Lewes

Western road
Market street
Drill Hall, Watergate lane
Drill Hall, Southover (1899)

7 Company 1st Sussex Volunteer Artillery, Toronto terrace (Kelly, 1899)
1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers, Market street & East street (Kelly, 1899 – see below*)
Sussex (1st) Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) (No. 8 Company); drill hall, Watergate lane (Kelly, 1905)
'Sussex & Kent Royal Garrison Artillery (No. 3 Company); drill hall & club, Watergate lane.' (Kelly, 1911)
'Sussex Yeomanry (B Squadron), 23 Western road.' (Kelly, 1911)
'5th (Cinque Ports) Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (D Co.); head quarters, Market street.' (Kelly, 1911)

*Kelly, 1899, records: 'No. 7 Company 1st Sussex Volunteer Artillery, Eastern Division Royal Artillery, have head-quarters and club in Toronto terrace, St. John's, and a Drill Hall at Southover, and the D Co. of the 1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers have headquarters in Market street.' And, confusingly, '1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers (D Co.); head quarters, East street.'

Lewes Archives hold plans dated December 1904 for 'Drill Hall, Watergate Lane, Lewes for the 1st Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) by W Puttick, 56 East Street, Brighton, architect'. Originally a liquor warehouse dating to 1856, it was acquired by the Artillery Volunteers in 1904 and sold in 1928. It became East Sussex Music School in the 1950s.

There is also reference to a drill hall, demolished in the 1970s, in Priory Court, Mountfield Road, although there are no dates for its construction. (Source: Lewes District Council planning file relating to a proposed residential development at the 'former drill hall site', Mountfield Road; 1972-4; Sussex Archives.)

Thank you to Sue Light for the photographs.
Lewes - Watergate Lane Drill Hall
Lewes - Watergate Lane Drill Hall


Lewes - Watergate Lane Drill Hall
Lewes - Watergate Lane Drill Hall
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The Drill Hall Project - Charting a neglected legacy