![[Picture: Gatehouse, Battle Abbey.]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Ball-Sussex/pages/118-Gatehouse,-Battle-Abbey/118-Gatehouse,-Battle-Abbey-q75-675x451.jpg "[Picture: Gatehouse, Battle Abbey.]")
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The abbey at Battle commemorates the Battle of Hastings in which William the Conqueror defeated King Harold on 14th October, 1066, to become the King of England. The buildings were used as a school from approx. 1918 until 1976. It is now run by English Heritage, although Ivor White has made a Web page about Battle Abbey that, if not perhaps academic, is certainly entertaining.
Official English Heritage Battle Abbey Web Page.
There is also a medieval castle wallpaper verision of this image.
[Battle Abbey was] the result of a vow paid and of the accidental site of a battle. Moreover, Battle, thus artificial, was by far the wealthiest of all. At the time of the dissolution Hammond, the last abbot (who surrendered with great pusillanimity to Henty VIII. [in 1538], and against whom the gravest charges have lain), gave up revenues of £1000 a year in the currency of the times—far more than £10,000 or our [1906] money.” (pp. 118,119)
“Robertsbridge, however, is a paradise for any one, and contains or did contain in the cellars of its principal inn, the George, some of the best port at its price to be found in England. Within the drainage area of this river also stands (upon the Brede, a tributary) the height which was known until the Norman invasion as “Hastings Plain,” but has since the great conflict, supported the abbey and the village of Battle. The harbour mouth of this river is the town of Rye, a haven which it is still possible to make, though with difficulty, but which was until quite the last few generations a trading-place of importance.” (p. 44)
