Lewes, Sussex
Historical Description
Lewes, a market-town, a municipal borough, and several parishes in Sussex. The town stands on the river Ouse, amid the South Down Hills, 50 miles from London, 7 NNW of Newhaven, and 8 NE of Brighton. Its situation is picturesque, its environs on all sides to a considerable distance abound in fine scenery, ranging from the beautiful to the romantic, and a number of spots in the neighbourhood, particularly Cliffe Hill immediately to the E and Mount Harry 2¼ miles to the NW, command very striking views. The Ouse is navigable from the town to the sea at Newhaven. Lewes is the junction for various lines of the L.B. & S.C.R., from London, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Newhaven and Seaford, Eastbourne and Hastings, and of a line to East Grinstead. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Area of the civil parish, 3862; population, 10,733; of the municipal borough, 10,997.
Lewes is supposed, from the abundance of ancient British names of places around it, to have been a site or centre of ancient British settlers. It is supposed also, from the discovery of numerous Roman coins, urns, rings, patera;, and other Roman relics in and near it, as well as from other slight evidence, to have been the site of the Roman station Mutuantonis. It is first mentioned in history as a demesne of the south Saxon kings; it had a strong castle in the Saxon times, it had also two mints in the time of Athelstane, while Chichester and Hastings had each only one, and it probably got its name from the Saxon word hloew, anciently pronounced lowes, and signifying " a hill." It was given by William the Conqueror soon after the conquest to William de Warrene, who had married the Conqueror's fourth daughter, Gundrada, and it was then known as Laquis. De Warrene either restored and enlarged the old castle or built a new one, and he and his wife founded in 1078 a Cluniac priory at the foot of the Castlehill, and these two structures for several centuries gave great importance to the town. A battle was fought in 1264 on Mount Harry between the forces of Henry III. and those of the confederated barons under Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, when the king was taken prisoner, and after which a treaty was concluded with him known as the " Mise of Lewes." The town was repeatedly agitated by the descents of the French on the coast, but never sustained any serious damage from them; it was the scene of sixteen martyrdoms in the time of Queen Mary, and it suffered some trouble from the nonconformists after the Restoration, but it has not witnessed any other considerable occurrences. Archbishop Peckham, Sir T. Springett, Dr John Tabor, Dr E. Russell, Thomas Woodgar, Sir John Evelyn, Sir Henry Blackman, and Dr Mantell were natives or residents, and Thomas Paine, author of the " Rights of Man," spent his early manhood here as an exciseman.
The castle stood on a hill, towering grandly above the body of the town, and guarding an important route from the coast to the interior. It remained with the Warrenes till the extinction of the family in the 14th century, and it then passed to the Fitzalans of Arundel. Some portions of it still exist, and possess much interest. The gate-house is Early English, has battlements and machicolations, and appears to have had a double portcullis. A gateway, immediately within, is Norman, with plain semicircular arch, and probably is a portion of the original work of the first De Warrene. The outer ballium or base court was an irregular oval, has, at the extremities, two artificial mounds nearly 800 feet apart from centre to centre, and had on these mounds two keeps, each apparently with four octagonal towers. Two towers of one of the keeps still stand, are beset with a thicket of ash trees and with ivy, and, though probably of earlier date than the gate-house, are of a date much later than the Norman gateway. One of them is now occupied as a museum by the Sussex Archaeological Society, contains seals of the Cinque Ports, relics of the Sussex ironworks, celts and pottery from barrows in the neighbouring downs, and other curious local antiquities, and commands from its leads a magnificent view over the Weald, and from the sea to the Surrey Hills.
