Paintings by John Funnell of Newick
Posted in Research, Sussex on Feb 12th, 2014 1 Comment »


Could anyone help locating these scenes?
Posted in Research, Sussex on Feb 12th, 2014 1 Comment »
Could anyone help locating these scenes?
Posted in Sussex on Jul 25th, 2009 No Comments »
45 years after Robert Lower published his first pamphlet, the vicar of Selmeston, William Douglas Parish, elaborated “A dictionary of Sussex dialect and collection of provincialisms in use in the county of Sussex”. Of course, in 1875, “twus for frenchys an foreigners”. For what use could it be to a Sussex man? Its contents are […]
Posted in Sussex on Jul 25th, 2009 No Comments »
This text was added to the later editions of “Jan Cladpole’s Jurney to ‘Merricur”. Once again, it bears witness to conditions of life in the rural Sussex society before 1850 and notably to a certain freedom of expression to be found elsewhere, in religion, for example. TIM CLADPOLE’S ADVICE Or no Grumblen. I’ll tell ye […]
Posted in Sussex on Jul 25th, 2009 1 Comment »
In this second volume, Jan Cladpole, whose story is again related by Tim, succeeds Tom in a political “travel guide” to America. Word had certainly come back to the village of Chiddingly about slavery in the New World. PREFACE MOST every body knows about Tom Cladpole’s Jurney to Lunnun, so dat says jest naim at […]
Posted in Sussex on Jul 25th, 2009 No Comments »
TOM CLADPOLE’S RETURN. TOM I’LL say so agin as I sed it afore, I woll stay at home, an leave Mother no more ; Wud Bowler an Capten, I’ll harrar an plow, Swack out all de barley an fother de cow. Derry down ! Down, down Derry down ! MOTHER To hear ye say so […]
Posted in Sussex on Jul 25th, 2009 No Comments »
Richard Lower was born at Alfriston, Sussex on the 19th of September 1782. He opened a school about 1803 in the parish of Chiddingly, where he must have known many of our Funnell ancestors. He resided there until a few months before his death in 1865. In 1830, his first work was printed as a sixpenny pamphlet: Tom Cladpole’s Jurney to Lunnon, told by himself, and written in pure Sussex doggerel by his Uncle Tim.
Spiced with typical British humour, his text offers not only an insight into the changing world our rural ancestors lived in (the London Bobbies were formed in 1829) but also as to how “they spoke Sussex”.
You will not regret reading on…