Socials

2025 Annual General Meeting

Friday 14^th March

Followed by a talk about Glyndebourne by Ian Jackson

Meetings take place at Cliffe Church Hall and start at 7-30 pm. Refreshments are provided during the break.

Previous talks and events at our meetings have included:

20 September 2024 Beekeeping – Some Interesting Facts by Dr Peter Coxon
10 May 2024 We do like to be beside the seaside by Ian Gredhill
1 March 2024 Lewes’s Historic High Street by Mary Burke
22 September 2023 Anamazing – an interactive animal experience by Steve Bridger
12 April 2023 East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service by Trevor Week
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.