Southwater Local History Group October - Vintage Sussex
October is traditionally the month of the grape harvest so as viticulture is now such a feature in our Sussex Downlands we thought it might be interesting to have a look back in time to see how it has fared over the centuries. Although evidence of V. vinifera – the grape vine – has been found in the British Isles since the Pleistocene age, it was probably the Romans who encouraged an interest in British wine production. It was certainly shipped in from Italy at great expense and any excavation of Roman sites will usually yield many amphorae – the ceramic containers used to transport it. Apart from that, little evidence other than pollen analysis remains of actual vineyards from that time but had there not been any then the Emperor Domitian would not have had cause to ban them! Roman legislation from the end of the first century A.D. limited British, French and Spanish vineyards to defend the Italian market.
Nevertheless, these vineyards did survive throughout the next centuries to appear in Domesday Book, where we find forty-six British vineyards recorded as far north as Suffolk. Fast forward to the 1500’s. By the time of Henry VIII’s coronation in 1509, 139 vineyards were recorded, 11 of which produced wine for the royal household. At this time, wine too expensive for most people, so in 1536 Henry decreed that wine imported from France, together with that of Greece and Spain, would be price-capped. Take another time leap to 1860 and a free trade supporting government reduced the tax on imported wine from one shilling to tuppence, a drop of 83%! Naturally, English wine could not compete with this, marking a further decline.
The last straw came with the onset of WWI; crops and food now took priority for land use, sugar was rationed, and so for the first time in near on 2000 years, English wines were no longer produced. However, the more recent changes in climate and length of growing seasons, coupled with the fact the underlying geography is the same on both sides of the channel, have meant that now English sparkling wine (made by exactly the same process as champagne but we can’t call it that) is now highly prized and is even popular in France, winning medals there!
Thus we see another change in the archaeological landscape; the fields of barley and hops which once clad the Downs and the High Weald of Sussex are rapidly being replaced with terraces of vines. Fortunately, there is still enough room for both, so whether your choice is for a pint glass or a champagne flute – Cheers!
SLHG meetings held at 7.30p.m. at The Village Hall, Church Lane, Southwater.
The Village Hall car park is now open!
Monday 3rd October 2022 - Speaker – Ian Gledhill - ‘Art Deco’
Monday 7th November 2022 Speaker – Robert Piper - ‘If this is a Women - Freedom, Fascism and Beauty’
Please do not attend if you have any Covid-19 symptoms. Contact Jeremy Senneck 01403 731247 for any further SLHG information.