The Cluniac priory, founded in 1078, was the first of its kind in England, continued for 150 years to be the only one in England, and was afterwards the head of its order in England. It displaced a small wooden chapel of Saxon date, dedicated to St Pancras, and it was itself dedicated to the same saint. It was so large and stately as to cover 32 acres, and it had a church 150 feet long, with walls 10 feet thick. It was occupied by Henry III. and his followers on the night prior to the battle of Mount Harry, it gave transient refuge to Prince Edward after the battle, and it was set on fire by the victorious barons, but did not suffer much injury from the flames. Edmund Dudley, the favourite of Henry III., was educated in it, and Dudley's father is said to have been its carpenter. The remains of some distinguished persons were interred in its chapter-house, and stately tombs or monuments of numerous De Warrenes, Clares, De Veres, St Johns, and Fitzalans were erected in its church. Its site was given at the dissolution to Thomas, Lord Cromwell, reverted to the Crown; was given by Elizabeth to Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset; passed afterwards through many hands, was intersected by the railway in 1845, and is now private property. Most of the buildings were demolished by Cromwell; some portions were constructed by the Sackvilles into a family mansion, called Lord's Place, which was afterwards burned down; a portion of a pigeon-house, of cruciform structure, as large as many a parish church, and containing 3228 pigeon holes, stood till about the year 1808; the very substructions of the chapter-house and of the church were cut through or dug up in the excavations for the railway, and only a few scanty vestiges now exist. Some fragments of late Norman wall and of a winding stair still stand. Traces of the fish-pond also may still be seen. An artificial mound, in what is now a cricket ground, was possibly the base for a Calvary, and a hollow near it, called the Dripping Pan, was perhaps the priory garden. Two leaden coffins, inscribed with the names of William de Warrene and Gundrada, and no doubt containing their remains, were found about 2 feet below the surface at the excavating of the chapter-house for the railway, and have been deposited in a beautiful mausoleum erected for the purpose on the S side of the adjacent church of Southover. Other human remains also were found there, and the remains of seemingly many hundred bodies, filling a circular pit, 10 feet in diameter and 18 feet deep, were found a few feet E of the church.
A priory of Greyfriars and two hospitals dedicated to St James and St Nicholas also were in Lewes, but these too have disappeared. A number of ancient British vases of rude workmanship, a number of human skeletons with barrel-shaped drinking cups at the head and feet, and several sepulchral urns containing the calcined ashes of human bones, were found in 1834 in the course of an excavation for a waterwork tank, and two of these relics lay at the remarkable depth of at least 14 feet embedded in solid chalk rock, and surrounded by bones of various animals. Fossil remains of the megalosaurus and the plesiosaurus, with those of crocodiles, tortoises, cetaceous fishes, and birds, were found in the vicinity of Lewes by Dr Mantell, at a time to add materially to the progress of geological science. Much contribution to a knowledge of the antiquities of Sussex, particularly those of Lewes and its neighbourhood, was also made by Mr M. A. Lower.
The town covers the side of a steep hill, and includes the suburb of Cliffe on the E, and that of Southover on the SW. It presents some resemblance to Totnes, but differs much in appearance from the great majority of English towns. The views in it from High Street, from Cliffe, and from Sonthover, are peculiar and striking. The streets in general are spacious and well-paved, and they present in some parts curious mixtures of the ancient and the modern. An ancient house nearly opposite Southover church is said to have been for some time occupied by Anne of Cleves. A one-arched stone bridge over the Ouse was erected in 1727, and widened by the addition of a footpath on each side in 1829. The old town-hall stood near the centre of High Street, and was taken down in 1808. A new town-hall was erected in 1872. The Shire Hall was erected after the demolition of the town-hall, at a cost of about £15,000; is an elegant edifice; comprises a council chamber, civil and criminal courts, and other apartments; and contains a good picture by Northcote, formerly in the Shakespeare Gallery, and a portrait of General Elliott. The old county jail was built in 1793; was enlarged in 1817 and about 1835; underwent alterations for receiving Russian prisoners of war in 1854. It is now used as a naval prison. The county jail was built in 1848, and has capacity for 274 male and 66 female prisoners. There are a market-house, a mechanics' institute, two public libraries, a corn market, a small hospital and Infirmary. Races are held in June, August, and November on a course near the town. The principal trade is in corn, lime, timber, and sheep and cattle.
