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The town of BATTLE - a ten-minute train ride from Hastings -
occupies the site of the most famous land battle in British history.
Here, on October 14, 1066, the invading Normans overcame the Anglo-Saxon
army of King Harold, who was killed not by an arrow through the eye - a
myth resulting from the misinterpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry - but
from a workaday clubbing about the head. Before the battle took place,
William vowed that, should he win the engagement, he would build a
religious foundation on the very spot of Harold's slaying to atone for
the bloodshed and, true to his word, Battle Abbey (daily: April-Sept
10am-6pm; Oct 10am-5pm; Nov-March 10am-4pm; £4.30; EH) was built four
years later and subsequently occupied by a fraternity of Benedictines.
The magnificent structure, though partially destroyed in the Dissolution
and much rebuilt and revised over the centuries, still dominates the
town with the huge gatehouse, added in 1338, now containing a good
audio-visual exhibition on the battle. You can wander through the ruins
of the abbey to the spot where Harold was clubbed - the site of the high
altar of William's abbey, now marked by a memorial stone.
Though nothing can match the resonance of the abbey, the rest of the
town is worth a stroll. At the far end of the High Street, is the
fourteenth-century Almonry (Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm; £1) - the present town
hall - which contains a miniature model of Battle and the oldest Guy
Fawkes in the country. Every year, on the Saturday nearest to November
5, this 300-year-old effigy is paraded along the High Street at the head
of a torch-lit procession culminating in a huge bonfire in front of the
abbey gates; similar celebrations occur in Lewes.
The tourist office is at 88 High St (June-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm,
Sun 9.30am-5.30pm; Oct-May closed Sun; tel 01424/773721, ). Battle's
accommodation tends to be agreeable but expensive - a couple of less
pricey B&Bs are Abbey View , Caldbec Hill (tel 01424/775513; £60-70),
only two minutes' walk from town down Mount St, and the en-suite rooms
above the Gateway Café , 78 High St (tel 01424/772856; £40-50). Town-centre
pubs serving decent food include the Old King's Head on Mount Street,
the 1066 at 12 High St - both of which serve real ales - and the
Chequers Inn at Lower Lake, on the High Street.
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