Bodiam Castle and Battle Abbey

Well, I'm getting a bit behind on the blog entries so I'll get straight into it! On the Saturday of Easter weekend, the three of us (Dotti, Ben and I) set off for 1066 country, 1.5 hours away: first stop, Bodiam Castle! This is an amazing old moated castle in a typical medieval style (square-shaped with corner towers), built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dallyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III. It was used in the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

As we walked up to the castle, it started sleeting little balls of ice on us, which continued sporadically all day in between the rain and snow and occasional sunshine. It kind of added to the gone-back-in-time atmosphere though! The castle was incredible and we definitely recommend a visit to anyone who gets the chance! We crossed the moat by footbridge, clambered up steep circular staircases, explored the hexagonal rooms, saw medieval toilets, walked around on the tops of the towers, and watched a video about the castle's interesting history as well as one about making and wearing armour.

Here are some photos – amazing isn't it?!

Afterwards, we had lunch at a pub called The White Hart, and then continued on to the town of Battle, where our destination was Battle Abbey. The Abbey was built between the years 1070 and 1094 by William the Conqueror. It was in memory of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when King Harold II of England was killed and William, a Norman who had brought his army over from France to fight the English, took the throne. That is why the area is called 1066 country and there are towns called Battle and Hastings there! It is believed that about 5000 English and 3000 Normans died during the Battle of Hastings, which lasted less than a day.

Anyway, Battle Abbey was also fantastic and very interesting. We had headphones with an audio tour, and we walked all around the battlefield, typing in numbers to hear the relevant commentary as we reached signs along the way. We walked down to the bottom of the hill, where the Norman army had assembled, and up the hill where they had advanced towards the English army at the top. It was sleeting and so freezing that our faces were numb – touching my chin felt like I'd just been to the dentist!

Reaching the top of the hill, where the Abbey is, we looked through the rooms on the bottom floor of the ruins, and even stood on the spot where King Harold was killed during the battle. We also walked in a crypt (meaning a basement rather than a tomb) that is all that remains of what was once the Abbey church (destroyed during Henry VIII's reign) – see the photos with daffodils below. There was also a great little ice store (a bunker-looking mound of dirt with a door in it) and a dairy (the little white building below). These days there's a school at the Abbey!

Anyway, visiting these two amazing places had filled up our day, so after a warming hot chocolate at The 1066 across from the Abbey, we set off for Hastings, where we would stay the next two nights (Sat and Sun) with our friends Geoff and Eunie. Here we rested from our sightseeing, enjoying fabulous food and great company, until it was time for Monday's adventures – which I'll tell you about in the next entry! Goodnight!