Once the home to Thomas Paine, who I have seen described as little more than an 18th Century Trotsky, I visited Lewes to get beyond Brighton for a time, although my evening was spent in Brighton.
Starting at the Church of St Anne, I had a cup of coffee with the Rector, who showed me round his beautiful church, with anchorite's cell. A very pleasant one.
There are some fine bookshops in Lewes but no self guided walk, which the tourist people would do well to rectify as the town does not give up its treasures easily.
Lewes is the county town of Sussex with courts as well. There were protestant martyrs burnt there too, and every year the bonfire societies burn an efigy of some folk devil, which always used to be the pope but not so much these days.
The Sussex Archeological Trust owns Anne of Cleves House in Southover, a suburb of Lewes and uses it to display their collection of archeological and folk relics. It's good and has some enjoyable exhibits and gardens. Anne of Cleves never lived there though.
Another suburb of Lewes has this old church (below) with all kinds of relics including an Elizabethan Royal Arms in plaster on the wall.
The Bloomsbury set liked to live in and near Lewes in all their sexually complicated lives. This round house was once lived in by them - it is the base of a Sussex windmill.
