Battle of Hastings - Routes from the Shore to Hill Fort

Routes from Port of Hastings to Second Fort ( 53'53.66"N 31'30.23E )

There are several routes up from the Port of Hastings. 

1. The Western Route

The graph below shows the profile of the route up from the western side of the Port of Hastings inlet near the reputed site of  Hastings Priory ( 51'20.75"N 34'38.33"E) to the Hill Fort. 

So the maximum gradient is just under 5 degree for 200 metres at around 4.4 km from the shore (the shore being on the left). This is the quickest route from the Port area and therefore the route which dictates which side of the inlet the Bastard landed on. 

2. The "Middle" Routes

There are two routes from the inside of the inlet. They join at
51' 54.53"N 34'58.53"E and at 40 m a.s.l. I think these are modern routes out of the new town centre but I've included them for completeness. 

A. Elphinstone Road Route

This route is only a kilometre longer than the "western route" but is quite punishing as the incline starts off at 2 degrees but steadily steepens to over 6 degrees towards the top.  The profile from 2.2 km is shared with the remaining routes. 

B. Mount Pleasant Road Route

This route is longer than the other route starting from the same place but does not have any gradients steeper than 4.5 degrees. The shared height profile with the Elphinstone Road route starts at 4 km.

3. The Eastern Route

The graph shown below is the height profile of the route from the Castle (51'22.09"N 34'38.35"E) to the Hill Fort.

This route is nearly 10 km in length  as opposed to  6.4 km for the western route. Also the maximum gradient on this route is nearly 6 degrees which comes immediately at the shore.  The height profile is the same as the Mount Pleasant route from 1.6 km and the Elphinstone route from 4.6 km.

The Old Manor of Hastings

As an aside, isn't there some debate about the Manor of Hastings prior to 1066? It's like saying that the Old Town was in fact the New Town in 1066 after the Normans completely flattened the existing Manor. How about the area of Hastings known as "Blacklands". Could the name suggest that the area was burnt out at some time? The area sits on the 20 metre contour, so it would have had access to the inlet, and is south facing in parts but protected from the dominant south-westerly winds. Also a fairly faint path leads to the Ridge. 

The route to the Ridge is interesting because it starts in St Helen's Park Road and then goes along the bottom of the lower houses on Shining Cliff as a feature in the landscape. It then seems to become a footpath before emerging onto the Ridge as St Helen's Park Road. There does seem to be a fork in the path which leads to St Helen's Church as an alternative. 

When the route reaches 125 m a.s.l it merges with the last 4 routes. 

Battle of Hastings - Comparison Tables for 1066 Battle and Camp sites

Comparison Tables

TABLE 1

Suspected Battle Site            Distance from Hastings*      Suspected location of English Camp

Senlec Ridge                            5.98 miles                               Caldbec Hill

Caldbec Hill                             6.49 miles                                Caldbec Hill

Netherfield Hill                       7.6 miles                                    Netherfield Hill

Netherfield Hill                       7.6 miles                                    Netherfield Church

Netherfield Church                  8.45 miles                                  Netherfield Church

Netherfield Church                  8.45 miles                                  Darwell Wood

Darwell Wood                        approx 9 miles                            Darwell Wood


* That is Hastings Old Town and distance measured "as the crow flies".

Red Highlight - Already proved to be wrong ( at least "no evidence to support a battle took place here").

Amber Highlight - Doubtful but not impossible.

Green Highlight - My solution.

TABLE 2

Suspected Camp site              Bearing from Telham Hill Fort

Caldbec Hill                            313 deg

Netherfield Hill                       313 deg

Netherfield Church                  312 deg

Darwell Wood                        309 deg

So from the table above, a light on Netherfield Hill or from the Netherfield Church area could be confused with light coming from Caldbec Hill but Darwell Wood is some 5 degrees off. 

TABLE 3

Suspected Camp site             Line of Sight angle**

Caldbec Hill                              -0.511 deg
                   
Netherfield Hill                         -0.380 deg

Netherfield Church                   +0,040 deg 


Darwell Wood                            +0.156 deg   

** Flat Earth calculation

Taken with Table 2 above the results show that there could be confusion between the Caldbec Hill site and the Netherfield Hill site but not with the other sites. Since it is reported that "lights were seen on Caldbec Hill" by the Norman lookouts, you have to wonder what the lookouts were drinking!


                 

Battle of Hastings - The Battle Site?

The Battle Site?

I took a very old fashioned "slice" through the Earth from Telham Hill fort (53' 53.90"N 31' 30.20"E) to the Netherfield Church area (56' 29.35"N  26' 53.11"E), a distance of about 7.2 km, and plotted the result. It revealed a very interesting profile. We start off at 141 m a.s.l and descend to 100 m at the 1 km mark before rising again to 108 m after a further 400 m. So from 1.4 km from the hill fort to 2.6 km the ground descends from 108 m to 55 m. Then the ground rises to 64 m at about 2.9 km before dipping back down to 53 m at 3.2 km. The ground then rises to 103 m in 600 m and this is the summit of Caldbec Hill. After the summit of Caldbec Hill, the ground descends to 41 m a.s.l at 4.6 km from the hill fort. From here the ground rises to 109 m at a distance of 5.9 km before dipping slightly to 103 m after a further 500 m. From this point until the Netherfield end of the cross section the ground rises to 144 m and 7.2 km from the fort on Telham hill.

