GPX File here
On Monday the 7th August 2023 I drove to Battle and parked up for free on Mountjoy (TN33 0EQ).
I walk down onto London Road and up to the Roundabout where a statue of King Harold is mounted on his horse.
I walk on down High Street and reach The Almonry and Battle Museum of Local History, which is closed as its so early.
A house has most likely been on the site of what is now known as The Almonry since 1090 when the town was first laid out. The first rental, dated about 1107, is in the Battle Abbey Chronicle, an account of the Battle and the founding of the Abbey which was written by the monks and is now housed in the British Library.
It never was an Almonry but the Almoner did own land behind the present Market site and Western Avenue. The house was known from the early Middle Ages as KNIGHT’s taken from an important family which owned land in the Leuga – the one league radius round Battle which the Conqueror gave to his new Abbey.
Records show that the property was part of the Abbey Estate and had a number of tenants until it reverted to the Abbey in 1800. It was sold in about 1930 and remained in private ownership until the early 1980’s when it was acquired by the County Council. The Town Council purchased the site in 1987.
The present building is a good example of the type of oak framed timber house built after the years of decline following the black death and was originally a five bay hall house built in the C15. It has since been partially rebuilt, added to and some parts even demolished over the centuries. Most of these changes, including the addition of chimneys, took place in the C16 and C17. An unusual feature of the building is an internal courtyard which also has a well. It is set within delightful gardens which have won gold awards in the South & South East in Bloom competition.
The Museum covers 125 million years of history with displays including dinosaur footprints, artefacts from a Roman Bathhouse, a battle-axe believed to be the only relic of the battle of 1066, the oldest effigy of Guy Fawkes, domestic items from the 19th century and militaria from World Wars 1 and 2.
I walk on down the High Street pass many old buildings.
Battle is the site of, and named after, the Battle of Hastings, where William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold II to become William I in 1066.
I reach the entrance of Battle Abbey, closed but I'll be visiting later. I walk on to my left. Had I bothered to check my route I could see I should turn right and pick the path up there. But I was planning a different rote earlier that would have taken me left. Anyway I found out later!
I have amended the GPX file so you follow the correct route and a mile less walking!
In 1066, the area was known for its salt production, with today's Netherfield ward within a large wealthy ancient hundred called Hailesaltede.
The town of Battle was gradually built around the Abbey, and later developed a reputation for the quality of the gunpowder produced in the area. The first gunpowder mill in Battle was built in 1676 when John Hammond was granted permission to build a mill on land owned by the Abbey. A gunpowder works was located in Powdermill Lane – the remains of which have been converted into a hotel.
The local Battel Bonfire Boyes is claimed to be the oldest of the Sussex Bonfire Societies. The importance of Bonfire Night in Battle is that it is located in the wooded Weald of Sussex. Most of the area was heavily wooded, which provided oak and other timbers for Navy shipyards, power for making cannons (shipped to Portsmouth or Chatham), cannonballs and gunpowder.
I walk alongside the Abbeys Precinct Wall.
I pass the 12th Century Church of St Mary the Virgin on my left.
14th Century timber-framed building, John Hammond, the last Abbot of Battle, lived here for eight years after the Dissolution and died here.
I turn right and walk down Powdermill Lane.
I can see across the 1066 battlefield and to Battle Abbey.
I pass Battle Railway Station and its a little further on along the busy road that I realise I've taken the wrong route. I hop over a fence and I am now trespassing in the Battle Abbeys grounds, but don't worry I pay later when I visit!
I hop over a gate at the other end and walk up and join the 1066 Country Path and I'm back on track!
I walk on and through Powdermill Wood, thankful of some shade.
Powdermill Wood is a varied, peaceful wood. It has ancient origins and once supplied charcoal to make gunpowder in nearby Battle. Today some timber harvesting takes place. The Powdermill Trust owns and conserves the wood for its interesting and varied wildlife and habitats. A large part of the reserve is alder-carr and a board walk traverses the swampy areas.
