Viva Lewes Issue #140 May 2018

INSIDE LEFT
MORRISH’S, c 1942
You might have had a pizza in this space in the
last decade or so: we’re looking at the interior of
186 High Street, now ASK Italian Restaurant.
The photo was taken by Edward M Reeves in
c1942, when the building was occupied by Charles
Morrish & Son, Departmental Drapery Stores,
commonly known as ‘Morrish’s’.
Charles Morrish hailed from Chagford in Devon,
the son of a draper. He moved to Lewes with his
wife Maria in the early 1870s, to set up his own
business. The couple were in their early twenties.
For a short time he worked from 105, High Street
on the Bottleneck. In 1879 he moved the business
to no. 186, taking over from William Green, who
had also run a drapers there. He posted an ad in
the Sussex Agricultural Express from May of that
year, calling the shop a ‘Millinery and Mantle
Emporium’ and promoting his ‘FIRST SHOW
OF SUMMER NOVELTIES’. The ad ended
with the advice: ‘A visit is solicited’.
By that time his son Charles Arthur Morrish was
two years old, and when he reached adulthood
the shop became ‘Charles Morrish & Son’. In the
census of 1911 the family was living above the
shop, along with five assistants and a servant: it
must have been mighty crowded, and Charles and
Maria soon moved out to 33, The Avenue. Charles
died in 1935, aged 86, leaving effects of £4,326.
It was, of course, wartime, when the picture was
taken: note how sparsely stacked the shelves are. If
you take a magnifying glass to the photo, you can
read one sign stating ‘Owing to War Conditions
we are unable to order goods on credit’. Another
reads ‘Elastic will withstand washing. 6d length’.
By this time the shop had been taken over by
Plummer Rodis Ltd, the Eastbourne firm, which
eventually merged with Debenhams. Perhaps
Charles Arthur sold it due to ill health: he died
soon after, in 1943.
The building was Grade II Listed in 1952, and
long-term Lewes residents will remember it as
McCartney Stewarts, selling fabrics downstairs,
and Ladybird clothing upstairs. Then it became
Ransoms, a hardware store run by Warren
Ransom, along with his shop off London Road in
Brighton, with a café upstairs. The Lewes branch
shut in 1992; the building was empty for many
years before it was converted into ASK. Alex Leith
Thanks to Tom and Tania at Edward Reeves, 159
High Street, edwardreeves.com
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