There are two slight rises in the profile before Caldbec Hill is reached. the first occurs at 1.4 km from the hill fort and the second is at the base of Caldbec Hill in the area of the railway line and Norman Close. The first rise has an additional slope at right angle to the cross section and I think unsuitable as a battle site. The second looks more promising in that the terrain looks favourable but this area has the main London to Hastings railway line cutting though it and a modern development on its south facing slope. So if the battle took place here then hopefully someone would have noticed all the battle debris and done something about it.

According to research by Nick Austin, all  manors were "wasted" in the area but how did the monks at Senlec Ridge get the money to build such a magnificent Abbey?  And didn't the late Mick Aston of Time Team fame suggest that the Doomsday Book was not accurate when it came to ecclesiastical manors?  I think that the manors within one and a half miles of the Abbey site were not so damaged thus the manors were able to contribute to the building works in labour, material and money.

Since Time Team  found no evidence of fighting on either Senlec Ridge or Caldbec Hill, one has to assume that Caldbec Hill is not the site of the English camp the night before the battle as there are no further suitable battle sites between the Normans on Telham Hill and Caldbec Hill.

I also want to dismiss my chosen camp site at Darwell Wood for the site of the battle. Although it's a good lookout position, given the battle didn't start until around 9, I would have thought Harold would have wanted to ensure William actually fought him on ground that was unsuitable for William's cavalry. This means that there has to be some very wet ground in the vicinity of the battlefield.

My preferred site for the battle is the end of the slice taken above at 56' 29.35"N  26' 53.11"E. This area seems to be on the old London Road, Also it is situated on the end of a east- west ridge which makes sense of Williams decision to split his force into three. The site is more or less undeveloped so there has been not so many unreported finds. A nearby spring could well have supplied the wet ground and remember hadn't there been a big storm within the last 3 weeks? The site also has a steep incline and a not so steep incline to take account of the many different reports we have of the battle.

Not so far from this site ( to the Northeast) lies an odd collection of place names. We have Crowhurst Farm and Crowhurst Wood, Goldspur and Burnthouse Woods. Then even further northeast we have Battle Wood and Duke's Wood. A kilometre south of Battle Wood there is Archer Wood. Slightly to the north of Battle Wood we have the manor of Mountfield. Also to the west of Mountfield we have the closest earthwork ( for the reported last stand). I haven't done any research into these names but I suspect that they are 18th or 19th century romantic ideas.

Well, that's the end of my "Thoughts on the 1066 Battle" blog. I will continue my research into the place names above to see if there is any significance in them but I doubt there will be but I'll let you know.

P.S If I can get this thing to play I will post a picture or two.

Important Sites

Important Sites

PLEASE REMEMBER TO GET ALL THE NECESSARY PERMISSIONS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ON THESE SITES. I'M POSTING FROM NORWAY SO I DO NOT KNOW THE NATIONAL AND LOCAL REGULATIONS REGARDING ACCESS TO THE SITES. 

Looking at my stats, I see that I have no readers in the UK. So using UK National Grid References to denote the locations I've looked at is nonsensical. 

I have put together a short list of the locations I have mentioned in my blog posts so those with access to Google Earth can follow the action as it where.

Williams's first Fort at Pevensey

 49' 09.32" N  20' 02.56"E

 ( All sites start with 50deg N and 0deg E)

Base of Standard Hill - Approximate landing place for William's Cavalry

52' 35.49" N  24' 21.05"E

Hastings Castle - Built in the 1080's on eastern side of inlet

51' 22.09"N  35' 05.09"E

Hastings Priory - Suspected site of William's 2nd landing

51' 20.75"N  34' 38.33"E

Second Fort Site - Shore fort in the vicinity of Cambridge Road

51' 18.64"N  34' 26.27"E

Third Fort site - Hill fort on top of Telham Hill

53' 53.66"N  31' 30.23"E

Where Harold Fell - According to monks and English Heritage

54' 52.22"N  29' 15.67"E

Caldbec Hill - Suspected English camp site of John Grehan

55' 16.18"N  29' 03.21"E

Netherfield Hill -  One of my suspected English camp sites

55' 56.33"N  27' 59.18"E

Wood near Netherfield Church - My suspected battle site

56' 29.44"N  26' 52.85"E

Opposite the Entrance to Battle Golf Club - Another suspected battle site 

55'56.59" N 27' 42.96"E

Darwell Wood - My suspected site for the English camp

56' 54.99"N  25' 43.26"E

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New Site for English Camp

New Site for English Camp

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Previous location for the English Camp

Caldbec Hill has been cited as the site for Harold's last night before the Battle but there is a major problem with it, namely no evidence of the battle has been discovered either at Caldbec Hill or at the official site at Senlec Ridge. This leads me to suspect that the site of the last camp is further north.