Leaving Powdermill Wood I cross a road into another field on my way into Catsfield.
I cross one last field before walking out onto Powdermill Lane and into Catsfield.
Catsfield was first documented in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it was recorded "there is a little church serving the hall". It is one of the oldest settlements in the area, with Romano British period archaeological remains.
The village once consisted of two manors: Catsfield and Catsfield Levett. Thomas Lyvet (Levett) held the lordship of the manor of Catsfield in 1445 but forfeited it, along with the lordship of Firle, for his debts. But the manor of Catsfield Levett remained in the Levett family for centuries, and in the seventeenth century a Levett heiress carried it into the Eversfield family. (Richard Lyvet of Firle was lord of the manor of Catsfield in 1431.) With a fortune built on ancestral landholdings and later on iron making, the Levetts held land across Sussex. The parish church is dedicated to St Laurence.
I pass by a gorgeous cottage, could see myself living there!
I walk pass the White Hart Inn and stop off at the post office and shop for a drink and a nice samosa. Next door is The Sausage Shop.
I take a footpath next to the Post Office and pass the Horse Pond.
I walk on through Eight Acre Wood.
I eventually emerge onto the A271 at Steven's Crouch which I cross, the path goes to the left of the house below on the A271. I didn't see this and walk through the grounds and onto the path there.
I am still following the 1066 Country Walk and I walk on towards Tent Hill.
I reach Tent Hill with amazing views across to the South Downs.
I can see Ashburnham Place sitting down below.
Ashburnham Place is an English country house, now used as a Christian conference and prayer centre, five miles west of Battle, East Sussex. It was one of the finest houses in the southeast of England in its heyday, but much of the structure was demolished in 1959, and only a drastically reduced part of the building now remains standing.
The village of Ashburnham was the home of the Ashburnham family from the 12th century. The family became wealthy through their land holdings in Sussex and around Pembrey in Carmarthenshire, and later from their participation in the Wealden iron industry. Only the cellars remain from the earliest known house on the site, dating from the 15th century. This house was abandoned in the 16th century and confiscated by Queen Elizabeth I. The Ashburnham family recovered their estate under Charles I, and John Ashburnham was a loyal servant of the King. He was forced to sell the estate to the Relf family in the English Commonwealth, to pay fines levied for supporting the King. John Ashburnham recovered the estate again after the English Restoration. His grandson and namesake, John Ashburnham, was created first Baron Ashburnham in 1689. The house was largely rebuilt to designs of the neo-Palladian architect Stephen Wright and the local direction of the builder John Morris of Lewes, ca 1757–61.
By the late 19th century, the family was under financial pressure, and offered to sell the library, including its collection of illuminated manuscripts, to the nation in the 1890s for £160,000. The deal did not go ahead, and the books were sold piecemeal for a total of £228,000 over the next few years. Many were acquired by the British Library, but, for example, the sixth-to-seventh-century Ashburnham Pentateuch is in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris. The Earldom became extinct on the death of Thomas Ashburnham, 6th Earl of Ashburnham in 1924, and the house was inherited by his niece, Lady Catherine Ashburnham. The house was damaged when a fully loaded Marauder bomber crashed nearby during the Second World War, and dry rot set in.
Lady Catherine was the last of this line of the Ashburnham family and the estate was inherited by Reverend John David Bickersteth (1926-1991), a great-grandson of the 4th Earl, on her death in 1953. In addition to the prospect of huge repair bills, he was also saddled with crippling death duties of £427,000. The contents of the house were sold at auction at Sotheby's in June and July 1953, and half of the estate was sold in the next few years. The house was mostly demolished in 1959, reducing the central section to two floors and the wings to a single story.
The house is Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England and they are a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
I walk down off Tent Hill and down to a bridge across a stream at the bottom.
I walk through the area of Penhurst.
The cows ran off as I approached and didn't have to squeeze by.
