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Social activities for people with sight loss, in the Brighton and Hove AreaArgus Charity of the year 2008 |
Southwick Cottage Museum – 17th September 2011
A lot is packed into the small space of Manor Cottage Heritage Museum. A curator kindly gave the visiting City Synergy members a talk explaining how the original two-roomed cottage had expanded over generations, then it had passed through local authority ownership where it was threatened with demolition until the current trustees had acquired it and raised funds for restoration and sensitive additions of offices with the aims of bringing local archive materials back home to Southwick.
The building is filled with original fittings that would have been part of everyday life for past generations. It currently has an exhibition of school-life in Southwick with pictures and stories from the last century right up to the present day with lively accounts of modern school life. We were surprised to learn that Southwick had once been a major supplier of oysters to London even requiring a special branch of the railway line to be built, but that trade had literally died out following a virus that destroyed the oyster stocks.
We then had lunch at The Plaice in the Square – very busy on a Saturday lunchtime (with good reason), so booking is advisable.
Report by Jonathan Dutton
