Accommodation tariffs in Brighton are as steep as its pebble beach. Looking for places out of town, I spotted Hastings and thought how neat it would be to finish off the Bayeux Tapestry story with a visit to the field of battle. Then I discovered that 6 miles away from this place where William probably landed his forces, is a place called Battle. This little town has the Abbey, that Pope Alexander II ordered William I to build as penance for all the Saxons and Normans who died there, at its heart. We stayed in a little Pub B&B right across the road.
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The Abbey Hotel - Battle, East Sussex
Shelly the barmaid was very welcoming and the
chef was a real whiz with flavours. |
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| The Abbey Gate house was built in the 1300s |
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On this field in 1066, William became the Conqueror and beat Harold's Saxons after a long day. The battle began in early morning fog and ended after dusk. The Pope had decreed that Harold's broken oath, made on holy relics, removed any claim he had to the throne and supported William's request for invasion. England was carved up, 25% of land wealth was owned by the Church, 25% by the new Norman Barons, 20% by King William I and the remaining 30% by small free holders and merchants. Norman French became the language of the aristocracy and Feudal Law introduced.
Big changes from what happened on this field. My back is to the stone ruins in the photo below. |
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The gravel sections show the floor plan of the original, wooden 'Battle Abbey' built by William's men.
The plaque in the foreground is where archaeologists think that the high altar was which is said to be the spot where
King Harold fell and died. The stone ruins were living quarter extensions for the monks and built after William's death. |
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| What is left of the monks dormitory. Long drops were built into the walls on the left. |
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| Inside the lower level. I would imagine that even with a large fire and skins covering the windows, it would be very cold. |
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| Floor plan of the wooden, original Abbey |
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| This gate leads from the Gate house area into the private grounds of the school that has operated in the remaining buildings since 1912. Children from 4.5yrs - 18yrs attend, some of the older ones are borders and must get brassed off at the nosey tourists wandering around every weekend. |
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| Charlie didn't care so much about the history but saw a great many squirrels that made him very excited. He jumped through a gate here to chase down a mouse he thought he saw. |
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Fancy Elevensies? Maybe one of Mrs Burton's cream teas? I wonder if she makes peanut brownies too?
Both outside the gates of the Abbey and opposite the hotel. |
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| 1300s Gate house of Battle Abbey |
Just before you go thinking that I am a complete nerd, organising our family trips around historical points of interest, I must explain that this trip began as a desperate attempt to head south for more sun before the autumn afternoons sog us in. We were heading for Brighton beach because Willow and Petal hadn't seen the Prince Regent's Pavilion whose interiors are really one of the marvels of the Regency era. Woops - that is an historical POI! I must finally be resigned to my nerdism.
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The center half of the Pavilion's facade. The council bought it off Queen Victoria who didn't like staying so close to public scrutiny. She emptied the place of furnishings, carvings even the wall paper. In a stroke of brilliance the commisioners of 1850 decided to try and restore it. Today's council still put all the proceeds towards restoration and staffing to make it available to us. No photos allowed inside so I have taken the following images from their website. http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/RoyalPavilion Nash drawings from http://austenonly.com/2011/06/22/the-royal-pavilion-brighton-and-dress-for-excess-part-2/
Charlie is very intent because he has seen the very confident giant squirrels that live in the park.
We also saw big rats out in the sun fossicking through the litter. |
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The dining room has a huge ceiling fresco of palms and a great metal sculpture of a dragon hanging on the chandelier chain
Right: A tiny sample of the hand painted wall papers. Every room is a different colour with a different botanic design. |
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The Dining Room. The red door - back right leads straight to the serving area and leads to the kitchen.
