Battle, 1066 Trail, Rye

This will be a fairly long post as it was a really, really long day. I started in London, taking the train to the small town of Battle in East Sussex. Battle is the site of the famous Battle of Hastings (Hastings is a town on the English Channel, not too far away) where the Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English, commanded by Harold Godwinson. It took a good 90 minutes to get there by train, followed by a brief walk to the town center. After the battle, William had the below Abbey built on Senlac Hill, the actual spot where the battle took place and Harold, the last Saxon king, was killed.

Having read so much about the battle, it was interesting to finally see the landscape on which it was fought. Harold certainly picked his location well. Senlac Hill is much steeper than I would have imagined. Prior to the Abbey being built it was even steeper as the top had to be levelled for construction. By placing his army on such a steep hill, Harold was able to negate some of the advantage the Normans held in their use of cavalry. Below is a photo of a pond at the bottom of the hill, the area at the bottom is quite marshy. The second photo is of the Abbey atop Senlac Hill, taken from the Norman position.

After walking the loop around the battlefield and checking out the museum, I set off on the 1066 Country Walk. This trail runs from the town of Pevensey on the English Channel (where William the Conqueror is thought to have landed) to Battle, continuing on to the small medieval town of Rye. I was picking up the trail roughly half way through, as it is approximately 31 miles long and the stretch I planned on hiking was 15 miles. It started out well enough and it wasn't long until I was in the East Sussex countryside.

It is very pretty country with sheep absolutely everywhere. In fact, there was quite a bit of wildlife; everything from rabbits to sheep, pigs, horses, chickens and even more sheep. I had a couple maps but not the suggested surveyors map. After all, it's England not Alaska, how hard could it be to find your way?!? Well, these country walks are very different from anything in the States. You literally are walking through people's fields and backyards, jumping fences and climbing walls. Apparently in the UK you are allowed to walk anywhere, as long as you leave to place in the same condition in which you found it. It's a neat concept but made it particularly hard to follow any sort of designated path. Below are a couple pictures of the trail.

I wish all parts of the trail were as clear as these two pictures. As you can probably tell, I eventually got lost. I wasn't the only one as I met, and hiked with, a guy from Essex who was attempting the do whole trail in one day. He eventually gave up and walked into a town. I pushed on for awhile until I realized that I was hopelessly lost. I came across a older guy taking photographs and asked for directions. He pointed out a distant church steeple and told me which town it was in. It was at that point that I realized I had somehow hiked almost in a complete circle. At that point I made my way to the nearest town, determined to figure out a better means of getting to Rye. Below is a picture of one of the many flocks of sheep and one of the (far too few) signposts.

Determined to expedite my journey to Rye I caught a bus on the edge of a town. Once in Rye I grabbed some fish & chips and settled on a bench by the waterless River Tillingham to take a break. Even though the fish still had the scales on them (which I hadn't seen before) it tasted pretty good.

Rye is one of the medieval port cities which made up the Cinque Ports Confederation. The Confederation was tasked with the defense of the coast and, in return for their service, did not have to pay taxes. The town sits atop a steep hill and has a very maritime feel about it. Unfortunately for Rye, in the 15th century the port began silting up and Rye now sits 2 miles from the English Channel. This all but stopped the growth of the town, allowing it to retain its small town, medieval charm to this day.

There are a lot of neat little shops, restaurants and inns in Rye. I made my way to the 900 year-old St. Mary's Church in the center of the town. The below picture is from the church's graveyard looking in towards the town. The second picture is of the church's clock, the oldest in the country, which supposedly inspired the nursery rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock". The third picture was taken as I approached the church.



I then walked a block over to the Ypres Tower (below) which is on the edge of the town facing the Channel. It was originally built in the 12th century as part of the town defenses. The second picture below is taken from the front of the tower, looking out towards a wind farm in the distance (note all the sheep in the foreground).


Just as it started to rain I made my way to the train station in Rye to head back to London. I was definitely worn out and exhausted but had a day I won't soon forget!