LEWES, SUSSEX, ENGLAND
Lewes, a country town
of East Sussex, formerly Sussex, is a civil parish and
the centre of the Lewes
local government district with a population of 17,000. The
Settlement is a traditional
market town and a centre of communications.
In 1264 it was the site
of the “Battle of Lewes/ Local landmarks include Lewes
Castle and a 15 century
book shop, has annual features such as the Glyndebourne festival,
the Lewes Bonfire and
the Lewes Pound.
Archaeological evidence
points to prehistoric dwellers and it is thought the
Roman settlement of
“Mutuantonis” was located here.
Saxons built a castle,
first built as a defensive point over the river and gave the
town it's name.
After the Norman invasion,
William the Conqueror, gave William de Warrenne ,
1st Earl of
Surrey, the “Rape of Lewes”, a swath of land along the River
Ouse . He
built the “Lewes Castle”
on the Saxons site. DeWarrenne and his wife, Gundred, also
founded the Priory of St.
Pabcras, a Cluniac monastic house about 1081.
Lewes was the site of a
'mint' in the Late Anglo-Saxon period and therefore a 'mint'
during the the early years
after the Norman invasion.
King Stephen granted the
town a charter in 1148 and the town became a port with
docks on the Ouse River.
The “Battle of Lewes”,
between Henry III and Simon de Montfort , in the war of
“Second Barons” 1264,
of which de Monfort was the victor, was fought on fields just
west
Landport.
During the Marian
Persecutions of 1555 – 1557. Lewes was the site of execution of
seventeen Protestant
martyrs “ burned at the stake “ in front of the Star Inn, the
structure
now the Town Hall. A
memorial to the martyrs was placed on Cliffe Hill in 1901.
Through the 17th
and 18th centuries Lewes developed as the country town
of East
Sussex, growing beyond
the town wall line , and was an active port with iron, brewing,
and ship building
industries.
Lewes became a railway
junction in 1846, with railroads from the north, south, and
east to two railroad
stations. Th development of Newhaven ended Lewes's days as a
major
port. During the Crimean
War in the 1850's Lewes as a POW Camp for 300 Finlanders
serving in the Russian
Army captured at Bomarsund.
Lewes became a borough in
1881 and was famous for race horse training tracks.
Source: Wikipedia
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