Lewes () is the
county town
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
of
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
and is home to
Sussex Police
Sussex Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing in the whole of Sussex. Its jurisdiction covers the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex. The force is headquartered in Malling House, Lewes, East Sussex.
His ...
,
East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service,
Lewes Crown Court
Lewes Crown Court is a Crown Court venue in Lewes High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, England. It forms part of the Lewes Combined Court Centre which it shares with Lewes County Court. The building, which was known as the "County Hall" from an earl ...
and
HMP Lewes
His Majesty's Prison Lewes is a local category B prison located in Lewes in East Sussex, England. The term local means that the prison holds people on Detention of suspects, remand to the local courts, as well as sentenced prisoners. The prison ...
. The
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
is the centre of the
Lewes local government district and the seat of
East Sussex County Council
East Sussex County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex.
East Sussex is divided into five local government districts. Three are larger, rural, districts (from west to east: Lewes; Wealden; and Rother). T ...
at
East Sussex County Hall
East Sussex County Hall is a modern building in St Anne's Crescent, Lewes, East Sussex. It is the headquarters of East Sussex County Council.
History
After being based at County Hall in the High Street in Lewes since its formation in 1889, Eas ...
.
A traditional market town and centre of communications, in 1264 it was the site of the
Battle of Lewes
The Battle of Lewes was one of two main battles of the conflict known as the Second Barons' War. It took place at Lewes in Sussex, on 14 May 1264. It marked the high point of the career of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and made h ...
. The town's landmarks include
Lewes Castle
Lewes Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. Originally called Bray Castle, it occupies a commanding position guarding the gap in the South Downs cut by the River Ouse and occupied by the towns of Lewes and Cliff ...
,
Lewes Priory
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
History
The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
, Bull House (the former home of
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
), Southover Grange and public gardens, and a 16th-century timber-framed
Wealden hall house
The Wealden hall house is a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed hall house traditional in the south east of England. Typically built for a yeoman, it is most common in Kent (hence "Wealden" for the once densely forested Weald) and the eas ...
known as
Anne of Cleves House
Anne of Cleves House is a 16th-century timber-framed Wealden hall house located in East Sussex, England. It formed part of Queen Anne's annulment settlement from King Henry VIII in 1541, although she never visited the property. It was restore ...
. Other notable features of the area include the
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...
festival, the
Lewes Bonfire
Lewes Bonfire, or Bonfire for short, describes a set of celebrations held in the town of Lewes, Sussex, England, that constitute the United Kingdom's largest and most famous Bonfire Night festivities, with Lewes being called the bonfire capit ...
celebrations and the
Lewes Pound.
Etymology
The place-name 'Lewes' is first attested in an
Anglo-Saxon charter circa 961 AD, where it appears as ''Læwe''. It appears as ''Lewes'' in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086. The addition of the <-s> suffix seems to have been part of a broader trend of
Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to:
*Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066
* Anglo-Norman language
**Anglo-Norman literature
* Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...
scribes pluralising Anglo-Saxon place-names (a famous example being their rendering of ''Lunden'' as ''Londres'', hence the modern
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
name for
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
).
The traditional derivation of ''Læwe'', first posited by the Tudor antiquarian
Laurence Nowell
Laurence (or Lawrence) Nowell (1530 – c.1570) was an English antiquarian, cartographer and pioneering scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and literature.
Life
Laurence Nowell was born around 1530 in Whalley, Lancashire, the second son of Alexand ...
, derives it from the
Old English language
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th cen ...
word ''hlæw'', meaning 'hill' or '
barrow', presumably referring to School Hill (on which the historic centre of Lewes stands) or to one of the five ancient burial mounds, all now levelled, in the vicinity of
St John sub Castro.
However, this etymology has been challenged by the Swedish philologist Rune Forsberg on the grounds that the loss of the initial in ''hlæw'' would be unlikely
phonologically
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
in this context. He suggested that the name ''Læwe'' instead derives from the rare Old English word ''lǣw'' ('wound, incision'), and reflects the fact that from the top of School Hill Lewes overlooks the narrow, steep-sided 'gash' where the
River Ouse cuts through the line of the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
. This theory was endorsed in 2011 by ''A Dictionary of British Place Names''.
A third possibility has been advanced by
Richard Coates
Richard Coates (born 16 April 1949, in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and educated at Wintringham School) is an English linguist. He was Professor of Linguistics (alternatively Professor of Onomastics) at the University of the West of England, Bristol, ...
, who has argued that ''Læwe'' derives from ''lexowia'', an Old English word meaning 'hillside, slope' (of which there is no shortage in the Lewes area). This unusual word was borrowed into Old English from
Old Welsh
Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...
, the
Modern Welsh
The history of the Welsh language (Welsh: ''Hanes yr iaith Gymraeg'') spans over 1400 years, encompassing the stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh.
Origins
Welsh evolved from British, the Cel ...
spelling being ''llechwedd''.
History
Pre-Saxon
Lewes is located at the point where the River Ouse flows through a narrow gap in the east-west line of the South Downs. The immense strategic value of the site, which is able to command traffic between the
Channel
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to:
Geography
* Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water.
Australia
* Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...
coast and the Sussex interior, was recognised as early as the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
, when a hill-fort was built on
Mount Caburn
Mount Caburn is a 146-metre (490 ft) prominent landmark in East Sussex, England, about one mile (1.6 km) east of Lewes overlooking the village of Glynde. It is the highest part of an outlier of the South Downs, separated from the main ran ...
, the steep-sided hill that overlooks the Ouse (and the modern town of Lewes) from the east.
During the
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
period there was an aristocratic
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
at
Beddingham
Beddingham is an English village and civil parish in the Lewes (district), Lewes district of East Sussex, at the junction between the London–Newhaven (A26 road, A26) and south coast (A27 road, A27) roads south-east of Lewes. The parish council ...
, at the foot of Mount Caburn, and there have been several finds of Roman coins and pottery sherds in Lewes itself. The Victorian historian
Thomas Walker Horsfield
Rev. Thomas Walker Horsfield FSA (christened 2 December 1792, Sheffield - 26 August 1837, Chowbent, Lancashire), was an English Nonconformist minister, topographer, and historian best known for his works ''The History and Antiquities of Lewes ...
therefore reckoned that there must have been a Roman settlement on the site, and he identified it with the otherwise unlocatable town of ''Mutuantonis''.
Another antiquarian, John Elliot, even suggested that central Lewes's distinctive network of
twittens was based on the layout of a
Roman legionary fortress; however modern historians are rather more cautious about the possibility of a Roman Lewes, as there is as yet no archaeological evidence for a built-up area dating back to the Roman period.
Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman
The earliest phase of
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
settlement in Sussex was concentrated between the Rivers Ouse and
Cuckmere
The River Cuckmere rises near Heathfield in East Sussex, England on the southern slopes of the Weald. The name of the river probably comes from an Old English word meaning "fast-flowing", since it descends over 100 m (328 ft) in its ...
, and Anglo-Saxon finds begin to appear in Lewes from the sixth century. The town of Lewes was probably founded around this time, and it may have been one of the most important settlements in the
Kingdom of Sussex
la, Regnum Sussaxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons
, capital =
, era = Heptarchy
, status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)Vassal of Mercia (771–796)
, governm ...
, along with
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
and
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
, though the evidence for this early period is very sketchy.
