Two races divided by River Ouse
IT OCCURRED to Rouser the other day – a dangerous occasion – that the River Ouse, as it traverses Lewes, could once have divided two peoples.
On the Cliffe side of the river were the Saxons and on the other, the Normans.
Hence the subtle difference one can still sense today between the two communities.
For political and administrative reasons, the Norman conquerors divided Sussex into 'rapes'. The boundary of two of them ran down the Ouse with Lewes to the west and Pevensey to the east. So Cliffe people owed their allegiance to a different Lord from those who lived safely inside the town walls.
It seems likely that the Cliffe community had more pure-blood Saxons in it than the privileged Norman/Saxons on the other side of the river.
But, of course, Rouser could well have got it wrong. And who's going to prove it after 1,000 years without mass DNA testing?
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
