Dear Everyone,

After twenty-one years at the Lewes Arms, the Lewes Arms Folk Club is moving to the Elephant & Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ   (www.elephantandcastlelewes.co.uk). We haven't quite finalised the name, but we expect to call ourselves something like 'LEWES SATURDAY FOLK CLUB at the Elephant & Castle.'

Our first night there will be a singaround on the theme of Great Escapes  on Saturday 3^rd. January.

We are moving because the new management of the Lewes Arms has asked us for £50 to use the club-room on a Saturday night and £75 during the daytime when we run workshops because they want to use it as a restaurant at weekends. We run to break even and give all door money to our guest performers, paying for our advertising with a weekly raffle and occasional night without a guest; the management were well aware of this when they asked us for money, which they described as a peppercorn rent in comparison with the amount of money they could be making out of the space we use: a room that holds fifty people at a pinch.

We have two more nights at the Lewes Arms:

20 DEC           CHRISTMAS PARTY with UDIMORE HANDBELL RINGERS                        (£4)

The Captain of the ringers is Peter Collins and they're all good solo perfomers too.Carol sheets provided; home-made mince pies served. Bring a party piece or choose a carol.

27 DEC           MATT QUINN & DOGAN MEHMET                    (£4)

Two fine young singers with fiddles, melodeon, mandola & percussion, raised in Sussex, on vacation from the Newcastle University traditional music degree course. It would be great to fill the place for our final night and make it one to remember.

Not only have we been at the Arms for twenty-one years, but Vic and Tina Smith ran a superb club there before us; the best of traditional music has been in the pub for the best part of forty years. My first visit was to Scan Tester's 83^rd. birthday party in September 1971. This year alone we have run and weekly performances and fifteen all-day workshops by excellent musicians including Alistair Anderson, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Paul Sartin and Coope Boyes & Simpson.

If you would like to protest to the owners, Fuller Smith and Turner, in the hope of showing them that a lot of people value folk clubs and that they will lose goodwill and money by evicting them from their pubs, please email

fullers_at_fullers_dot_co.uk

or write to

Mr. Michael Turner, Executive Chairman, Fuller Smith & Turner Plc, The Griffin Brewery, Chiswick Lane South, London W4 2QB.

Best wishes,

Valmai