Lewes

I think that the first thing that you would notice as you come to the town of Lewes is its impressive castle on the hill, Built just after the battle of Hastings in 1066 by William de warrenne, And did you know that Lewes castle is one of the few castle's in England to be built with a double motte !, It was also said that after the battle of Hastings the second place where a castle was built was at Lewes, It was thought that the castle was the first one in and around Lewes to be built of stone, It was in this castle that henry the third marched his troops to landport bottom east of Lewes to meet simon de montfort, For it was here in 1264 that the battle of Lewes took place, The outcome of the battle was that the king lost as well as this the reason for the battle at Lewes was that de montfort lead the barons in a revolt against the extravagances of the king with de montfort winning the battle was to form the basis of parliament to include representatives from different boroughs that we know today, ( de montfort founded the first parliament in England in 1261), It was said that just before the battle the barons of de montfort buried some of their belongings in the downs above plumpton college known as the `Ditchling cross` , It is still called that today and that if you walk from plumpton college towards the downs you can see a faint cross on the downs just below the southdowns way and this is said to be the ditchling cross, Give you an idea of where it is, As you walk along the southdowns way you will come to a place where there is a concrete bridletrack that goes down to the half moon at plumpton, It is here on the southdowns way just before the track on the side of the downs that the `Ditchling cross` is ?.

The name `Lewes` comes from the old English `hlaw` meaning a place at the burial mounds, Or village or town on a burial mound, So Lewes is built on a burial mound !, With this you would think that the town of Lewes was haunted ?, And it is the first lot of ghosts are said to be those from the battle of Lewes who haunt the castle as well as landport bottom just outside the town, While the others are said to be the ghosts of the Protestants that where burnt in Lewes during the reign of queen Mary in 1555 there were 17 in all (see page 3 for full explanation), Walking past the castle or down through the middle you will come to the outer gatehouse of the barbican a fine example of medieval architecture built during the 14th century.

Where the elephant and castle public house is in abinger place, This road was known as `gallow's bank` during the 19th century and where the pub is there was a hanging platform, And that felons that received the death sentence were taken to the gallows bank from the Lewes gaol where they were hung, This was most probably on a Saturday at 12 noon, Halfway up St john's hill is Lancaster street where the church of St john sub-castro (under the castle) stands that in the doorway has a memorial to a medieval anchorite that came from a Saxon church that was on the site of the present church, This church that you can see today was built in the 1830's on the outside of the town walls, In the grounds of the church there is a obelisk to the 28 Finns that were captured during the Crimean war and put in Lewes gaol that later died of disease in the old gaol, The memorial was built in the 1870's by the order of czar Alexander the second as grand duke of finland.

If you now head for the railway station and walk towards southover high street you will come to Anne of cleves house, This is one of two houses the other one is in ditchling called wings place both houses were built in about 1540 for Anne of cleves as part of a divorce settlement from henry the eighth, More was added to the house at Lewes at the end of the 16th century which included caen stone taken from the St pancras priory that was destroyed by henry the eighth (the priory that is !) in 1537, The porch to the house was added to in 1599 not allot of the house has changed since then Today the Anne of cleves house at Lewes is a folk museum and is open to the public that has a collection of old iron known as the Every collection after a local ironmaster called alderman john every, Some of the collection includes embossed firebacks and Stewpans that date from the 15th century, Lewes has many fine timber framed buildings a good sign of this is the book shop at the top of watergate lane built in the 15th century, Then there is the shelleys hotel in the high street that was a former Elizabethan inn built in 1577, Then there is bull house that was the home of the writer thomas paine who worked in Lewes as a excise officer from 1768 to 1774 the house is now a restaurant, After married the daughter of a local tobacconist paine moved to America where he supported the American revolution in such leaflets like the `The crises series (1776 to 1783).

One thing that Lewes has allot of is twittens (narrow footpath between two hedges or walls) one of these is church twitten that leads from the high street down to lansdown place, south east of the twitten stands the ruins of St pancras priory built by William de warrenne in the 11th century who lies buried next to his wife gundrada in the nearby church of St john' s the Baptist, The church originally was a rest home that was at the gates of the priory, In the grounds of the priory ruins is a memorial to the battle of Lewes given to the town by lord chelwood it was also designed by enzo plazzotta and built in 1964, In southover road stands southover grange built in 1572 that was the boyhood home of the 17th century diarist john evelyn, Southover grange was built with stone that came from the priory, At the bottom of the high street is cliff high street that goes upto cliffe hill, At one point this street crosses the river Ouse where you will find the cliffe bridge built in 1727 that replaced a wooden one that was built during the 13th century.

Just north of Lewes is the small village of offham with its church and spire that date from the 12th century, It is also said that the church is haunted whether this is true or not I am not sure ?, But you can sit in the church and wait to see the ghost or ghost's If you now head out of the town of Lewes past landport bottom the site of the battle of Lewes and walk towards a trig point on the downs that is covered in tree's on one side if so you should be standing by blackcap so called because in winter if you looked up from the bottom of the downs the tree' s on blackcap looked black and sinister, It was said that in days gone by local's said that `blackcap` was used by witches and others who used the site for black magic, Like other stories I don't know if this is true or not or is just local superstition ? You make up your own mind !, It is also here on a clear day that you can see seaford head as well as the seven sisters and the masts on beddingham hill, If you now look straight to your left your should be able to see mount caburn that's just west of Lewes, Did you know that the word `caburn` means mount ! (Caburn is an old English word meaning mount), So if you wanted to be correct and call mount caburn by its old English name it would be `mount mount` !.

If you are standing by Lewes castle keep and then look towards cliffe hill (I E if you are facing north cliffe hill is to your right !) you will see a obelisk above a bit of woodland, This obelisk is a monument built in 1901 to the 17 Protestant martyrs that were burnt at the stake in the high street between the years of 1555 to 1557 this was when queen Mary was on the throne,