Lewes, East Sussex

Small towns have the potential to be as, if not more, interesting than big cities. That is certainly the case with Lewes in East Sussex. There is history (a castle and archaeology museum), independent thinkers (Thomas Paine, author of The Rights of Man, lived here for 6 years and the first professional football club was the first and so far the only club to treat its men’s and women’s teams equally), independent retailers (craft centres, antique stores, and a long-standing brewery), and an active arts and culture community.

I spent the morning absorbed by two exhibits on display at the newly opened Charleston in Lewes. I was so impressed and am still pondering what I saw. One exhibit was about fashion, what it says about us and what it says about gender identity. The other was about the intersection of public and private, human and nature. The Bloomsbury Group (Virginia Wolfe, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and others) were trend-setters in so many ways and it’s good to see that their heritage lives on today.

Afterwards I wandered up and down the tiny lanes surrounding the castle on a hill.

There are still traces of the kiln where they manufactured clay pipes in the 18th century at the base of Pipe Passage. At the top of the passage, I came across the Round House, the base of a former windmill that was once the home of Virginia Wolfe.

I was amused to learn that the bowling green (formerly the castle tilting ground) has been a bowling green since at least 1640 and the Bowling Green Society was founded in 1753.

Harvey’s Brewery, established in 1790, is the oldest independent brewery in Sussex. I was pleased to see that their website profiles the role of Harvey women in running the business as well as the company’s environmental sustainability initiatives.