![Coa England Family Warren of Surrey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Coa_England_Family_Warren_of_Surrey.svg)
By the ninth century, the Kingdom of Sussex had been annexed to the
Kingdom of Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
, and in 838
Ecgberht, King of Wessex
Ecgberht (770/775 – 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlema ...
donated the estate of Malling, on the opposite side of the Ouse from Lewes, to the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
. As a result the Parish of Malling became a '
peculiar', which means that the parish was directly subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury rather than the
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...
like every other parish in Sussex. Malling would retain this anomalous status until as late as 1845.
Information about Lewes becomes much more plentiful from the reign of
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
onward, as it was one of the towns which he fortified as part of the network of ''
burh
A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...
s'' he established in response to the
Viking raids
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...
. The peace and stability brought by Alfred and his successors evidently stimulated economic activity in the area, for in the late Anglo-Saxon period Lewes seems to have been a thriving boom town – during the reign of Alfred's grandson
Æthelstan
Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ang, Æðelstān ; on, Aðalsteinn; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first ...
it was assigned two royal
moneyer
A moneyer is a private individual who is officially permitted to mint money. Usually the rights to coin money are bestowed as a concession by a state or government. Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They beca ...
s, more than any other
mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...
in Sussex, and according to Domesday Book it generated £26 of revenue for
the crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
in 1065, almost twice the amount of any other town in the county.
After the
Norman invasion
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
,
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
rewarded his retainer
William de Warenne by making him
Earl of Surrey
Earl of Surrey is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times. It was first created for William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, William de Warenne, a close Companions of William the Conqueror, companion of William the Con ...
and granting him the
Rape of Lewes
The Rape of Lewes (also known as Lewes Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England.
Location
The rape of Bramber lies to its west and the rape of Pevensey lies to its east. The n ...
, a strip of land stretching along the Ouse valley from the coast to the Surrey boundary. De Warenne constructed
Lewes Castle
Lewes Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. Originally called Bray Castle, it occupies a commanding position guarding the gap in the South Downs cut by the River Ouse and occupied by the towns of Lewes and Cliff ...
within the walls of the Saxon ''burh'', while his wife
Gundred
Gundred or Gundreda (Latin: Gundrada) (died 27 May 1085)G. E. Cokayne, ''The Complete Peerage'', vol. xii/1 (The St. Catherine Press, London, 1953), p. 494 was the Flemish-born wife of an early Norman baron, William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surr ...
a founded the
Priory of St Pancras
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
History
The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
, a
Cluniac
The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wit ...
monastic house, in about 1081.
Battle of Lewes
During the
Second Barons' War
The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the fut ...
,
King Henry III was ambushed at Lewes by a force of rebel barons led by
Simon de Montfort
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...
. Henry marched out to fight de Montfort, leading to a pitched battle on the hills above the town (roughly in the area of modern Landport Bottom). The king's son
Prince Edward, commanding the right wing of the royal army, succeeded in driving off some of the baronial forces, but he got carried away with the pursuit, which took him as far as
Offham. In Edward's absence the remainder of the royal army was attacked by de Montfort and
Gilbert de Clare and decisively defeated. The king's brother
Richard of Cornwall
Richard (5 January 1209 – 2 April 1272) was an English prince who was King of the Romans from 1257 until his death in 1272. He was the second son of John, King of England, and Isabella, Countess of Angoulême. Richard was nominal Count of Po ...
was captured, and the king himself was forced to sign the
Mise of Lewes
The Mise of Lewes was a settlement made on 14 May 1264 between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons, led by Simon de Montfort. The settlement was made on the day of the Battle of Lewes, one of the two major battles of the Second Ba ...
, a document which does not survive but was probably aimed at forcing Henry to uphold the
Provisions of Oxford
The Provisions of Oxford were constitutional reforms developed during the Oxford Parliament of 1258 to resolve a dispute between King Henry III of England and his barons. The reforms were designed to ensure the king adhered to the rule of law and ...
. Despite this uncertainty about its consequences, the battle is often seen as an important milestone in the development of English democracy.
Late Mediaeval and Early Modern
![FitzAlan arms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/FitzAlan_arms.svg)
The
de Warenne family
The de Warenne family were a noble family in England that included the first Earls of Surrey, created by William the Conqueror in 1088 for William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, who was among his companions at the Battle of Hastings. The family ...
died out with
Earl John in 1347, whereupon lordship of the
Rape of Lewes
The Rape of Lewes (also known as Lewes Rape) is one of the rapes, the traditional sub-divisions unique to the historic county of Sussex in England.
Location
The rape of Bramber lies to its west and the rape of Pevensey lies to its east. The n ...
passed to his sororal nephew
Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel
Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel, 9th Earl of Surrey, KG (1346 – 21 September 1397) was an English medieval nobleman and military commander.
Lineage
Born in 1346, he was the son of Richard Fitzalan, 3rd Earl of Arundel and Eleanor of L ...
. Fitzalan preferred to reside at
Arundel Castle
Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...
rather than at Lewes, and the town therefore lost the prestige and economic advantages associated with being the seat of an important magnate. This was only the beginning of a series of misfortunes that struck Lewes, for in 1348 the
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
arrived in England and later on in the century the
Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
led to a series of French and
Castilian raids on Sussex,
which badly disrupted trade. On one occasion in 1377 the
Prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
of
St Pancras, John de Charlieu, was abducted by the raiders and held to ransom. Furthermore, after the main branch of the Fitzalan family died out in 1439, the Rape of Lewes was subsequently partitioned between the three sororal nephews of the
last earl, namely
John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal (12 September 14156 November 1461) was a fifteenth-century English magnate who, despite having a relatively short political career, played a significant role in the early years of the Wars of ...
,
Edward Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny
Edward Neville, ''de facto'' 3rd (''de jure'' 1st) Baron Bergavenny (died 18 October 1476) was an English nobleman.
Family
He was the 7th son7th son as implied by the difference of a rose imposed upon his paternal arms of Nevill. However Debr ...
, and Edmund Lenthall. As a result of this dismemberment the district became even more neglected by its lords, although feudal politics was starting to become less important anyway due to the centralising reforms of the
Yorkist
The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...
and
Tudor kings.
The
English Reformation
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
was begun by one of these Tudor monarchs,
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
, and as part of this process the
monasteries of England were dissolved;
Lewes Priory
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
History
The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
was consequently demolished in 1538 and its property seized by the crown. Henry's daughter
Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...
reversed the religious policy of England, and during the resulting
Marian Persecutions
Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558). Radical Christians also were executed, though in much smaller numbers, during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–1553) ...
of 1555–1557, Lewes was the site of the execution of seventeen
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
s, most of them actually from the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
rather than Lewes itself, who were burned at the stake in front of the Star Inn (now the site of
Lewes Town Hall
Lewes Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Lewes, East Sussex, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of Lewes Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.
History
In the medieval period, the site of the town hall ...
). Commemoration of the martyrs is one of the main purposes of
Lewes Bonfire
Lewes Bonfire, or Bonfire for short, describes a set of celebrations held in the town of Lewes, Sussex, England, that constitute the United Kingdom's largest and most famous Bonfire Night festivities, with Lewes being called the bonfire capit ...
, and a stone memorial to the martyrs was unveiled on
Cliffe Hill
Cliffe Hill is a hill to the east of the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is impressive on its western edge, where it looms over Lewes. Its summit is covered in a golf course. It is the second lowest Marilyn in England.
Also to be fou ...
in 1901.
