A Brief History of the Building
The first record of the building is listed In 1309 where it was referred to as the house of Earl Warenne and called “La Peryenne” (possibly an anglicisation of La Pays Reine – the Queens country.) It was situated at the top of St Martins lane, a Saxon twitten.
This is Isabelle de Warenne, daughter of John de Warenne,5th Earl of Surrey. The dates indicate that she may have been the Queen involved even though she married a Scottish king. Her French mother Alice de Lusignan was buried at Lewes Priory.
Her family owned land in the near and middle East so it is safe to say they were most probably associated with the Knights of the Templars who left France in 1307 to avoid torture and burning at the stake. This date matches with the erection of the building, which had high ceilings for the time and is amongst the oldest wooden buildings still standing in England.
The trading history, with its situation opposite Lewes castle will be told in the museum. It spans seven centuries, with evidence of medieval international booty being stored at the property in 1542. This international trend surely started with the templars connection and there was clearly high wealth in the tutor period when the building was added to, creating the typical Elizabethan U shaped building which comprised what is now a separate house at no 76, where the chimney with a tutor rose can still be seen and wood panelling made from tea chests as in no 74.
In 1662 the shops usage is listed as being a Haberdashery and again in 1790 to the only female tenant Eliza Tutty who had a haberdashers, later a “Slop Shop” (slops are working clothes for agricultural workers). From the 1800’s it spent a century as millers, bakers and corn dealers under various ownership, interestingly reverting to a tailor, hosiery and outfitter in 1905.
In 1923 the building was acquired by the Rae family who run it until 2016 as a tailor and gentleman’s outfitters surviving the changes in buying habits through that whole century alas becoming more of a tourist attraction itself by the 2000’s, even thought the odd gent does still call for pyjamas.
Why Lewes?
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex. There is evidence that it was among the most important Sussex towns during the early Anglo-Saxon period but it was under Alfred the Great that it became established as a significant trading centre, later generating more income for the Crown than any other town in the county.
After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror rewarded his companion William de Warren with a generous piece of land in Lewes upon which he built Bray Castle. The settlement around the castle was to include the shop that will be home to Lewes Textile Museum and Workshops.
Lewes has long been a destination of choice for visitors from the UK and its proximity to the sea crossing at Newhaven has encouraged European visitors too. Lewes Castle boasts its own museum and visitors can also visit the site of St Pancras Priory, which was dissolved during the Reformation, and Anne of Cleves House. The Bloomsbury Group’s East Sussex home at Charleston Farmhouse attracts over 60,000 visitors a year and September 2023 Charleston saw the opening of Charleston in Lewes, the forerunner for a permanent home in the town which will house archive material and Bloomsbury related exhibitions. Just ten miles from Lewes is Farleys Farmhouse, home of Roland Penrose and Lee Miller which houses a collection of surrealist treasures, including Miller’s extraordinary photographs. Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft is sixteen miles away to the west and while Seven Sisters Country Park is approximately the same distance to the south.
These are just some of the attractions that combine to make Lewes a destination of choice for increasing numbers of people, with over 3.3 million trips made by visitors to the district each year, bringing in £100M spent by day trippers alone (according to Visit Lewes 2018).