13 More Pub Walks Look Inside

David Clarke has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 to be identified as the author of this work. Text, maps and photographs are Copyright © David Clarke 14th January 2021. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without the prior consent of the author. At the time of writing, all routes follow public rights of way or permitted paths. However, diversions can be made at any time and permissions withdrawn – for which I cannot be held responsible – and care should be taken to abide by any local restrictions after the writing of this walk. About public transport; changes to timetables can be made at any time and it is important to check the service and schedules before your walk. Similarly, landlords leave, pubs close and reopen and their character can change for better or worse for which I cannot take any responsibility. On these walks, you may need good walking shoes suitable for uneven, possibly muddy paths and sun protection and a hat for hot days and waterproofs for that hint of rain. These walks allow walkers to explore 1066 Country and to help preserve the walk for others, remember to: • Keep dogs under control • Protect wildlife, plants and trees • Take litter home or dispose of it appropriately • Take special care when walking by and crossing roads • Do not play music loudly or create excessive noise History Walks or David Clarke do not accept any responsibility for any injuries or losses which may occur on Pub Walks in 1066 Country. Walkers are advised to ensure that their personal insurance cover is adequate and are advised to carry their own basic first aid kit. Some helpful websites before you start: ▪ Stagecoach www.stagecoachbus.com/plan-a-journey ▪ Traveline www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk ▪ Weather Forecast www.news.bbc.co.uk/weather ▪ WhatPub www.whatpub.com Information about the pubs, beers, contact details and opening hours are shown on the CAMRA WhatPub web site at: www.whatpub.com Cover: Salehurst Halt, Salehurst. 2

History Walks No.13 More Pub Walks in 1066 Country Page Pubs Distance miles 4 HASTINGS – NORTH’S SEAT 4.10 Rock-a-Nore - The Dolphin 4.60 13 RANSOM FOR A KING Robertsbridge – The Ostrich & Salehurst Halt 3.30 24 IN SEARCH OF THE OGRE OF BREDE 2.95 Brede – The Red Lion 32 ROMAN ROADS AND A SAXON CAMP Sandhurst & Sandhurst Cross – The New Swan This guide contains all the step by step instructions necessary to complete the walk successfully although you should always take the correct OS Maps with you in case of difficulty. Additionally, this walk has also been added to the Ordnance Survey Walking Routes and for a complete mapping experience, download the OS Map App and follow the route on your phone. 3

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WALK 1 NORTH’S SEAT On a warm day, which are always the best of days to walk, I have let the bus take the strain for the climb to North’s Seat, on Fairlight Down, and the highest point in Hastings at 575 feet, for a saunter back to Old Town across East Hill. North’s Seat is on the edge of Hastings Country Park and whilst there is an easy route back to Hasting, along Barley Lane, there is also the opportunity to discover explore the country park, the Dripping Spring and the wonderful views along the coast back towards Hastings. However, there is a ‘walk warning’ of hills which may not be to everyone’s taste. You can take your choice. The two walks meet lower down on Barley Lane for the final mile. On a clear day, you can see forever, well, the coast of France is entirely possible, west to the South Downs, east to Romney Marsh and north to the High Weald. There is history too as befits such a commanding view but North’s Seat is hidden away, off the beaten track, hidden in plain view with just a couple of footpath signs to point the way. That history had far-reaching effects for in 1787, Fairlight Down and Dover were two key English cross-Channel observation points in a triangulation survey linking London and Paris. General William Roy built a 32-feet high scaffold tower and used a theodolite (a surveying instrument with a rotating telescope for measuring horizontal and vertical angles) to determine the relative positions of the British and French royal observatories. These long-range observations resulted in the setting up of the first public survey of Britain in 1791, using Roy’s fieldwork of southern England, and the Board of Ordnance produced its first map, a map of Kent in1801, the year after Roy’s death. The Board of Ordnance Survey was the world's first official surveying body and the Ordnance Survey, as it is now known, continues to produce the definitive maps for the United Kingdom. The Principal Triangulation of Great Britain was only possible after General Roy took delivery of Jesse Ramsden's famous great theodolite in 1787. It was the first modern, accurate instrument, the largest ever made with divided angular scales accurately to within a second of arc and no other theodolite could match this precision and at its height of just over 600 feet on Fairlight Down could measure at least 30 miles, more than enough to reach France. That first 1787 survey was instrumental in the making of the first one-inch to- the-mile maps that would later become the treasured possessions of every walker in the country. 5

