Ploughing Match & Agricultural Show Celebrates 150th Anniversary

Colin Brouke competing at the West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Show

This week I am with Rowan Allan who for twenty-three years has been the Honorary Secretary of The West Grinstead & District Ploughing & Agricultural Society. Rowan has been joined in the role by Felicity Elliott. The society is returning to its roots in the Parish of West Grinstead as it celebrates its 150th Anniversary, where the 2021 Annual Ploughing Match and Agricultural Show is to be held at Priors Byne Farm on Saturday 18th September.

I am always excited to attend the ploughing match.

Rowan Allan says “It’s great to be returning to Priors Byne Farm. John and Alison Ford and their team will give everyone a warm welcome – it’s one of our most popular venues and the agricultural community is looking forward to being able to come together once again.”

I comment on the extraordinary stewardship I have seen amongst the district’s farming community. Rowan comments “Balancing one’s heritage with the needs of the natural environment and food production is perfectly possible.”

The West Grinstead and District Ploughing Match and Agricultural Society has been holding shows for over 140 years. It seeks to re-connect town and country and educate the public.

Rowan says “The ploughing match provides a shop window for people to engage with what farming and the countryside are really about.”

The tug-of-war match at the show

I remark that it’s a great family day out with the ploughing competition, cattle and sheep shows, licenced bar, fun fair, trade stands and local produce, terrier racing, open clay shooting competitions, tug-of-war, gun dog scurry, tractor and threshing machinery and even a ferret race, there is so much to enjoy – Rowan agrees.

Since 1871 The West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Society has been promoting best practice in the local agricultural community through its prizes and awards. Today that also includes a bursary programme which provides financial support to enable and encourage young people to take up careers in the agricultural industry.

Our landscape is one of the most important building blocks of our nation’s heritage and identity and it is wholly dependent on the life given to it by our farmers who richly deserve our thanks.

I will be supporting Rowan and the team at the 2021 West Grinstead and District Plough Match and Agricultural Show at Priors Byne Farm, Bines Road, Partridge Green, RH13 8EQ on Saturday 18th September 2021. Entrance is just £8 per person with children under 14 free. It’s going to be a fantastic family day – I hope to see you there!

For more information contact Rowan Allan at H. J. Burt Steyning through www.hjburt.co.uk or go to www.westgrinsteadploughing.co.uk.

Tim Harding Collection of Motoring Photographs

William Sherbrooke and his Bentleys, photo by Chas Bowers

UPDATE: Click here for information on the second part of this collection

Toovey’s are delighted to announce the Sale of The Tim Harding Collection of Motoring Photographs. It was amassed over a lifetime of collecting by Tim Harding, a motoring historian who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of early vehicle marques.

Tim Harding died in 2018 and part of the collection is now to be dispersed through an auction sale at Toovey’s in Washington. West Sussex, on 27th October 2021. Such is the size of the collection that this will be the first of two sales.

Music Hall Stars Nervo & Knox in an Aston Martin

The collection comprises photographs in all formats from full plate to ‘box brownie’.  The images, well over 20,000 in number, cover the period from the very earliest days of motoring to the early post war era. Most are loose but some are framed and mounted, and there are also ‘family albums’ compiled in period.

Marseal Trade Stand

Whilst mainly focused on cars, the collection also covers commercial vehicles, cyclecars, motorcycles, racing cars, motorsport generally, trials, rallies and racing including Brooklands. Some lots will cover period garages and workshops, motor accidents, as well as postcards of motoring in topographical settings.

In addition there are a number of items of automobilia such as manufacturers’ catalogues from the 20s and 30s, and dealers’ brochures.

The auction will be held on Wednesday 27th October 2021 at 1pm.
Viewing for the sale will be held on:
Mon, 25th October 2021: 10:00 to 16:00
Tue, 26th October 2021: 10:00 to 16:00
Wed, 27th October 2021: 09:00 to 13:00

Bidding is available at our rooms and live via the third party website the-saleroom.com, commission bidding is also available.

The online catalogue will be available on our website from the 16th October 2021.

Discover the Famous Cupid Mosaic at Fishbourne Roman Villa

The beautiful Cupid mosaic at Fishbourne Roman Villa

West Sussex is blessed to have two of the most important Roman Villas in the country and this week I am travelling from Bignor to the Villa at Fishbourne.
The Villa is curated and maintained by The Sussex Archaeological Society. Founded in 1846 it is the oldest society of its type in the country.

The Society seeks to research, curate and promote Sussex history and heritage. It opens its historic houses, buildings and gardens with their accredited museums to the public. Its libraries and archive collections provide important tools for historical research.

Fishbourne is often referred to as a palace and is the largest Roman residential building in the country. It dates from around 75 AD, just some thirty years after the Romans came to Britain, and was remodelled and extended during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

A Roman pavement was discovered at Fishbourne in 1805 during the building of a house but it was not until 1960 that Aubrey Barrett, an engineer working for the Portsmouth Water Company, discovered the foundations of a stone building located north of the main road while digging a trench for a water main.

The rediscovery of this ancient structure caught the attention of the Sussex Archaeological Society and the first series of excavations were begun in 1961 directed by the archaeologist Barry Cunliffe and his team of volunteers.

The hypocaust heating and impressive cover building at Fishbourne

The site was saved from development by the Sussex archaeologist, Ivan Margary, who purchased the land before entrusting it to the Sussex Archaeological Society with a substantial sum to pay for the construction of the impressive cover building you see today.

In the second century AD the palace was further redesigned. Amongst the changes the hypocaust (underfloor heating) was installed in to two small rooms, fed by warm air from stokeries.