Lewesian politics was dominated by a strongly
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
faction in the reign of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
, and during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
it was one of the most important
Parliamentarian strongholds in Sussex. As such it became the target of a
royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
attack in December 1642, but the royalist army was intercepted and defeated at the
Battle of Muster Green
The Battle of Muster Green (also known as the Battle of Haywards Heath) was a minor battle of major significance that took place during the first week of December 1642 on and around the then much larger Muster Green in Haywards Heath duri ...
by Parliamentarian forces commanded by
Herbert Morley
Herbert Morley (2 April 1616 – 29 September 1667) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons variously between 1640 and 1667. He fought for the Roundheads, Parliamentary army in the English Civi ...
, one of the two
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MPs) for Lewes.
Lewes recovered relatively quickly after the Civil War, and prospered during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It had always been one of the principal market towns of Sussex, as well as an important port, and by the end of the
Georgian era
The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the Hanoverian Kings George I, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the relatively short reign of Willi ...
it also had well-developed textiles, iron, brewing, and ship-building industries.
Modern
The severe winter of 1836–7 led to a large build-up of snow on Cliffe Hill, whose sheer western face directly overlooks the town. On Tuesday 27 December 1836 this
snow cornice
A snow cornice or simply cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is an overhanging edge of snow on a ridge or the crest of a mountain and along the sides of gullies.
Formation
A snow cornice forms by wind blowing snow over sharp terr ...
collapsed, and the resulting
Lewes avalanche
The Lewes avalanche occurred on 27 December 1836 in Lewes, East Sussex, when a huge build-up of snow on a chalk cliff overlooking the town collapsed into the settlement 100 metres below, destroying a row of cottages and killing eight people. It ...
was the deadliest ever recorded in Britain. The avalanche struck the cottages on Boulters Row (now part of South Street), burying fifteen people, of whom eight died. A
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
in South Street is named ''The Snowdrop'' in memory of the event.
In 1846 the town became a railway junction, with lines constructed from the north, south and east to two railway stations. The development of
Newhaven ended Lewes's period as a major port. During the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
, some 300 Finns who had served in the Russian army during the
Åland War
The Åland War ( fi, Oolannin sota, sv, Åländska kriget) is the Finnish term for the operations of a British-French naval force against military and civilian facilities on the coast of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1854–1856, during the Crime ...
and been captured at
Bomarsund were imprisoned in the naval prison at Lewes. Lewes became a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
in 1881. Lewes Town Hall opened in 1893 in premises converted from the former Star Inn and in 1913 Council Offices were added in Arts-and-Crafts style.
Lewes Victoria Hospital
Lewes Victoria Hospital is a health facility at Nevill Road in Lewes, East Sussex, England. It is managed by NHS Property Services with services operated principally by Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation T ...
opened in 1909 in its current premises, as Victoria Hospital and Infirmary, having previously been on School Hill where it opened as the Lewes Dispensary and Infirmary in 1855.
In October 2000 the town suffered major
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
ing during an intense period of severe weather throughout the United Kingdom. The commercial centre of the town and many residential areas were devastated. In a government report into the nationwide flooding, Lewes was officially noted the most severely affected location. As a result of the devastation, the Lewes Flood Action group formed, to press for better flood protection measures.
Governance
![Lewes Town Hall - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Lewes_Town_Hall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_225303.jpg)
The name Lewes is also the name of the
parliamentary constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
and the local
district council as well as Lewes Town Council. Lewes is also where the
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
County Council has its main offices, located at County Hall in St Anne's Crescent.
Lewes District Council
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of the ...
is administered from offices in Southover House on Southover Road. Lewes Town Council is based in Lewes Town Hall on Lewes High Street.
The Town Council comprises Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independents.
For many years, Lewes was dominated by the Conservatives at local level. In 1991, however, the Liberal Democrats won the District Council for the first time, and the constituency returned a Liberal Democrat MP for the first time in 1997. The Conservatives won back control of the District Council in 2011, and strengthened this position in 2015. The elections in May 2019 made the Conservatives the largest party but without overall control of the Council. A Co-operative Alliance of Greens, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Independents succeeded in ousting the Conservative Leader in July 2019 and electing the first Green Leader of the Council, Zoe Nicholson who appointed a Cabinet of Co-operative Alliance Members. The Chair of the Council is Stephen Gauntlett, Liberal Democrat.
The Parliamentary constituency Lewes (UK Parliament constituency) has also been held the Conservatives since the 1870s, with the exception of the period from 1997 to 2015 when Liberal Democrat Norman Baker held the seat for 18 years, before being defeated by Maria Caulfield who retained her seat in the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
In organisational terms, Lewes became one of the non-county boroughs within the then Sussex, East county under the Local Government Act 1933. In 1974, Lewes District Council was formed on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the former borough of Lewes along with Newhaven and Seaford urban districts and Chailey Rural District. The election in 2015 was the first time in which Green Councillors had been elected to the Lewes District Council, all from the wards in the town of Lewes.
The town of Lewes became a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
with the title of town;
there are four wards, Bridge – 5 Councillors, Castle – 4, Central – 1 and Priory – 8.
The representation from Lewes wards at local government levels, as at the latest elections (2019 for the Town and District Councils and 2017 for the County Council), is as follows.
On 31 March 2009 Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced his decision to confirm the designation of the South Downs National Park, which came into being exactly one year later and includes the town of Lewes within its boundaries.
Geography
Lewes is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, Greenwich or Prime Meridian, in a gap in the
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
, cut through by the
River Ouse, and near its confluence with the Winterbourne Stream. It is approximately seven miles north of
Newhaven, and an equal distance north-east of Brighton and Hove, Brighton.
The South Downs rise above the river on both banks. The High Street, and earliest settlement, occupies the west bank, climbing steeply up from the bridge taking its ancient route along the ridge; the summit on that side, 2.5 miles (4 km) distant is known as Mount Harry. On the east bank there is a large chalk cliff,
Cliffe Hill
Cliffe Hill is a hill to the east of the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is impressive on its western edge, where it looms over Lewes. Its summit is covered in a golf course. It is the second lowest Marilyn in England.
Also to be fou ...
that can be seen for many miles, part of the group of hills including
Mount Caburn
Mount Caburn is a 146-metre (490 ft) prominent landmark in East Sussex, England, about one mile (1.6 km) east of Lewes overlooking the village of Glynde. It is the highest part of an outlier of the South Downs, separated from the main ran ...
, Malling Down (where there are a few houses in a wooded area on the hillside, in a development known as Cuilfail) and Golf Hill (home to the Lewes Golf Club). The two banks of the river are joined by Willey's Bridge (a footbridge), the Phoenix Causeway (a recent concrete road bridge, named after the old Phoenix Ironworks) and Cliffe Bridge (an 18th-century replacement of the mediaeval crossing, widened in the 1930s and now semi-pedestrianised).
The High Street runs from Eastgate to West-Out, forming the spine of the ancient town. Cliffe Hill gives its name to the one-time village of Cliffe, now part of the town. The southern part of the town, Southover, came into being as a village adjacent to the Priory, south of the Winterbourne Stream. At the north of the town's original wall boundary is the St. John's or Pells area, home to several 19th-century streets and the Pells Pond. The Pells Pool, built in 1860, is the oldest freshwater ''lido'' in England. The Phoenix Industrial Estate lies along the west bank of the river and contains a number of light industrial and creative industry uses, as well as car parks and a fire station. A potential regeneration project (formerly "The North Street Quarter", renamed "The Phoenix Project" by the Lewes-based eco-development company Human Nature which took on ownership of the land in December 2020) for the area would be the largest in Lewes since the South Malling residential area was developed in the 1950s and 1960s and in the South Downs since it became a National Park.
