The Battle of Hastings

During our summer visit to Hastings in 1984 David and I went to the neighbouring town of Battle to look at the site of the Battle of Hastings. I have no idea why nobody else came with us but I'd like to think that the ladies had something even more special to do that day.

Even in those days, when the 'interpretative centre' was pretty basic, it was very easy to walk over the site and visualise the stages of the battle. This picture looks across the stream and up to the ridge which the English occupied. Late in the battle the English, who appeared to be winning, left it and poured down the slope to chase the apparently defeated Normans. As a result they lost the battle.

The stream runs into Sen Lac, the lake which turned red with blood during the battle and which is supposed to be haunted by a Saxon lady whose husband was killed in the battle. Because the Norman army camped on Telham Hill, where Telham House, occupied by my prep school, Glengorse, is sited, she was also supposed to haunt the building on the anniversary of the battle. This was taken as an excuse by some of the braver boys to venture out of the dormitory late at night to see if they could see her.

This is the spot where, in a last stand, Harold and his House Carls died. William was generous with his defeated opponent, building an abbey on the site. However, Harold's body was carefully 'disappeared' so its last resting place wouldn't become a place of pilgrimage.