Posts Tagged ‘Sussex’

HIGH HALDEN — This morning I drove down to Battle to visit Battle Abbey and the site of the Battle of Hastings. I did the audio tour and took the long option which led you right around the battlefield. The site is not quite as it was in 1066 as the top of the hill was subsequently levelled to build the abbey and the field was terraced for the abbey’s use. There are probably a few more trees now as well—so you had to use your imagination a little.
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HIGH HALDEN — There’s not a lot of point leaving too early (unless you’ve got along way to go before your first stop) as most castles, abbeys, etc. open at 10:00 am. at the earliest.  I left the Old Store Guest House at 9:30 am. and twenty minutes down the road I stopped at Arundel Castle, home to the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk.
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HALNAKER — As luck would have it there is another Roman villa not far from Chichester at Bignor, and that is where I went for my morning’s sightseeing. Again, there is not much left of the villa itself except for its unearthed mosaics. There are some interesting comparisons between Fishbourne and Bignor.
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HALNAKER — Today I went to see something that’s been on my list of places to see for a long time: Fishbourne Palace. It is thought that this Roman palace began life as a supply depot for Claudius’ invasion of Britain before being enlarged to become probably the largest Roman palace in Britain. The museum showed how the palace was discovered, and how the it would have looked through the various stages of its development. There is not much of the palace visible—much has been reburied to preserve it—but the crown jewels of the site are the many mosaics that were unearthed and are now on display under cover.
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HALNAKER — Today I visited the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum just north of Chichester. Normally I try and visit two places of interest a day—one in the morning and one in the afternoon—but because the distance between Winchester and Chichester is so short, there weren’t a lot of places that appealed. This open air museum was one that did.
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