Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Not too difficult this week, no privileged access to restricted databases required to find the most likely answers, which near as I can figure it, seem to me to be:

Q1. Lewes

Q2. Gideon Algernon Mantell

From the initial clues given, it looks like the author is in the town of Lewes, in Sussex. There is a ruined priory there which was built c 11th century and was dedicated to a St Pancras (feast day 12th May, and patron saint of teenagers). I found some references which claim that the nave of the priory's church was 432 feet long and that Anne of Cleves was given a house there (c15th century) as part of a divorce settlement from Henry VIII (he obviously had a keen sense of irony over removing the head of someone called Cleves and decided upon the payment of a domicile instead). The priory of St Pancras according to some sources, was built by an earl called William de Warenne.

An American born art collector who caused a bit of controversy in the town and who lived for a time in Lewes house, was a chap known as Edward Perry Warren, he had lots of bohemians and hippies staying with him and some of the local nosey parkers, led by a Mary Whitehouse type woman called Kate Fowler Tutt, went crazy when he loaned Rodin's statue, 'The Kiss' to the town hall c1913-14 (Philistines, PR stunt to drum up visitors to the exhibition or both, who knows?). A surgeon, who was born  in Lewes c1790 and whose hobby was reconstructing fossilized dinosaurs, including iguanodons, was Gideon Algernon Mantell.

Lewes castle does indeed have two mounds of earth or mottes as they are known in the trade, upon which the fortifications stand and does have octagonal towers (some sources describe them as semi octagonal). It was, according to several references I looked at, built by William de Warenne.

Things were going well for the de Warenne clan and in 1264, they invited King Henry III down from London, for the St Pancras bank holiday weekend. They were in the castle popping a few pills and dancing to The Yardbirds, when someone came running in shouting, "The Rockers are here!". They ran to the northwestern side of the town and charged up the hill to a point about 104 metres (344 feet ) where they clashed with the Rocker hordes, who were steaming down the hill and about half their number. They were led by a guy called Simon de Montford (battle of Lewes). I found a contour line marked 100 metres on the ordnance survey map which shows the site of the battle, which is close enough to be in the right ballpark but I digress, there were beer bottles and deck chairs flying everywhere and during the melee, a policeman's helmet was knocked off and one of the king's team (a prince Edward) decided to pursue a contingent of the enemy, who'd left the battlefield to get some beers. This action caused the king's side to be defeated and his majesty fled and holed up in a night club called 'The Windmill' in a rough part of  town, from which he was later ejected by the bouncers for noising up the bar staff and given a good kicking by the waiting rockers........

Link to the competition:

Sunday Times Where Was I?