Grown in Lewes: more than 50 contributors work on book exploring ‘all things green’ in picturesque Sussex town

Grown in Lewes, published by the Town Council, looks at cultivation across the town – past, present and future.

The book, which people can buy at upcoming fairs and events, is edited by retired journalist Sarah Bayliss and her colleague Ruth Thomson.

The small team behind the book is the same that produced The Pells of Lewes in 2020, published by Lewes History Group.

Sarah, who lives in Lewes, said: “It’s a genuine community project as there are more than 50 authors.”

She said the project began after Ruth, who also lives in Lewes, visited the Garden Museum in Lambeth. Sarah said: “At the Garden Museum Ruth saw an archive of a wonderful seed merchant that used to be in Cliffe High Street – Elphick’s.” She said Tony Elphick, the fifth generation who ran the seed merchant, had donated an archive of seed catalogues, records and information to the museum, which included ‘beautifully illustrated seed packets’.

Ruth saw this and told Sarah and Sarah’s husband Mick Hawksworth, the designer of the Pells book: “We’ve got to do another book.”

Sarah said: “We put a notice in Lewes News, a free sheet that goes to every house in Lewes. Some 40 people then came to a meeting on a cold afternoon in February 2022 and at that meeting there were all sorts of experts. People who knew a lot about trees, about wildflowers, about growing and cooking and eating.”

Grade 2 listed cottage is cosy coastal abode

Out of this meeting, groups started to form around subjects like allotments, markets and gardens. The 11 chapters in Grown in Lewes are: Introduction, Nurseries and seed merchants, Allotments, Markets, Gardens, Societies and shows, Artist gardeners, Greening the town, Land of many places, Trees, and School grounds.

Sarah called the ‘Greening the town’ chapter ‘fantastic’ because it contains photos by Jo Crowther. She said: “She made it her mission to photograph window boxes and planters and troughs that were on people’s window sills and outside shops and really make the town come alive in the summer.”

Sarah continued: “Every summer areas of Lewes come alive with open gardens – that’s people’s private gardens that they work on all year and then they open then up to raise money for charity and sometimes to raise money for the bonfire societies. So we’ve got pieces about those open gardens too. I’ve written a chapter about artist gardeners and that focuses on four people whose connection with nature and art is so strong. I’ve described them as twin passions.”

She said: “Their pictures are absolutely rooted in the work they do, either in their allotments or in their gardens.”

Sarah reckons that there around 500 images in the book’s 192 pages, including old photos, maps and artwork. She said: “People have been very generous with their time and photographs.”

The book took about 18 months from the first meeting to get it published, and was a challenge for such a small team to coordinate the large volume of material.

Sarah said: “We got lucky with images and with memorabilia. People would sat they didn’t think they had anything and then suddenly they’d produce a box of certificates that their grandfather had won at a garden show.”

Sarah said Lewes Town Council is marking 50 years since its formation so there will be a ‘50 Years of Change’ exhibition at the Town Hall on December 7-8 where people can buy the book. Sarah said: “We'll be in a room and there will be people talking about their experience of writing about their subjects.”

People can also buy the book at: the Artists And Makers Fair on Saturday, November 30 (10am-5pm); Lewes Town Hall Opening Night on November 29 (6pm-8.30pm) and Cliffe Christmas Fair 2024 on Saturday, December 14, at Lewes Town Hall (10am-3pm).