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The Lewes Martyrs

Lewes, East Sussex

Seventeen Protestants burned, and remembered every Bonfire Night.

Under Mary I, seventeen Protestants were burned at the stake in Lewes, outside the Star Inn, now the town hall. Their deaths are still remembered every 5 November at the Lewes Bonfire, the biggest in Britain, with seventeen burning crosses carried through the streets alongside flaming torches and tar barrels.

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When
1555–1557
Where
50.8730, 0.0090
Group
Gibbets & executions

Visiting

A memorial to the martyrs stands on Cliffe Hill. Bonfire Night is spectacular but very crowded.

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