Malling lies to the east of the river and had 18th- and 19th-century houses and two notable breweries. Road engineering and local planning policy in the 1970s cleared many older buildings here to allow the flow of traffic; the main road route east from the town now goes along Little East Street, across the Phoenix Bridge and through the Cuilfail Tunnel to join the A27.
The town boundaries were enlarged twice (from the original town walls), in 1881 and 1934. They now include the more modern housing estates of Wallands, South Malling (the west part of which is a previously separate village with a church dedicated to St. Michael), Nevill, Lansdown and Cranedown on the Kingston Road.
Countryside walks can be taken starting from several points in Lewes. One can walk on Mount Caburn to the village of Glynde starting in Cliffe, traverse the Lewes Brooks (an RSPB reserve) from Southover, walk to Kingston near Lewes also from Southover, head up Landport Bottom to Mount Harry and Blackcap, East Sussex, Black Cap along the edge of the old Lewes Racecourse, or wander up along the Ouse to Hamsey Place from the Pells. The South Downs Way crosses the Ouse just south of Lewes at Southease and hikers often stop off at the town. A new route reaching the town at the Railway Land, Lewes, Railway Land – the Egrets Way – initially conceived in 2011 by the Ouse Valley Cycle Network, has been designed as a network of walking and cycling paths linking Lewes and Newhaven with the villages in between.
Natural sites
Three Sites of Special Scientific Interest lie within the parish: Lewes Downs, Lewes Brooks and Southerham Works Pit. Lewes Downs is a site of biological interest, an isolated area of the South Downs. Lewes Brooks, also of biological importance, is part of the floodplain of the
River Ouse, providing a habitat for many invertebrates such as water beetles and snails. Southerham Works Pit is of geological interest, a disused chalk pit displaying a wide variety of fossilised fish remains. The Railway Land nature reserve is on the east side of the town next to the Ouse, and contains an area of woodland and marshes, which now includes the Heart of Reeds, a sculpted reed bed designed by local land artist Chris Drury (artist), Chris Drury. The Winterbourne stream, a tributary of the Ouse, flows through it. This stream flows most winters and dries up in the summer, hence its name. It continues through Lewes going through the Grange Gardens and often travelling underground. The Heart of Reeds is one of the sites in
East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
and Kent home to the marsh frog, an introduced species. It is popular with pond-dippers and walkers. A centre for the study of environmental change is due to be built at the entrance to the nature reserve.
On 21 August 1864, Lewes experienced an earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter magnitude scale.
Climate
Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Köppen climate classification#GROUP C: Mild Temperate/mesothermal climates, Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate).
Religious buildings
Church of England
*St. Michael's is located at the top of the High Street and like St. Peter's in nearby Southease it has a round tower (with a shingled spire). Its length runs along the street rather than away from it and the cemetery is separated from the High Street by stone walls with iron railings on top. Next to it is a building which is used upstairs as a Sunday school.
*Further west is St. Anne's, a quiet church surrounded by its graveyard, which gives its name to the street it is on.
*
St John sub Castro (Latin language, Latin for St. John-under-the-Castle) is the northernmost church in the old town. The surrounding town quarter is called St. John's. The church's boundaries are actually protected on one side by the Town Walls, although originally St. John's was a small Saxon architecture, Saxon building. It was destroyed in the 19th century but the main door was kept and used as an east door for the large new church, built in 1839 by George Cheeseman
[''The Buildings of England: Sussex'' – Ian Nairn, Nikolaus Pevsner] in flint and brick. In the graveyard there is a Russian Memorial, Lewes, memorial to the Finnish prisoners kept in the old naval prison in the 19th century. St. John's Church Hall is a couple of streets away in Talbot Terrace.
*In Cliffe there is St. Thomas à Becket's, where the Orthodoxy, Orthodox Community also worship.
*In Southover, St John the Baptist's is located on Southover High Street. The nave incorporates the hospitium of th
Priory of St Pancras Neighbouring it is Church End and down the road at St. James Street cul-de-sac, the Church Hall. In its grounds is the Southover War Memorial, which is distinct from the main Lewes War Memorial.
*St. Michael, South Malling, dates from 1628 and was once in a village of its own. The development of the suburbs has connected South Malling to Lewes although the church maintains its village setting by the River Ouse, with the neighbouring rectory.
Deconsecrated
*All Saints' is next to the site of a Priory of Grey Friars (Franciscan friars) the only relic of which is an archway at the end of the church boundary wall, which is on the line of the town wall. The medieval tower survives, abutting a later brick nave by Amon Wilds (1806)
and 19th-century Gothic-style chancel. This church is now deconsecrated and serves as a community arts space, managed by the Town Council.
Roman Catholic
The Roman Catholic church is dedicated to Pancras of Rome, St. Pancras in memory of the Priory and is a red-brick building over the street from St. Anne's.
Non-conformist
*The Religious Society of Friends (finished 1784) is a Quaker meeting house next to the former All Saints' Church (now an arts centre) on Friar's Walk.
*The Jireh Chapel, off Malling Street, is a Grade I listed building, being a rare survivor of its type dating from 1805. It now houses the Lewes Free Presbyterian Church.
*Westgate Chapel is a 16th-century building located in a yard at the top of the High Street (Grade 2 listed). So called because of its position at the old West Gate of the town wall, the Chapel first officially opened for worship as Westgate Meeting in 1700 as English Presbyterian but soon joined by an Independent congregation. Its liberal stance allowed it to become a Unitarianism, Unitarian church by 1820 (when the congregation of Southover General Baptist Chapel joined) and is still a Unitarian chapel today.
*Eastgate Chapel is a very different building; a neo-Norman design of 1843 in dark flint, it originally had a pepper-pot dome but this was removed in favour of a traditional spire in case traffic vibrations below made it fall off. A modern extension has been added to the church.
*Christ Church, a modern (1953) building, serves a united congregation of United Reformed Church and Methodist worshippers.
*Southover General Baptist Chapel was built in Eastport Lane in 1741. The congregation's views moved towards Unitarianism, and in the 19th century they joined Westgate Chapel. The building has been a house since 1972, but had various religious and secular uses before that.
Demography
In 2001 the service industries were by far the biggest employers in Lewes: over 60% of the population working in that sector. A little over 10% are employed in manufacturing, mostly in the smaller industrial units.
The town is a net daytime exporter of employees with a significant community working in London and Brighton whilst it draws in employees of the numerous local government and public service functions on which its local economy is strongly dependent.
An important part of the town's economy is based on tourism, because of the town's many historic attractions and its location.
As referenced in the governance section, the town is also where three tiers of local government have their headquarters, and the head office of
Sussex Police
Sussex Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing in the whole of Sussex. Its jurisdiction covers the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex. The force is headquartered in Malling House, Lewes, East Sussex.
His ...
is also in Lewes.
[Non-emergency enquiries]
"
Archive
Sussex Police
Sussex Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing in the whole of Sussex. Its jurisdiction covers the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex. The force is headquartered in Malling House, Lewes, East Sussex.
His ...
. Retrieved on 13 February 2011. "Sussex Police Headquarters Church Lane, Lewes East Sussex, BN7 2DZ."
