Battle of Hastings Reenactment - October 13, 2012

Well last week, October 13th, I decided to take a trip to Battle, to see where the Battle of Hastings was fought...that's right, it was fought at Battle, not at Hastings which is another 10min train ride from Battle.  when I bought my train ticket and entry ticket to the site, I didn't realize that it was the weekend of the reenactment!  Needless  to say, I was pretty stoked about this!

It was a pretty nice 1.5 hour train ride over, no changes or anything which is always nice.  I got there too early, because when I travel by myself I tend to look at things pretty quickly, even though I might go back and look again later on, which  I did here.  I got in around 11 and walked up from the station to the entry- not far, about a 15-20min walk.  It had rained when the train pulled into the station, which was annoying, but by the time I walked it was blue skies...but not for long.


So I got in, after buying my English heritage pass...which I'm pretty excited about using!  So I went in, and you're immediately by the gatehouse museum, which has some pretty steep windy steps (Mom you would have hated them and stood outside) .  There's also a school (Private property so you don't go wandering around), but still pretty cool it's a pretty old building, and how cool would that be as a kid to go to school on a battlefield!?

The Gatehouse Museum was interesting, if a little bare- just basically the inside of the building plus some old stones from earlier foundations, etc...  Still pretty cool, and a lot of little nooks and crannies to stick your head into and look around, and the room where the garderobe would have been (That's the toilet)...a nice hole in a stone wall.

After that I wandered around, following the trail to where the battle actually took place (although you couldn't go that far when I visited because of all the re-enactors, vendors, tents, etc...)  It was still a really nice day, a little chilly and windy...but it's England, you expect it.  I walked over to the ruins of the abbey, which was basically an old, empty stone building, but still pretty cool since it's almost 1000 years old!

That was basically all there was to do there- wander around looking at the battlefield, and ruins- and the spot where King Harold was killed during the battle is marked, which is also pretty cool!

The reenactment started, and so did the rain- off and on.  The reenactment began slow, the Anglo-Saxons came out and waited, then King Harold came out.  Then we waited and the Normans began to appear from the trees, and then the Norman knights came out (Everyone else was on foot), and then William, Duke of Normandy came riding out!  There was also a running commentary going on during all of this to let everyone know what exactly was happening. It was pretty much a general reenactment, they ran up, fought, ran back, fought, etc... and I left about half way through because there were some big black clouds coming our way, and I wanted to beat the crowd to the very small railway station.

The exterior of the Abbey

Overall it was a pretty fun day!  I highly recommend visiting Battle if you have the chance!

The stairs going down in the gatehouse museum

The exterior of the abbey

Where King Harold was killed

The crypt

This is what I stood for the reenactment

The Anglo Saxons are the ones closest to all the people

The ones in the distance are the Normans

Add caption

The gatehouse

The battlefield

The inside of the Abbey

Winchester Cont'd

So after I went to the Great Hall, I walked down the main street killing some time because the Cathedral didn't open until around noonish, and it was around 1100, I think.  As I was walking down the street, of course there is a street market going on filled with wonderful vintage and handmade items, but I resisted and only looked!  (Mom you would have been proud, yet tempted as well by some of the things!)   As I got to the Cathedral there was another market going on, a farmer's market!  So I walked around, had a crazy expensive crepe, and bought some blueberry cookies from a man who said Tennessee is on his list of places to see in the US!  

Well I finally got into the Cathedral, free because of this harvest weekend (I picked a good day to visit!), and was instantly amazed.  I love old churches and cathedrals.  It's still used for services even!  The only thing I was bummed about was not being able to see the mortuary chests that included the bones of Ethelwulf and Canute, both kings of England before 1066.... it's a history nerd thing....  

I did, however, see the tomb of Jane Austen for any literary nerds out there!

What I didn't get to see :(

The slightly creepy memorial in the crypt.

Jane Austen's memorial

Jane Austen's grave

And the last thing I did before I left was to visit, The Westgate, which, according to the website, is "...at the top of Winchester's High Street is a fortified medieval gateway and was a debtors' prison for 150 years. You can still see the prisoners' graffiti on the walls. "  Pretty small, and only took about 5-10 minutes to walk up the stairs, look around, walk up some more stairs, take some pictures and walk back down.  

