Cover - Viva Lewes

Lewes, by design
Even the twittens are an example of the many elaborate design features
that characterise our historic town
For those interested in the finer features of Lewes’
rich heritage, the Friends of Lewes have invited a
most qualified speaker to give a slideshow and talk
- ‘Gems of Architecture and Design in Lewes, c. 900-
1900’ - in the Town Hall.
Colin Brent is the author of three books on Pre-
Georgian, Georgian and Victorian Lewes, as well as
a town guide. Together they span the history of the
town.
Colin tells us that the ‘gems of design’ will include a
gold penny, minted at Lewes for Aethelred II (979-
1016); the Saxon portal at St John-sub-Castro; a tomb
slab carved in black Tournai marble for Countess
Gundrada; the stiff-leafed Romanesque arcade at St
Anne’s; Renaissance oak caryatids at Pelham House,
and a fierce plaster dragon flanking Elizabeth’s royal
arms at St Thomas’, Cliffe.
From the Georgian period he has chosen the stylish
garden front of School Hill House; bow windows and
Mathematical tiles, red, black and buff; some finely
detailed box tombs; skilful brickwork in side streets,
and the Regency elegance of Coombe Cottage. The
Victorians are most strongly present in their stained
glass, especially the exquisite windows designed for
St Michael’s by Henry Holiday, a disciple of William
Morris. Pictured on this page is Holiday’s St Swithun.
Perhaps the most striking piece of design is also
probably the earliest. The first silver pennies struck
here were for King Aethelstan (924-939). His mints,
along with a market and a law court, would have been
within the fortified town. This was probably planned
by King Alfred (871-99) as one of a chain of fortress
towns established to resist the marauding Danes.
Quite possibly, too, his layout included the present
West Gate and the twittens, regularly descending
from the High Street to the southern wall. The grid
pattern led eighteenth century antiquarians to believe
that Lewes was built as a camp for Roman legionaries,
fresh from assaulting the British ramparts on Mount
Caburn, but it seems more likely that Lewes’ famous
narrow alleyways were the result of Saxon urbanisation.
On which subject, rather excitingly, rumour has
it that archaeologists recently excavating on the Baxter’s
site have uncovered a stretch of Alfred’s original
town wall. V
Town Hall, Thursday 31st Jan, 7.45pm
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