Pillow Pets

I decided to do a big clean this morning, so I moved all the furniture to sweep the floors.  Apparently I moved the girls' pillow into the perfect location.

Melting Oysters

An Oyster Card is the London Transport System's electronic ticket.  You load them and the use it like a debit card for any public transport in the city (tube, train, bus or boat).  You then touch them to the reader at each station to enter the tube or bus or whatever you're trying to travel on.

And thankfully, they still work after you forget to check your husband's pockets before doing laundry...

Where England began

 

In case we weren’t sure beforehand, I have an absolutely wonderful wife. A few weeks ago on our way down to Brighton she agreed to visit a small town just outside of Hastings known as Battle. Hastings is commonly referred to as the site where William Duke of Normandy defeated King Harold Godwinson and England as we know it began, but the actual location of the conflict was further north. After having landed on the south coast of England near Pevensey on the 28th of September, William constructed temporary fortifications outside Hastings in order to fortify his position in southern England. Just two weeks after making landfall William then road north to meet King Harold and his army of more than 8,000 on the fields surrounding Caldbec Hill in what is now the village of Battle.

In one fateful day of fighting William’s army of 7,000 managed to overcome the English army holding the high ground perched atop Caldbec hill. The days fighting extended into the evening even though King Harold had fallen earlier in the day and it wasn’t until the next morning that Harold’s body was identified as one of the fallen previous days clash. With the death of King Harold, William continued his march on London and eventually entered the city in December of 1066 where he was crowned King of England on Christmas day in Westminster Abbey.

A few years after claiming the English thrown (1070), William the Conqueror, at the behest of Pope Alexander II, began construction of an abbey on the site where King Harold supposedly fell during the battle. As you’ll see from the photos a bit further down the Abbey has since been demolished with only a footprint of what would have been an impressive structure still visible.

As is generally the case here in England it was windy, cold and rather wet on the day of our visit to Battle but that didn’t discourage us from make our way around the battle field huddled under umbrellas while listening to one of the better walking guides we’ve come across.

From the path you can get a pretty good idea of the task facing William’s army as they prepared to charge up the hill and into battle nearly 1000 years ago.  The importance of maintaining the high ground was arguably far more important in William’s day than it is today as an army’s ability to inflict casualties from above was considerably greater when the primary standoff weapons were throwing spears, bow & arrows and trebuchets. 

While the main Abbey Church was deconstructed shortly after Henry VIII dissolved the Catholic Church in England there remains a series of cellars that were presumed to be either office spaces or guests quarters for visitors of the Abbey along with the ruins of the Dorter and Common Rooms and a very well preserved ice house.

 

 

Within the footprint of the Abbey, where the high alter once stood, a monument to the spot where King Harold fell in battle has been added to commemorate the spot where the course of English history was forever changed.

The grounds covering the Abbey and Battlefield are currently run by English Heritage so of course we had to make a stop in the gift shop. I must admit that the life-sized suit of armour is high on my list future acquisitions and they certainly had a few decent replicas for sale. However what I wasn’t expecting to find was this! (Be glad Alisa, Amanda said Quentin was too young still.)

Where was the toy Trebuchet when I was a child, that’s all I’m asking?