Lewes Bonfire
![Lewes Bonfire, Martyrs Crosses](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Lewes_Bonfire%2C_Martyrs_Crosses.jpg)
The town's most important annual event is the
Lewes Bonfire
Lewes Bonfire, or Bonfire for short, describes a set of celebrations held in the town of Lewes, Sussex, England, that constitute the United Kingdom's largest and most famous Bonfire Night festivities, with Lewes being called the bonfire capit ...
celebrations on 5 November, Guy Fawkes Night. In Lewes this event not only marks the date of the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, but also commemorates the memory of the seventeen Protestant martyrs Burned at the stake, burnt at the stake for their faith during the
Marian Persecutions
Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558). Radical Christians also were executed, though in much smaller numbers, during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–1553) ...
. The celebrations, which controversially involve burning an effigy of Pope Paul V, who was pope during the Gunpowder Plot, are the largest and most famous Bonfire Night celebrations in the country.
Economy
![Harveys Brewery (Lewes)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Harveys_Brewery_%28Lewes%29.jpg)
The Lewes Chamber of Commerce represents the traders and businesses of the town. The town has been identified as unusually diversified with numerous specialist, independent retailers, counter to national trends toward 'chain' retailers and large corporate retail outlets.
Lewes Farmers' Market, one of the first in the UK, was started in the 1990s by Common Cause Co-operative Ltd and is a popular re-invention of Lewes as a market town. The Farmers' Market takes place in pedestrianised Cliffe High Street on the first and third Saturdays of every month, with local food producers coming to sell their wares under covered market stalls. A weekly food market in the Lewes Market Tower was established in July 2010 by Transition Town Lewes to allow traders to sell local produce. Occasionally French traders from the twin town of Blois attend, vending on Cliffe Bridge.
From 1794 beers, wines and spirits were distributed from Lewes under the ''Harveys'' name, and the town is today the site of Harvey & Son's brewery celebrated as one of the finest ale producers in England.
In September 2008, Lewes launched its own currency, the
Lewes Pound, in an effort to increase trade within the town. One Lewes Pound is equal to £1. Like the similar local currency in Totnes, the initiative is part of the Transition Towns movement. The Lewes Pound and the Transition Towns movement have received criticism for a failure to address the needs of the wider Lewes population, especially lower socio-economic groups. Such local currency initiatives have been more widely criticised in light of limited success stimulating new spending in local economies and as an unrealistic strategy to reduce carbon emissions. The Lewes Pound can be exchanged for the same amount of pounds sterling in several shops in Lewes and can be spent in a wide range of local businesses. Many of the notes were sold on eBay at a higher amount. Early numbers and sequenced notes fetched very high prices from foreign collectors.
Landmarks
![Lewes Castle towers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Lewes_Castle_towers.JPG)
The town is the location of several significant historic buildings, including
Lewes Castle
Lewes Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. Originally called Bray Castle, it occupies a commanding position guarding the gap in the South Downs cut by the River Ouse and occupied by the towns of Lewes and Cliff ...
, the remains of
Lewes Priory
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
History
The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
, Bull House (the former home of
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
), Southover Grange and public gardens, and a 16th-century timber-framed
Wealden hall house
The Wealden hall house is a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed hall house traditional in the south east of England. Typically built for a yeoman, it is most common in Kent (hence "Wealden" for the once densely forested Weald) and the eas ...
known as
Anne of Cleves House
Anne of Cleves House is a 16th-century timber-framed Wealden hall house located in East Sussex, England. It formed part of Queen Anne's annulment settlement from King Henry VIII in 1541, although she never visited the property. It was restore ...
because it was given to her as part of her divorce settlement from
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
, though she never lived there. Anne of Cleves House and the castle are owned and maintained by the Sussex Archaeological Society (whose headquarters are in Lewes). The Round House, a secluded former windmill in Pipe Passage, was owned by the writer Virginia Woolf.
The steep and cobbled Keere Street is home to many historic buildings, including a timber framed antiquarian bookshop. The gardens of the buildings on the east side of the street border the old Town Walls. The George IV, Prince Regent once drove his carriage down the street, and a sign at the bottom commemorates this event.
![The Fifteenth Century Bookshop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/The_Fifteenth_Century_Bookshop.JPG)
The ancient street pattern survives extensively as do a high proportion of the medieval building plots and oak framed houses, albeit often masked with later facades. The 18th-century frontages are notable and include several, like Bartholomew House at the Castle Gate, that are clad in mathematical tiles which mimic fine brick construction. Numerous streets of 18th- and 19th-century cottages have survived cycles of Slum clearance in the United Kingdom, slum clearance as models of attractive town housing.
At the highest point of the old town the Portland stone and Coade stone facade of the Lewes Crown Court, Crown Court (1808–12, by John Johnson (architect, born 1732), John Johnson), the brick Market Tower and florid Lewes War Memorial mark the historic centre, although trade has tended to concentrate on the lower land in modern times. At the lowest part of the town, by the river, Harvey & Son's Brewery, 'The Cathedral of Lewes' is an unspoilt 19th-century tower brewery and is the only one of the town's five original major breweries still in use. Nearby Fitzroy House is a George Gilbert Scott designed building, constructed as a library in memory of Lewes MP Henry FitzRoy (politician), Henry FitzRoy in 1862 and now a private residence. The railway station is the other important monument of the industrial era.
![Thomas Paines Lewes home](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Thomas_Paines_Lewes_home.jpg)
Southover Grange is a Listed building, grade II*listed Tudor manor house built in 1572 with Caen limestone taken from the ruins of
Lewes Priory
Lewes Priory is a part-demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Lewes, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.
History
The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had o ...
. The house and its gardens were bought by Lewes District Council and opened to the public in 1945. The house is now owned by
East Sussex County Council
East Sussex County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex.
East Sussex is divided into five local government districts. Three are larger, rural, districts (from west to east: Lewes; Wealden; and Rother). T ...
, and it is currently being refurbished into a wedding venue, registry office and community facility. The east wing is leased to an art shop and the Window café (open in spring and summer). The Grange gardens are divided by the Winterbourne stream and contain formal bedding displays, a wildflower area, a knot garden and some notable trees, including a large Magnolia grandiflora, a mulberry tree dating perhaps to the 17th century and a tulip tree planted by Queen Elizabeth II. The gardens are open to the public during daylight hours all year round.
Pelham House dates back to the 16th century and features architecture of all subsequent eras and a private landscaped garden facing the Downs. It now serves as an independent hotel. The Shelleys, also now a hotel, is likewise of some antiquity with a private garden and family associations with Percy Shelley.
The centre of Lewes is notable for a consistently high calibre of regional vernacular architecture and variety of historic construction materials and techniques. A comprehensive survey of all historical plaques was conducted in 2013 by a local civic society, the Friends of Lewes.
A distinctive feature of the centre of Lewes is the network of alleyways or 'twittens' which run north–south on either side of the High Street and date back to Anglo-Saxon times. According to the Dictionary of the Sussex dialect and collection of provincialisms in use in the county of Sussex published in Lewes in 1875. "Twitten is a narrow path between two walls or hedges, especially on hills. For example, small passageways leading between two buildings to courtyards, streets, or open areas behind". Some twittens (e.g. Broomans Lane, Church Twitten, Green Lane, Paine's Twitten) remain flint-wall-lined pedestrian thoroughfares, others (e.g. Watergate Lane, St Andrew's Lane and renamed Station Street (formerly St Mary's Lane)) are now narrow usually one-way roads. The most notable of all Lewes' twittens is Keere Street. A weekly Sunday morning run up and down all the twittens on the south side of the High Street – the so-called Twitten Run – has operated in the town since November 2015.
