gorringe’s in North
Street. We used to pay rent to the Railway for the
Garden Street sheds, but I bought them off them.
We’re going to turn them into houses.
You live in Kingston… At first we lived in the
Street but we moved to the estate over 50 years ago,
and we’ve been there ever since. It’s a good place to
live, only ten minutes’ drive to Lewes. Mind you
the traffic’s got much worse over the years, especially
on Southover High Street. And the junction
at the end of Wellgreen Lane! You used to be able
to turn without hardly bothering to look if anything
was coming… now you have to wait for ages.
What’s your favourite pub? It’s great to have the
Juggs in the village, it’s a fine pub. If I’m going further
afield I’ll go to the Halfway House on the road
to Uckfield. I go there nearly every Tuesday with
a friend, and the food is excellent. I always have
salmon with prawns inside.
What do you do to keep fit? I play golf. I’m not
as good as I was, I once had a handicap of 14, and
now it’s 24. The Lewes Golf Course is a marvellous
place to play, with those all-round views, though I
must say the hill is getting steeper. Cricket was my
game before I retired from it. It was a great pity
when they stopped playing cricket in Kingston.
Do you feel ready to retire? Yes and no. I’ve been
going a long time. 700 lots a week, for all those
years, I wouldn’t like to count them all up. But
I’m fed up with practically giving things away. The
young people don’t like dark wooden furniture any
more. Mahogany and oak are out of fashion so the
prices have been going right down. They want to
buy awful flat-pack stuff. Also my memory isn’t as
sharp as it used to be.
So what are you going to be doing with yourself?
I’m looking forward to doing a bit more gardening
and playing a bit more golf, and watching
Sussex play in Hove, and the Albion at the Amex. I
started going again when they got the new stadium.
Is there anything you’d change about Lewes?
I’d put in more car parks.
Where would you live if not in Kingston? Nowhere.
I’m a man who loves home. Alex Leith
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