Also look at the Bayeux Tapestry panel 50. This has been interpreted as a scout looking south from Caldbec Hill and then going to tell King Harold. Now if King Harold was on Caldbec Hill why would the scout have to go to the next hilltop to speak with Harold? 

Three possible new sites

I've considered three possible sites along the suspected route to London. They are Netherfield Hill, just outside the entrance to Battle Golf Club, Netherfield Church/ Netherfield Down area and Darwell Wood. 

My Preferred Site

Darwell Wood is my preferred choice as from there one can see most of the area being occupied by the Bastard. Also as the area from Robertsbridge to Etchingham ( River Rother inlet ) was under several metres of water it would have been difficult for William to sneak past or outflank Harold. However saying that, it is at an angle of 309 degrees from Telham Hill fort and not the 313 degrees that Netherfield Down, Netherfield Hill and Caldbec Hill all lie on. 

It's interesting to note that later the hill in question was used as a triangulation point for the Ordinance Survey. 

According to some website I looked at, I think it was a site linked to the Darwell family, the family took possession of the manor in the 1100's from one of the Henrys as a sweetener for moving to East Sussex from his native Normandy. Hmmm, could the manor have been lying fallow up to that point due to excessive damage?

Netherfield Hill site 

This site has an advantage over the other sites considered in that the bearing is very close to that of Caldbec Hill and given it's elevation a camp set up here could be confused with a camp set up on Caldbec Hill. 

I'm a bit worried however about where that leaves the battle site. Given the long list of requirements for a good defensible position it's very hard to come up with a suitable candidate. There is a hillock at TQ 730 173 which could serve but I remain unconvinced. 

Netherfield Down / Netherfield Church site

This site is again on the same bearing as Caldbec Hill but slightly higher elevation so more difficult to confuse the two sites I would have thought. Again if Harold had camped here, where could the battle site be? Somehow I don't think the English would have wanted to fight so close to their own campsite.  However this site looks a good candidate to being the actual battle site - more on that in a later post. 

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Onward!

Welcome to a new post on 1066 events.

Right, we left the Norman infantry at Pevensey and the cavalry en route to Port of Hastings.

Before I advance my story forward a word about sea levels. Currently Pevensey Castle is about 7 to 9 metres a.s.l (above sea level) while Hastings Castle and the church built roughly at the same time ( circa 1080 -1090) are built on the current 20 metre contour. The later Hastings Priory is built on the 12 metre contour. I believe this shows that the sea level has changed considerably since 1066 times and what was on the coast then may not be now.

So to sum up.
The high water mark could not have been greater than say 19 metres thus making the datum in 1066 about 11 metres higher than today. The explaination of the heights around Pevensey being that the land has shrunk down as the water has receded.

Main body movement

When the Bastard thought it prudent, he transferred to the Port of Hastings and set up operations there. According to the Bayeaux Tappestry(BT), he built two forts, one higher up than the other. Nick Austin has interpreted this to mean that the forts where in line of sight of each other. I prefer a simpler explaination - one was at the top of the hill and the other was at the bottom. So where are the forts?

East or West?

The opening of the inlet where most believe the Port of Hastings was, is  deeper on the eastern side than on the western side and yes the Castle is on the deeper eastern side of the entrance. However, this does not tally with the BT, which shows the classic Norman hill fort behind and elevated with respect to the shore fort.

Another clue as to which side they landed concerns the route to the second hill fort ( on top of Telham Hill). The route from the western side is some 3km shorter than from the eastern side and is easier to negotiate with respect to gradients. If they landed on the eastern side they would have to climb to 143 metres a.s.l before descending to 126 m at the roundabout of Battle Road and the A2100 before climbing again to approx 139 m for the fort. On the western side, there is only a need to get to 126m at the roundabout and consequently 139 m to reach the fort.

A point to ponder is that the later Hastings Priory ( built in the reign of Richard the Lionheart)was located on the western side of the inlet - was this a nod to his triumphant ancestor?

The Shore Fort

I haven't pinned down the exact location of the Shore fort, however I think it is in the region of Cambridge Road. My reasoning is that most of his supplies would have been landed on the shoreline near where the Priory was built and he would have wanted a secure location to protect himself and his cronies from the locals. This makes more sense than building a fort on the other side of the inlet away from his troops and supplies. Also easy access to the track leading up and away from the shore would be needed too.

The Hill Fort

This, for me, was the easiest bit of the puzzle as the mound upon which the fort was built still exists.
It's the mound at the side of the A2100 going towards Battle. It conforms to known tactics of the Normans so therefore ideally located for their purposes.

General

I think it was a clever move by the Bastard to destroy so many ships/boats once they landed at Hastings. On the one hand it encouraged the troops and on the other, it cleared up the inlet to allow other boats to moor up.

Additionally, the BT shows that ships timbers were used to construct them. So, I think that there were were a few ships lost during the storm when they set off. Maybe no important people were lost but supplies were.

P.S

 I'm working to create a few graphics to show 1. the lopsided inlet channel to explain the siting of the later Castle and 2. the height profiles of routes from the hill fort to the the east and west sides of the inlet.