FUN AS WELL AS FACTUAL. KEEP CHECKING THIS SITE FOR REGULAR UPDATES

 Check venues, fees, dates before booking - accurate as.possible, but may change, be postponed or cancelled. 

N.B Blogger stopped updates to followers. If you want me to update you with new posts, please contact. 

☼  SUMMER 2026  ☼

Two Seated Girls on Lake Starnberg by Edward Cucuel, 1920

St Margaret's, Rottingdean, Churchyard Tour

The graveyard is an historic Sussex burial ground holding several famous figures. The most notable include Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, author Enid Bagnold ("Black Beauty"), the legendary blues guitarist Gary Moore and famous music hall artist G. H. Elliott.

Lots more fascinating information on the next tour led by village archivist Mike Laslett and Bob Smale, which takes place on Wednesday 19 August at 1pm.

 No advance booking is required, just turn up. Suggested voluntary donation is £5.00.

🎈🙋🎈

Adult Education Classes

Start Autumn (7 weeks time)

 RELAXED, FUN, FULL OF INTERESTING STUFF (& NICE PEOPLE)! NO HOMEWORK. 

DETAILS BELOW IF YOU SCROLL DOWN TO "AUTUMN" 

BOOKING NOW OPEN 

for MET Autumn 2026/Spring 2027 and Woodingdean

  > ! IF YOU HAVE COVID, 'FLU, COUGH, COLD, FEEL UNWELL - PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS ! (& tutor) !! <

N.B. History courses may contain outdated attitudes, cultural depictions and language which cause offence today. They have to be viewed from an historic perspective. When discussing the content these views are not those of the tutor. If you feel you may be uncomfortable, please do not enrol.

The Grange Museum, The Green, Rottingdean, Brighton BN2 7HA

           Mrs Beeton and Household Management

              Wednesday 2nd September 1pm

          CANCELLED

             Rescheduled for 2 June 2027

         Scroll to end

Scroll down for exciting new talk based on Angela Thirkell's book, The Three Houses, about her young life in Rottingdean in the late Victorian/Edwardian period. A wonderful evocation of the period. Date tba

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🍃 AUTUMN 2026 🍃

Brighton & Hove Open Door 2026 

           Heritage Open Days (11-20 September 2026) 

England’s largest grass roots heritage festival involving over 40,000 volunteers and 5,000 events. A chance to see hidden places and try new experiences – all FREE

THE REGENCY TOWN HOUSE

                        13 Brunswick Square, Hove, BN3 1EH                       

Brighton and Hove heritage, consrvation,community

Death and Mourning in Georgian and Victorian England:

Fascinating Rituals and Customs

Illustrated talk by social history lecturer Sarah Tobias

      in the dining room. 

Lengthy and elaborate rituals associated with death, grief and mourning played an intricate and symbolic role, especially in Victorian life. The customs are

fascinating and intriguing. 

Death was a regular occurrence and not feared. Although less rigid in the Regency period, mourning was filled with complex rituals and lasted a long time.. Customs associated with mourning include stopping the clocks at the precise time of death and covering all mirrors.

Death and mourning spawned much industry: clothing, jewellery, teapots, ceramics, stationery, photography and everything associated with undertaking. The Brighton General Mourning Warehouse was situated at 15, Old Steine.

Tea, coffee, cake & specially baked mourning biscuits will be available to purchase in the basement tea room. 

Sunday 20 September 11am & 1pm. Each lasting 45 mins (NB. new date)

Event is free but PRE-BOOKING ONLY. Limited seating.

Link to book will appear here soon.

