I’d visited Lewes once before. Bonfire Night, 2002, aged 4, ears stuffed with cotton wool and potential pyromania growing within. From that, one can understand my intrigue when it was described as “a genteel town” by David James Smith for The Sunday Times - quite the opposite to how I’d perceived it! I had to see it to believe it.
I travelled by bus from the nearby city of Brighton and Hove, to enter Lewes like a local.
Trying to look sophisticated, in the sea of briefcase gripping professionals, I crossed my left leg over my right with such a force that my bag was knocked to the floor, spewing pens, tissues and Mars Bar wrappers out as it fell. Reaching to the floor to compose myself and my pens, I saw a horrendous pair of shoes making their way up the bus. They were orange. They had beige stripes. They had velcro, and what’s worse is that they had five separate toes on each foot like a glove, but whereas gloves have the purpose of warming the hands, these were beyond futile! Despite her footwear though, I developed respect for the lady wearing them. She showed no distress for her grey hair which sat comfortably on her shoulders, and her extravagant jewellery suggested her footwear was actually a choice! She was remarkably non conformist. To me this proved Lewes wasn’t mundane - even the wealthy here have a carefree …show more content…
It now has five “notable inmates”, and another 718 slippery eels. The people of Lewes seem oblivious though; or maybe just ignorant. There were children skipping past and old people, sitting on benches opposite, looking longingly at its twenty foot walls as if it were the Mediterranean sea. The complacency of the Lewes community is unbelievable when burning of crosses is a yearly occurrence and there’s a chance a “notable inmate” may leap across one’s garden fence at any moment! Why is it deemed one of the best places to
I travelled by bus from the nearby city of Brighton and Hove, to enter Lewes like a local.
Trying to look sophisticated, in the sea of briefcase gripping professionals, I crossed my left leg over my right with such a force that my bag was knocked to the floor, spewing pens, tissues and Mars Bar wrappers out as it fell. Reaching to the floor to compose myself and my pens, I saw a horrendous pair of shoes making their way up the bus. They were orange. They had beige stripes. They had velcro, and what’s worse is that they had five separate toes on each foot like a glove, but whereas gloves have the purpose of warming the hands, these were beyond futile! Despite her footwear though, I developed respect for the lady wearing them. She showed no distress for her grey hair which sat comfortably on her shoulders, and her extravagant jewellery suggested her footwear was actually a choice! She was remarkably non conformist. To me this proved Lewes wasn’t mundane - even the wealthy here have a carefree …show more content…
It now has five “notable inmates”, and another 718 slippery eels. The people of Lewes seem oblivious though; or maybe just ignorant. There were children skipping past and old people, sitting on benches opposite, looking longingly at its twenty foot walls as if it were the Mediterranean sea. The complacency of the Lewes community is unbelievable when burning of crosses is a yearly occurrence and there’s a chance a “notable inmate” may leap across one’s garden fence at any moment! Why is it deemed one of the best places to