Lewes Local Group Report – from Monday August 17th 2026

Following a flurry of last-minute apologies (due to the usual holidays, work, illness, competing other musical groups, Morris dancing etc), a small but well balanced and enthusiastic group of six singers (three women and three men) made it to the Lewes Arms this month, including a new singer from Alfriston. 

We took turns to choose songs from the autumn, harvest and remembrance seasonal list and managed eighteen of the twenty I had suggested. We also had some lovely harmonies and made a good sound considering the number present.

 

During the first half of the evening, we sang “Brisk Young Ploughboy” (with a brief discussion of the Copper Family for our newest singer); “Country Life”; “Ha’nacker Mill” (with an explanation about Hilaire Belloc and a recommendation to listen to his own very old recording of this song); “Life of a Man”; “Oak and Ash and Thorn” (with information regarding Rudyard Kipling, the places he had lived and the poems set to music by the late Dave Bellamy); “Old Adam”; “Oldland Mill” (Ray discussed how his friend Stuart Leon had written the song and given it to us to perform, which we do at the mill at least once a year); “Sussex by the Sea” (our County song, the original military version this time); and “Oak Tree Song” ( a beautiful modern piece by local Sussex songwriter Anna Richardson together with Oran Ash and River Jones taken from “The Children’s Forest”.

 

During the break we mainly discussed the coming event at Alfriston Clergy House (our new singer lives in Alfriston and will come along, joining in whichever songs she feels comfortable with by that time), and the AGM, along with other groups and events that singers are involved with.

 

With voices only half rested after all the chatting, we continued singing with “West Sussex Drinking Song” (back to Belloc); “All Among the Barley”; “Lammas Carol” (by Alan Wheeler from our Chichester group); “Home Lads Home” (the remembrance song of lost lads and horses from a Hampshire village in World War I); “Fields Lie Silent”; “My Downland Remembered” (another from Alan Wheeler about a Sussex man who was transported to Australia); “East Sussex Drinking Song” (the modern 2013 response to Belloc’s West Sussex version, by Adrian Figgess from our own Lewes group); “Parting Song”, (sung appropriately near the end this month!) and ending with another old favourite from the Coppers “Thousands or More”.

 

Our next session will be on Monday September 21^st. New members are always invited to come along for a free taster session. Old hands, complete beginners and anyone in between are all welcome. The stars of the show are always the songs which are the reason for us coming together to learn, enjoy and share them. Just bring yourself and your enthusiasm.

 

Tina