I pass a blacksmith making a horseshoe and take a footpath on my right. This footpath is overgrown, full of rubble, uphill and generally heavy going. This isn't fun!
The horrible path eventually comes to an end and I am walking around the edges of farmland now.
I pass through Link Wood and out across Penhurst Lane and cross Little Sprays Farm.
I cross Homestead Farm, where I strayed off the path due to lack of signs and end up walking through several electric fences. I thought this cant be right. A female farmer helped me back onto the track.
I make my way through another area where the path isn't clearly marked or visible and eventually walk out onto Battle Road.
I walk down Battle Road passing The White Hart and down into Netherfield.
Netherfield is a linear village, a small population spread out for over a mile along a high ridge.
Towards the west of the strip of properties that line the hilltop are the post office and shop, with an adjoining café which automatically creates a nucleus to the village.
I choose to stop on a bench near the café to have my lunch before walking on down the road for some distance.
I take a path on my right across Netherfield Down.
I pass a pond by Toll Wood and walk on by.
I walk through Netherfield Place Farm and pass a Horsebox converted into a glamping experience.
Click below to see more about this...
Not sure I'd be happy having a bath outside next to a footpath though!
I walk on downhill and into Ashes Wood.
I eventually emerge by Pond By at Beech Mill and an oast attached to a house here.
I pass through Beech Farm home to many units housing businesses.
Here is the hone of Battle Brewery, not open sadly.
In the distance I can see the windmill in Battle.
King's Mead Mill (also Battle Windmill or Caldbec Hill Mill) is a grade II listed smock mill at Battle, Sussex, England, which has been converted to residential accommodation.
King's Mead Mill was built in 1805, replacing a post mill. The mill was working until the First World War and in 1924 was stripped of its machinery and house converted. The work was done by Neve's, the Heathfield millwrights.
I walk on towards Battle.
Now a uphill battle but the end is near.
I emerge onto the London Road and I walk on to visit Battle Abbey. Out the front of the Abbey was a Bride and Groom having photos taken.
Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St Martin of Tours.
The triple light window depicting the life of St John and the crucifixion of Jesus is claimed to have once adorned Battle Abbey which dates from 1045, removed during the Cromwell era to protect it from destruction. The legend goes that it was hidden for many years until it was transported to Tasmania to be fitted to the eastern end of the Buckland Church.
A quick visit to the café here to get a drink before looking about.
I climb the stairs in the courthouse to see the view from the top.
Still dominating the town, as it was intended to, is the great gatehouse of 1338 and its adjacent precinct wall. The crenellations, arrowslits and wall-walk make the gatehouse look very defensive. The abbot of Battle had important responsibilities for the defence of the Sussex coast, especially during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). However, the gatehouse’s defence features would have been of little practical use and the building would not have been able to sustain a serious assault. Rather than being defensive, it is much more likely that the gatehouse had ceremonial and administrative functions. The monks would also have allegorised the building as the portal of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
William the Conqueror had vowed to build a monastery in the event that he won the battle. In 1070, Pope Alexander II ordered the Normans to do penance for killing so many people during their conquest of England. William the Conqueror vowed to build an abbey where the Battle of Hastings had taken place, with the high altar of the church on the supposed spot where King Harold fell in battle on Saturday, 14 October 1066.
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| View of Battle from the top of the Courthouse. |
William started building it but died before it was completed. The Vill survey of 1076 and early legal documents of adjoining property refer to a hospital or guesthouse which was attached to the gate of the abbey. The monastic buildings were about a mile in circuit and formed a large quadrangle, the high altar of the church being on the spot where Harold fell. The church was finished in about 1094 and consecrated during the reign of his son William II (commonly known as William Rufus). The king presented there his father's sword and coronation robes.
The first monks were from the Benedictine Abbey of Marmoutier; the new foundation was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, and St. Martin. It was designed for one hundred and forty monks, though there were never more than sixty in residence at one time.