The Westgate

I also discovered today if you click on a photo, it brings them all up in a slide show!  Enjoy!

Winchester Cathedral, etc...

Apologies for the delay in this post but classes began in earnest this week as I am now almost fully recovered from my wonderful upper respiratory infection...

Classes are pretty good, interesting as well.  Monday's class, Crisis and Future in 19th century European Thought, may be a challenge because I do like the theoretical side of things at all.... so this should be a challenge, and hopefully I will step up to it and make at least a 50 on my paper!    (No mom, don't have a heart attack... a 50 is passing and is actually a decent grade)

More on grading, so now one will think I'm crazy when I get excited about a 60-70 on a paper.... I got this off of a website so I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is, never having been through this kind of grading before:
 A first equates to the student having an average of over 70%
An upper second (2:1) is between 60% and 69%
A lower second (2:2) is between 50% and 59%
A third is between 40% and 49%

So, a 60 is actually pretty good I think! 

Now on to my travels of the week.  I had never been to Winchester before so I was pretty excited about my last minute decision to go!  It was either there or Salisbury, but Salisbury will come next...never fear!   

I just always think it's cool when there are cathedrals around that are almost 1000 years old and are still being used and not in ruins!  (Although ruins are pretty cool as well)  And, it's only about 1.5 hours away, give or take a little.  I started out at the Great Hall, with its Round Table.  According to the website, visitwinchester.co.uk, "Winchester is also famous for the legendary Arthurian Round Table. A striking sight, the table has been housed for over 700 years in The Great Hall - the only remaining part of Winchester Castle, once the centre of court and government life."  However there is some controversy as people say King Arthur looks very much like King Henry VIII...

Not much to see there, just a great hall with the table on one wall, but still very very cool!

The Great Hall

One wall of the Great Hall

Detail of the wall pictured above

This is where the thrones would have been

Queen Eleanor's Garden(redone)

A close up of the round table

another wall...According to the website and guide book, etc... it's one of the largest in England

Another close up of the round table

 "This small doorway probably once led, by a spiral staircase, to the king's chamber, above the porch of the adjacent south door

Hampton Court---> First week of classes!

Well last week I decided to indulge my love of all things Tudor and head off to Hampton Court, the favorite palace of Henry VIII and his various wives, after being taken from Cardinal Wolsey in the early 16th century. (Bear with me, I am getting a MA in European History after all)   Many interesting things happened there with Henry VIII


 I picked a gorgeous day to visit, blue skies, some clouds, and even though it was chilly it was still beautiful outside!

As usual, I love it, as well as the free admission due to the fact that I have the Annual Pass and can now go to the Tower, Kensington, Kew, the Banqueting House, and Hampton Court as many times as I want!  

I love this stuff!  I just always think it's so cool t walk around palaces (Or just normal places) where people, including kings and queens, walked 500 years ago!  It's like being on the set of The Tudors (minus the naked people), and if there's no other tourists in the halls, you can almost imagine King Henry or Anne Boleyn, or Jane Seymour walking down to go eat or ride a horse, or some servant carrying candles or something.  Or it could just be me with an overactive imagination fueled by my love of historical novels set in Tudor times...


First week of school:

Well this wasn't the ideal week, as I went to the Dr. on Monday to see why I felt so awful, and her diagnosis was Upper Respiratory Infection....great.... so I had to go home because I was slightly contagious.  And I basically stayed in my room until Thursday morning.  I tried going out for classes on Wednesday and barely made it through the first one before I had to come back and drug myself up again as my body was yelling at me for going out in the chilly weather...  But the class I made it to, The Public Sphere in Britain 1476-1800 does sound very interesting!  (To me...but once again, I am studying for an MA in European History....)  All about literacy, books, pamphlets, speeches, scandals, libel, etc.... it should be fascinating!  And there's only 8 of us in the class, so maybe I will come out of my 'hate to talk in class' shell...?  I also made it out once for about an hour to go sign up for my German class- 4 hours a week... whoo!  I will become fluent in no time...or at least be able to hold a conversation with a 5 year old.