Barbican To Lewes Castle And Walls To South

The Barbican to Lewes Castle and the walls to the south were built in the early 14th century for John de Warenne, the 8th Earl of Surrey. Constructed from flint with stone dressings and quoins, the lower parts of the turrets feature a chequer pattern of stone and flint work. The structure includes a central arch flanked by corner turrets that are corbelled out on moulded stone squinches, roughly at the impost level of the southern arch. The single turret to the east is mostly missing, leaving jagged stonework. The barbican has embattled parapets with machicolations on the south side, supported by triple-stepped rounded corbels.

There is an almost central window with a cusped ogee-arched head and leaded glazing positioned just below the machicolations on the south side. Various cross-loops are present in the lower parts of the side turrets, with additional cross-loops adjacent in the main body of the gate flanking the archway. The central pointed arched gateway features a double-chamfered southern outer arch, and remains of an inner arch can be seen towards the north, along with a moulded 15th-century north outer arch. Inside the barbican, there is a spiral stair in the north-west tower and two rooms situated one above the other. The walls to the south extend approximately 10 yards along the east side of the Castle Gate and about 35 yards along the west side, made of flint and stone with some brick patching, standing around 10 to 15 feet high above the former castle moat.