It was less than 10 miles away so even including the normal 15 minute fight with the car park credit card reader we arrived in plenty of time.
Battle Abbey and Battleground were quite busy. The problem with retirement is that you genuinely do forget what day it is. It’s only when I realised it was Saturday that the busyness made sense. Also, as it’s Saturday, very exciting to find out later who the Cobblers will lose to today!
No sun today but a bit milder so the walk around the site was pleasant. We got more than half way round when Kim noticed a QR code on the map that opened a really good App on the phone that gave lots of information on audio.
After viewing the battle site we climbed up to the ruins of the Abbey and sat in the ruins of the Chapter House and caught up with all the info. The account, perhaps understandably was slightly pro Harold and anti William. We wondered if the French language version had the bias on the other foot?
The Abbey is virtually all gone now - another victim of Henry and the Reformation. No tears from me on that score- never been much of a fan of the historical antics of the Roman Catholic Church! The old Abbots house still remains as a very impressive private prep school. Obviously this bit was closed to the public!
It was all very atmospheric as we took on board the enormity of the history that took place under our feet 954 years ago. As it turned out it was the anniversary earlier in the week - 14th October!
We had a very pleasant lunch in the onsite cafe. The veggie nachos were a hit and Kim enjoyed her tuna baked potato. A quick run up the keep tower to take some pictures and then we turned our back on the most influential site in English history and headed into the wee town of Battle.
It didn’t take us long to walk up and down the small, but quant, High Street. Culminating in a bit of book reading in the town square opposite the entrance to the Abbey grounds.
This put me in a bit of a contemplative mood and wondered why this sort of impressive set up couldn’t be replicated for the second most important battle site in English history- Naseby? The nearest we get to celebrating 1645 is to build a motorway right through the middle of it - don’t get me started?!
We went home via a garden centre (we wanted a Pampas as they are everywhere here ... no luck) and Sainsbury’s in Eastbourne to get some provisions and tea for tonight.
Another quiet night in. This time no backgammon and This Is Us. 5 episodes of Schitts Creek on Netflix instead! The WiFi here is rubbish and all this streaming has used up all my 4G data - I’ve used 27 megs in 3 days!!! Oh and yes the Cobblers did lose again - Plymouth away this week.
40th wedding anniversary tomorrow - gee, it only seems like yesterday!?!
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