The Regency Town House

  BRUNSWICK SQUARE, HOVE, BN3 1EH 

   Brighton and Hove heritage, consrvation, community

Watch out for exciting events, classes, courses, talks and workshops at the Regency Town House in Hove taught or presented by Sarah Tobias, including a tour of the restored stables and history of some interesting characters who lived in the house. Sarah will be curating an exhibition on servants in 2027

The Town House is minutes away from the sea, and shops, cafes and restaurants in Western Road

To come: "Death and Mourning" (above), Restoration of stables, History of Christmas, 2026, "Blessed Servants" exhibition 2027

 👀 LOOKING AHEAD 👀

Booking is either open now or will open soon

Adult Education Classes

🎈🙋🎈

  Rottingdean Whiteway Centre

                       Whiteway Lane, BN2 7HB Tutor Sarah Tobias

                            Places are limited - courses book out early.

     ENROLMENT OPENS NEXT WEEK 21 AUGUST 9AM

Autumn 2026 

The Transformation of Mid -Victorian Britain (1851-1875)

We study rich and poor and their world: their architecture and living conditions - from large country estates and town houses to humble cottages and rookeries of the residuum; their social life, culture and the impact of influential women.

We view architectural styles from the grandest country estate to vernacular dwellings, town, terraces, municipal and public buildings and view the internal workings of the home. 

Other course themes include schooling and the work and life of the governess, mechanic’s institutes which provided evening education for workers; the poor, their lack of amenities, deficient nutrition and medical attention and the effect of their appalling living and working conditions. 

We also see how campaigning women made a difference, such as Barbara Bodichon who wrote “Women and Work” which argued that a married women's dependence on her husband was degrading and who founded the “Englishwoman's Review”, a journal run entirely by women for women. 

Illustrated with PowerPoint slideshows.

10 weeks Tuesday 10.30-12.30 Start 22 September Fee £113

Enrolment opens 21 August. Look up website or here.

ART AND ACTUALITY: 

Decoding Victorian paintings to discover reality

We look at paintings and compare them with the ‘real world’. For example, the romanticized illusion of the milkmaid or haymaker – the reality was quite different! We study the paintings and what they are telling us about the social history of the period, by each week picking a particular theme to explore. 

The most popular paintings in the Victorian period were narrative – they told a story; it could be one of fiction or of social conditions or, importantly, moral warning! These paintings present potent images of various aspects of 19c society, giving the modern viewer insight into daily life - offering a particular image which has to be unravelled in order to see what actually lies behind the image. A painter may wish to express an emotion or show the plight of the poor, women’s enslavement to society, effects of industry, power of the wealthy.

The narrative might be one of optimism – a love story with a happy ending or jubilant homecoming. It might be tragic or melodramatic – a letter arriving that tells of betrothal to another, or more commonly, death of a loved one. 

Within the paintings lie various conventions that require decoding; not knowing the code can change the meaning completely. Symbolism is widely used, as well as literary and artistic allusions. The image on the canvas is what the artist wants the viewer to see so (as with photography), it is not necessarily truthful, and is often fanciful. 

Illustrated with many paintings on powerpoint slideshows.

5 weeks Tuesday 3.15-5.15 Start 22 September Fee £56.50

Enrolment opens 21 August. Look up website or here.

       Gorgeous Georgians: Life in 18c England

Gorgeous, grand, ghastly, grotesque, greedy, gin-drinking, gluttonous, gamblers – the colourful, inventive, fabulously wealthy, devastatingly poor Georgians. We look at high and low society, including some interesting personalities of the period

 The elegant magnificence of the buildings and stunningly lavish life of a small handful of society contrast with the devastatingly poor members of the lower class who lived in abject poverty and the grim goings-on of the underworld of pickpockets, prostitutes, thieves, gamblers and gin-drinkers – of all classes.

Witty and intellectual women, such as Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire vie withthe clever courtesans of the period.

This was a time of extravagance and over-indulgence on a Grand Scale with gluttony and the consuming of huge meals leading to gout and other disease. Drinking to excess was indulged in by the rich with their fortified wines and the poor with gin, often made in back rooms. Drug-taking was also on the menu; opium and laudanum being the favourites, easily obtained and used by both men and women.

