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Of Sheep & Fish A History of the South Downs between Lewes and Brighton An Historical-Archaeology Project Proposal by David Cuthbertson 4th June 2019 Photograph of Newmarket Farm c.1925. From a collection by Capt. Bertie Hubbard MacLaren, in Brighton Pavilion and Museums, HA930078. Title: Of Sheep & Fish: A History of the South Downs between Lewes and Brighton: An Historical Archaeology Project Proposal Authors: David Cuthbertson Derivation: Meetings of Peggy and David Cuthbertson with Desmond (Bob), Lucy and Sylvia Phipps at the Woodingdean Then and Now Event; the 2013 Newmarket Farm Dig project and correspondence with Mark Barratt, OASIS. Origination Date: 2010 Revisers: David Cuthbertson Date of last revision: 4th June 2019 Version: 0.51 Status: Draft Summary of Changes: Content planning, writing, layout & proof reading Circulation: Preliminary consultation with the East Sussex County Archaeologist and Sussex Archaeological Society Research Officer Then, East Sussex Historic Environment Record, OASIS; Finalised project document also to Brighton and Hove Archaeology Society, Brighton and Hove Royal Pavilion and Museums, East Sussex Record Office, Hodson family, Kingston Heritage Group, Natural England, Peter Mercer (Woodingdean historian), Phipps family, Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, South Downs National Park Authority, Sussex Archaeological Society. Required Action: Feedback Approval: Provisional File Name/Location: OSF-0_51.pdf 1 Contents 1 Executive Summary3 2 Project Name4 3 Summary Description4 4 Background5 5 Research Aims and Objectives7 6 The Business Case7 7 Methods8 8 Stages, Products and Tasks 19 9 Project scope 22 10 Interfaces 22 11 Stakeholder Communications 23 12 Proposed Project Team 26 13 Ownership 27 14 Estimated Overall Budget 28 15 Estimated Overall Timescale 29 Appendices 30 Appendix A Glossary 30 Appendix B Sub-Projects; Stages, Products, Tasks 31 Appendix C SUSSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL STANDARDS: 2019 51 2 1 Executive Summary This amateur project aims to research, record, interpret and communicate the historical archaeology of an area of the South Downs associated with a remote outfarm— Newmarket Farm — a c.1830 agricultural labourer’s cottage, farmyard and barns, destroyed during WW2. The site is located just inside the Castle Hill National Nature Reserve, about 100m due east of the communications mast near the summit of Newmarket Hill, the highest hill on the ancient ridgeway between Lewes (the county town of (East) Sussex), and Brighton (one of the largest south coast towns since at least the 17th century). As project director, I aim to record its associated history and archaeology, and to interpret this in relation to its wider historical and geographical contexts. It begins with studies of pre- and post-enclosure Kingston near Lewes — the parish to which Newmarket Farm belonged — then follows its post-WW1 history, which connected it with the former chapelry of Balsdean (the northern half of Rottingdean Parish), including the plotland village of Woodingdean with which the later history of the outfarm was closely involved. The parish of Kingston near Lewes has a large quantity of surviving documents as a result of the enclosure and sale of effectively the whole of the parish inthe 1830s to the Gorings of Wiston. I wish to explore the possibility that Newmarket Farm was built as a model outfarm, to increase the attractiveness of the estate for this sale. I also intend to explore the social consequences of this action. A murder in 1868 of a Newmarket Farm labourer by a young man from the Brighton slums gives an insight into aspects of everyday life on the Kingston Estate. It provides an opportunity to compare urban and rural poverty. Newmarket Farm’s twentieth century history requires research into the pre- and post-WW1 socio-economic factors which resulted in the sale of land for housing developments. These played a big role its history. My 2013 excavation of the cottage (as yet unpublished) provided insight into the lives of its tenants, owners, and those who destroyed it during WW2. Further research into the use of the Balsdean Downs for military training and defence has revealed many new and as yet unpublished insights. This document explores the questions of what, why, where, how, with whom, and how much might be required (not necessarily financial), in order to enable this ambitious study of a former remote Southdown outfarm to proceed towards the best of possible outcomes. Much research has already been done; the import- ance of its geography, military activities, hunting, sheep, coal, welsh slate, the lives of the people involved, and their wider historical context. My findings have been communicated via my website, talks, stalls, guided walks, and short articles. Target audiences include both the general public and professional archaeologists. 