Anne of Cleves House - Southover High Street, Lewes, UK
N 50° 52.137 E 000° 00.247
31U E 289208 N 5639528
Anne of Cleves house, located on the north west side of Southover High Street in Lewes, is a 15th century timber-framed building known as a Wealden hall house. It is owned and operated by Sussex Archaeological Society as a museum.
Waymark Code: WMPWJ1
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/30/2015
Views: 2
The Visit South East England website tells us:
Discover how the Tudors and Elizabethans lived, worked and relaxed at home. An impressive 15th century timber framed Wealden hall -house, it was given to Anne as part of her divorce settlement from Henry VIII. This atmospheric house displays authentically furnished rooms and its garden uses traditional plants and Tudor planting. It also contains the Museum of Lewes history, Tom Paine and the Wealden iron industry.
The house and enclosed gardens are available for weddings and functions and family events are held throughout the year including a Tudor Day in October where you can find out what the Tudors liked to eat, music, refreshments & a chance to meet the resident Tudor Housewife.
The Sussex Past website tells us what to expect at the Anne of Cleves House:
At Anne of Cleves House you can explore how the Tudors and Elizabethans lived, worked and relaxed at home.
Find out about the part played by this beautiful medieval house in the story of one of England’s most famous kings, Henry VIII. Other highlights include the authentically furnished kitchen and the garden which uses traditional plants and Tudor planting schemes.
Our new Cafe and Tudor tea garden opened in 2014. There is a separate access to the museum which allows non museum visitors to come and enjoy a drink in the setting of this beautiful former home. For more detail see practicalities.
Wikipedia has an article about Anne of Cleves House that tells us:
Anne of Cleves House is a 15th-century timber-framed Wealden hall house on Southover High Street in Lewes, East Sussex, England. It formed part of Queen Anne's annulment settlement from King Henry VIII in 1541, although she never visited the property. It was restored by the architect Walter Godfrey.
Owned and operated as a museum by the Sussex Archaeological Society under the operating name "Sussex Past", it is home to wide-ranging collections of furniture and artefacts of Sussex interest. These include one of the best exhibitions on wealden iron making including large machinery such as a hammer from Etchingham Forge and cannon boring apparatus together with a collection of iron fire backs. The bedroom and kitchen are furnished to resemble their appearance at the time of Cleves's ownership. The house is open to the public and plays host to functions throughout the year, including parties, weddings and small informal concerts.
The house is Grade II* listed with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:
House. C14 cellar with late C15 or early C16 street-front block, late C16 wing to rear and porch dated 1599. Timber-framed with ground floor of flint with some brick and some stone dressings, the stone squared and dressed and probably from the Priory (qv). Projecting porch of two storeys to right of centre with dressed surround and chamfered Tudor-arched doorway on ground floor with boarded and ribbed door recessed. Tilehung in decorative bands of plain and scalloped tiles on first floor to right and left of 2-storey recess, to left on projecting gabled crosswing. First floor of porch with exposed timber-framing, plaster infilling and gable in roof. Recess coved with flying wall-plate and curved brackets. Horsham slabs on lower slopes of roof with plain tiles above. Brick stacks on ridge at junction of main ridge with ridge of crosswing and towards right end of main ridge.
Former Wealden hall-house with upper end rebuilt in early C17 and with stack added in later C17. 2 storeys with attic in crosswing only; 4 window 1st floor and 2 window ground floor, arrayed irregularly, with a 3 by 5 light mullion and transom hall window in recess. Woodened mullioned windows with diamond lattice casements. Lefthand return front: flint with tiled first floor to side of front block; ground floor window of 4 lights with brick mullions and dressings. Wing to rear plastered with single-storey addition with tiled roof along side of wing. 2 storeys; irregular fenestration. Interior: 5 bay timber-frame to main block. Ground-floor room to right of entrance with stone chimney-piece with moulded Tudor-arched and shouldered surround, cornice moulding above.
Hall: carved dais beam, surviving in whole or in part sround room, brattished over fireplace. Hall open to roof with wall coved to moulded wallplate on north side. Tudor-arch decoration to wallplate over hall window on south side. Curved braces and crown posts visible on east and west walls. Room upstairs: Revealed pair of inseted brick stacks. Four chamfered crown-posts visible, all with larger downward and smaller upward braces. Scarf-jointed butt-purlins. Rear wing: Straight flight stair with mid-landing. Corniced upstanding rail on early vase balusters, probably early Cl7, and square newel-posts with globe finials, all formerly at No 175, High Street. 4 bay wing with queen post roof with trenched purlins. various 'original' ovolo-moulded mullioned and transomed windows, some restored.
House named after Anne of Cleeves to whom the Manor was granted.
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