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LEWES |
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Never did Saint such tortures rend,
As thee of Martyr race; Thou who on earth didst God defend
Now gain for us God's grace."*
Besides the two churches dedicated to St. John already mentioned, Lewes still possesses four others; there were once about thirteen in all. St. Michael's has a low round tower of Norman date with a later shingled spire. Part of the south arcade is late fourteenth-century work, the rest of it and all the northern one date from 1748, when the church was rebuilt, the style being a curious mixture of Classic and Gothic forms; the south wall has good squared flint-work. There is a very massive seventeenth-century screen in the north aisle; the south aisle contains the consistory court. There are two brasses, a knight with feet on lion and a priest, the latter dated 1457. On the north wall is a monument to Sir Nicholas Pelham and his wife, with kneeling figures (p. 261). The church contains a copy of the Breeches Bible, 1578.
All Saints, the only other parish church within the walls (except St. John-sub-Castro already described) has an early Perpendicular tower mantled in ivy, a nave built in 1807 with gallery round three sides, and a new chancel. The parish was formed by the union of St. Nicholas, Holy Trinity, and St. Peter the Less.
The most interesting church still existing in Lewes is St. Mary Westout, little altered since its original erection late in the twelfth century, except that at some time in the sixteenth century its name was changed to St. Anne's. The parishes of St. Mary and St. Peter, Westout, were united in
* Blaauw's Barons' War. |
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