“Now, if Harold is king and Edward was laid to rest at the beginning of the year, then it must be 1066!” -William Hartnell as Dr. Who
Our time in the countryside has rapidly come to a close. We had grand plans to see not only Hastings but also Dover (partly because I wanted to see Dover Castle so I could see where they filmed some of The Mind of Evil from Doctor Who), but we severely underestimated how much time we would’ve needed for that additional excursion. So, lack of time and a desire to limit how much we would drive on account of the hours of driving we did do during the last two days, we decided to spend the entire day in Hastings, exploring everything on foot.
Hastings has long been an area of the country I’ve wanted to visit because of its importance in British history. I’m referring to, naturally, the Battle of Hastings of 1066, the battle between William of Normandy and King Harold II when William prevailed and became king of England while Harold was killed in the battle (apparently due to an arrow in the eye) thus ending the Anglo-Saxons’ 600 year rule over England. In that moment, the future of England was changed forever.
Sadly, however, we discovered too late that the field where the Battle of Hastings took place is closed this time of year, open only on weekends. Such a pity, as this will now be the third chance I’ve had to see the location of the battle only to somehow miss out on it yet again. I’ll just have to come back some other time. That said, we managed to have a much more relaxed day while still getting to see quite a bit of the city in the meantime.
Our journey began, of course, with breakfast. We discovered a little place called the Pelican Diner, and it was absolutely wonderful. It’s a tiny two-storey restaurant (each floor capable of seating probably a maximum of 12 people, both floors accessible by a narrow and steep staircase) located right near the waterfront on East Parade, the primary street that traces the shoreline of the English Channel. We all decided to have lumberjack breakfasts, a rather American style breakfast of pancakes, toast, a choice of bacon, avocado, fruit, veggie patty, or salmon (naturally, I chose bacon and salmon), and eggs prepared how you like (I opted for their so-called “Mex” style: scrambled with spicy peppers).
After satiating ourselves to the maximum, we headed towards the waterfront where we enjoyed a cold, windy, (some might call it bleak, but I’d call it exhilarating), walk along the rocky shoreline to make our way to Hastings Pier, a 910-foot-long and 45-foot-Wide boardwalk extending out into the channel. It was originally built in 1872, but by 1990 had suffered major storm damage and was ultimately completely closed in 2008. Sadly, in 2013, a fire largely destroyed most of the pier, but by 2016, it had been rebuilt and reopened to the public. On the day we visited, everything on the pier was closed apart from a fish and chips place called Hastings Pier Chippy (which we opted not to have mid-afternoon beers at on account of the terrible music they were playing), but it was still lovely to visit the pier all the same and enjoy the views of the channel from the vantage it provided without all the people it would come with in, say, July.
Following the pier, we made our way back east towards an area of the city called America Ground, so named because sometime during the 1830s the Corporation of Hastings tried to take control of the area, but it had already been built up by merchants with warehouses and dwellings. The merchants, in an act of defiance, flew the U.S. flag to signify their independence—quite an act of defiance indeed, considering England had just lost the colonies some five or six decades earlier. Today America Ground is the location of quite a few historic sites, one of which is the Holy Trinity Church, a small church built in the 1850s in the Decorated and Early English Gothic style: so, pointed arches, trefoils and quatrefoils, and flying buttresses (Holy Trinity had all three characteristics except the buttresses).
We then made our way all the way to the top of the steep hill where the ruins of Hastings Castle stand (but not before stopping at a pub called the Clown for a pint where we met an old English gentleman called Ron the Egg, so named because he used to sell eggs at the market and who also laid tiles in a building that was used to film Poirot). The castle is a sad echo of its former self, having fallen into disuse long, long ago. Unfortunately, we could only view the castle from the outside, the grounds closed in the off season, but the hike up the hill was still quite worth it as we were able to view not only the ruins silhouetted against a gorgeous sky but also enjoy stunning views of the channel and the city of Hastings itself.
After taking a pause back at our Air B&B, we concluded our time in Hastings by visiting a pub called the General Havelock (named after a British general from the 19th century), which was suggested to us by another gentleman (not named Ron the Egg) who was earlier having a pint with us at the Clown. Since we weren’t able to see the field of the Battle of Hastings, we were at least able to view incredible tiled artwork that depicted the Battle of Hastings, the ruins of Hastings Castle, and a scene of English fishermen laying into a French pirate ship. The artwork was installed in the late 1800s and created by an artist called Michael Slaughter. Following the pub, we concluded the evening with pizzas at a restaurant called Rustico (it was pretty good!) and a bottle of Armenian wine at a restaurant called the Owl and Pussycat (the wine was good; the live jazz music was, er, fine).
The week seems to have flown by, but I was so excited for Friday morning to arrive, as the majority of the rest for our time will be spent in my favorite city, London!