  Not only a time of intrigue, debt and excess but also many interesting and colourful personalities – men and women who wrote, painted, sculpted, made beautiful gold, silver glass or pottery, dressed in the extremes of fashion, were witty or worthless, talented, intellectual but never dull.

A hugely fascinating period.Illustrated with powerpoint slideshows.

       10 weeks Wednesday 11.45-1.45 Start 23 September Fee £113

Enrolment opens 21 August. Look up website or here.

MET courses taught at Pelham Street Brighton BN1 4FA 

  Any problems enrolling, please contact me: sarah.tobias@gbmc.ac.uk

        Enrolment: 01273 667704  Admissions:  admissions@gbmc.ac.uk 

To be eligible for a 50% discount on courses you must meet below criteria :

 - Unemployed and in receipt of a means tested benefit

- You receive a state pension and the total of any other income (including salary & private pensions) is less than £952 per month or £1,534 as a couple.

- Employed and earning below £22,038 annual gross salary

✍

 Pelham Street, Brighton

Tutor Sarah Tobias

AUTUMN 2026 

The Development of Brighton - Fishing Town to Fashionable Resort 

Special features of Brighton’s unique development - from early life on the downs to vibrant twentieth century. We view how a small, poor fishing town emerged into a fashionable resort. 

We discuss Brighton’s history from early times to Georgian and into contemporary life, looking at particular aspects that have made the town an unusual and unique resort, including its ‘racy’ image, and emergence into modern society.  

We study the town’s social life, poverty and slum housing, and how rapid expansion causes problems as well as prosperity.  We will also consider the situation of Brighton – quite a large town, but just sea one way and Downs on the other.

Brighton has a rich architectural heritage which we explore, and see how buildings such as theatres, dance halls and skating rinks helped to mould its image; as well as the many shops, factories and industries. Cultural life in Brighton has always featured highly, from music hall, to racing and cinema-going. Wartime impacted highly on a town renowned for entertainment and accommodating many visitors looking to enjoy the piers, palace and bracing sea air.

The course will be illustrated with slides, books, video, historic maps, extracts from local guide books, prints

10 weeks Monday 3-5pm Start 28 September -note later start date

Re no: MACL067E Fee £165

https://www.brightonmet.ac.uk/courses/the-development-of-brighton-fishing-town-to-fashionable-resort-history/

Independently run by tutor Sarah Tobias at .

The Church of the Holy Cross,Woodingdean (Brighton) 

Bus nos 2, 22 stop outside. Small car park back of hall.

Autumn 2026 

 “Never had it so good” A World of Change-Post-War Britain 1945-1960

              The Festival of Britain 1951

The fabulous ‘Fifties and swinging Sixties!  After the drabness and depression of war we see a burst of colour and hope for a brighter future with Dior’s New Look, The Festival of Britain, modernity in homes, welfare reforms - and Rock ‘N Roll!

We study social and cultural changes that followed the upheavals of World War Two, including the need for housing and improvements in living and working conditions. This was a new post-war era of optimism – particularly with the wonderful 1951 morale-boosting South Bank Festival of Britain visited by millions. There were changes in fashion and new interest in cosmetics. Interiors became brighter with fun wallpaper, modern furniture and kitchens.

We see the effects of relationships due to how people had altered, which led to quite a few divorces.  We also focus on women and the adjustments to their domestic, social and family life following the war.

Amid the social and political changes came the youth revolution; milk & coffee bars, dance halls & Bill Haley and The Comets. This period saw the introduction of new writers, social realism and the ‘angry young man’, e.g. Joe Lampton in Room at the Top.

"Go around the country and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in the history of this country."  Prime Minister Harold Macmillan 1957

Illustrated with books, slides, film and documentary

Monday 10.30-12.30 8 weeks Start 28 September

 

£78 Cheque payable to "Ms S Tobias" stating your name, address, telephone, e-mail and title of course. Post or deliver: Ms S Tobias, C/o Fleur Butler, Church of the Holy Cross, Downsway, Woodingdean BN2 6ND & e-mail me to list you. SARAH.TOBIAS@gbmc.ac.uk 

Can be paid in two halves.

