It is thought that Simon de Montfort fought and defeated King Henry III at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 on Plumpton Plain. He gained a strategic advantage by using a night march to position his numerically inferior army on Downland high above the town. To avoid detection they ascended the Downs four miles to the north-west of Lewes up Warningore Bostal, a deeply-worn track that exists to this day. Before marching on the town de Montfort is reputed to have rallied his forces, wearing large white crosses on their tunics for identification, on Plumpton Plain. Although now no longer in place, within living memory a sandstone block at the centre of the cross bore the inscription 'Battle of Lewes 1264'.