After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror rewarded William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey with the Rape of Lewes, a swathe of land along the River Ouse from the coast to the Surrey boundary.

Lewes is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, in a gap in the South Downs, cut through by the River Ouse, and near its confluence with the Winterbourne Stream.

Lewes Brooks, also of biological importance, is part of the floodplain of the River Ouse, providing a habitat for many invertebrates such as water beetles and snails.

The development of the suburbs has connected South Malling to Lewes although the church mainatins its village setting by the River Ouse, with the neighbouring rectory.

Although the Dutch and Swedes returned to resettle the Delaware River region as early as 1638, much of the Delaware Bay area south of what is today the city of Newcastle remained unsettled until 1662, when a grant of land at the Hoernkills ( the area around Cape Henlopen, near the current town of Lewes ) was made by the city of Amsterdam to a party of Mennonites.

In 1680, the Duke reorganized the territory south of the Mispillion River as Deale County with the county seat at New Deale ( modern-day Lewes ); and created a third county, St. Jones, out of the Delaware territory between the Mispillion River and Duck Creek.

This straightened tidal stretch of the River Ouse just south of Lewes is called Cliffe Cut.

It is located three miles ( 4. 8 km ) south-west of Lewes, on the Lewes to Newhaven road and is situated by the west banks of the River Ouse.

Lewes Brooks is of biological importance and is part of the flood plain of the River Ouse.

The Cape May – Lewes Ferry, operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority ( DRBA ), consists of five ferry vessels and two terminal facilities.

William Ogilvie had heard reports of a low pass from the head of Chilkoot Inlet to the headwaters of the Lewes River ( Yukon River ), while in Juneau.

The village of Isfield originally grew adjacent to the ford where the London to Lewes Way Roman road crossed the river River Ouse.

So the line took a new course, with the abandoning of the Hamsey Loop and assumed a new course, entering Lewes from the North, traversing a bridge over the River Ouse then a bridge over Cliffe High Street to Lewes Station via a number of embankments.

The line speed along this section of the line reaches 90 mph still descending towards Cooksbridge slowing to 70 mph and passing Hamsey level crossing and turning south to run near the River Ouse and entering Lewes Tunnel, 395 yards and into.

Leaving Lewes, the main line and the east branch converge and then sweep around a long curve over the River Ouse and under the A27 road to Southerham Junction for the Newhaven & Seaford branch.

It was under the management of John Harvey ( 1784 – 1862 ) that the Bridge Wharf Brewery was established on its present site by the River Ouse, overlooking Cliffe Bridge, Lewes.

As his term was during the latter part of the Great Depression, public works projects were going on throughout the state, including the opening of the Roosevelt Inlet at Lewes, a new bridge over Indian River Inlet and a couple of new stations for the State Police.

His letter of 9 July 1606 to congratulate James I on his accession to the throne was three years late and seemed to English eyes merely a preamble to what followed, and his reference to the Gunpowder Plot, made against the life of the monarch and all the members of Parliament the previous November, was unfortunate for the papal cause, for papal agents were considered by the English to have been involved ( the effigy of Pope Paul V is still burnt every year during the Lewes Bonfire

An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years.

From 1794 beers, wines and spirits were distributed from Lewes under the Harveys name, and the town is today the site of Harvey & Son's brewery celebrated as one the finest ale producers in England.

* George Eliot ( Mary Ann Evans — the name on the grave is Mary Ann Cross ), novelist, common law wife of George Henry Lewes and buried next to him

Later it was found that what May had named Henlopen, was actually Fenwick Island protruding into the Atlantic Ocean, and the name of the cape was moved to its present location just east of Lewes.

* Lewes, an archaic spelling of the name that later became " Lewis " ( still common as a surname ) and then " Louis " ( when used as a man's first name )

* Lewes ( surname ), the name of various people

Charles Lee Lewes was also the name of George Henry Lewes ' eldest son, who curated his father's extensive library upon the latter's death in 1878.

