What’s On – upcoming services and events

Sunday Service at St Thomas à Becket

All special events and tours throughout the year are listed here (and always more to come!)
NOT listed here is our weekly 9.45am Sunday Service.
Festivals in the Church of England Year are on our Worship page.
To ask about adding an event here, email our website editor.

Church tower guided tours

Climb the tower, see our ancient clock and bells

Saturday 28th June, 11.30am – guided tour

Tour includes introduction to church interior; climb the spiral stair to the second-oldest (1670) turret clock in Sussex; up to the belfry – lovely and very special oak bellframe dates from around 1400.

Not many belfries survive like this, and hardly any that are easily reached by stairs. Hear the big tenor bell strike twelve!

Not to be missed – only £5. 

Full info and all dates to September.

Archbishop Thomas Becket

Celebrate St Thomas' Patronal Festival

Sunday 6th July, 4pm

All are welcome to this special Sung Evensong with choir for our Patron Saint, Archbishop Thomas Becket, kindly supported by the Choral Evensong Trust. Members of the East and West Sussex branches of the Prayer Book Society are also invited. Our singing will be led by a special choir drawn from the congregations of St Thomas, St Anne’s and St Michael. Organist: Peter Hanson. After the service there will be refreshments and a short history talk in Cliffe Hall

Saint Thomas’s shrine was completed 805 years ago, on 7th July 1220, in a new chapel behind the high altar at Canterbury Cathedral, so we are delighted to hold this special service as our Patronal Festival. No charge for refreshments, retiring collection.

Church tower guided tours

Climb the tower, see our ancient clock and bells

Saturday 12th July, 11.30am – guided tour

Tour includes introduction to church interior; climb the spiral stair to the second-oldest (1670) turret clock in Sussex; up to the belfry – lovely and very special oak bellframe dates from around 1400.

Not many belfries survive like this, and hardly any that are easily reached by stairs. Hear the big tenor bell strike twelve!

Not to be missed – only £5.

Full info and all dates to September.

Church tower guided tours

Climb the tower, see our ancient clock and bells

Saturday 26th July, 11.30am – guided tour

Tour includes introduction to church interior; climb the spiral stair to the second-oldest (1670) turret clock in Sussex; up to the belfry – lovely and very special oak bellframe dates from around 1400.

Not many belfries survive like this, and hardly any that are easily reached by stairs. Hear the big tenor bell strike twelve!

Not to be missed – only £5.

Full info and all dates to September.

Church tower guided tours

Climb the tower, see our ancient clock and bells

Saturday 9th August, 11.30am – guided tour

Tour includes introduction to church interior; climb the spiral stair to the second-oldest (1670) turret clock in Sussex; up to the belfry – lovely and very special oak bellframe dates from around 1400.

Not many belfries survive like this, and hardly any that are easily reached by stairs. Hear the big tenor bell strike twelve!

Not to be missed – only £5.

Full info and all dates to September.

Summer Fair 2024

Cliffe Summer Fair

Saturday 23rd August, 10am-12.30pm, beside the church

Our annual summer fair, now an amazing 615 years old – we had permission for markets and fairs from King Henry IV in 1409. Come to hear us read the king’s charter and declare the fair open. Lots of tempting stalls – jam (of course), delicious home-made cakes, plants, plants, fruit and veg, great choice of books for grown-ups, jewellery and bric-a-brac. Plenty to try for in raffles and tombola. In the adjacent Cliffe Hall if wet!

Donations to  the stalls welcome by 10am please. 

Church tower guided tours

Climb the tower, see our ancient clock and bells

Saturday 23rd Aug, 11.30am – guided tour

Tour includes introduction to church interior; climb the spiral stair to the second-oldest (1670) turret clock in Sussex; up to the belfry – lovely and very special oak bellframe dates from around 1400.

Not many belfries survive like this, and hardly any that are easily reached by stairs. Hear the big tenor bell strike twelve!

Not to be missed – only £5.

Full info and all dates to September.

Church tower guided tours

Climb the tower, see our ancient clock and bells

Saturday 6th September, 11.30am – guided tour

Tour includes introduction to church interior; climb the spiral stair to the second-oldest (1670) turret clock in Sussex; up to the belfry – lovely and very special oak bellframe dates from around 1400.

Not many belfries survive like this, and hardly any that are easily reached by stairs. Hear the big tenor bell strike twelve!

Not to be missed – only £5.

Full info and all dates to September.

St Thomas à Becket, Lewes

Ride or Stride between churches for charity

Saturday 13th September, 9am-5pm
Cycle, run or walk today between as many Sussex churches as you can manage. And raise money for the church of your choice and for the Sussex Historic Churches Trust. Include St Thomas a Becket Church if you like, or go further afield. See the best of our historic churches, have great fun and help us raise money! Call Kate on 07708 014 313 for entry form. Full info at Sussex Historic Churches Trust

Winding hops round a 600-year-old pillar

Harvey's Brewery Annual Harvest Thanksgiving Service

Saturday 4th October, in Church, 11am

The church is decorated with Harvey’s hop bines, beautifully and aromatically, for this very popular service which is open to all. Not to miss – get there early, it’s always packed!

 

Sussex Harmony Quire

Advent Carol Sevice with Sussex Harmony Quire

Sunday 30th November, 3pm

Sing Advent carols, and thrill to the Sussex Harmony Quire, an enthusiastic band of singers and instrumentalists in costume and playing period instruments. Their vibrant, beautiful and thoroughly entertaining music is a wonderful revival of rural church and chapel quires from 1700 to 1850. Wine, soft drinks and mince pies afterwards. Retiring collection.