Battle

What a difference a good night's sleep makes!

We woke up in St. Leonard's On Sea feeling refreshed and hungry and ready for more adventures.  You might be wondering why we chose St. Leonard's On Sea as a destination.  Well, we didn't really, that's just where the hotel was.  Our true destination was Hastings, which was about 1 mile down the coast.  Hastings has the honorable distinction of being home to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the start of the Norman conquest of England.  The battle actually took place 8 miles to the north at Senlac Hill which is now in the town of Battle.  The Battle Abbey and Battlefield is an English Heritage site and it was our main destination for Saturday.

Ron is a war and history buff, so you can imagine how delighted he was to learn that his great x 32 grandfather was William the Conqueror.  Before discovering this, Ron would have been interested in the history of the Battle of Hastings, but knowing he was related to the victor made it of even greater interest.  But there was another reason we were interested in Hastings - we are great fans of Foyle's War, a British television series set in Hastings during and after World War II.  We also wanted to visit the town of Hastings, and we discovered after we booked our hotel that portions of an episode of Foyle's War were filmed there!  How cool is that!?

The Royal Victoria Hotel - St. Leonard's On Sea

The beachfront right across the street from the Royal Victoria - even on a gray day the coast is beautiful

To get to Battle, we had to get in the car and drive again.  It is safe to say that we lingered and took our time before heading out.  Neither one of us was particularly eager to drive through small towns whilst dodging buses on the right and trees and curbs on the left.  It was also raining, so that gave us a more concrete excuse for not setting out earlier.  Finally, around noon, we mustered up the courage to approach our nemesis:

Despite my fears of being killed in it - this car looks amazingly innocent and dent free on the left side; except for the divet in the left front wheel.

The drive to Battle was fairly uneventful.  Small country roads are much easier to navigate than the twisty-turny lanes of South London.  Besides, it was daylight and Ron could actually see where he was in the lane so I was far less inclined to lean to the right and push my feet through the floorboards.  The GPS led us directly to the Battle Abbey and we found a public parking lot adjacent to the Abbey and battlefield.

We entered the site through the medieval gatehouse:

Battle Abbey Gatehouse

Our first stop was the exhibition center where we saw a short film about the Battle of 1066.  They also had some artifacts from the time period on display.  Then we started the walking tour of the battlefield and Abbey.  There are two routes for the battlefield tour, and because it was raining, we opted for the shorter route that looks down on the battlefield rather than the longer tour that takes you onto the battlefield.  Our tour took us along the Monk's Terrace, a peaceful dirt path overlooking the battlefield:

Monk's Terrace

As we walked along the path, our audio guide told the story of the battle:

The battlefield

The hill in the distance is where the Norman troops camped the night before the attack

Opposite the battlefield is the guest range - the guest quarters are no longer standing but the cellars, dating back to the 13th century, are intact and you can walk through them:

Guest Range and Cellars

Inside the cellar looking out onto the battlefield

As we continued along the path we saw where the abbey stood; nothing is left of the abbey except an outline in the grass.  Most of the Monk's Dormitory is still standing though:

Monk's Dormitory

Vaulted under croft of the Monk's Dormitory

Beautiful and intricate rib vault in the under croft

Side view of the Monk's Dormitory and the Reredorter (latrines)

Remains of the Chapter House in foreground and the Abbott's House in the background.  The House is now the Battle Abbey School.  The remains of the Gothic cloister is the row of arches on the ground floor.

As we continued along this path:

Path leading south to the battlefield

we saw a Hobbit Hole:

Frodo was here

and signs of spring!

These white flowers were already blooming and purple crocus were just beginning to emerge

We lingered until the site closed and we exited through the backside of the gatehouse:

Battle Abbey Gatehouse

We ran into one small problem, we needed change to get out of the parking lot and the gift shop had closed.  We went into the village of Battle and looked for a place to get change. 

High Street - Battle

View down High Street

This looks like the perfect place to get change!

And since we're here...

We'll have a hot chocolate

I'll have a hot cross bun - toasted with butter! Yum!

And Ron will have a cheesy scone with butter

After our tasty and warming snack, we drove to the Hastings Pier, which was also featured in Foyle's War.  Little did we know that it had been destroyed by fire in October 2010.  We parked along the coast and walked into what appeared to be the center of town.  It was getting late and we were quickly losing light - but I was still able to get a few shots of downtown Hastings:

Robertson Street

A lovely church on Robertson Street

A sort of flatiron building at the corner of Robertson Street and Cambridge Road

On our way back to the car, we walked through an underground passageway that was decorated with scenes from the Bayeaux tapestry:

Kinda cool to see it BIG - we saw the Bayeaux tapestry during our visit to France in 2000

We drove back to the hotel, without incident (I think we're getting the hang of this opposite/opposite driving thing!), and warmed up in our room while looking for a local restaurant.  We found a very nice restaurant, St. Clement's,  within walking distance, on a small street behind the hotel.  Their on-line reservation feature indicated they were booked up for the evening, but we decided to see if they had room for us anyway.  They did!  We had a very nice dinner there, and if you're ever in St. Leonard's On Sea, we recommend St. Clement's for dinner!