SUSSEX MISCELLANY
NEW OCCURRENCES, STARTS & CHANGES By Kevin Newman, a Sussex-born author, historian, tour guide and history teacher
W
ith the commencement of a new year we tend to use the occasion to review where we’ve been and see the first month of each
year as a time to look ahead. This year we welcome what we hope will be the first month of the year we enter the post-COVID-19 world. I thought I’d use this opportunity therefore to examine new occurrences, firsts, start-ups and changes from Sussex’s past. Many find that New Year is a time for new careers
Brighton’s Metropole Hotel.
and developing new skills. Many of us have developed a
out mid-talk and disrupt the meeting but the dust
portfolio of professions as the age of a full-time job for
within led to an unfortunate sneezing bout; foiling their
life has moved into the past and many now multitask
plans as their hiding place was discovered. So, should
different job roles. his is nothing new though. Before
you decide to recreate this fate, or indeed join a new
World War I, William Avenell, the first Chairman of
pressure group this year then you might not want to
Brighton and Hove Albion was also its fundraiser and
get rid of your COVID mask just yet.
even the club’s first photographer. If you too fancy
If your new year’s resolution instead is making sure
taking up photography as a new year’s hobby, then you
Fido and you both get enough walks, then you might
might be inspired that here in Sussex Agnes Ruge was
want to visit Brighton as in August 1894, the Palace
not only Brighton’s first female photographer, but one
Pier’s Brighton Dog Show was the first ever dog show
of the nation’s first. She owned a daguerreotype
ever to take place on a pier. Or if you plan to make
business that was based in Western Road.
2021 the year you discover your musical roots and learn
Brighton and Hove got its first female police officers
a new instrument, then head slightly west from there
in 1918 but it was not until 1942 sadly that the folk of
to Brighton’s Metropole Hotel. This is where on August
East Sussex would gain their first female Police
21st 1962 Brighton hosted the first ever ‘Disc Festival’ –
Constable. Perhaps they should have done the same as
as played by ‘Disc Jockeys’ (in other words, a records
Miss Mary Hare who in 1915 set up her own Women’s’
and music fair). Should you be awaiting your first live
police force against the wishes of her local constabulary.
gig in ages, then you might want to know two decades
If you are considering a new business venture or job,
later Kylie Minogue played her first ever live
then hopefully it’ll be better than the experience of
performance in Britain at the very same hotel in the
women who were first allowed onto the East Sussex
1980s. Should enjoying your music for free rather than
County Council from 1919 but were advised ‘not to
paid gigs be more your thing, then investigate
speak for the first six months’.
Worthing which in the 1970s was home to ‘Phun City’:
No wonder women early in the 20th century had joined the Suffragettes, formally known as the WSPU,
the UK's first large-scale free music festival. Festivals are often places of heavy drinking though
with one of their first branches opening in Brighton by
and so if you want to cut down on the demon drink
1906. It had gained over 150 Sussex members by 1907,
for 2021, then you might like the new concept one
two of whom attempted to sabotage a talk at the
Sussex pub landlord back in the early 1990s came up
Dome by the Prime Minister who had refused to give
with. He devised a pub that deliberately tried to make
them the vote, Herbert Asquith. The Suffragettes
its customers as miserable as possible. And no, it wasn’t
attempted to hide in the Dome’s organ ready to leap
Wetherspoons. The Argus reported back in 1992 about
20
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
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