Worthing

Stewart Angell will be giving a talk on his research he started in 1992 on the role of the Sussex Resistance and its secretive operations. Sussex played a strategic role in establishing a highly secret ‘British Resistance’ during WWII. Put in place to counter a German invasion of this country these men would have sabotaged communications and supply lines to prevent their march on London. Highlights the men, their training and where their underground operational bases were secreted throughout Sussex.  Relatively few people have heard of the Home Guard ‘Auxiliary Units’ of World War Two. Formed in 1940 they were to be the British Resistance, countering a German invasion by delivering guerrilla warfare tactics throughout their localized areas.

Gill Henry has researched local workhouse life after her move to a nearby Sussex Village.   Her talk will cover why she took up an interest in Workhouses, look at the history of the workhouse from the Black Death to the National Health Service, what was the workhouse like and tales from West Sussex Workhouses.

Richard tells the story of the chalk and lime industry in the Arun Valley back to Medieval times up to the closure of the Amberley pits (now the Amberley Museum) in the late 1960s. It also looks at the effect of the industry on the village of Amberley itself at a time of agricultural unemployment.

Situated at the foot of the South Downs, just outside the historic town of Steyning, Wiston House has a history going back at least as far as the Domesday Book. Janet Pennington’s talk will cover some of the people who occupied the house and estate, and how it adapted and evolved from the time of the Normans, through the Black Death, the English Civil War and up to the present day.

Shepherds of the Sussex Downs – their lives and times.

Ian Everest

Central to Sussex farming in past centuries, and to the economy of the area, were the thousands of sheep that grazed on the Downs. The shepherds, who spent their solitary lives caring for their flocks, were a familiar part of the local countryside. Ian tells their story.

In the early 1950s a hand-written parchment copy of the American Declaration of Independence was deposited at the West Sussex Record Office. There it remained, largely forgotten, until a few years ago when an American academic saw it listed in the Record Office’s indexes. Ultimately this would lead to a significant grant from America to fund the Trans-Atlantic Ties project, which explored the historical connections between West Sussex and the U.S.A. County Archivist, Wendy Walker, tells the fascinating story of how the document came to be in the possession of the West Sussex Record Office in the first place, and the outcome of the Trans-Atlantic Ties project.

In this talk, Local Historian and author,  Alan Green,  takes a nostalgic look at what it was like growing up in post-war Chichester – the city where he was born and still lives today.
Non-members as well.

To many of us holiday history is linked to our childhood memories of a coastal visit, whether it is of a caravan on a windswept clifftop, a B&B in a large resort or a posh hotel on a glittering seafront. Somewhere in that memory comes a stroll on a pier, a battle with a deckchair or a round of golf [9 hole or Crazy] a charabanc trip or a paddle steamer along the coast. This talk looks at how the seaside replaced the inland spas as a destination, how we reached these distant spots and how the facilities and entertainments, hotels and piers developed there and changed over time.
Non-members welcome.

James Sainsbury of Worthing Museum. https://wtm.uk/museum/
Donors and Donations to Worthing Museum.
Non-members welcome.

William Lonergan, Pilot.
Women of the Air Transport Auxillary in the Second World War, in Sussex.