The trains running under the East Coastway name serve stations between Brighton, Lewes, Eastbourne, Hastings, Ore and Ashford, together with the branch line to Seaford, while the long closed branch to Kemptown ( an area of Brighton ) used to diverge just east of London Road Station.

It is also the name of one of the civil parishes in the Lewes District of East Sussex.

The school opened 1996 on the site of the former Sondes Place School and it takes it name from the land on which it is situated which once belonged to Lewes Priory and was later transferred to Reigate Priory.

Coins have been found across Sussex from Chichester to Lewes bearing the name Sithe, Sithsteb and Sithmes, taken to mean the former name of Cissbury in use at this time of ' Sith ( m ) esteburh '.

Sprigge ( January 14, 1932, London – July 11, 2007, Lewes ) was a British idealist philosopher who spent the latter portion of his career at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics and then an Emeritus Fellow.

Branching off the Lewes to Uckfield section at Culver Farm was the lower portion of the Bluebell Railway, a portion of which remains as a preserved railway.

In some areas, particularly in Sussex, there are extensive processions, large bonfires and firework displays organised by local bonfire societies, the most elaborate of which take place in Lewes.

Initially the conflict went badly for King Henry, and after the Battle of Lewes in 1264 he was forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, under which his son, Prince Edward, was given over to the rebels as a hostage.

The town was the site of the Battle of Lewes between the forces of Henry III and Simon de Monfort in the Second Barons ’ War in 1264, at the end of which de Monfort's forces were victorious.

On 31 March 2009 Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced his decision to confirm the designation of the South Downs National Park, which came into being exactly one year later and includes the town of Lewes within its boundaries.

* Lewes Old Grammar School, an independent school which also has a sixth form.

The principal town museum is Barbican House Museum at Lewes Castle, which hosts the Lewes Town Model as well as four galleries of Sussex archaeology.

The Lewes Film Club, which also produces short movies ( including the recent adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm ), and Film at All Saints ( the Film Club in collaboration with Lewes Town Council ), show films based in the All Saints Centre, a former church.

An annual Lewes Guitar Festival which started in 1999 has not operated since the late 2000s.

Bright 106. 4 FM radio station, based in Burgess Hill, broadcasts to an area which extends to Lewes.

Lewes has its own RSL radio station, Rocket FM, which broadcasts via FM and the Internet for three weeks in October / November each year, covering the Bonfire period.

which has adult teams competing in the Mid Sussex Football League and Lewes and District Sunday League in addition to a number of junior teams across age groups.

There are a number of Service Clubs in Lewes of which one is the Lewes Lions Club which is a member of Lions Clubs International, the largest Service Organisation in the world.

U. S. 9 runs an east – west path through Sussex County, running east from U. S. Route 13 in Laurel, passing through Georgetown, east to Lewes, where it leads to the Cape May – Lewes Ferry, which carries U. S. 9 across the Delaware Bay to New Jersey.

Some of these were merely agricultural estates with a single foreign monk in residence to supervise things, others were rich foundations in their own right ( e. g. Lewes Priory which was a daughter of Cluny and answered to the abbot of that great French house ).

More than 200 firefighters from Milford, Ellendale, Harrington, Felton, Dover, Smyrna, Houston, Frederica, Slaughter Beach, Bowers Beach, Greenwood, South Bowers, Farmington, Magnolia, Cheswold, Lewes, Georgetown, and Bridgeville in Delaware and Greensboro and Goldsboro in Maryland fought the blaze which destroyed seven businesses, a church, and three apartments, destroying an entire city block in the historic section of town.

Three bridges cross it at Lewes: Willey's Bridge ( a small footbridge opened in 1965 ), the Phoenix Causeway ( a larger road bridge named after the extinct Phoenix Ironworks ), and Cliffe Bridge ( which is much older ).

Whilst in 1801 there were 51 barges registered as trading on the river ( 21 of which worked the river above Lewes ), the navigation was never a huge commercial success.