moving to lewes

[lulismum]

hello!
i shall be moving to lewes at the end of july with my hubby and 2 yr old daughter isobelle.....where i shant know a soul so would love to meet other mums and playmates!also if anyone has any general tips about playgroups or child friendly cafes etc i would be really grateful.
thankyou

We moved from Lewes to Sydney last year so can't offer to meet up I'm afraid but I do have some general tips.

The All Saints Centre (near the library on Friar's Walk) runs a toy library and there is a nice, chilled out music group that meets there as well with is good for little ones (and you can pay as you go rather than having to commit in advance).

Bills cafe and produce store on Cliff High Street is the most amazing place. Not much room for buggies, but they are happy to have kids and you are bound to get chatting to someone if you sit at the big table.

There is a toddler group at Wallands school which used to run on a Wednesday morning (probably still does). Contact the school to ask. I don't know where you are living or what school you are thinking about but Wallands has a nursery class that takes kids from three so it might be worth putting your daughter's name down. The mums at the toddler group are really friendly and it's a good way to get the lowdown on local schools (DS2 went to primary there and DD was in the nursery class). Whereabouts in Lewes will you be living and I'll try and think of some more stuff.

Oh, nearly forget Springbarn farm just a couple of minutes outside the town is a great place to go with little ones in nice weather and they run cheap deals for mums and toddlers one day during the week.

Ohhhhh Lewes is really posh

I'm in Seaford but come to Lewes to do posh shopping occaisionally.

We also meet up in Brighton quite a bit....well not so much me because my DH works shifts so I'm always having to work around them.

Hi we live in Falmer which is right between Lewes and Brighton. I never go to Brighton any more, always in Lewes, all the kids' activities are in Lewes.

There is an nct in lewes and lots of toddler groups. A brilliant one to try and join is "kingfishers" it's opposite waitrose, the waiting list is very long though as it's so popular.
We go to a music group in the subud centre on station street, that's nice. Lewes is a very 'yummy mummy' town ( I'm not one, I don't have a beret ) but a very friendly one .
The leisure centre has a nice toddler pool and under three's go for free.

I honestly can't remember how I found out about all the stuff, but I'm sure there is a booklet somewhere listing all the stuff to do with toddlers and babies.

People are so friendly here that you could probably stop a mum in the street and ask about groups!

good luck!

come to our Brighton meet 6 Sept

Hi everyone!
Thanks so much for responding!!

Sunnydelight, great tips thanks. We are moving right next to the Wallands school so will definitely check it out, I hope you are enjoying Sydney.

Kittywise, thanks maybe i'll see you at Kingfishers, probably without a beret though . It's nice to know that it is a friendly place to live.

Thanks again

Hi Im in Lewes (but definatly not the posh part) there is quite a few things for kids to do here plus quite alot of parks etc, we often go to the pells to feed the ducks in the pond but there is also a outdoor swimming pool for when the weather is nice.

Im not that far from wallands school, so i don't mind meeting up if you want, I have a DD age 2.4 and DS 1.5

Hello fiodyl,
the pells sounds lovely.may well take you up on your kind offer once chaos of the move has died down
cheers!

Oh, I love the Pells pool. My boys went to Lewes New School for a few years, which is right beside the Pells - the year DS1 left primary the school hired the pool for the morning and all the kids and parents and siblings had a swim/picnic there. Definitely one of my favourite memories of Lewes! It's actually really reasonable to hire for parties etc.

Meant to say lulismum, if you're a pub person check out the Snowdrop Inn at the end of South Street. Absolutely the other end of town if you're near Wallands but it has a lovely beer garden and is very child friendly with good food.

I'm just being really nosy, but having lived in the Nevill area I'm wondering is that where you're moving to? If it is, Nevill Junior bonfire night (generally mid-October) is like nothing you will ever have seen before!!!!! Ask your friends and bask in the envy

Hey Sunnydelight,
I'm definitely a pub person and have actually had a sunday roast in The Snowdrop ages ago in a pre mummy life,so good to hear its child friendly.
We are moving to Firle Crescent,the lass we shall be renting the house from has mentioned the kids bonfire night and it felt like another , very good reason to move there!we are only moving from Brighton,but more and more it (thanks to kind folk that are enthusiastic about the place) feels like the right thing to do!....
Had i been to Sydney Sunnydelight,i would very probably be able to recommend numerous good bars....as it is i can just say cheers!

Hi Lulismum, moved here earlier this year with 2 boys aged 18 months and 4 years, Lewes is a lovely place to be with kids - planning on braving a toddler group shortly with my youngest, the one at the All Saints Centre sounds nice - happy to meet for coffee during summer hols, hope move goes well!

hi there, sorry for slightly hijacking the thread, but lulismum and sunny, what is/did make you move from Brighton to Lewes? How is it better than brighton? (if that is the right question). Sunny did you miss Brighton?

