Category Archives: Beeding & Bramber

Local WWII history pamphlet available now

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Derek Martin WSCT March 2018
Pat Nightingale and Ken Wilson-Wheeler have just published World War Two in Beeding and Bramber, the follow-up to their WWI book. Like the earlier volume, this profusely illustrated 43 page pamphlet covers Beeding, Bramber, Edburton, Fulking and Small Dole. The topics include evacuees, conscription, the Home Guard, air raids, farming, Canadian soldiers, casualties, the war memorials, and brief biographies of those who died including Flight Sergeant James William Lucas (son of Percy Lucas) and Chief Officer John A. Ridge, both of Fulking.

The pamphlet is available at Steyning Bookshop in Steyning High Street and at Beeding Newsagents in Upper Beeding High Street, price £6. It should soon also be available from Steyning Museum. The first (WWI) book remains available at £12. Both items can also be ordered direct from Pat on 01903-812847.

The People of Beeding and Bramber in the Great War

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Beeding and Bramber in the Great War
Just published and available at £12 from local bookstores (including Steyning Bookshop, Henfield Museum, Steyning Museum and Beeding Newsagents). Diligent students of local government in Sussex will know that the Parish of Upper Beeding includes Edburton. This book thus covers all those listed on the Edburton & Fulking WWI memorial at St. Andrew’s and includes interesting biographical material on James Baker, Samuel Baker, William Baker, Charles Baldey, Arthur W. Brown, James E. Lucas, Elias Luff, Charles E. Sheppard and Richard Wearn.

Southwick Roman Villa

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Uncovering the history of Southwick's lost Roman villa
A talk by Jeffrey Leigh to Beeding & Bramber Local History Society at 7:45pm in Upper Beeding Village Hall on Wednesday 4th May.

The villa waa probably built in the first century AD, some 50 years after the Romans first arrived and was palatial in size, the second largest villa in Sussex. As such, it would have been the centre of a large and important estate. The site was lost until the 19th century when people found coins and pottery in what was then a market garden. The first excavation followed in 1845. The site was excavated again in the 1930s and then donated to the Sussex Archaeological Trust in 1932 by an anonymous benefactor. Subsequently, Manor Hall Road was driven through part of it. Nowadays, the Manor Cottage Heritage Centre has a permanent exhibition about the villa’s history and about the various efforts to excavate the site.

The Royal Sussex at Gallipoli 1915

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Royal Sussex Regiment
Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist at the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, will talk about the Royal Sussex Regiment’s role at Gallipoli, using photographs, letters, posters, diaries, and regimental records held by the Record Office. Beeding & Bramber Local History Society at 7:45 pm on Wednesday 6th April in Upper Beeding Village Hall (there’s a car park immediately opposite).