Battle Abbey

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Novices' room at Battle Abbey

Battle Abbey, actually named St. Martin's Abbey, is a partially ruined abbey in the small town of Battle in East Sussex, England.

In 1070 the Pope ordered the Normans to do penance for killing so many people during their conquest of England. So William the Conqueror vowed to build an abbey where the Battle of Hastings had taken place, with the high altar of its church on the very spot where King Harold fell in that battle on Saturday, 14 October 1066. He did start building it and named it Battle Abbey, though he died before it was completed. Its church was finished in about 1094 and consecrated during the reign of his son William Rufus. It was remodelled in the late 13th century but virtually destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.

The Main Gate of the Abbey

Following the dissolution, parts of Battle Abbey became a private home, and other parts of the monastic buildings were cannibalised for building materials. Sir Thomas Webster MP and baronet (1677-1751, created a baronet 1703, baronetcy extinct 1923) married the heiress Jane Cheek (granddaughter of a wealthy merchant, Henry Whistler, to whose vast inheritance she succeeded in 1719). He bought Battle Abbey in 1719 and was succeeded by his son, Sir Whistler Webster 2nd baronet (died 1779 leaving a widow but no children; succeeded by his brother). Battle Abbey remained in the Webster family until 1858, when it was sold to Lord Harry Vane, later Duke of Cleveland. On the death of the Duchess of Cleveland in 1901 it was bought back by Sir Augustus Webster, 7th baronet. It was an all girls' boarding school when Canadian troops were stationed there during the Second World War and still boasts a school to this day. The descendants of Sir Augustus Webster, 8th and last baronet (died 1923), finally sold Battle Abbey to the Government in 1976 and it is now in the care of English Heritage.

All that is left of the Abbey church itself today is its outline on the ground, but parts of some of the abbey's buildings are still standing: those built between the 13th and 16th century. These are still in use as the independent school known as Battle Abbey School.[1]

The church's altar allegedly stood on the spot where Harold died. This is now marked by a plaque on the ground, and nearby is a monument to Harold erected by the people of Normandy in 1903. The ruins of the abbey, with the adjacent battlefield, are a popular tourist attraction (see Battle of Hastings reenactment, for example).