The ‘Lewes Group’ comprises five related schemes of wall painting, executed within the period c.1080-1120, in the Sussex parish churches of Clayton, Coombes, Hardham, Plumpton and Westmeston. It is possible that either Clayton or Hardham, or both, were owned by the Cluniac Priory at Lewes when the paintings were executed. The name of the group has arisen from the belief that there was a connection between the paintings and Lewes Priory, and it is retained here for convenience, though it will be argued below that even if the connectian did exist its significance should not be over-emphasised. Three of the five churches - Clayton, Plumpton, and Westmeston, - lie at the foot of the South Downs, near Lewes. Coombes is in the Adur Valley, near Bramber, while Hardham is some distance away from the other churches, on Stane Street, a mile to the south of Pulborough. The churches themselves are all fairly primitive and small, consisting of a rectangular nave and chancel, though Clayton may also originally have had low transepts and Coombes a west tower. The walls are of flint or other rubble, pierced by very small single-splayed windows; these have since been replaced or complemented by larger openings, at some damage to the wall paintings. Although the siting of all the churches now seems rather remote - especially Coombes, which is only reached by crossing a field - at the time the paintings were carried out the Sussex Downs and coastal plain were a prosperous and heavily populated area, with considerable arable farming, a thriving salt industry, and an important port at Shoreham. The present high importance of the Lewes Group paintings derives from their exceptionally early date, the comparatively large amount of painting which still survives; and the fact that they are a group, rather than just isolated survivals like virtually all other Romanesque wall paintings in England.

Unfortunately, although five Lewes Group schemes are known, one of them has been destroyed completely. The paintings discovered beneath post-Reformation layers at Westmeston in 1862 were almost immediately destroyed, and are now known largely from the poor account and copies published by the Revd Heathcote Campion.