I would like to move out of Brighton to get more space, and dh won't consider anything too rural, so I am thinking of Lewes.

Sorry to hijack Lulismum!

hello Opc094!
Thankyou!when all done and dusted with the move,i plan to brave the very same toddler group,so will hopefully get to meet you there!

And hey there Pollyanna it's me thats moving from Brighton (dont know if sunny d ever shone here)....i have lived and loved in this city by the sea for 10 years and to leave it feels like quite a biggie.But 2 years into being a mummy and my tastes and needs have changed (ie from 'where's the next party?' to wanting a garden for my lil girl (not easy in bton,unless you want a tiny square of concrete as you prob know.)i wanted to be near some green without being in sticksville so lewes fit the bill.also seems like it out does brighton on the school front.And suddenly i want to live near other families(wouldnt really recognise anyone in my street here if i trod on them!!)
It's been so nice to get encouraging messages back from people.i feel excited about moving!
as for missing bton,i probably will but i know my friends will love to hang out in our garden and it's only 8 mins away on train.!!!

That help any?!!

Hi Pollyanna. Yes, I did miss Brighton in some ways, mainly my girlfriends, but on a manic weekend where it felt like half of London had descended on the place it was lovely to come into Brighton on a Saturday morning then escape back to Lewes, go for a walk up on the Downs and relax in the garden which was SO much bigger than we could afford in Brighton. You also don't realise just how filthy Brighton is until you move out!

We moved for boring stuff like schools and a bigger house and garden than we could have in Brighton. We decided that to get what we wanted in Brighton we would have to move so far out that we preferred to live somewhere that was a destination in itself rather than being a suburb of Brighton. It only took us ten minutes to get from Lewes back to our favourite Brighton pub, The Bugle!!!

The school thing is also much easier in Lewes. Athough both boys were at Lewes New School when we moved so it was nice not to have to do the Brighton/Lewes journey twice a day, the secondary school thing was the real decider. We couldn't afford private for secondary and where we were living there was a real possibility that we would have been offered Falmer for DS1 which was "over my dead body". Depending on where you live in Lewes you can actually have a choice. DS1 started off at Priory but ended up in Chailey which I would really recommend - great school! The Lewes primaries are, with a couple of exceptions, very good too.

It probably would tick all your boxes for places to move to from Brighton, though I've got to say it's not for everyone. I really enjoyed my time there and there is no doubt that it is a lovely place to live, but it was just a bit too "English county town" for me in some ways. I found the lack of diversity a bit strange. After three years I was happy to leave, though in some ways I guess that isn't very fair as I always wanted to return to Sydney and you can't really compare the two! Having said that though, if we were ever to return to the UK (which we don't intend to) I would probably make the same choice for the same reasons. I'll be interested to hear what you decide to do

Lulismum - I know Firle Crescent well, we lived on Caburn! Nevill is a nice place to live and there are some sound women around there. Good luck with the move and feel free to CAT me if you want any more info.

hi sunny, hows tricks?

Hi MABS, good thanks! I keep on meaning to e-mail but moving to the other side of the world hasn't improved my organisational skills. Everyone's settled, kids are all happy in school (and on the one site which is fab), sun is shining Hope everything is ok with you, wasn't your DD having some health issues?

Just read this thread and wanted to mention there are several toddler groups running on Friday morning (they all seem to happen at the same time) in Lewes. One at the All Saints Centre, another at King's Church and one nearer the Neville on Prince Edward's Road in the Methodist Church (can't think of the name of it right now). They all run from 9.30 to 11.30 during term time. I think there may be a waiting list for the Kings Church one - don't know as I've never been to that one, but I have gone along to both the others with my nearly 2 year old DS and would recommend them both.

The parks and playgrounds in Lewes are all good. If the weather wasn't so rubbish, they'd be even better.

Good luck with the move.

thinking of moving to lewes looking for family house walking istance to station catchment for primary schools - any recommedations for areas?

Hi lulismum, I've just just moved to Lewes last week and don't know a soul! Have you arrived yet? what part of town are you? If you are free next week do you fancy meeting at the park? Monday is supposed to be sunny! let me know how you are fixed I have a 2 and a 3 year old.

Hello. I've recently moved to Lewes and just had my first baby. I'd love to meet up with other local new mums. Any in here fancy a coffee?

Hey, i found if hard to meet new people & find things for tinies & bumps to do in Lewes. Setup my own group. We meet Fortnightly Thursdays at 11:30am at The Pelham Arms in Lewes. Next one is 30th March. Facebook page:BabiesBumpsParentsClubLewes Come one & all with your little'uns. Coffee/tea, biscuits, cake & chats. A good way to meet new people in the same position as you & make you feel at ease about your new/recent arrivals or soon to be's!

Hi Amy, I live in Lewes; what age range of children attend your group?