Private guided walking tours of Lewes
East Sussex
Enjoy a two hour guided tour through Saxon lanes, the ruins of one of the greatest monasteries in medieval England and along a High Street whose medieval and Georgian facades hide a thousand years of history.
Learn about the battle that gave England its first elected parliament, see where seventeen men and women were burned alive and stand in the very building where Thomas Paine debated the ideas that would light the American and French revolutions.
A beautiful Sussex market town with an astonishing history
You’ll walk past Virginia Woolf’s old house, the place where a local doctor invented the craze for sea-bathing (creaing Brighton as a result) and the home where Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss was hidden, deemed too scandalous for public display, and eventually given to the Tate.
Lewes is just one hour by direct train from London, with departures every 30 minutes; and less than 20 minutes by train from Brighton. The walk lasts approximately two hours.
The small market town that helped change the world
Nestled in the beautiful South Downs, Lewes has always attracted radicals, revolioutionaries and free-thinkers.
Magna Carta established the principle that kings must answer to the law — but it was the Battle of Lewes in 1264 that gave power to ordinary people for the very first time. When Henry III was defeated and taken prisoner, he was forced to concede authority - and Parliament was born.
Skip forward three hundred years, and seventeen Protestant martyrs who refused to bow to authority were burned alive on the High Street — the largest single mass burning ever to take place in England (and still commererated every year in the country’s largest bonfire event).
Two hundred years later, local resident and former corset-maker Thomas Paine began to explore the meaning of liberty, representation and the rights of ordinary citizens. His radical ideas, debated on the High Street, became the foundation of the American Revolution, influenced the one in France too, and re-shaped the world.
Fast-forward to the early twentieth century, and Lewes was home to the Bloomsbury Set — a free-thinking group of intellectuals which included Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, E.M. Forster and John Maynard Keynes.
But what's equally remarkable is the backdrop against which all this happened.
The Normans built one of their very first castles here within a year of their invasion and made it one of their most powerful seats. Henry VIII dissolved one of England's greatest monasteries here too and gifted a local house to one of his wives. And a succession of architectural styles — from medieval to Edwardian — have left their mark on every street.
Private tours are led by Richard Paterson, long-time local resident, amateur historian and Lewes-enthusiast. The walk lasts approx. 2 hours and includes one short but steep hill, cobbled surfaces and narrow paths, making it unsuitable for those with restricted mobility.
I can tailor the itinerary to meet any particular interests or requests and can also provide longer guided tours, including walks featuring neighbouring villages, the South Downs Way, the coast and historic houses. Please contact me for details.
