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This is a new website, set up with Lottery money. Still under construction and sounds like only a fraction of their material has been uploaded so far. The lack of a potted history of the course seems a bit of an omission so hopefully they’ll be addressing that in due course but still worth a look if you’re interested in racing history (or Lewes) – or have any artefacts or memories you think they might be interested in.
That’s extremely poor with basically zero content. This is surely just ultra-niche one-man-hobbyist stuff?
Frankly amazed that this has drawn eight grand of Lottery money.
Mike
We are currantly working on our site and hope to be fully up and running soon.
I hope they are ‘currantly’ working on their spelling and grammar too. There are at least five errors in the introduction alone which is poor given that lottery money is involved.
There used to be a really good Lewes Racecourse History site at lewesracecourse.com but that’s now a one pager reporting that’s it’s under new management. A great pity as they had some cracking archive stuff including videos.
About a year before my mum passed away I told her I was reading a “Lewes Racecourse – A Legacy Lost” by Cheryl Lutring. Mum told me that she visited Lewes a number of times in the 1950’s, when staying with our relatives in Tunbridge Wells, and she was able to tell me a little about the place as a working racecourse. Cheryl Lutring’s book is well worth a read.
Don’t worry. lewesracecourse.com is not lost forever. I am the founder of the site and we have taken the site down temporarily whilst we update it. We are adding more content than ever before.
In the meantime we are showing colour film footage of the last days racing with the permission of the late producers family.
Researching and documenting the Lewes Racecourse's history.
Chris Pitt’s book A Long time Gone (ISBN 0 900599 89 8) contains a chapter regarding the history of Lewes racecourse.
Here is a tiny glimpse of the history that we are continuing to archive. https://nevillresidentsassociation.co.uk/page.php/lewes-racecourse
Thanks to Nevill Residents Association for working collaboratively with us on this page.
Thank you for your patience whilst we continue to work on our website.
Researching and documenting the Lewes Racecourse's history.
Thanks for the update about the Lewes racecourse site. I was wondering where it had gone!
Of all the closed racecourses, I think Lewes is the one I would have most wanted to visit. And a pint or two of Harvey’s Best after the racing would have rounded off the day nicely!
I really like the town as well. There is nowhere in England quite like it.
That’s certainly true Cork All Star, though you can still get a decent pint of Harveys at Plumpton. Pubs are shut but Harveys is still brewing & delivering by the way!
I did not realise you could get a pint of Harvey’s at Plumpton! I have been there many times and not seen it. Which bar is it served in?
I checked Harvey’s website yesterday and almost everything is sold out.
Edit – there was a bit more availability this morning and an order has been placed.
Today is the 60th anniversary of the last day of racing at Lewes.
I thought no film of the track survived but I watched some footage on YouTube yesterday. It was shot by the actor and producer Leonard White on a 8mm home movie camera (White’s father stood as a bookmaker at Lewes).
Mr White’s film clearly shows a crew from Southern Television (then the ITV franchise holder for the south of England) on the course. It would be good if their film survives somewhere but I expect it has been either destroyed or lost, possibly after Southern lost its franchise to Television South in the early 1980s.
I visited the site of the old racecourse a few years ago. Some of the track was still intact and used as a training gallop by the local trainers.
I wish White had shown a little more of the track rather than the crowd but it is good this film survives as a reminder of what must have been a pleasant course to visit. Not unlike its fellow Sussex course Goodwood. I believe the mist used to roll in at Lewes sometimes, rather like it does at Brighton and Goodwood today.
I wonder if any older TRF contributors attended the course? I asked the same question about Wye and was delighted to hear from two people who did. However, Wye closed fifty years ago. There is another ten years to take into account with Lewes.
Yes. It is the 60th Anniversary of the course closure today.
Great footage by Leonard White.
Leonard’s father was a bookmaker and a racehorse owner.
One of the trainers of his father’s horses was Lewes trainer, D. Butcher.
At about four-years-old, Leonard sat on his first racehorse, but he was off again in seconds.
Leonard attended local races with his father at Lewes, Plumpton and Brighton.There were a few films produced of Lewes Racecourse, when it was active. The films that are being shown are by Leonard White and another was researched from Screen Archive South East.
We have been researching the Lewes Racecourse, in depth for a number of years now and we were going to put our website online this year, but we are still filling in the gaps. We have agreed that we should complete as much as possible and make sure that the information is correct, before showing the website to the public. It has been a nightmare documenting some of the racecourse’s history as various sources document different results for the same race and all of this has had to be mentioned to make sure that the races have been thoroughly documented.
We have covered over 63 topics on the Lewes Racecourse, so far, and we will eventually be sharing a huge amount of information with the public. It has been a very interesting journey and we are looking forward to sharing the archive with everyone in the near future.
Please note that we are nothing to do with the group who have posted the video.
The Official Lewes Racecourse Archive can be found at https://lewesracecourse.org.uk
Please feel free to contact us if you would like any information on the Lewes Racecourse. It’s free!
Researching and documenting the Lewes Racecourse's history.
A bit of info on the brief race footage in the film:
1.58-2.06 Race 1 – The favourite, “Buzz”, wins the 1m 2f Cuckmere Apprentices’ Handicap.
3.10-3.18 Race 2 – Battle Selling Plate (5f). “J.K.” wins on the nearside (out of shot) with Ron Hutchinson in the saddle.
5.01-5.20 Race 4 – Ditchling Stakes (1m 4f), won by “Beachcomber” ridden by Scobie Breasley. The Queens’ “Don’t Tell” running on in second under Ron Hutchinson.
6.17-6.37 Race 5 – “McCormack” completes a double for Ron Hutchinson in the Mountfield Court Nursery Handicap (1m)
8.11-8.28 Race 6 – Bobby Elliott wins the final race at Lewes, the 5f Eridge Park Maiden Plate, aboard “Miss Rhondda”. The favourite, “Boodle” finishing a disappointing 5th.
....and you've got to look a long way back for anything else.
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