“Evidence is always partial.  Facts are not truth, though they are part of it – information is not knowledge.  And history is not the past – it is the method we have evolved of organising our ignorance of the past.  It’s the record of what’s left on the record.  It’s the plan of the positions taken, when we to stop the dance to note them down.  It’s what’s left in the sieve when the centuries have run through it – a few stones, scraps of writing, scraps of cloth.  It is no more “the past” than a birth certificate is a birth, or a script is a performance, or a map is a journey.  It is the multiplication of the evidence of fallible and biased witnesses, combined with incomplete accounts of actions not fully understood by the people who performed them.  It’s no more than the best we can do, and often it falls short of that.”

Hilary Mantel

Drop-in Sessions

We are excited to announce the return of our drop-in sessions 2.00 - 5.00 pm every second Wednesday of the month at the White Horse in West Street.

Please contact us to let us know you are coming and what your interest is!

Lockdown

 As historians, we feel it is important to capture the experiences of the last two years.  Please join us in recording your reflections of life in lockdown and its aftermath, no matter how long or short, to the Lockdown Archive.

Fond memories of Ditchling Resident, Dame Vera Lynn, 1917 - 2020

Crowning the Fair Queen, 1960

'Ban the Lorries' Protest March, 1973

The Fair Proclamation, 1982

Crowning the Fair Queen, 2000

In the Sussex village of Ditchling we are mourning the loss of our long time resident, Vera Lynn.  She was part of the village from the days when she would push, Virginia, her daughter in her pram to do some shopping in the High Street.  She opened many a village fair and enjoyed sitting in the village barn gardens having tea with everyone else.  Many a time she would be seen walking to the village shops with her husband, holding a wicker basket to collect a loaf of bread. They would stay to have a coffee in one of the coffee shops where she would be greeted as Mrs Lewis which she preferred to Vera Lynn when she was in Ditchling.  Even though we have seen little of her in recent years it was always good to know she was here and we would notice the BBC equipment outside her house when there were wartime anniversaries.  She will long remain a source of pride that she lived in our village for so many years.  More ...  Should you wish to add a memory to our tribute page, please contact us.