William I had ruled that the church of St Martin of Battle was to be exempted from all episcopal jurisdiction, putting it on the level of Canterbury. The abbey was enriched by many privileges, including the right of sanctuary, of treasure trove, of free warren, and of inquest, and the inmates and tenants were exempt from all episcopal and secular jurisdiction. It was ruled by a mitred abbot who afterward had a seat in Parliament and who had the curious privilege of pardoning any criminal he might meet being led to execution.
Walter de Luci became abbot in 1139 and made several improvements. During the reign of Henry II of England, rival church authorities at Canterbury and Chichester unsuccessfully tested the charter. At the Abbey was kept the famous "Roll of Battle Abbey" which was a list of all those who accompanied William from Normandy. As time went on and the honour of descent from one of these Norman families was more highly thought of, unauthentic additions seem to have been made.
I walk around to the Abbey Ruins.
The church was remodelled in the late 13th century, but virtually destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538 under King Henry VIII. At the time of the suppression of the Abbey (May 1538), there were seventeen monks in residence. The displaced monks of Battle Abbey were provided with pensions, including the abbot John Hamond and the prior Richard Salesherst, as well as monks John Henfelde, William Ambrose, Henry Sinden, Thomas Bede and Thomas Levett, all bachelors in theology.
The abbey and much of its land was given by Henry VIII to his friend and Master of the Horse, Sir Anthony Browne, who demolished the church and parts of the cloister and turned the abbot's quarters into a country house.
The abbey was sold in 1721 by Browne's descendant, Anthony Browne, 6th Earl of Montagu, to Sir Thomas Webster, MP and baronet. Webster was succeeded by his son, Sir Whistler Webster, 2nd Baronet, who died childless in 1779, being succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother. Battle Abbey remained in the Webster family until 1857, when it was sold to Lord Harry Vane, later Duke of Cleveland. On the death of the Duchess of Cleveland in 1901, the estate was bought back by Sir Augustus Webster, 7th baronet.
One of the remarkable vaulted ground-floor rooms below the dormitory in the east range, which gives an impression of the quality of all the buildings at Battle Abbey before they were ruined. This was probably the monks' common room.
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| View of the Battlefield, |
The site of the Battle of Hastings is one of the least altered of medieval battlefields. In 1066 this part of Sussex was little populated, and the battle was fought on open land immediately south of the dense Wealden forest.
The ridge was held by the Saxon army, with the Norman forces attacking from the south. With perhaps 14,000 soldiers involved, fighting is likely to have spread along the ridge, now marked to the east of the abbey by the road to Sedlescombe.
The foundation of the abbey a few years later effectively preserved most of the battlefield, although no relics of the battle have ever been found there.
The centre of the Saxon line lies under the abbey buildings and outer court, but fierce fighting also took place on the southern hillside. This became part of the abbey’s great park, maintained primarily for hunting and exercise. After the Suppression in 1538 it became the estate park, and the land was generally used for grazing.
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| The Undercrofts |
The octagonal thatched Gothic dairy, built in 1818, and an underground ice house, both survivals of the abbey’s later life as a country house.
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| The Crypt |
Here is the stone plaque that marks the spot where King Harold died.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS?
In the early morning of 14 October 1066, two great armies prepared to fight for the throne of England. On a hilltop 7 miles from Hastings were the forces of Harold, who had been crowned king nine months earlier. Facing them on the far side of the valley below were the troops of Duke William of Normandy, who believed he was the rightful king. By the end of the day, thousands lay dead on the battlefield, and the victorious William was one step nearer to seizing the throne.
I walk along the precinct wall with views into Battle and St Marys The Virgin Church.
I leave the Abbey and walk back along the High Street stopping at The Battle Bottle shop and Tap room.
I have a half of Battle Brewery Harolds Eye IPA.
I also try Roosters Brewing Yankee Pale Ale, I buy 4 bottles of Norman Hunts Ciders that are brewed nearby and walk back to the car for the drive home.
