The Ringmer History Study Group was founded in 1981. It has grown to become one of the largest and most active village societies. From October to June we hold regular Friday evening meetings on topics of local interest, while in the summer we have a programme of guided walks, local visits and other events. We encourage individual members and small groups to carry out their own research, and assist them to disseminate the results of their studies. We have helped to preserve and restore memorials of old Ringmer and have built up a substantial collection of old photographs. Each year we publish and distribute to members eight or nine issues of Ringmer History Newsletter. To consult the indexes to the first 250 newsletters, click in the appropriate box. Newsletters can be consulted at Ringmer and Lewes libraries and the county record office in Lewes. A reference of 125,1 indicates that the article is in newsletter number 125, page 1.
On 18 May Dr John Kay, Chairman of Ringmer History Study Group (RHSG), won the Outstanding Individual Contributor Award for 2023 from the British Association for Local History. This prestigious honour is given to a local historian who has made a significant voluntary contribution in the subject in their locality.
John’s award recognises the major contribution he has made in both Ringmer and Lewes to the study of local history. He was a co-founder of RHSG in 1981 and has been its chairman for 42 years and in 2009co-founded the Lewes History Group (LHG).
With his unstinting enthusiasm and wide local knowledge, past and present, John was especially singled out for his four decades of producing monthly newsletters for first RHSG (number 371 with eight pages of information has just been published for May), then LHG too. John has dealt with researchers’ enquiries from around the world for both groups whilst carrying out many other voluntary roles in the community including Chairmanship of Ringmer Parish Council from 2010 to 2016.
Prior to retiring John was a Reader in Biochemistry at the University of Sussex, Associate Dean of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and previously the Director of the Centre for Medical Research. He is also a published author in both history and biomedical journals.
To people in Ringmer John has been Mr History for more than 40 years. His research has been immaculate and immense, his developed knowledge has become encyclopaedic and his energy seems boundless.
Congratulations to John on being presented with this major award.
How can we help you? Our web pages on this site will continue to grow, making more information about Ringmer freely available on-line. We can also share with you what we know about local people, houses, events and placenames of the past. We will try to answer any e-mails we receive as quickly as possible, but it may take a while to route questions to non-internet 'experts'.
How can you help us? We would like to hear from you if your ancestor lived in Ringmer. We are interested in anything you know about their life here. If you have any photographs, paintings, pamphlets, postcards, pottery, diaries, church magazines or any ephemera from bygone Ringmer which we could copy, we would like to add it to the body of information we are gathering. We would also like to hear from you if you went to school in Ringmer before 1960.
How can you contact us? Just e-mail the website. Alternatively, if you live in the United Kingdom and wish to join Ringmer History Study Group and thereby receive Ringmer History Newsletter, send £4.00 for single membership or £6 for two people at the same address to Bob Cairns, Penn House, Lewes Road, Ringmer, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 5ER. We are sorry that we are currently unable to accept overseas members, but if anyone wishes to share information with us (either way), do please e-mail the website at [email protected]