SOCIAL
EVENTS
2024
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Watch these
spaces
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Meetings take place at Cliffe Church Hall and start
at 7-30 pm. Refreshments are provided
during the break.
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Previous talks
and events at our meetings have included:
·
3 March 2023 Sussex Inn Signs and Their
History by Janet Pennington
- 23 September 2022 A Day in the
Life by Bob Eade
- 27 May 2022 The Work of the Air
Ambulance in Kent and Sussex.
- 15 January 2020 New Year lunch
at Barnsgate Manor
- 25
September 2019 Heritage Crime’ Understanding and Protecting Our Shared
Heritage from Crime by Daryl Holter
- 12 June 2019
Skittles Evening
- 27 Feb 2019
AGM Illustrated talk by Matt Eadeon - The Birds and Wildlife of the
Antarctica Circle
- 13 June 2018 Fun Quiz at John Harvey Tavern
- 20 September 2017 Field and Place Names of Sussex by Kevin Gordon
- 26 April 2017 Travels in Central America
– Birds, Lakes, and Mayan ruins By Alan Lehmann
Click here for more information
- 22 February 2017 AGM Something in the Night
(Nocturnal wildlife in Sussex and beyond) By Michael Blencowe
- 11 January 2017 New Year Lunch at Mid
Sussex Golf Club. See Report and photographs in Walk Reports section
- 26 October 2016 Lunch at Wok Inn, Halland
– Sally Major
- 6 September 2016 The Cuckmere – the story of a river Kevin Gordon
- 26 April 2016 A Journey into the Countryside with Plumpton College By Des Lambert OBE
- On Tuesday
26th April, we were fortunate to have Des Lambert OBE, recently retired
Principal of Plumpton College, to be the speaker at our recent Lewes
Footpaths Group meeting. We had
many interesting and some amusing facts from Des’s extensive knowledge of
the area, farming and the college from his 40 years experience of working
there. The talk was entitled “A Journey through the Countryside with
Plumpton College” and Des covered this from a number of angles.
First he took us on a virtual walk from Lewes to that part of the South
Downs Way overlooking the college, describing many new features along the
way in an area that many of us had thought that we already knew quite
well.
We then had the many and amazingly varied courses provided at the college
illustrated with a series of slides showing the students at work, from the
expected Agriculture to the more adventurous Sports activities. This section of the talk continued after
our tea break covering finally the Viticulture department –the college
being Britain’s Centre of Excellence in Wine education, training and
research.
Finally Des showed an old film
recorded in the 1930s involving
lots of chickens, and pigs in open fields as well as in the aptly
names Pig Wood. The hard work involved in gathering hay seemed to be
greatly eased by a car adapted for the purpose charging around the
college’s fields. An interesting
and enjoyable evening for all.
- AGM Feb’16
talks from the organisers of the Group’s 2015 Holidays: Sally Major
–Weekend in the Malverns, Graham
Heap - Weekend in Hertford and
Margaret Sweatman – Weeklong Holiday in the Isle of Wight.
- Talk by Ian Everest
entitled Old Sussex Shepherds ‘Their Life and Times’ – September 2015
- Skittles evening at Royal
Oak Barcombe - July 2015
- At our Spring Group Meeting
on 15 April 2015, we were
treated to a whistle stop tour of all the Sussex Wildlife reserves in East
and West Sussex with Michael Blencowe.
We were shown beautiful images of the flora and fauna of each site
and learnt how each of these reserves had their own special ecological value. We also learnt that it was Lord Rothschild
who first brought the concept of Wildlife Reserves in Britain and the
history of how it all began. It was a fascinating evening
- Illustrated Talk ‘Birds,
Bugs and Bananas: Wildlife in Costa Rica’ By Margaret Sweatman
- Ian Everest presented an
illustrated talk ‘A Sussex Farm in the 1950s’ including a 1940/50’s cine
film
- Paul and Carole Nicholson Travels in the Galapagos Islands
- Hilda and Graham Heap
illustrated talk ‘Walking the Greenwich Trail.
- Wing Commander Patrick
Coulcher ‘Walking through Dorset, Yorkshire and the Channel Islands’
- Graham Albon ‘How Green was my Greenland’ illustrated talk on this
little known country
- Michael Blencowe illustrated
talk entitled ‘A Wildlife Walk along the Ouse Valley’
- Ian Rumley-Dawson talk
entitled The Wildlife of Mull
- Peter Harrison illustrated
talk entitled ‘Lost Villages of Sussex’
- Bob Cairns, An Edwardian
Walk from Lewes Part 2
- Mike Russell Illustrated
talk on Wild Sounds of Sussex
- Rosie & Robin Lloyd
Illustrated talk on The Secret Gardens of Sussex
- Reg Lanaway, lecturer at
Plumpton Agriculture College, gave a wonderful, beautifully illustrated,
lecture on the wildlife and habitat of the area. This included a lovely
slide of a long-tailed tit's nest, which looked like a fluffy ball with a
tiny opening. Reg told us that this type of nest usually includes about
two thousand tiny feathers collected by the birds. We look forward to his
return, sometime.
- Illustrated talk on The Other Romania by Graham
Albon
- An illustrated talk on the Natural History of the
Downs by Patrick Coulter
- An illustrated talk on the Yellowstone National
Park by Ian Romley-Dawson
- An illustrated talk on Malling Down Nature Reserve
by Steve Tillman - Sussex Wildlife Trust
- An illustrated illustrated talk entitled The
Greenwich Meridian Trail by Hilda and Graham Heap. This featured the long
distance walk that Hilda and Graham have developed which follows the
Greenwich Meridian as closely as possible keeping to public rights of way.
Their walk starts and ends where the Greenwich Meridian crosses the coast
at Peacehaven in the south and Holderness in East Yorkshire, and of course
passes through Lewes. Hilda and Graham’s talk was very interesting and
entertaining and we look forward to the publication of their guidebook on
the walk.
- Sussex Rocks - A talk by Geoff Mead
- An illustrated talk by Sue Buckingham on the
flowers and scenery of the Burren.
- Andrew Whitnall from East Sussex County Council
gave a talk about the Rights of Way Improvement Plan.
- A talk by Patrick Coulcher on the natural history
of the Scilly Isles.
- John Buckingham on Iceland 's natural history. With
slides of birds and flowers of Iceland of outstanding clarity and an engaging
talk, everyone in the audience of 50 or so people found it most
interesting.
- Hilda and Graham Heap, two of our more
intrepid members, who spent over a year in New Zealand and showed us
slides of four areas in which they walked, from bare volcanic and
mountainous areas to lush sub-tropical forests with amazing tr ees, ferns
and waterfalls.
- Slides of Old Lewes by Philip Hall. Many members
and friends enjoyed a slide show of old postcards of Lewes. This wonderful
evening was a social history lesson where a number of people were able to
identify aspects of the slides and add interesting personal recollections.
- Ian Romley-Dawson on the Wildlife of Rye Harbour
Nature Reserve Using two projectors, a highly professional show was given
with so many interesting pictures and facts. The reserve has a number of a
large gravel pits with islands which have been created to encourage
nesting birds and they have been extremely successful. Around the lake are
hides where one can watch the wildlife, which includes hares. Much of the
reserve is shingle with over 300 species of plants living there, many
offering bright colours over large parts of the reserve.
©Lewes Footpaths Group
http://www.lewesfootpathsgroup.org.uk