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| Outside Battle Abbey Gatehouse |
It's been a big day! I think I am trying to squeeze too much into too little time, but I'm still standing, so hopefully I can slow down the pace soon.
I really wanted to see the battlefield and Abbey at Battle (Bit of an unoriginal town name that!)
The battlefield was where the actual Battle took place between King Harold and William of Normandy. It was amazing to see the actual field where the battle took place and the audio guide was fabulous. If anyone is interested, there's just a very short video from Rick Steves
You can see the town and the abbey and the actual field as well.
I loved going around and hearing all the history and also seeing the Abbey as well. Abbeys are really big over here. Of course the monks were very wealthy in their day until Henry VIII started the great dissolution and took all the wealth to himself and granted the land to his buddies. I guess that's why we have so many ruins over here..!
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| Look at all the daffodils. Spring is definitely in the air |
The picture above not only shows the beautiful daffodils, but in the background is the hill where the battle was fought in 1066. Over 7000 men were killed.
Apparently both Harold and William both thought they had legitimate claims to the throne so the only way to settle it was with war. William was from Normandy in France and Harold was English.
William was waiting for a favourable tide to sail from Normandy to Hastings, but just when the time was right, Harold had to go to York to fight the Vikings. He had a big journey up there, won the battle and then had a big journey back to Hastings. So they were pretty worn out when they actually fought the battle against William's men.
Anyway, William won and became William the Conqueror, and he really is the father of all forth coming English dynasties. Apparently the Brits were never invaded again after that and became conquerors themselves.
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| Another view of the Battlefield. |
The Abbey was also interesting. Here's a few pics....
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| Abbey Ruins |
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| More Abbey Ruins |
Anyway, that was the morning and I loved it! Always enjoy learning about historical things.
Next thing was a nice cup of coffee in the tea rooms, then back on the road again... but that's another story....
We spent a lot of time exploring Battle and the battle site, trying to imagine what it would have been like. Isn't it great that the site has been preserved for all these centuries and not had a carpark plonked on it.
ReplyDeleteYes it’s amazing to think this is where the actual Battle of Hastings took place. History in front of us.... that’s one of the good things about the uk.... so many historical sites.
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