Formerly there were twelve parish churches in the town, but now there are only six. These are-All Saints (population, 1903), net value, £270; St Anne with St Peter and St Mary, Westout (2101), gross value, £139 with residence; St John the Baptist-sub-Castro (3050), net value, £195 with residence; St John the Baptist, Southover (658), gross value, £59 with residence; St Michael (856), gross value, £170 with residence; and St Thomas-at-Cliffe (1559), net value, £200 with residence. They are all rectories in the diocese of Chichester. St Michael's Church stands in High Street, near a projecting clock; is an ancient edifice restored in 1755; has a low circular tower; and contains two brasses of 1400 and 1457, and a monument of Sir Nicholas Pelham, who died in 1559; the building was restored and enlarged in 1880. St Anne's Church stands at the top of the hill; is Transition Norman, of good character; was restored in 1883, and contains some neat mural monuments. The Church of St John-sub-Castro stands on the N side of the town; occupies the site of a Saxon church; is itself a modern edifice; includes a doorway arch of the previous Saxon church; and has an inscription to the memory of Magnus, a Danish prince. The churchyard occupies the ground of a very small Roman camp, the vallum of which is still traceable; and it contains the tomb of Thomas Blunt, a native who bequeathed a silver gilt cup still in use, and who died in 1611. St Thomas' Church is in Cliffe, and has a neat interior and a fine altar-piece. The building was very much enlarged and restored between the years 1870 and 1885. Southover Church, or the Church of St John Southover, has a nave partly Norman and a chancel Later English, and originally extending much further to the E; is remarkable for the mausoleum of De Warenne and Gundrada on its S side-a little chapel in the Norman style, erected in 1847; and contains an effigy of the time of Henry III., found during the same excavations which disclosed De Warenne's and Gundrada's remains. The great gate of the priory stood near the E end of this church, and was taken down in 1832, and the side portal of it was removed to the end of Southover Crescent, where it now stands. There are Congregational, Calvinistic, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Unitarian chapels. The Jireh or Calvinist chapel stands in North Street, Cliffe, and was built in 1805; and a little cemetery behind it contains the tomb of the well-known William Huntington, "the coalheaver, S.S., sinner saved." The Roman Catholic chapel is a small stone building situated in the High Street. The free grammar school was founded in 1512, and had for pupils Bell the mathematician and Evelyn.
The town is a seat of assizes, quarter sessions, petty sessions, and county courts. The market day is Tuesday. Fairs are held for cattle on 6 May, for wool 20 July, and sheep 21 and 28 Sept. The number of sheep sold every year at these fairs is very large. The town is a borough by prescription, and is governed by two constables and other officers; it sent two members to Parliament from the time of Edward I. till 1867, was then reduced to sending only one, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, it was merged into the county.
Lewes Parliamentary Division, or Mid Division of Sussex, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 64,026. The division includes the following:-Hove-East Aldrington, Edburton (part-Fulking Hamlet), Hangleton, Hove, Patcham, Portslade, Poynings, Preston (part), West Blatchington; Lewes (part of)-All Saints (Lewes), Barcombe, Chailey, Chiltington (East), Ditchling, Falmer, Hamsey, Iford, Kingston, Newick, Newtimber, Ovingdean, Piddinghoe, Plumpton, Precinct-of-the-Castle (Lewes), Pyecombe, Rodmell, Rottingdean, St John the Baptist (South-over), St John-under-the-Castle (Lewes), St Michael (Lewes), St Peter and St Mary Westout (Lewes), St Thomas a, Becket-in-the-Cliffe (Lewes), Southease, Southmalling, Stanmer, Street, Telscombe, Westmeston; Worthing-Broadwater, Clapham, Durrington, Goring, Heene, Sompting, West Tarring , Steyning (the part not in the union of Thakeham)- Albourne, Ashurst, Beeding (Upper), Bramber, Buttolphs, Coombs, Edburton, Henfield, Kingston-by-Sea, Lancing, New Shoreham, Old Shoreham, Southwick, Steyning, Woodmancote.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Sussex | |
| Poor Law union | Lewes |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Lewes from the following:
Maps
Online maps of Lewes are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Sussex newspapers online: