Ruins Of Lewes Priory

TQ 4109 NW LEWES COCKSHUT ROAD

14/74 (east side) Southover 25.2.52 Ruins of Lewes Priory GV I

Ruins of the Priory of St Pancras. Founded after 1077 by William de Warenne and his wife, Gundrada. Chalk corework with flint and stone dressings and facings, patched with some Portland stone. Principal parts that remain include: Fragment of the southwest tower of the Priory church, probably late C11 or early C12, with wall-bench and shafts;of its wall-arcading. Part of the southern wall of the Frater, including herringbone flintwork and masonry. Vaults remain below with the remains of a spiral stair. Various blocks of masonry by the railway-line west-south-west of the frater, formally buttresses to a large hall of unknown use. They are of C15 date, of chequered stone and flint flushwork. The undercroft of the Dorter, late Cll and late C12, containing the original reredorter. The southern part of the Dorter undercroft retains the springing-points of the semi-circular vault. At some point this part of the building was used for rifle practice. The Reredorter, late C12. In the south wall have been set many carved fragments, now heavily weathered. Remains of the Infirmary Chapel, late C11 and second third of the C12. The original square-ended chancel was later lengthened with a nave, given north and south chapels and may also have had a triforium. The remains at Lewes are important, at least in part, because the first Prior of Lewes, Lanzo, (1077-1107), was greatly influenced by Cluny, then in its third great phase of building, and because, during its progressive enlargment during the C12, it was very much a replica of the mother house. The first lay-owner was Thomas Crom- well who, between 1537 and 1540, built a country house on the site of the Prior's Lodging; this later passed into the hands of the Sackville family. Work in connection with the cutting for the railway line from Lewes to Brighton in 1845 destroyed the whole of whatever may have remained of the east end and the high altar of the Priory Church. The Lewes Priory site is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.

Listing NGR: TQ4142909558