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The Lewes Avalanche

Added 2023-05-23 10:15:00 +0000 UTC

Lewes is a town with an interesting history. Here's a little more about it.

The Lewes Bonfire

Before researching this story, I’d not really heard of Lewes, and I knew very little about it. As it turns out, although it’s a relatively small town, there’s quite a lot of history to the place.

One thing that came up again and again was the Lewes Bonfire. This is an annual thing, and it’s something that Lewes is well-known for; some people even refer to Lewes as the “bonfire capital of the world”. And with good reason; there are multiple parades and bonfires each year, with as many as 80,000 people flocking into town to watch – not bad for a town of around 17,000 people!

The event has a long and complicated and fascinating history – with early events more closely resembling riots than celebrations. You can read a bit more about the Lewes Bonfire on its Wikipedia page – and even go and visit the town yourself in November if you’d like to see it first hand.

Artefacts from the disaster

This disaster took place almost 200 years ago, and so – while there are records and newspapers from the time – there’s very little by way of physical artefacts remaining. In fact, I only came across two while I was reading.

One is a foundation stone from one of the original cottages, which was discovered by the landlord of the Snowdrop Inn. And the other is a white dress worn by one of the youngest survivors.

Fanny Boakes was just two years old when she was caught up in the Lewes Avalanche. Miraculously, she survived, although her mother did not. She was pulled from the mound of snow while wearing a white dress that is not kept on display in the nearby Anne of Cleves House Museum.