The Avalanche at Lewes: East Sussex (1836)

‘The Avalanche at Lewes’ depicts a rather gloomy yet chaotic scene, as bystanders and family members assume the role of the rescuer in a desperate and frantic search for their loved ones. The painting, by an unknown artist, encapsulates the harrowing day of 27 December 1836 when 15 people were buried and eight died after a large accumulation of snow avalanched off the western slopes of Cliffe Hill. It engulfed a row of seven workers' cottages on the eastern edge of the town of Lewes.

An eye witness account in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser stated: ‘The mass appeared to strike the houses first at the base, heaving them upwards, and then breaking over them like a gigantic wave. There was nothing but a mound of pure white’ (Johnson, 2019).

The townspeople were said to have carried out a rescue operation where seven people, including a 2-year-old girl named Fanny Boakes, were successfully pulled from the debris. It will be surprising to most to discover that as a result of that day, East Sussex is regarded as the home of Britain's deadliest avalanche—a term that is almost synonymous with winters in the deepest darkest mountains of Scotland, North Wales and Northern England.