Rooted in the
South Downs

Jevington village, high on the South Downs above Eastbourne, sits within the South Downs National Park and on the South Downs Way. An ancient settlement, the village school is now the Village Hall, and Jevington also offers a 300 year old pub, The Eight Bells, along with the flint built St Andrews Church, dating from around 1300.

School May Day Celebrations at the Village School - 1923.

Each year the children at the school celebrated May Day with a ceremony crowning the May Queen and dancing round the Maypole. They picked flowers from the surrounding downs to make garlands.

Here the whole school is pictured on May Day 1923, three years before the small village school closed and became the VillageHall.  Christobel Cuthbert is the May Queen and sitting in front of her is Robert Newson, the three year old son of the school mistress Florence Newson. Florence, a widow, was the last school teacher at Jevington School and emigrated to Australia with her son a few years later.