Lewes Priory

Lewes Priory

View of priory remains, in the direction of the site of the Great Church (now bisected by railway line)
Monastery information
Full name	The Priory of St Pancras, Southover near Lewes
Other names	Lewes Priory
Order	Cluniac
Established	circa 1081
Disestablished	16 November 1537
Mother house	Cluny
Dedicated to	St Pancras of Rome
Controlled churches	St. John the Evangelist, Piddinghoe, St. Nicholas. Iford.
People
Founder(s)	William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey and Gundrada
Site
Location	Southover, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°52′5.33″N 0°0′29.63″E / 50.8681472°N 0.0082306°E / 50.8681472; 0.0082306Coordinates: 50°52′5.33″N 0°0′29.63″E / 50.8681472°N 0.0082306°E / 50.8681472; 0.0082306
Visible remains	limited above ground: part precinct wall, hospitium, dorter, rere dorter, first church
Public access	yes, free all year round

Lewes Priory is a demolished medieval Cluniac priory in Southover, East Sussex in the United Kingdom. The ruins have been designated a Grade I listed building.

The Priory of St Pancras was the first Cluniac house in England and had one of the largest monastic churches in the country. It was set within an extensive walled and gated precinct laid out in a commanding location fronting the tidal shore-line at the head of the Ouse valley to the south of Lewes in the County of Sussex. The Priory had daughter houses, including Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk, and was endowed with churches and extensive holdings throughout England. In Lewes it had hospitiums dedicated to St James and to St Nicholas.

In 1264, during the Battle of Lewes, King Henry III installed his forces in the Priory precinct which came under attack from those of Simon de Montfort after his victory over Henry in battle. Henry was forced, in the Mise of Lewes, to accept the Council that was the start of Parliamentary government in England.

The Lewes Priory Trust currently manages the site on behalf of Lewes Town Council who are the freeholder. The Priory is a nationally important historical site but an almost lost monument of mediaeval England, the buildings having been systematically demolished after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. Some parts of the lesser buildings survive above ground, fenced off within a public park. The Priory has been the subject of academic and archaeological study since the mid-nineteenth century and a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in 2009 enabled repair of the surviving fabric, full public access and the provision of information panels interpreting the site and its history.