Not many people, no matter how bad history was at school, can say they don’t know about the famous battle of Hastings in 1066. The battle where King Harold supposedly took an arrow in the eye which took his life.
In 1066 the nearest town was Hastings, the town of Battle did not exist. William had marched his men inland from Hastings and when they reached this point, they faced Harold and the Saxons waiting here on the higher ground of Senlac Ridge and the battle took place. When the abbey was founded here in the early 1070s, the monastery established the town of Battle to the north of the abbey precinct. A town provided labour and craftsmen for the abbey and the rents from the houses helped its finances.
William the Conqueror founded the abbey in about 1071, to atone for the terrible loss of life during the Norman Conquest.
30 April 2005
There’s one date in English history that everyone knows – 1066, the year the invading Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. There is just as much myth surrounding the conflict as known fact. The two armies did not even fight at Hastings, but at a place north of the town now named Battle. In the ruins of the abbey that King William later built to commemorate the event, you can imagine you’re standing on the very spot where the defeated King Harold fell. These days, a free interactive audio tour re-creates the sounds of the battle, as you stand where the Saxon army watched the Normans advancing towards them. With the Saxons occupying the higher ground, the Normans were forced to fight uphill. The battle raged for some hours with neither side gaining an advantage, until its course was decided when the Normans pretended to flee, but then turned back to cut down the Saxons who had broken ranks in pursuit. Open battle raged until the death of Harold, possibly through an arrow in his eye as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. In 1070, after William had ruthlessly crushed all opposition to his rule, he founded Battle Abbey to atone for the loss of life during the conquest.
Today, substantial portions of the abbey buildings remain, but little of the early Norman structure. Best preserved and most impressive of all is the Great Gatehouse, built C. 1338, the finest of all surviving medieval abbey entrances. The west range of the monastic cloister, incorporating the medieval Great Hall of the abbots, was adapted as a country house by Tudor and Georgian owners after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. The battlefield and abbey were purchased for the nation in 1976 with a generous gift from the US
The parkland of Battle Abbey in East Sussex includes the ground believed to be the site of the great battle fought in 1066. The ornamental park, essentially a creation of the 18th and 19th centuries, contains a number of earlier features, including quarries and ponds probably associated with the Norman abbey built in the wake of the conquest. The investigation of the area has identified some post-medieval garden features and the 'landscaping' of earlier quarries to make them look like more attractive natural hollows. Research has shown that a garden terrace along the south side of the abbey follows the line of a medieval 'park pale', or deer park boundary fence. Extensive remains of 'ridge-and-furrow' arable fields, representing at least two phases of cultivation, have been mapped.
This is a truly magnificent location for paranormal investigators, a place so steeped in history and mystery. One might well imagine that such an old building would contain a host of ghosts? It is said that the Abbot's House is haunted by at least three visible apparitions and at least two unseen! In the huge Common House constructed as a vast dining room for visiting dignitaries as well as the inmates, a Norman knight has been seen. Another knight is said to be seen walking across the battlefield.
http://www.paranormaltours.com