Rottingdean Whiteway Centre

Whiteway Lane, BN2 7HB

 Tutor Sarah Tobias

                              

Saturday 7 November 11am-3pm Study Day

Looking at Victorian Art as Social History

The fascinating, colourful Victorian narrative and figurative paintings tell us much more than the main picture and are full of symbolism and meaning, exposing other features hardly noticed: revealing massive social, economic and cultural changes, turmoil and emotions.

We study later Victorian artists who wanted to show domestic scenes and ‘real life’ and were not afraid of painting controversial subjects which might shock the public. Paintings, such as the large William Powell Frith’s Derby Day were so popular when they were shown that a rail was needed to stop the public from getting too close to the pictures and damaging them.

Domestic scenes showed interiors of everyday life which appealed to the public. Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell chose to use fiction to expose social conditions in a way that fired the reader’s interest and enabled them to become aware and to discuss, maybe act. Artists attempted to expose conditions by painting them realistically rather than making the subjects beautiful. Some took a moral stance, and the fallen woman was a popular subject.

Illustrated with masses of Victorian paintings on powerpoint slidehows.

Tea, coffee and biscuits available in kitchen throughout day. Bring a packed lunch.

Tutor Sarah Tobias
Link to book will appear 21August.* Places are limited. £25

*https://www.rwc.org.uk/looking_at_victorian_art_paintings_as_social_history 

📅Date for your Diary

At The Grange Museum, Rottingdean

Illustrated talk based on Angela Thirkell's  book,Three Houses, about her childhood in Rottingdean1890s/1900s. A wonderful evocation of the period and Rottingdean history. She was the grandaughter of Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, whose house is situated opposite the green and pond.

Talk will be given by social historian Sarah Tobias and Rottingdean archivist and museum curator Mike Laslett.

There may also be a tour of the sites mentioned in the book

By Mike and Sarah

Exciting details, date and time to follow soon.
👀Watch this space! 👀

2027

 SPRING 

 A History of Fashion and Society: Elegant Georgians to Rebellious Punks (1700s-2000s) 

We study how social history has inspired fashion, just as clothes have influenced social and cultural history. We unravel historic inspiration that has formed and forms innovative, trendsetting or wacky fashion, designers and style.

We view how the social and cultural background of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries influenced British fashion then and now. We focus on aspects of trendsetting style 1700s-2000s, such as the voluminous and extravagant court dresses and exuberant hairstyles of the Georgian period and the dapper Regency dandy; Victorian crinoline, bustle and aestheticism; Edwardian Art Nouveau, elegant Art Deco, innovative wartime recycling, swinging sixties, and subculture of mods, rockers, goths, skinheads and punks. We see how the wheel of fashion and style turns again and again.

We will analyse key style developments and designers such as Mary Quant and the “Swinging Sixties”. A really exciting and fascinating course that will make you think differently about style, clothing, its influences and origins, and what you and others wear. You will discover how fashion informs, and what our clothes say about us.

Illustrated with masses of colourful slides and fashion illustrations. 

10 weeks Monday 3-5pm Start 11 January 2027

Ref no: MACL132E Fee £165 

Enrol: https://www.brightonmet.ac.uk/courses/a-history-of-fashion-and-society-elegant-georgians-to-rebellious-punks-1700s-2000s/

 

SUMMER 2027 

Looking at Victorian Art: Paintings as Social History

The fascinating, colourful Victorian narrative and figurative paintings tell us much more than the main picture and are full of symbolism and meaning, exposing other features hardly noticed: revealing massive social, economic and cultural changes, turmoil and emotions.

  

We study later Victorian artists who wanted to show domestic scenes and ‘real life’ and were not afraid of painting controversial subjects which might shock the public. Paintings, such as the large William Powell Frith’s Derby Day were so popular when they were shown that a rail was needed to stop the public from getting too close to the pictures and damaging them.

