"Summer 22 Holidays"
On return from our Norwegian cruise we took the caravan out for another trip to the Normanshurst Caravan site in East Sussex with our friend Sandra. From there we went to see two main laces of interest at Battle Abbey and Pevensy Castle.
Battle Abbey is a memorial established by the Normans after their conquest of King Harold's army at the Battle of Hatings on this site on the 14th October 1066. The story is a fascinating as although fairly evenly matched (around 6-7000 soldiers) firstly Harold was not really ready for battle having ony just arrived after walking from a previous battle at Stamford Bridge near York, not Chelsea football ground although there have been a few battles there also involving their football fans a few years back. At Stamford Bridge he had only just defeated another claimant to the English throne, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, on 25 September and had lost many of his men there.
There is a very good, and well explained, account of the Battle of Hastings on the English Heritage website. Essentially William won not just because of Harold's lack of preparation but also because he succeeded in fooling the English that they had won and then launched an effective counterattack when the opposition was least expecting it. He was undoubtedly lucky with these tactics but the decisive moment was when Harold was killed. We have all read the stories of how an arrow struck him in the eye but early accounts have him being hacked to death by 4 Norman Knights. Regardless of the true story English Heritage have gone with the romantic notion of the arrow and put a 10ft high arrow into the ground on the battle field that is visible from the grounds of the Abbey.
The upshot of this battle was that England would be forever ruled by the Normans and their descendants. William marched on London and he was crowned King of England on Christmas day 1066 and a generation later, the Normans had fundamentally transformed the country they had conquered from its culture, language and laws to the architecture of its buildings. Pope Alexander II ordered the Normans to do penance for the number of deaths on the battle field and William's answer to this was to build the Abbey in 1071. Unfortunately much of the original areas such as the crypt, the Redorter (latrine) and the monks quarters are in various stages of ruin.
On a beautiful days as it was when we visited it is undoubtedly a great day to walk around the grounds and see the ruins, and to look out on to the scene of the battle. It's also worth noting how pretty the town of Battle is.
The following day we visited Pevensy Castle which is also steeped in history from William's time. Pevensy was the site where his soldiers landed for the invasion which culminated in the Battle of Hastings and it is here that William rebuilt the castle from its original 3rd-4th century Roman structure into an impressive medieval castle. Pevensy is also an English Heritage site and once again they offer a detailed history on their website (click for info). Amazingly it was again pressed into service during WWII when military equipment was installed to blend in with the existing structure; this was done at a time when England expected a German invasion along the southern coast.
The original Roman Fort rebuilt by the Normans in the Middle Ages faced several siegs in its time and although its garrison was twice starved into surrender, it was never successfully stormed. After the medieval period (around the 16th century) the fort was largely abandoned and fell into disrepair; interestingly the structure was not demolished and used elsewhere, a fate the befell many buildings of that time. There is an excellent account of the history of Pevensey Castle on the following Britain Express website
Our final day was spent at Bodium Castle followed by a ride on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. This railway line had operated at a loss for many years before and after the war and apart from a short period in the 30's when the line was used to bring hop-pickers down from London there was simply a lack of paying customers and finally it closed for good in 1961 as a consequence of Beeching's cuts intended to make the railways more efficient. Preservation activities started almost immediately and in 1977 a partial re-opening occurred eventually to become today's tourist attraction offering an 11 mile journey from Bodium to Tenterden; as we were already at Bodium Castle it was only a short walk to catch the train.
A 360deg View from the top of Bodium Castle