Public sculpture
Historic
With Eric Gill's move to Ditchling, the artistic community there gave rise to other sculptors in the Lewes district such as his nephew John Skelton (sculptor), John Skelton and Joseph Cribb. Skelton's studio in Streat has continued as an educational and artist's workshop since his death in 1999. Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein conceived ''a great scheme for doing some colossal figures together'' around 1910 for a modern Stonehenge on 6 acres of land at Asheham House,
Beddingham
Beddingham is an English village and civil parish in the Lewes (district), Lewes district of East Sussex, at the junction between the London–Newhaven (A26 road, A26) and south coast (A27 road, A27) roads south-east of Lewes. The parish council ...
, south-east of Lewes. William Rothenstein agreed to buy the lease but the scheme failed.
Edward Perry Warren first saw Lewes House in 1889 and with his partner John Marshall they were prodigious collectors of fine antique sculpture there. Eric Gill was introduced to Warren by Roger Fry and the stone carving Ecstasy purchased, which is now in the Tate Gallery collection. William Rothenstein suggested that Warren might like to acquire Auguste Rodin, Rodin's new sculpture ''The Kiss (Rodin sculpture), The Kiss'' and after several visits, in 1904 the Lewes ''Kiss'' arrived at Lewes House. In 1906 Rodin requested that Warren lend ''The Kiss'' to an important exhibition in Regent Street, London. This made it famous in Britain for the first time. ''The Kiss'' was returned to the stables at Lewes House, where it remained until 1914 until offered to Lewes Town Council. It was placed in the Town Hall, at the South End of the Assembly Room on 2 December 1914. Early in 1915, ''The Kiss'' was wrapped in canvas and marked off with a guard rail. The Town Council returned the statue, saying only that the room did 'not lend itself to such a noble piece of statuary.' On 26 February 1917, ''The Kiss'' was once more taken to the stable block where it was to remain until Warren's death in 1928. After a short period on loan to Cheltenham, ''The Kiss'' was purchased in 1953 by public subscription and is now one of the Tate's most popular attractions.
It returned on loan to Lewes in 1999 for the exhibition ''Rodin in Lewes''.
Present day
''The Helmet'' (1964), by Enzo Plazzotta, stands in the grounds of Lewes Priory. The ''Cuilfail Spiral'' (1983) by Peter Randall-Page sits on the roundabout at the north end of the Cuilfail Tunnel; made of 7 pieces of Portland limestone. The ''Magnus Inscription'' (c. 1200) sits in the East wall of St John Sub Castro on the Junction of Abinger Place and Lancaster Street. The ''Janus Head'' (1997) by John Skelton (sculptor), John Skelton and ''Lewes Group'' (2010) by Jon Edgar sit in Southover Grange Gardens. ''Sculpture to Thomas Paine'' by Marcus Cornish commissioned as a private donation was unveiled in July 2010 outside the new Lewes Library in Styles Field.
Transport
![LewesStation Big](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/LewesStation_Big.jpg)
Lewes, from its inception, has been an important transport hub. Its site as a bridging point was probably originally a ford: today the main routes avoid the town centre. The A27 road, A27 trunk road taking traffic along the south coast between Eastbourne and Southampton passes to the south of the town. The A26 road, A26 from Maidstone to Newhaven; and the A275 road, A275 (the London road) both come in from the north. The Brighton & Hove (bus company), Brighton & Hove bus company and Compass Travel serve the town. Lewes bus station, The bus station was closed for a while but reopened in late 2008.
Lewes railway station was originally the junction for six routes. The town still enjoys hourly fast trains from London. The two erstwhile rural rail routes to the north, linking to East Grinstead and Uckfield respectively, are both now closed, but the East Coastway Line, connecting Brighton with Eastbourne and
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
, and the branch to Seaford, East Sussex, Seaford remain.
The Vanguard Way, a long-distance trail, long-distance footpath from London to Newhaven, passes through countryside east of the town. The South Downs Way also passes close to Lewes, crossing the Ouse at Southease, some four miles south of the town. The Greenwich Meridian Trail, a long-distance path that follows the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Greenwich Meridian from Peacehaven in East Sussex to Sand le Mere in East Yorkshire passes through the middle of the town. A festival celebrating and encouraging walking and cycling, the Lewes Hike and Bike Festival, was created in 2012 but only ran for three years. The Eastbourne and Lewes Walking Festival was created in 2018 to promote walking in the local urban and rural South Downs area.
Education
Primary schools
There are many primary schools including:
*Morley House (Lewes Old Grammar School's junior department)
*St Pancras School
*South Malling School
*Southover School
*Wallands School
*Western Road School
Western Road and Southover School, despite being separate schools, are housed in linked buildings. The original Southover buildings are of red brick in the Queen Anne style, dating back to the early 20th century. The additions to it now forming the Western Road buildings date from after 1945. The two schools share a field. Pells Primary School closed in 2017. The alternative independent primary school, Lewes New School, closed in 2018.
Secondary schools
There are two secondary schools in the town and one nearby:
*Lewes Old Grammar School, an independent school which also has a sixth form.
*Priory School, Lewes, Priory School, specialising in the arts, languages and science.
*Ringmer Community College, Kings Academy Ringmer, about three and a half miles from Lewes town centre, in a village called Ringmer, is a school for ages 11 to 16.
Further education
East Sussex College, formerly Sussex Downs College, has one of its campuses in Lewes, and provides a range of courses including A Levels, GCSEs, Functional Skills and Access courses and vocational qualifications such as NVQs and BTECs.
Culture
Classical music
Located four miles (6 km) outside of Lewes is
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...
opera house. Founded in 1934, the venue draws large audiences for its Summer Festival and has attracted a host of international talent throughout its history. Lewes Operatic Society (founded 1911) and New Sussex Opera are also based in the town of Lewes.
A number of other local classical music series operate in the town, including the Nicholas Yonge Society; and the baroque and early classical Workshop Series. The Musicians of All Saints is a Lewes-based chamber orchestra founded in 1987 who perform both new works and standard repertoire. A new annual music series, the Lewes Chamber Music Festival, was created in summer 2012. The Lewes Festival of Song was created in 2015 and the Lewes BaroqueFest in 2019. Other local music groups include the Lewes Concert Orchestra founded in 1993; and the Lewes, Glynde & Beddingham Brass Band, founded in 1922.
The East Sussex Bach choir is based in Lewes, as well as a number of other active amateur choirs, including Pro Musica Chamber Choir, the Everyman Ensemble, the Paddock Singers, Lewes Vox and East Sussex Community Choir.
Orlando Gough's opera ''The Finnish Prisoner'' is set in Lewes, telling the story of the Finnish prisoner of war, prisoners of war held in Lewes after the Crimean War.
Museums and galleries
The principal town museum is Barbican House Museum at
Lewes Castle
Lewes Castle is a medieval castle in the town of Lewes in East Sussex, England. Originally called Bray Castle, it occupies a commanding position guarding the gap in the South Downs cut by the River Ouse and occupied by the towns of Lewes and Cliff ...
, which hosts the Lewes Town Model as well as four galleries of Sussex archaeology.
