The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #113937 Message #2426652
Posted By: Valmai Goodyear
31-Aug-08 - 04:55 AM
Thread Name: From the Field to the Foundry
Subject: From the Field to the Foundry
Dear Everyone,
As this is an unusual sort of event I'm taking the liberty of announcing it here.
FROM THE FIELD TO THE FOUNDRY A Journey with Magic Lantern & Concertinas Friday 12th. September Doors open 7.30 p.m. Licensed bar with Harveys beer Foundry Gallery, Old Market Lane Garage, 32 North Street, Lewes BN7 2PH
Images, traditional songs and readings about life on the land in Sussex at the time the Phoenix Foundry opened in 1832 and the changes it brought to working people's lives.
Images from Alan and Rene Marriott's Magic Lantern, the Victorian ancestor of the slide projector.
Music from the Spare Parts Concertina Band. (http://www.sparepartsband.co.uk/ ) The concertina was invented in 1830 by Sir Charles Wheatstone.
Tickets £6/£5 available on the door or from Laportes (Friars Walk) and Lewes Tourist Information Office.
Lewes' celebrated Phoenix Ironworks will rise again – at least through the recorded memories, Photographs and artefacts of local people, thanks to the Lewes Phoenix project which has recently been awarded a generous grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Lewes Phoenix project is the brainchild of Ar¬temis Arts Ltd who are working with the community – from schoolchildren to elderly residents – to capture the stories and images of the former iron foundry, the site of which is at the centre of plans for a major town centre redevelopment. Volunteers and contributors are encouraged to get in touch and find out how they can take part.
The railings of St Paul's Cathedral and girders for the piers at Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings, many lamp posts in Sussex streets, along with oven doors and soot boxes for local homes were manufactured at the ironworks which for much of the 19th century was the largest employer in the town of Lewes.
The 'Lewes Phoenix ' project will be launched by Ar¬temis Arts during Artwave –its theme is 'Lewes, Now & Then'. A collaboration with clubs , youth organisa¬tions, artists, dancers, musicians, writers and histo¬rians who will celebrate local creativity from 1832 to the present day.
The Foundry was established in 1832 - a time when large numbers of local people were moving from the land to towns and cities. The theme of town and country, from the early nineteenth century to the present will be echoed in a series of events, held in the old foundry buildings.