3 2 Project Name The project name is ‘Of Sheep & Fish: A History of the South Downs between Lewes and Brighton’. Figure 1: Map of Project Area. Contour data traced from Ordnance Survey maps. 3 Summary Description Of Sheep & Fish is an amateur historical archaeology project, aiming to research, record and communicate the history of an area of the South Downs associated with a remote 1830 outfarm, Newmarket Farm. It was the birthplace of the project director’s mother, shortly before its destruction as part of WW2 military training exercises. The site is located just inside the iconic chalk grassland of Castle Hill National Nature Reserve, just below the summit of Newmarket Hill. This is the highest hill on the ancient Juggs Road ridgeway, between Lewes (the county town of (East) Sussex) and Brighton (one of the largest south coast towns since at least the 17th c.). 4 4 Background Newmarket Farm was an outfarm, built as part of the enclosure of Kingston near Lewes, East Sussex, in 1830. My mother, Peggy Cuthbertson nee Latham, was born there in April 1942. Her family lived there as farm labourers for three years, working for Balsdean Farm, which acquired it in 1921. In 1925 it was compulsory purchased by Brighton Corporation. May 1942, it was requisitioned as part of No.3 South Downs (Military) Training Area, which resulted in its destruction. It was not rebuilt. In 1975 its bulldozed remains were enclosed within Castle Hill National Nature Reserve, a chalk grassland site of European importance.1 4.1 Newmarket Farm’s remains are located just inside the north-west boundary of Castle Hill National Nature Reserve, just below the summit of Newmarket Hill, about 100m to the east of the 1950s television aerial; centred on grid reference TQ 36355 06992.2 This new project covers farmland that is largely owned by Spring Barn Farm, Kingston Farm, and Balsdean Farm (the latter leased from Brighton and Hove City Council). Other landowners are too numerous to record here. 4.2 This project was (informally) initiated as a result of meeting the Phipps family in 2010. They were tenants in Newmarket Farm from 1934 – 1938. I was asked, with Peggy’s help, to research the history of Newmarket Farm with the aim of publishing a book. In 2012 a preliminary draft copy of our book was completed — about the origins, lives and events associated with the cottage, based on desk-based and oral history studies. As a result of our research, in 2012 I was invited by Natural England to conduct an excavation of the cottage’s remains, with permission from the County Archaeologist and support from Brighton and Hove Archaeology Society. This was my first archaeological dig and it necessarily involved a very steep learning curve! The 2013 Newmarket Farm Dig (NMF13) was (relatively speaking) a great success; it revealed the layout and construction of the cottage, its front yard, and outside toilet; material finds provided an insight into the lives of its agricultural labourer tenants3 as well as the changes which occurred over time. Most import- antly, the dig generated excellent community involvement and interest. It also revealed considerable material evidence of the military exercises which resulted in its destruction. Post-excavation work is ongoing and the report is now hoped to be published by 2020. 1See (D. Cuthbertson and P. Cuthbertson 2012a), and (Natural England 2016). 2D. Cuthbertson 2013. 3The only exception was an army pay roll officer for about a year, from sometime in 1938till shortly after September 1939, who was the probable owner of our gold pen nib NMF13 find. 5 4.3 To understand the dig’s WW2 finds, in 2016 I conducted detailed research at both The Keep (East Sussex Records Office), The National Archives, recorded oral histories, and field work, as well as studies of the defence of both Sussexand Britain to better understand the historical context. I was surprised just how much previously unpublished information I was able to find. My preliminary results were presented to Sussex Military History Society in 2017. 4.4 Further material finds, desk-based, landscape, and oral history researches, mostly in response to requests for talks, have revealed a surprising amount of history, from the prehistoric to the present day, all of which are important to record. As yet most of these have not been formally recorded. One of the purposes of this project is to determine the best ways in which this can be done. 4.5 This document is a proposal for the project as a whole to be formalised as an historical archaeology project, of which the 2013 Newmarket Farm Dig (NMF13) is a part. 4.6 This project, to date, has produced a number of outputs: 4.6.1 Six additions, in 2012, were made to the Historic Environment Record from fieldwork, desk-based, and oral history sources. 4.6.2 Twenty-eight volunteers were directly involved with the dig. Dozens more visited. 4.6.3 Several hundred people have attended two guided walks, eight talks, and visited six stalls at a number of historical events and village fairs.

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