Tourist Guide for Ditchling East Sussex - History

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History

Since Saxon times, Ditchling has been home and workplace to generations of villagers. The museum's galleries show their work alongside objects made by craftspeople today.

The museum is housed in the Victorian school and schoolhouse, built in 1836 and extended in 1887. The school was used as a meeting place, as the venue for the Horticultural Society Flower Shows and home to the first schoolmaster. The school closed in 1983 and the site was purchased by two sisters Joanna and Hilary Bourne to establish a museum to celebrate the history of this remarkable village.

The award winning Hilary Bourne Gallery displays the work of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, the Roman Catholic community established by Eric Gill, Hilary Pepler and Desmond Chute in 1921.