Church of St John sub Castro, Lewes

St John sub Castro
The Church of St John sub Castro from the south
Coordinates: 50°52′34″N 0°00′34″E / 50.8760°N 0.0094°E / 50.8760; 0.0094
OS grid reference	TQ 4146 1040
Location	Abinger Place, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2QA
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
History
Dedication	John the Baptist
Consecrated	3 June 1840
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	16 March 1970
Architect(s)	George Cheesman
Architectural type	Church
Completed	1839
Construction cost	£3,300
Specifications
Materials	Flint, red brick
Administration
Parish	St John sub Castro
Deanery	Lewes & Seaford
Archdeaconry	Lewes & Hastings
Diocese	Chichester
Clergy
Rector	Rev. Steve Daughtery

The Church of St John sub Castro is an Anglican church in Lewes, the county town of East Sussex, England (grid reference TQ 414 104). It was built in 1839 on the site of an 11th-century Saxon church, and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building. In the churchyard is a memorial to Finnish prisoners from the Crimean War who died while confined in Lewes Naval Prison; the memorial is also listed Grade II. The church continues to be active as a parish church in the diocese of Chichester.

In the early 11th century, a church was built on the site of a Roman fort erected to guard a crossing over the Ouse, below which the river was navigable. The site was in the north-west corner of the walled town, on "the brink of an abrupt cliff of chalk", and contained two conical mounds, one of which was later found to contain remains of human burials. The church came into the possession of the Cluniac Priory of St Pancras in 1121, and the earliest known reference to its relation to Lewes Castle (Latin: sub castro), presumably to distinguish it from the priory chapel at Southover, also dedicated to St John the Baptist, dates from 1190.William Camden's Britannia of 1586 reported the building "all desolate and beset with briers and brambles". Around that time the chancel was demolished, and a major restoration in 1635 left the church comprising just nave and tower. In the early 19th century, there was significant housing development in the St John's area of the town. The church had only 260 seats, totally inadequate for a parish whose population had trebled over a 30-year period to more than 2,300 and continued to grow. Concluding that it was impractical to extend the old church, the rector, Peter Guerin Crofts the Younger, had it demolished and a new one built on the site. The 1851 religious census of Sussex reported the population of the parish at 2,485, and the average attendance at evening service at 800.