Lewes Heritage Open Days weekend

Friday 13-Sunday 15 September, see website for venues and opening times, FREE

Lewes Heritage Open Days weekend returns this year with another programme of building openings and guided walks across Lewes, celebrating the history and heritage of the town, including access to 15 different venues that are not normally freely open to the public.

Established in 1994, Heritage Open Days is England’s contribution to the European Heritage Days and has since grown into the country’s largest community heritage festival. It serves to highlight the diversity of our heritage encouraging people to share different places and highlight new stories of familiar places on their doorsteps.

The Lewes Heritage Open Days weekend this year includes another programme of building openings and guided walks in the town from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th September.  The Lewes event, coordinated and organised by volunteers from The Friends of Lewes, offers free access to 15 different venues which are not normally open to the public, or would otherwise charge for entry.  In addition, there are 16 walks covering 8 different interests and themes, including the clocks of Lewes and the history of railway stations in the town.

The venues that are open exemplify a range of historic periods and styles, and a variety of uses. Included this year are the Grade I listed Lewes Castle, as well as the County Combined Courts and the Town Hall in the High Street.  The programme includes tours of Trinity House, once the town’s armoury, and the tower of Thomas-a-Becket church in the Cliffe, which houses the 17th Century clock mechanism, still keeping good time and chiming today, with the help of a devoted team of winders. 

Lewes House, in the High Street, is the focus of events, being the starting point for most of the organised walks. Lewes House itself will be transformed with exhibitions from the Friends of Lewes, Lewes History Group, as well as energy advice linked to the Eco Homes event and teas served by the Therapeutic Gardening Group.

Exhibition at Lewes Climate Hub

The Climate Hub room at Lewes House will host an exhibition highlighting the current work of the Friends of Lewes, from the extensive tree planting in the town, to the understanding of the wider environmental benefit of trees, their value to ecosystems and their importance for wildlife and their provision of important shade in times of climate change.

Measures taken, and being taken, in the town to help it cope with the effects of storms and flooding will be highlighted with a focus on small- and large-scale sustainable drainage arrangements to reduce the likelihood of damage to our homes and towns, including the installation of rain gardens and other nature-based approaches to flood amelioration at scale in towns and in the countryside.

The role of Friends of Lewes’s planning committee and its approach to some of the key development issues will also be explained. On Saturday 14 September, Louise Paul will demonstrate the traditional craft of chair caning in the Garden Room of Lewes House.

More information

A map leaflet is now available from the Lewes Tourist Information Centre (Monday to Friday), as well as businesses and other places around Lewes.  You can also find full details on the website or heritageopendays.org.uk

Both these websites include Eventbrite links to reserve places on the walks and tours. These must be booked in advance.

Note: Since the publicity material went to print, the opening of the George Justice workshop in Market Street will unfortunately no longer be possible, but otherwise all other buildings and walks are due to go ahead.

Peter Earl, coordinator of the Lewes event, expressed his huge gratitude to the owners of all the venues who have come forward to make the event possible, and to the sponsors for their generous support.