Rachael Adams
Robert Littleford

In the Footsteps of Ravilious: examining the South Downs and Newhaven landscapes of war-artist Eric Ravilious and inviting individual responses to this unique topography. Edgeland Modern will collate these impressions into an online multi-disciplinary archive and exhibition with scheduled walks and talks.

An evolving Story-Map will reveal creative responses to the Downland landscape over a year: recording & mapping a broad, emotional response to views made familiar by Ravilious.

Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landscapes, which examine English landscape and vernacular art with an off-kilter, modernist sensibility and clarity. He served as a war artist, and died when the aircraft he was in was lost off Iceland.

Lewes to Newhaven

The Ouse continues southeast past Glynde, where the tributary of Glynde Reach joins from the east, and then passes Rodmell, Southease and Piddinghoe. There are public pathways on both sides of the channel for most of this stretch.

At Southease there is a swing bridge, designed by Henry E Wallis of Westminster in 1878 and installed two years later, to replace a previous structure slightly further upstream. It consists of three bowspring arches, one fixed and the other two mounted on a central pivot. It was manually operated by a capstan mounted on the movable section, and is a rare example of its type, which are more normally found in docks and industrial areas. In 1988, Parliamentary approval was obtained to fix the bridge in position, as it had not been opened since 1967. The river finally reaches Newhaven, where it splits industrial Denton Island from the mainland. A wooden drawbridge was built in 1794 to carry the coastal road over the river, but this was replaced in 1866, when a cast iron swing bridge was erected in its place. It carried both a road and a tramway, which was used in the construction of the West Quay breakwater, a project which was finally completed in 1889. The tramway was then used to facilitate maintenance of the breakwater, until the tracks were lifted in 1963. A new road bridge, at a higher level and slightly further to the north, replaced the swing bridge in 1974. It is opened regularly for commercial shipping, near to high tide, but as the bridge carries the A259 road, each opening causes significant traffic congestion. Below the bridge, the river becomes the Port of Newhaven, where there is a ferry terminal for sailings to Dieppe in France, a service which has been running since 1847. Finally, the river flows into the English Channel, surrounded on either side by two long breakwater piers.

Southease, Rodmell and River Ouse Walk

Start: Southease Station
Take a moment to pause at Southease Halt. Just visible to the west across the flat valley floor lie the villages of Southease and Rodmell. To get there, the walk takes you across the River Ouse at Southease bridge, the only crossing point between Lewes and the coastal port of Newhaven. Southease and Rodmell are typical downland villages. Southease, the smaller of the two, boasts a tiny 12th century church. Rodmell also has a Norman church, and nearby you can visit Monk’s House, the country retreat of writer Virginia Woolf, now owned by the National Trust.