| EAST SUSSEX |
| Battle Abbey |
In centre of Battle |
Though Hastings has given its name to the best-known conflict in English
history, the actual battle between William the Norman and Harold the Saxon
took place some 7 miles inland, on October 14, 1066, at the spot now
marked by Batttle Abbey. Built about 1070 by William, the abbey extends
along a low ridge - roughly where Harold drew up his troops to await the
Norman onslaught. The high altar marks the spot where Harold fell. Little
of the great church is left, apart from the foundations, but a good deal
of the monks' dormitory survives, with its vaulted rooms below still
intact. |
| Bayham Abbey |
Off B2169, 5 miles east of Royal Tunbridge Wells |
Bayham Abbey was built early in the 13th century and survived without
incident until it was dissolved by Henry VIII. A good deal of the
gatehouse survives, facing north across the river, while the remains of
some of the arches and piers at the east end of the church show what a
superb building it must have been at the height of its glory. |
| Bodiam Castle |
Off A229, 11 miles north of Hastings |
Round corner towers, battlemented walls and a gate-tower reflected in a
moat, make Bodiam Castle the perfect fortress of a child's imagining.
Though it seems to be in a pointless situation today, tucked away in a
valley a dozen miles inland from the sea, when it was built in 1385 it was
in a highly strategic position, as the Rother was navigable right up to
Bodiam Bridge. Within the walls a good deal survives, or can be easily
traced, including the great hall, chapel, kitchen and 'Ladies' Bower'. A
model shows the castle as it was in its heyday in the 15th century. |
| Brighton Museum and Art Galley |
Church Street |
A cheerful china cat, made in France about 1880, is among the pottery
and porcelain on show in Brighton's Museum and Art Gallery. There are
displays of Art Nouveau and Art Deco furniture and decorative art,
collections of paintings, drawings and musical instruments, and a Fashion
Gallery that tells the history and meaning of costume down the centuries. |
| Eastbourne Wish Tower |
King Edward's Parade, Eastbourne |
Immediately above Eastbourne's shingle foreshore, two relics of the
Napoleonic Wars have been turned into museums of military history.
Prominent on the seafront is the so-called Wish Tower, No 73 in the chain
of Martello towers built around the south coast in the early 1800s to
counter Napoleon's threats of invasion. It has been fully restored, with
displays showing what life was like in these squat forts when 'Boney' was
expected daily. At the eastern end of the front, the more substantial
Redoubt Fortress, built at much the same time, is now the home of the
Sussex Combined Services Museum. |
| Firle Place |
Off A27, 5 miles east of Lewes |
Though it looks from the outside like a large 18th century country seat,
the core of Firle is a Tudor house, built round a courtyard, with a great
hall as its main room. The home of the Gage family for almost 500 years,
it was built by Sir John Gage in the late 1400s. It was greatly altered
and adapted to the new Georgian style in the years up to 1744. There is a
fine collection of Sevres porcelain, and paintings by Van Dyck, Correggio
and many other masters. |
| Great Dixter |
Off A28 at Northiam, 11 miles north of Hastings |
Standing above the Rother Valley at the northern end of the village of
Northiam, Great Dixter is a magnificent 15th century timber-framed manor
house. It was bought in 1910 by the architectural historian Nathaniel
Lloyd, who commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to restore it and lay out the
garden. Though it looks all of a piece, it in fact consists of three
separate parts: the original house, to the right of the entrance porch;
the Lutyens extension, left of the porch; and a 16th century yeoman's
hall, behind the extension. |
| Hastings Castle |
Near centre of Hastings |
High on West Hill, fragments of stone walls and a few arches are all
that survive of William the Conqueror's great castle. William's first
Hastings Castle was probably a prefabricated wooden structure set up on a
motte or artificial mound in 1066; the stone castle, built a year or two
later, lasted only until 1287, when colossal storms swept away most of the
building. |
| Herstmonceux Castle |
Off A271, 5 miles east of Hailsham |
The palatial 15th century castle has for more than 30 years been the
headquarters of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Though the giant 98in
Isaac Newton telescope was moved to the Canary Islands in 1979,
Herstmonceux remained the nerve centre of British astronomy. Built by Sir
Roger Fiennes, a veteran of Agincourt, in the 1440s, the castle's exterior
is virtually unaltered. |
| Lewes Castle |
In centre of Lewes |
Built by William de Warenne soon after 1066, it is unusual among English
castles in having two mottes, or artificial mounds, on which wooden and
later stone keeps were constructed. The finest medieval survival is the
great Barbican or outer gatehouse, added in the 14th century. Outside the
castle walls the Barbican House Museum is the headquarters of the Sussex
Archaeological Society, and houses collections ranging from Saxon
jewellery to ancient kitchen utensils. |
| Michelham Priory |
Off A22, 2 miles west of Hailsham |
The black-robed figure of an Augustinian prior seated at his desk adds a
realistic medieval touch to Michelham, which stands, surrounded by a moat,
in countryside by the River Cuckmere. The priory was built by the
Augustinians in 1229, and though most of it was destroyed at the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, the spacious Prior's Room
survives, as does the vaulted undercroft, or cellar, below it, and the
tall gate-tower by the moat. Behind the priory a 'physic garden' has been
laid out, containing herbs used in the Middle Ages for cooking and
medicine. |
| Pevensey Castle |
Off A259, at Pevensey |
Though old Pevensey village is now a mile inland, in former centuries it
stood right on the shore, strategically placed on a vulnerable stretch of
coast. The village is dominated by the mighty walls of Anderida, one of
the Forts of the Saxon Shore built by the Romans in about AD 300 to guard
the coast against Saxon raiders from across the Channel. William the
Conqueror came ashore somewhere near Pevensey in 1066, and soon after the
Conquest his half-brother, Robert of Mortain, built a medieval castle
inside the Roman walls. It was fortified again during the Second World
War, when the medieval towers were made habitable and pillboxes were
constructed on the keep. |
| Royal Pavilion |
Brighton |
The onion domes of the Royal Pavilion suggested to the Regency wit
Sydney Smith that the dome of St Paul's in London had come to Brighton and
pupped. A simple classical villa when first built for the Prince Regent,
its exterior was redesigned by John Nash in 1815-22 in the 'Indian style'.
The interior, including the Banqueting Room, was lavishly decorated in the
'Chinese style'. |
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