New Site for English Camp

New Site for English Camp

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. 

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. 

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.