Anne of Cleves House
Anne of Cleves House is a 16th-century timber-framed Wealden hall house located in East Sussex, England. It formed part of Queen Anne's annulment settlement from King Henry VIII in 1541, although she never visited the property. It was restore ...
has various collections relating to the history of Lewes. There are several independent art galleries in the town including the Star Brewery Gallery in a former brewery in Market Street; the artist-run Chalk Gallery in North Street and occasional art exhibitions at the Town Hall. Other galleries are listed in Gallery Guide Lewes and Art Map Lewes.
Theatre and cinema
Lewes Little Theatre was created in 1939 and is based in dedicated premises on Lancaster Street. It puts on half a dozen or more productions each year. Supporters of the creation of the Theatre include John Maynard Keynes.
A new independent three-screen cinema, the Lewes Depot, opened in May 2017 in a multimillion-pound redevelopment of a former Harvey's brewery depot close to Lewes station. The architects were Burrell Foley Fischer and the work was given a Friends of Lewes award, and highly commended in the South Downs National Park design awards.
The Lewes Film Club, which also produces short movies (including the recent adaptation of George Orwell's ''Animal Farm''), and Film at All Saints' (the Film Club in collaboration with Lewes Town Council), show films based in the All Saints' Centre, a former church.
Several scenes in the 1962 film Jigsaw (1962 film), Jigsaw, which was loosely based on the Hillary Waugh novel 'Sleep Long, My Love' and the real-life Brighton trunk murders, were set and filmed in Lewes.
Popular music and clubs
Local dance schools and clubs include Lewes Dance Club, East Sussex Dance and ballet groups. Starfish Youth Music is based at Priory School and the young bands who take part regularly perform in local venues such as the Paddock and the All Saints' Centre.
Popular music gigs take place at a number of venues and pubs across the town including the Lewes Con Club, the Snowdrop Inn, the Volunteer pub, the Lewes Arms, the John Harvey Tavern, the Pelham Arms, and the Lansdown. The Elephant and Castle hosts the Saturday Folk Club. Union Music Store based in Lewes has become a centre for modern folk, country and Americana, both promoting and hosting live gigs, and recording and producing local musicians. A monthly comedy club based at the Con Club was created in 2010. A new organisation to support local music and musicians, Lewes Ripple, was created in 2018 and as well as online platforms is looking to create live concerts in 2021.
A regular local music festival, Lewes Live (previously Rock in the Bog), takes place in the summer. The town of Lewes was also the UK location for the Mumford and Sons' Gentlemen of the Road tour stopover in 2013. A large jazz festival, Love Supreme Festival was founded in 2013 at nearby Glynde Place. Other local festivals include the Brainchild Festival, based just north of Lewes in the grounds of Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum
Art, photography, and festivals
Annual arts events include ArtWave and the children's Patina Moving on Parade. An annual Lewes Guitar Festival which started in 1999 has not operated since the late 2000s. The annual Charleston Festival is hosted at nearby Charleston Farmhouse near the village of Firle some 6 miles east of Lewes.
An annual festival of light – Lewes Light – was created in 2015 during the UNESCO Year of Light and has run since then as an annual art installation and environmental awareness project.
The Reeves Studio, which is thought to be the oldest continuously operated photographic studio in the world, has been running from the same premises in Lewes since 1855.
Debate
Lewes has been influenced by its close proximity to the University of Sussex and Brighton University in terms of significant numbers of academics and students living in the town.
The Headstrong Club whose notable members include
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
was relaunched in 1987 and continues to operate. A branch of the popular Skeptics in the Pub movement was created in 2011 in Lewes, based at the Elephant and Castle.
Literature and history
The Lewes Literary Society (until 2015 the Monday Literary Society) was founded in Lewes in 1948 by authors Barbara Willard and Frances Howell, chaired by Leonard Woolf from 1954 to 1969, and currently by the poets John Agard and Grace Nichols, who live in the town. The Needlewriters is a co-operative of poets and writers which hosts a quarterly evening of poetry and prose at the Needlemakers Cafe, showcasing writers from across Sussex and Kent. The poetry imprint Frogmore Press, founded in Folkestone in 1983, moved to Lewes in 2010. Lewes Live Literature (LLL) was founded 1995 as a promoter of art and literature events, with an autumn festival which ran 2001–2007 bringing together spoken word with performance, music, film and visual art. Since 2007, LLL has concentrated on live literature production work.
Lewes History Group was founded in 2009 and supports an active programme of talks, information and research into the history of the town and surrounding areas. The Lewes Speakers Festival was created in the mid-2010s and brings a range of national speakers to the town each year, on a range of political, literary and historical topics.
Gastronomy
Lewes is home to a number of small craft breweries, alongside the renowned Harvey & Son's brewery in the heart of Lewes. These include Abyss Brewing which started life in the Pelham Arms and opened a new brewing base and taproom in 2021 in Daveys Lane in the middle of Lewes inside the old maltings building previously part of the South Downs Brewery, and Beak Brewery, which began as a so-called "gypsy" or nomad brewery before setting up in the town. The renowned craft brewery Burning Sky is based in nearby Firle.
Local pub culture
Lewes also has a strong tradition of distinctive local pub games, including Toad in the hole (game) (a local pub league and international competition are held in the town), Dwyle Flunking (the local spelling of Dwile flonking), and the World Pea Throwing Championships.
Lewes in literature
With a number of authors having lived in or near Lewes, it features, explicitly or disguised, in a number of books.
Possibly the earliest substantial reference in fiction is in ''The Wanderer (1814 novel), The Wanderer: Or, Female Difficulties'', an 1814 novel by Frances Burney, Fanny Burney, in which the heroine spends time in Lewes and Brighton.
Eve Garnett lived in Lewes and her ''The Family from One End Street'' series of children's stories are set in 'Otwell-on-the-Ouse'. Matthew de Abaitua's dystopian novel ''If Then'' is set in a fictionalised Lewes. There are strong parallels with Lewes in the setting of Cliffe House which appears in a story called ''Bloody Baudelaire'', by R. B. Russell.
''The Collector'' by John Fowles is set near Lewes with the characters visiting the town, and the Roy Grace crime series by Peter James (writer) based in Brighton has scenes set in Sussex Police HQ based in Lewes. Graham Greene's first novel ''The Man Within'' has scenes set in Lewes at the Lewes assizes.
Three novels by William Nicholson (writer) – ''The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life'', ''All the Hopeful Lovers'' and ''Golden Hour'' – are based in Lewes and surrounding villages. ''Three Round Towers'' and ''Retribution'' by Beverley Elphick are set in and around Lewes at the end of the 18th century. ''Hope Cottage'' by Julian Fane (author), Julian Fane is about a family who swap their flat in London for their friends' cottage in Lewes for twelve months.
Other writers to have set works of fiction in Lewes include Andrew Soutar, Judith Glover, and primatologist Alison Jolly who wrote a series of books for children.
The personal diaries of Lewes-based writer Alice Dudeney who wrote popular fiction in the first half of the 20th century were published in 1998 as ''A Lewes Diary: 1916–1944'' describing her life in Lewes with Henry Dudeney before and during the interwar years.
Lewes also features in a range of works of other non-fiction, but notable examples would include ''To The River'' by Olivia Laing which follows her walk along the River Ouse and ''The Old Ways'' by Robert Macfarlane (writer) features walks on the South Downs close to Lewes.
In 2015, American writer Joseph Cannizzo Jr. published a collection of poetry about Lewes entitled ''When in Lewes'', () following a brief stay in the town.