Domestic scenes showed interiors of everyday life which appealed to the public. Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell chose to use fiction to expose social conditions in a way that fired the reader’s interest and enabled them to become aware and to discuss, maybe act. Artists attempted to expose conditions by painting them realistically rather than making the subjects beautiful or fanciful. Some took a moral stance, and the fallen woman was a popular subject. 

We look at every type of painting and illustration from colourful posters, satirical and humorous drawing, and advertising from tea to chocolate. Each painting giving us a glimpse into the social life, customs and traditions of the period.   

Illustrated with masses of Victorian paintings on powerpoint slidehows. 

10 weeks (tbc) Monday 3-5pm Start 12 April 2027 

Ref no: MACL131E1A 

Fee and link to enrol will appear here later in year

📅Date for your Diary

The Grange Museum, The Green, Rottingdean, Brighton BN2 7HA

Mrs Beeton and Household Management 

Wednesday 2nd June 1pm

(Postponed from 2 September 2026)

Illustrated talk by Sarah Tobias

Mrs Beeton did a great deal in her short life. She was more than the author of the famous book which was not just a cookery book. It detailed everything a middle-class woman needed to know about managing her household and servants from finances to first-aid. 

Donation of £3 recommended. No booking-first come basis. Numbers are limited. 

Beautiful Grange Gardens cafe adjacent

 LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU!  

☼ HAPPY SUMMER ☼ 

Under the awning, on the Beach at Zarauz, 1910 by Joaquín Sorolla.

Girls Playing in Surf by Edward Henry Pothast

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah Tobias MA, BA Hons, Dip Eur Hum

(Former associate tutor at Sussex University)

Entertaining lecturer in social, cultural and local (Brighton, Sussex, UK) history.

Contact me for talks/guided walks/visits for groups, clubs, societies.

Current list of 30+ topics

Also contact me for poetry readings and narrations.

More information about me, my subjects, research and contact:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-tobias-0318943a?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile 

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Courses -Venue Addresses, transport and refreshments

Brighton Metropolitan College MET (formerly City College)

Pelham Street, Brighton BN1 4FA

Location:

Behind York Place & London Road, turn up Cheapside – Aldi supermarket on corner. Or, turn left in Trafalgar St walking down from Station.

Transport & Parking:

Lots of buses nearby.

Nearby car park, about 5 minutes walk.

Railway station few minutes walk

Refreshments and further information:

College canteen. Tea and coffee bar on balcony of Main Building. Vending machine. 

Coffee shops, small cafés and public houses in nearby London Road 

London Road and Trafalgar Street: many shops, some banks and supermarkets

Holy Cross Church Hall, Woodingdean

Warren Road, Brighton, BN2 6ND

Transport & Parking:

Car park outside Library and Community Centre over the road, opposite church hall. Bus nos 2, 22, 22A stop nearby.

Refreshments:

Tea-making facilities in hall. Small cafes nearby. Downs Hotel almost next door serves tea, coffee and refreshments at bar and has outside area. 

Further information:

Woodingdean public library over the road. Shops, Co-op, dry cleaners nearby    

Rottingdean Whiteway Centre

Whiteway Lane, Rottingdean, Brighton, BN2 7HB

Transport & Parking:

Very small car park outside, some nearby parking in side streets, car parks on main sea road (few mins walk).  Bus nos 2, 22, 22A stop nearby, Bus nos 12, 12A, 12X, 27C, 47 stop by the White Horse Hotel on the seafront - short walk.

Refreshments:

Tea-making facilities in hall. Small cafes nearby and in Museum tea garden next door during summer.

Further information:

Rottingdean public library and museum next door (opening times vary). Shops and Co-op in the High Street. Post office. Several historic public houses, village pond, windmill (not generally open), Grade II listed 1300s St Margaret's Church, accessible downland and a few minutes from the sea and beach. 

Data Protection: No personal data collected or stored.