Lewes’ food story comes alive in “Grown in Lewes”, a vibrant new book celebrating our town’s rich horticultural heritage and community spirit. From historic markets to modern community gardens, in this guest blog by co-editor Sarah Bayliss, discover how local passion transforms our food landscape.
Grown in Lewes is a new book written by more than 50 local authors about all things green in Lewes – past and present. Richly illustrated with photographs, historic maps and family memorabilia, it tells many unique stories about our Sussex county town.
While history plays a key part in the book – such as evidence that markets existed here since the 16th century – there is a strong emphasis on today’s pioneering projects, such as the LDFP, run by community-minded people.
Co-editors, Ruth Thomson and Sarah Bayliss, were delighted when Ruby Makepeace-Somerville contributed a column about LDFP, describing its mission – post the Covid-19 pandemic – to promote locally-grown quality food, as part of the national Good Food Movement.
The network of community groups and interested individuals encouraged under the LDFP umbrella is also represented in the book, highlighting action on growing healthy food. There are chapters on allotments, markets and trees – including fruit trees and orchards.
Landport Community Garden led by Mary Hill is featured, where Pippa’s Group Nursery children have their own space for growing. Kath Finnegan, who helped found Ringmer Community Orchard, writes with enthusiasm about the 80 trees – many of them rare Sussex varieties – which provide apples and juice to Lewes food banks and to the orchard volunteers, who help manage the acre of land at Broyle Place Farm. Anyone wanting to establish an equally successful orchard would find Kath’s piece invaluable.
The community garden at Lewes Football Club has made huge strides in creating raised beds with accessible paths and getting crops established. Presenting star players with bunches of leeks and beetroot on match days is a new tradition and the club’s ‘grow-cook- eat’ philosophy can be experienced here on a regular basis.
The history of community action in Lewes is inspiring, especially in relation to nature and cultivation. The first Women’s Institute market in the country opened in 1919 in the Market Tower – now home to the Lewes Friday Market. Lewes Farmers’ Market, established by Common Cause Cooperative in 1998, was only the second to open in the UK. Lewes is one of only two towns in the country to have been awarded Urban Arboretum status.
Grown in Lewes comes from the same team that produced The Pells of Lewes in 2020. It was prompted by a visit that Ruth Thomson made to the Garden Museum in Lambeth, where she discovered the comprehensive archive donated to the museum by Tony Elphick, whose family ran a seed merchant’s shop in Cliffe High Street for 160 years. After launching the idea of a book in Lewes News, a packed meeting was held in February 2023 at Lewes Town Hall, where enthusiastic contributors came forward.
Almost two years later, the book will be for sale at seasonal markets and fairs. To buy and collect copies locally on Mondays, December 9, 16 and 23, order through: growninlewes@gmail.com
