Lewes Racecourse Club
Little did I imagine the fascinating journey that lay ahead of me, when I started to research for a book I wanted to write about a racecourse that I spent many happy days with my family watching all the fascinating things that a racecourse brings to people, along the way I have encountered numerous kind people with some amazing stories and fascinating facts.
I am indebted to many generous Lewes individuals, who share with me their fond and emotional memories of the racecourse and the memorabilia they gave or sold to me on the understanding that once I had finished my project, I will put it into the Lewes Museum and as one old Lewes man told me how important it is for me to keep the old racecourse memories going, because once a racecourse has disappeared from the public consciousness, it is all too easy in the modern world to forget it ever existed.
My fist exhibition came in 2008 held in a church hall in Lewes, on display were copies of all the race meetings over the last 100 years, plus the entire write up that I got from newspapers. I made a promise to the people of Lewes, that I will hold a much larger exhibition to be held on the 14th September 2014, 50 years to the day the course closed.
Keeping my promise to the racing fans, I had six years to bring off something special for Lewes. So in April 2012 I formed a club and called it the Lewes Racecourse Club. I handpicked a committee that I thought had the same passion as me about the racecourse and once we got £7,800. Heritage Lottery Fund the Lewes Racecourse Club put on a fantastic three day event and gave the people something to remember for a long time and after the event, we donated £200. to Lewes Victoria Hospital, also took John Ffitch-heyes, Ann Ffiitch-Heyes, Suzy Smith and Sergio Gordon-Watson for a meal in the White Hart and thanked them for all their support.
We still have many followers including the top trainer in Europe John Gosden, retired Jockeys Bunny Hicks, Bobby Elliott and Bryan Leyman. The Racing Post, Plumpton and Brighton Racecourses, Newmarket Racing Museum, Tim Cox from the Horse racing library, racing author Chris Pitt, (A long time gone) and Stewart Nash, (An illustrated history of Plumpton Racecourse) plus Mick Symes and his members of Lewes Past and Present. All memorabilla we collected of the racecourse, we are willing to buy and assure you that it will go to the Lewes Museum for safe keeping. As over the years, I have heard about clubs taking memorabilia from the public and selling it on, once there club folds.
