No School Today ?: June 2011

We were lucky enough to have to go to Hastings on business just as we were studying the Normans and the Battle of Hastings (amazing how we always seem to have a reason to visit the places we are studying) So after a very, very early start and quite a long trip, we arrived in the little town of Battle. I don't really know what any of us were expecting but it turned out to be very different than we imagined. It is such a beautiful little town, a lot smaller than I thought it would be.


The inside of this building was just amazing, we sat and had a coffee in here and it was amazing to think how many people had sat in this building and what it had seen over the centurys, the beams were original and the walls etc, if only walls could talk !

At the very top of the town is the entrance to Battle Abbey and the Battlefields.

The history of Battle Abbey falls into three phases. First, the site was a battlefield. On 14th October 1066 the hilltop on which the abbey now stands was crowded with King Harold's English army awaiting battle in an east-west line along the ridge. Across the valley to the south was Duke William's Norman army. Later, after the battle of Hastings, the hillside was levelled for the abbey building. These were laid out on a conventional plan, with an inner court to the south of the abbey church and an outer court to the west. Finally, after the Suppression in 1538, the abbey became a country estate, and many of the surviving buildings date from this time.

Once you get through the usual regulatory shop etc and all the other stuff that these places seem to put in, you go through to the information centre where you can pick up the different shields and weapons they used in the battle, then it is on through to the battlefield.


Olivia standing at the point of battle on 14th October 1066

I would highly recommend a visit here, they supply you with so much information and it is a self led tour which is great as you can go at your own pace, and keep going back over everything without feeling you have to hurry up. We found it very strange that a place that saw so much violence all those years ago was such a peaceful place to be. Olivia was able to visualise the history and places she had been studying and could see how difficult it was to make it up the hill with the enemy bearing down on them and why so many men didn't make it. It was amazing to think how this field was the location of one of the most important events in English history and yet it looked just like any other field.

We also looked around the ruins of the Abbey that was built at the top of the battlefield but this will be for a future blog !

Mark took the day off and the three of us went to the firecraft day held at Cockington in Torquay. It was a really good day with lots of other families there. We started off the day with a walk through the woods collecting different grades of twigs to get our fires going, then it was back to base to try to get the fire started. This proved to be more difficult than it looked !!

We started off with a bit of practise using the flint on a piece of cotton wool, the aim was to light it and let it melt. Some time later (quite a lot of time later) we finally managed to melt the little blighter so we could move onto the grown up stuff of starting a real life, proper fire !! All I can say is that we would probably not be able to survive in the outback just yet lol.