Feeding Lewes - past, present and future
Talks by Colin Brent, local historian, Bill Collison of Bill's and Topsy Jewel, Netherfield Centre for Sustainable Food and Farming and Common Cause, Wednesday 2 May, Pelham House, 8pm
The first event of Transition Town Lewes' new programme of events, Feeding Lewes – past, present and future, was well attended by 130 people.
First up was Colin Brent, economic historian and author of three books about Lewes. He showed slides of Lewes in an era before oil – between the mid 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Many of the photographs were by Edward Reeves, whose great grandson still runs the photography shop on Lewes High Street. In those times, said Colin, everyone was born in or near Lewes. Every business was owned by people who lived in or near Lewes. Local people owned the gasworks and waterworks. Local people ran the prison, the workhouse and the fire brigades. Colin’s talk will be posted here soon.
Bill Collison unfortunately could not be with us because of illness. Bill of Bill’s Produce Store has gained national notoriety after his imaginative revamp of his greengrocer’s shop after the flood of 2000. John Webber, who was chairing the meeting, conveyed some of Bill’s ethos. Bill’s Produce Store is now expanding into the adjacent shop.
Topsy Jewell of the Netherfield Centre for Sustainable Food and Farming and Common Cause talked about the work of Common Cause over the last decade: the Lewes and Hove Farmers’ Markets, the Compost Doctor Scheme, the Food and Health Partnership and the Organic Allotments Project. Topsy’s talk will be posted here soon.
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