In the principle room at the heart of the palace a new mosaic was laid. At its centre is a lively polychrome depiction of a winged Cupid sitting astride a dolphin. Cupid holds the reins in one hand and a trident in the other. The muscles in his torso, legs and arms are particularly well drawn. This subtlety is lacking in the black outline which unites this central motif with the surrounding semi-circular vignettes portraying marvellous sea-panthers and seahorses, each individually depicted. Guilloche bands unite the composition which is also decorated with polychrome fan motifs and contrasting black urns.

Each time I return to Fishbourne its scale and the quality of its mosaic floors excites me. And as you walk in the gardens you have a sense of your place in the procession of history, for a moment united with the Romans.
To find out more about the Sussex Archaeological Society, how to join, and to book your tickets for the Fishbourne Roman Palace visit www.sussexpast.co.uk.

The Finest Mosaics at the Foot of the Sussex Downs

The mosaic portrait of Venus at Bignor Roman Villa

It is always such a delight to revisit Bignor Roman Villa. It has a unique charm and is one my favourite places anywhere in the country. The finest Roman mosaics are to be found at Bignor at the foot of the Sussex Downs.

The Villa was discovered on the morning of Thursday 18th July 1811 when George Tupper hit what appeared to be a large stone whilst ploughing in Bury Field near the village of Bignor at the foot of the Sussex Downs. He cleared a small area and found the tessellated face of a young man. Further excavation revealed a scene depicting Jupiter (Zeus in the Greek) in the guise of an eagle abducting the shepherd boy, Ganymede.

George Tupper’s landlord, John Hawkins, invited the antiquarian Samuel Lysons to supervise and record the excavation.

Encouraged by Hawkins and Tupper, Lysons would prepare a guide book over subsequent years. The image of the Ganymede mosaic you see here is from his 1820 guide.

Ganymede and Jupiter in the guise of an eagle at Bignor illustrated by Samuel Lysons in his 1820 guide to the Roman Villa

The depiction of Ganymede is strikingly executed. The shading gives form to Ganymede’s cape and muscular body highlighting the exceptional skill of the mosaicist.

This remarkable find was reburied until the June of 1812 and guarded by one of Tupper’s sons. The thatched cover buildings were designed to protect the mosaics and are a distinctive feature at Bignor. Built in 1812 they are amongst the earliest examples of their type in the British Isles. Arguably the most important discovery of 1812 was the Venus mask. This beautifully conceived female head is surrounded by a nimbus in a circle flanked by what are thought to be peacocks, or long-tailed pheasants and leaf sprays.

Venus is popularly known as the Roman goddess of love. However, she is also associated with spring, gardens and fertility. These qualities made her popular with farmers, horticulturalists and landowners throughout the Roman Empire. It seems appropriate that Venus should feature so prominently at Bignor in this timeless rural setting.

The extensive hypocaust underfloor heating system in the Venus Room is partly visible today and illustrates how this room would have been warm and comfortable in the winter months.
Samuel Lysons hinted at the possibility of the Ganymede Room being a banqueting room and today academics still regard it as an unheated summer dining room.

Visitors flocked to the site from 1813 including the great patron of the arts, the Prince Regent, later George IV, who was still creating the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Today Bignor Roman Villa continues to welcome visitors.
When you arrive you cannot fail to be captured by the picturesque setting and charm of the place, and share in the sense of excitement which George Tupper must have felt on the day he discovered the Villa’s remarkable mosaic floors for the first time.

Bignor Roman Villa is open every day until 31st October 2021 and families can also enjoy the Sunflower Maze. To find out more visit www.bignorromanvilla.co.uk.

100 Years of the Royal British Legion

The Revd. Canon Kathryn Windslow, Rector of Storrington, leading a Service of Remembrance accompanied by the Royal British Legion, Storrington Branch, and Royal Navy Association standard bearers, Des Knight and Richard Shenton

This week I am in the company of the Royal British Legion Storrington Branch secretary Stuart Duncan who is honoured that our branch will be taking part in the 100th anniversary of the Royal British Legion.

Stuart explains how a Torch of Remembrance will be crossing East and West Sussex to mark 100 years of the Royal British Legion in Sussex. On Friday 27th August at 11:00am the torch will come to Storrington where a service of celebration and thanksgiving will be held in the grounds of St Mary’s Parish Church.

During the ceremony the Torch will pass from a Veteran to a member of our youth community signifying the passing of responsibility for remembering the fallen in war from one generation to the next.

The British Legion was formed on 15 May 1921, bringing together four national organisations of ex-Servicemen that had established themselves after the First World War

Every year the Royal British Legion leads the nation in commemorating and honouring service and sacrifice.

They remember those who lost their lives on active service in all conflicts; from the beginning of the Great War right up to the present day, as well as all those who have served and their families.

Every year in November, the Royal British Legion distributes paper poppies to raise vital funds to help today’s Armed Forces community.

In Storrington in 1919 at the Market Rooms by the White Horse Hotel a meeting of World War I veterans under the chairmanship of Capt George Graham formed the Comrades of the Great War. In 1920 Lt Col Ravenscroft donated some land and with support from the residents of Storrington and the Peace Celebrations committee a hut was built for the comrades on the site of the present social club. It was opened on Armistice Day by Mrs King of Fryern House. The club grew rapidly and in October 1921 it became the Storrington Branch of the British Legion.

Today the Storrington Branch has some 65 members who meet for lunch on St George’s Day and Armistice Day. They are a close community who care not only for members of their own branch but for the men and women of our armed services. Each year through the Poppy appeal they raise more than £10,000.
As Chaplain to the Royal British Legion Storrington Branch I am looking forward to leading the service and celebration with The Revd. Canon Kathryn Windslow, Rector of Storrington. Everyone is welcome at the ceremony and at the Old School afterwards.