Prince George liked his food hot! |
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| The music room under another dome. Even with lots of dancing the Prince kept all the fires raging when he entertained leading to many ladies swooning in the crush of guests. |
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| Nash's original design sketches and how the Long Gallery looks today |
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| Prince George hired the best Chefs from around Europe to serve in his kitchen's. He spent as much time planning these as he did the entertaining rooms. He built windows into the roof to reduce the heat of working conditions and had every area of a professional kitchen laid out in its own space so his Chefs had room to practice their artistry. Another design idea was tiled corridors running between all the major rooms so staff could get around the palace without every having to be seen by him or his guests. He ordered special tiles form the Netherlands so the servant spaces were all colour coded. He also had a special secret stair way built between his apartments and a room above where he would house his current mistress. |
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Prince Regent during his father's mental illness
George IV for 10yrs (until his death - 1830) |
Luckily the girls seem to be unaffected by my nerdy tendencies, still I managed to get them on the Pavilion tour with friends who had trained down from Cambridge by paying for their entry tickets. At £9 for students this wasn't as generous as it sounds! I also unashamedly bullied them into it by saying that one of Willows friends, who is a very good artist and designer(she won the 'design a T'shirt' comp for the 5 Seconds of Summer Tour in Italy) needed to see the fantasy style decorations of an extravagant royal with an obsession for the orient.
When free from the obligatory tour, the girls spent the afternoon hunting through all the little streets of the town . They found more vintage stores than bags in a recycle clothing bin, lots of tiny pedestrian street markets, stores that sold band T'shirts and a local icon that even has its own TV reality show - Choccywockydodah.
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| Summer collection at Chochywoccydoodah. DVD of show available at ABC stores in Aus - or online. |
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| The first of a warren of little streets full of interesting places |
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| For a black Bowler and a gold trimmed Tricorne |
We parked at the Trafalgar parking station which was very secure and had a low rate for all day parking. M found a store called 'The Mad Hatter' that had a wonderful collection of new, reasonably priced head wear. He finally found an English hat to add to his collection. At a little Moroccan goods store on Sydney street I bought a dozen Fez blue tea glasses that I hadn't been able to buy when there because they would have smashed being bumped around in my wheelie bag for another 10 days. Very pleased! £20 may be double what they were in Fez but a lot less than what I have seen them selling for in the big homeware stores.
M and I headed for the beach after a cream tea at the Pavilion. We found that dogs weren't allowed on the Pier but we tried with me carrying him, no luck, a security guard told me to get him off. I went and waited at the end while M had an explore.
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| Bunting forever - follow it around corners for market Sts |
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| True for both Willow and Petal |
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| A fairly impressive bottle collection in this antique store |
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| Poor Charles not allowed on the Pier |
Lots of people in running gear and 'Dulux Color Run' T'shirts (don't know why they spelled colour wrong) were walking past or stopping in at the many ice cream and frozen yogurt stores at the pier entry. Those walking east were still sparkly white but those going west were covered in coloured chalks which are thrown over participants at the finish line. Even some of the guys were wearing coloured tutus too. The Brighton event seemed to stagger registered groups through the day which is different to the giant 26 000 people that all set off at once in Philadelphia this year. Each different location has a different charity partner to spread the love. Profits from registration fees go to them. As we drove out of Brighton that afternoon we saw lots of dulux coloured people sitting oddly in their cars - trying not to rub the chalk onto the upholstery.
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| Out on the Pier |
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| Looking back towards Brighton from 1/2 way down the Pier |
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| Finishing off the day with a thrill |
M rented a couple of deck chairs on the beach while I had a wander down the pier. In the day light it looks a little sad but people were having a great time on the rides and trying to win ugly stuffed toys at the coconut shy. I imagine with the sparkle of lights and the shadows hiding the ugly corners it could be a magical place with a group of friends. The girls went on a roller coaster that ran around the end of the pier, adding a wide open spaces - screech, I don't want to fall off into the sea way down there - sort of thrill.
The deck chairs turned out to be a stroke of genius, M, Charlie and I decided to bask in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. M was nursing a pulled muscle and I felt Petal's cold taking grip on my sinuses. We both got a bit of colour without having to resort to running or chalk. Charlie kept an eye on the gulls and other dogs passing by but preferred to curl up on our knee rather than make a nest on the stones.
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| The stones were smooth on my feet and the sun lovely and warm - not hurty hot! |
As the girls pointed out - Brighton really can be a day trip from Cambridge on the trains (change in London). We had such a relaxing time we just might do that another day.
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| Time to head off - the Pier is just beginning to light up. |
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