MEETINGS

* * * * * THIS MEETING HAD BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO ILL HEALTH * * * * *

SORT’s Autumn Meeting: Thursday, 18 November, 2010. 7:00pm for 7:30pm

Upper Room, Perrymount Methodist Church, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 3DN
(near the railway station, about 200yds up from the Clair Hall)

A talk “Key Sites on the River Ouse” will be given by Dr Peter Brandon, the well-known and much published local historian and author, whose books include: “The South Downs”, “The Shaping of the Sussex Landscape”, “The Discovering of Sussex”, “The North Downs”, “The Kent & Sussex Weald” etc.

This will be a joint meeting with Solent & Arun Branch and Kent & East Sussex Branch of the IWA.

Refreshments available. Ample parking round the back of the church.

Please enter by the side door.

Please put the date in your diaries now. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Social Meeting: Thursday, 19 November, 2009. 7:00pm for 7:30pm

Upper Room, Perrymount Methodist Church, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 3DN

The Autumn 2009 Meeting of SORT took place on Thursday, 19 November, 2009, 7:00pm for 7:30pm. We presenting a selection of historic waterway videos. This was a joint meeting with Solent & Arun Branch and Kent & East Sussex Branch of the IWA.

Thursdays and Weekends from May to mid-September 2009

Restoration work parties at Isfield Lock

By kind permission of landowner John Sclater, conservation and restoration work restart at Isfield Lock on various weekends from late April until mid-September 2009, plus a few Thursdays. Following completion of the removal of the bottom gate remains and all the silt from the lock in 2007, work in 2008 concentrated on the conservation and renovation of the East wall. Good progress was made with this task and 2009 saw this work continuing with also a start being made on the wing walls north and south of the Lock on this East side.

Further detailed lists of dates will be published here once they are set. We will be delighted to see any new working members there on these dates, but please contact The Volunteer Coordinator Ted Lintott, via email at tedl@talktalk.net, or by telephone on (01444) 414 413, before you come along so that we can give you precise details of times and location.

Saturday, 19 October, 2002

St Thomas’s Church Hall, Cliffe High Street, Lewes

SORT held a very successful and well-attended Autumn Meeting on Saturday, 19 October, 2002.

Mick Waller – whose original idea was behind the present Trust – summarised the history behind the building of the navigation between 1790-1812 and illustrated it with pictures of how the former 19 locks look today.

Tony Woolnough – a river engineer – outlined the advantages of having a tidal barrier downstream of Lewes and expanded on how it would prevent both fresh water and salt water flooding of the town as well as bringing much needed improvements to the amenities of the area. A summary of his presentation notes are available here.

Particular interest was shown by the walkers at the meeting in the presentation by the Per-Rambulators. Terry Owen described plans for a way-signed path to cover 41 miles along the Ouse Valley from source to sea.

On a more technical aspect of the evening, a research group from the University of Sussex explained project STONE (Sedimentation Transfer across the Ouse Newhaven Estuary) and how it was seeking to discover the workings which lead to the siltation of the tidal part of the river.

The Mayor of Lewes together with representatives from the Inland Waterways Association, the British Canoe Union and the Wey & Arun Canal Trust heard the Chairman emphasise the case for a feasibility study to carry the project forward to its next stage as well as the need to start the conservation process for the river’s historical structures.