Church of St John sub Castro, Lewes

The Church of St John sub Castro stands on a steep chalk slope in the north-west corner of Lewes, the county town of East Sussex. Built in 1839 on the site of an 11th-century Saxon church, it replaced a much older building that had itself stood where a Roman fort once guarded a crossing over the River Ouse. The churchyard contains a Grade II-listed memorial to 28 Finnish prisoners of war from the Crimean War who died in Lewes Naval Prison. The church remains an active parish church in the diocese of Chichester. The church was designed by George Cheesman in the Early English style, with a rectangular nave, short chancel and embattled tower with castellated turrets. Nikolaus Pevsner described its roof as a ‘good, solid barn roof with tie-beams’ and noted its large lancet windows with simple tracery. The tower holds three 18th-century bells, one re-cast in 1886, and the church contains a 16th-century painting of Jesus blessing the children from the workshop of Frans Floris. The parish registers date from 1602, and the church holds a 15th-century octagonal font and a 19th-century quatrefoil font. Inside, cast-iron posts support painted panelled galleries along the nave, and the barrel-shaped ceiling is painted orange and brown. The apse features stained glass by Henry Holiday, and the aisles include windows by Savell and Walter Tower. The churchyard walls may contain material from the old town walls, and the paved floor of the old chancel covers the burial vault of the Crofts family. The Russian memorial, an obelisk designed by Philip Currey, bears the names of the 28 Finnish soldiers and an inscription added by the Soviet Embassy.