Talk - Sussex Past

Helen Poole, from the tone of her voice, clearly does not believe in ghosts, but she knows some people who do. Helen, who has been working for Sussex Past (aka Sussex Archaeological Society), since 1991, has worked in most of the buildings run by the society, which include Lewes Castle, Anne of Cleves House, Michelham Priory and Fishbourne Roman Palace. “I hired a cleaner one Monday morning at Anne of Cleves House”, she says. “And by the afternoon she’d resigned, terrified, convinced she’d seen a ghost. She looked the last sort of person to be affected by such things”. “But actually ghosts can be quite lucrative to the society”, she continues. “Ghost watching in Michelham Priory is quite big business, actually. People stay overnight: some of them bring special equipment, including machines to gauge the change in temperature, and so on. There have been a number of sightings. There is talk of a Grey Lady, though I’ve never seen her”. The group do everything they can to encourage visitors. “We have limited benefactors”, she says, “so we rely on revenue from visitors to raise the considerable amount of money needed to run these buildings. These include all sorts of different groups”.

Helen will be giving an illustrated talk about the workings of the society at St Anne’s Church, in order to help raise money to pay for the roof and tower reparations that have recently been completed there. “Sussex Past is an important part of the Lewes scene. I hope people will take this opportunity to find out about what goes on here”. AG