Media
The ''Sussex Express'' newspaper (formally the ''Sussex Express and County Herald'') was established in 1837 in Lewes as the ''Sussex Agricultural Express'' and merged with the Sussex County Herald in 1938. Now headquartered in Horsham, it serves Lewes and much of East Sussex. It has four editions and includes extensive coverage of the local sports scene. It is part of the Johnston Press network of newspapers.
''Viva Lewes'' was founded as a weekly web magazine in January 2006 and also as a monthly print handbook in October 2006 covering events and activities in and around the Lewes area. It ceased publication in 2020.
In December 2018 a monthly lifestyle publication Town & County Magazine was launched, with coverage of local life, history, and culture, and celebrity interviews, across Lewes district as well as Alfriston & Ditchling.
Bright 106.4 FM radio station, based in Burgess Hill, broadcasts to an area which extends to Lewes.
Lewes has its own Restricted Service Licence, RSL radio station, Rocket FM, which broadcasts via FM and the Internet for three weeks in October/November each year, covering the Bonfire period.
In November 2012, EE (telecommunications company), EE launched a series of advertisements promoting its 4G mobile service. All of the adverts, which featured actor Kevin Bacon, were filmed in Lewes.
Sport
In 1694, accounts of Sir John Pelham, 3rd Baronet, Sir John Pelham record 2s 6d paid for a wager concerning a cricket match at Lewes, one of the sport's earliest references.
Lewes Priory Cricket Club is based at the Stanley Turner Ground, Kingston Road. The club were Sussex League champions in 1986 and 1990 and Division 2 winners in 1999, 2006 and 2008. The club has active senior, junior and social sections
Lewes Rugby Football Club, founded in 1930, runs several rugby teams at various competitive levels, including the senior men's sides, the women's, girls' and junior teams. Lewes RFC's home turf is the Stanley Turner Ground, Kingston Road.
Lewes Hockey Club, based at Southdown Sports Club on Cockshut Road, was founded in 1903 and is one of the oldest and largest hockey clubs in Sussex.
The local association football, football team is Lewes FC The club was founded in 1885 and play at the Dripping Pan. In July 2017, the club became the first in the world to introduce equal pay to the men's and women's teams. The Lewes FC Women's team were appointed to the second tier of the Women's Super League in May 2018.
The town is also home to Lewes Bridge View which has adult teams competing in the Mid Sussex Football League and Lewes and District Sunday League. In 2016 Lewes Bridge View Juniors joined in partnership with Lewes FC to form Lewes FC Juniors – running Under 8s to Under 16s, with boys and girls teams.
Lewes Athletic Club caters for junior and senior athletes. The club trains at the all-weather 400m track at the end of Mountfield Road, and other locations in the area. Lewes Swimming Club was reconstituted in 1975 by Commonwealth gold medal-winning swimmer Christine Gosden, Christine Parfect (née Gosden) and others. The club has 300+ members and organises swimming sessions at Lewes, Ringmer, Newlands School, Newhaven and Seaford Head pools during term-time. Lewes Wanderers Cycling club, Cycling Club was reconstituted in 1950. The club organises regular time trials throughout the summer.
Lewes Tennis/Hockey Club (Southdown Sports Club) has 16 tennis courts, four squash courts, two netball courts and a floodlit astro/hockey pitch. Lewes Bowls Club situated behind the Mount on Mountfield Road was founded in 1922. It is affiliated to Bowls England and members play in the Meridian League and the Brighton League, as well as in informal games for pleasure. Between April and September members play on a flat lawn green with six rinks and inside the clubhouse on short mat for the winter season. Lewes Golf Club is set on downland above Cliffe Hill on the east-side of Lewes, where the sport has been played since 1896.
The Moyleman, an off-road marathon event over the hills around Lewes, starting and finishing in the town, was created in 2014 and first run in 2015.
Lewes Racecourse, located immediately to the west of the town on the slopes of the Downs, operated for 200 years until closed in 1964. It is still used as a training course, and there are several stables nearby. Race days are held at nearby Plumpton Race Course.
There are a number of Service Clubs in Lewes, including Lewes Lions Club which is a member of Lions Clubs International. The club runs various events including the Christmas Concert in December each year with the LGB Brass and the annual 'International 'Toad-in-the-Hole' Competition' and holds street collections to raise funds so as to assist people and organisations in and around Lewes. Since the 1960s, the Lewes Rotary Club has hosted its distinctive annual skittles tournament in the gardens of Southover Grange in June each year.
Notable people
Among the many notable former residents of Lewes is
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
(1737–1809), who was employed as an HM Customs and Excise, excise officer in the town for a time from 1768 to 1774 when he emigrated to the American colonies. The Paine association sits at the centre of a radical tradition that is represented today by writers working in the town.
The sciences and natural enquiry are represented by Gideon Mantell who is credited with the first discovery and identification of fossilised dinosaur (iguanodon) teeth. Lewes doctor Richard Russell (doctor), Richard Russell popularised the resort of Brighton.
Lewes is the birthplace of 16th-century madrigalist Nicholas Yonge. In the 1960s it was home to Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, as it is now to other musicians, including Herbie Flowers, Arthur Brown (musician), Arthur Brown and Tim Rice-Oxley from Keane (band), Keane.
Daisy Ashford lived from 1889 to 1896 at Southdown House, 44 St Anne's Crescent, where she wrote ''The Young Visiters''. Edward Perry Warren, an eccentric American collector, lived in Lewes House. In 1919 Virginia Woolf briefly owned – but never lived in – the Round House, a windmill in Pipe Passage, before moving to her final home, Monk's House in Rodmell. Diarist John Evelyn spent his boyhood at Southover Grange.
Crime
The fact that Lewes has a Lewes Crown Court, Crown Court, and a Lewes (HM Prison), prison, is reflected by the fact that many notorious people have been connected with the town. During the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland several prominent figures involved in it were in Lewes Prison, including Éamon de Valera (1882–1975); Thomas Ashe (1885–1917); Frank Lawless (1871–1922); and Harry Boland (1887–1922). Others have included George Witton (1874–1942) involved in shooting prisoners during the Second Boer War, Boer War.
Lewes Assize Court, assizes saw many important trials. In 1949 serial killer John George Haigh was sentenced to death. In 1956 suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams had his committal hearing in Lewes before being sent to the Old Bailey, London for trial. He was subsequently tried and convicted in Lewes in 1957 for fraud, lying on cremation forms and obstructing a police search. An early case was that of Percy Lefroy Mapleton (1860–1881) hanged for murder and the subject of the first composite picture on a wanted poster.
Twin towns
Lewes is twinned with Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany, since 1974 and with Blois, France, since 1963, although informal links between these two towns began in 1947.
See also
*Lewes Speed Trials
*The
Mise of Lewes
The Mise of Lewes was a settlement made on 14 May 1264 between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons, led by Simon de Montfort. The settlement was made on the day of the Battle of Lewes, one of the two major battles of the Second Ba ...
, a peace treaty from 1264
*''The Song of Lewes'', a Latin poem about the
Battle of Lewes
The Battle of Lewes was one of two main battles of the conflict known as the Second Barons' War. It took place at Lewes in Sussex, on 14 May 1264. It marked the high point of the career of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and made h ...
Notes
References
External links
*
LewesLewes District Council
{{authority control
Lewes,
Towns in East Sussex
County towns in England
Market towns in East Sussex
Civil parishes in East Sussex
Cricket in Sussex
English cricket in the 14th to 17th centuries