Smugglers Adventure and Pevensey Castle

On Easter Monday, the three of us set off from Geoff and Eunie's to explore Hastings, an old coastal town in East Sussex with a population of around 90000. We parked right near the beach and set off on foot, following the signs to Smugglers Adventure, which was to be our first stop. On the way, we got sidetracked by a great little second hand bookshop in an alley just off the esplanade, and emerged some time later with a book or three each.

After a bit more of a wander around, we took a short funicular railway (the West Hill Lift) up to the top of the West Hill, which rose steeply a street back from the esplanade. At the top were a couple of restaurants, large grassy areas, a lookout over a cliff with some rocks to clamber on if you're game (see photos from later in the day), the ruins of Hastings Castle, and our destination: the old smugglers' caves extending deep into the hillside! The view of the town (note the beach's manmade shape) from on top of the hill was excellent - see photos below...

Well, we spent a couple of hours looking through the caves, which have been turned into quite the tourist attraction and in our opinions were somewhat overdone with lots of arcade-style kids games etc! However, we had expected this after seeing the website but wanted to go anyway! There were also lots of educational displays, videos narrated by “Hairy Jack”, and life-sized mannequins set up in smuggling scenes (unloading boats, watering down alcohol, fighting with the customs men etc) – all inside the caverns and tunnels within the hill! No photos of this as the lighting made it difficult and my camera was almost flat!

The caves themselves were awesome – they are called the St Clements Caves and the earliest written reference to them is from over 200 years ago, when an old couple lived in them. They were used by smugglers in the late 18^th century, when smuggling was at its peak in England due to extremely high import duties. Then, they were re-discovered in the 1820s by a local grocer. In the 1940s, the caves were even used as an air raid shelter and temporarily housed about 600 people!

After we emerged from the caves, we spent a little while enjoying the view from the cliff-top lookout.

Then, after a quick trip back to Geoff and Eunie's to collect Ben's left-behind wedding ring (I never realised we were so forgetful until I started recording it for the blog!!), we set off along the coast to check out Pevensey Castle. It was very close to the beach, and had actually been William the Conqueror's base 17 days before the Battle of Hastings in the year 1066! We didn't end up seeing the parts of the castle that you had to pay to enter, but we had a nice walk around the grounds.

Pevensey Castle is in a fairly ruined state and has set a new record for the oldest built structure Ben and I have ever seen. While the actual castle is about 900 years old, the wall bordering the field around it is estimated to have been built around 290 AD – yes, over 1700 years ago!!! And that's it Ben is walking around on top of in the photo below!

After a hot chocolate at the café next to the castle, we set off for home, having enjoyed a wonderful weekend of history, exploration, and good company. :) Quite different from the sunny weekend of camping and beach activities enjoyed by many of you back home, but it was great to explore some of the places that are so close to where we live! :D Goodnight!

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!