Community website project

In order to help the local community engage with the history and heritage of St John sub Castro Church (now part of Trinity Church in Lewes) we have set up a Community Heritage website as part of our Heritage Lottery funded Repair Project.
You are on that website now!
It is planned that this will have an enduring lifespan beyond the end of the current Repair Project.

In addition to showing details of the Repair Project itself, this is a ‘Living History’ website which enables anyone from the community to add words and photos, post comments and messages not only about  the church, but also about their own heritage – for example the social history of the surrounding residential areas which form St John’s Parish – Landport, Wallands and the Pells:
Landport was built as a council estate in the 1930s, although some property is now privately owned.
Wallands was developed in the late 1800s, and comprises late Victorian and Edwardian property.
The Pells area was developed in the 1830s and is in the immediate neighbourhood of the church. (The large increase in the local population which this development caused led to the demolition of the medieval church in 1839 and its replacement by the much larger, present church “ to remedy so great a want of church accommodation in the parish” – as the planning application to the Church authorities stated at the time.)

Content for the website so far includes historical information about both the present St John’s Church and the medieval church; and also about the site within which they both lie.

The information has mostly been drawn from the extensive records held by the East Sussex Record Office, and from archive material held within the church – however we have only scratched the surface so far!

We welcome contributions from any members of the local community, and topics for inclusion on the website could include any of the following:
Memories of events at St John’s
Pells Church of England Primary School connections
Landport area memories
Pells area memories
Wallands area memories
Pells Swimming Pool
Memories of Vicars and others
The Elephant and Castle
The Churchyard
The Church Hall in Talbot Terrace
St John’s Choir
St John’s Sunday School
Remembrance Day Services at St John’s
Ancient churches once in the Parish
The Pells Pond
The Phoenix Industrial Estate
Wallands Primary School
The Landport Community Centre
The Battle of Lewes site
Landport Farm
St John’s Farm
Anything else?!

If you can think of a contribution you would like to make, you can do this directly via this website. All contributions will be checked and discussed with you if necessary to make sure they match with our guidelines before they actually go into the public domain.
Alternatively you can make contact with us first to discuss possible contributions if you would find that more  helpful – our contact details are on the website.

We look forward to hearing from you!