Frederick North was an MP for Hastings at various times between 1831 and 1869 and it was only after his death in 1869 that the highest point in Hastings was named North's Seat in his honour and a circular seat was placed on the spot where there was once a windmill. In 1930, a wooden elevated viewing platform, with a brass orientation table, replaced the seat and was used as an observation point during the Second World War. The platform was demolished in 1982 leaving North’s Seat and the adjacent trig point as they are today. There should be a plaque, North’s Seat should be a place of pilgrimage and an annual walk in either September or October in General Roy’s honour but General Roy and North’s Seat are largely forgotten. The brass plate remains on the stone table, that gives the bearings to various landmarks, and it is worth the moment to just stand and imagine that first survey taking place. The Birth of Ordnance Survey Mapping By the 1780’s, Major General William Roy (1726 – 1790) was recognised as the leading Geodist (the measurement of geographical distances and co-ordinates) in the United Kingdom and had previously been involved with the surveying of Scotland between 1747 and 1755. The start of the mapping that could be recognised today as ‘Ordnance Survey’ began around 1783-4, as the means to settle the long running dispute of the relative positions of the astronomical observatories in London and Paris. The method to be used was triangulation and William Roy was given the job. Triangulation is a means of measuring distance and fixing positions based on measuring a single base and as many angles as may be necessary; if one side and two angles of a triangle are known, the remaining sides can be found by calculation and it was the only feasible way of measuring distances across water and other obstacles where ground measurement, by chains or tapes, was impracticable. Assisted by men of the Royal Artillery and with the state of the art Ramsdens Great Theodolite, the survey was begun with Fairlight Down chosen as one of the triangulation points. William Roy had long made proposals for an official survey of Britain but until now had failed because of the excessive cost, at a time when both the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence had made excessive strains on the public purse. It was his lifelong mission to create an accurate superior map of the country and now, William was able to contemplate the extension of his triangulation as the basis for the survey of Britain. Regrettably, William Roy died in 1790 soon after the London-Paris triangulation had been completed but the third Duke of Richmond, at the time the Master- General of the Ordnance, and sympathetic to Roy’s ideas, recognised the opportunity and on 21 June 1791, authorised a second improved theodolite from 6

Ramsden, at a cost of £373.14s, and is now seen as official ‘foundation date’ of the Ordnance Survey. With the real possibility of Napoleon invading England, the priority for the Ordnance Survey was to start mapping the vulnerable coastal areas closest to France and by late 1794, the triangulation of the coast from Fairlight Down to Portland in Dorset had been completed. The Dolphin, Rock a Nore www.thedolphinpub.co.uk A regular in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide, the 18th century Dolphin was one of the original twelve fisherman’s pubs in Hastings Old Town and, although it was rebuilt in 1930, it remains a pub with atmosphere that still preserves the spirit of the original fisherman's pub with photographs that include one of the original, a couple of doors down from the Star in the East. Dark Star Hophead and Harvey's Best were the nearest to session beers at 3.8 and 4.0 percent but Young's Special brought back memories of those halcyon days in the mid 70's working in London. A pint and seat on the terrace on a good day is a perfect end to the walk looking out over the fisherman’s huts and watching the world go by and the cars creating mayhem on Rock a Nore - if you can get a seat. Continued to Page 14 Courtesy of The Dolphin 7

WALK 2: RANSOM FOR A KING Robertsbridge and Salehurst Circular There is almost too much history for this one short circular walk. Stories of ghosts, aliens, naughty monks and Richard the Lionheart and, of course for this is Sussex, smuggler’s tales. You can’t move in Sussex without a good smuggle and Robertsbridge was where a bloody battle took place between the Customs Men and the Hawkhurst gang. Today, time seems to have passed by but like all quiet towns there is a history to Robertsbridge although it is Salehurst, half a mile away and across the River Rother, that is mentioned in the Domesday Book albeit as being destroyed during the Norman Conquest. The burning of a Saxon house on the Bayeux tapestry is said to be from Salehurst, although that fact could be attributed to many villages in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings when William laid waste to anything Saxon. Many assume that Robertsbridge was a corruption of Rotherbridge but instead, it relates to the ‘Bridge of Robert’ and linked to the founder of Robertsbridge Abbey and recorded as ‘Ponte Roberti’ from around 1176. The original settlement was on the southern side of the gently sloping valley of the River Rother, at the confluence of the Rother and the Darwell that is crossed on the way from the station. A cluster of houses would have surrounded the Abbey, which became a town in 1210 when the Cistercians moved to a new location near Salehurst. Their chapel remained and stood where the war memorial now stands. Those monks were a naughty lot as a royal pardon, dated July 17, 1436, acquits the Abbot not only of ‘all infringements of the statute law of which an upright man might unintentionally be guilty but also of 'all kinds of robberies, murders, rapes of women, rebellions, insurrections, felonies, conspiracies' etc, provided they were committed prior to September 2nd in the 10th year of Henry VI.’ It just makes you wonder just what did go on although the abbey was not as notorious as some other monastic houses. During medieval times, the main road from London went through Robertsbridge to Salehurst and Hurst Green, all now minor roads, but it was an arduous journey at the best of times, coping with Sussex mud and a river often in flood. In the 1740’s and chasing smugglers, John Collier (the Hastings Mayor and Head of Preventative Services) wrote of ‘the awful road conditions and flood water reaching up to his saddlebags as he rode through Robertsbridge’. 8

By 1752, Horace Walpole found ‘the roads grew bad beyond all badness, the night darker beyond all darkness, our guide frightened beyond all frightfulness.’ (Turnpike Trust). On his arrival at Robertsbridge, he wrote that: 'We had still six miles hither but determined to stop as it would be a pity to break our necks before we had seen all we intended. But, alas! there was only one bed to be had: all the rest were inhabited by smugglers, whom the people of the house called mountebanks, and with one of whom the lady of the den told Mr Chute he might lie.' The travellers made their excuses and left. The condition of the roads did not seem to bother the Hawkhurst Gang and when the gang discovered that 15cwt of confiscated tea was being taken back to Hastings under guard, they quickly assembled 30 local smugglers, and fortified with drink and an oath, ambushed the wagonload of tea on the steep hill at Robertsbridge. Robertsbridge was well-known for its smugglers and was home to John Amos, a prominent member of the gang. As a place of ambush, it was shrewd as the hill was notorious, and in the ensuing battle, a customs officer was shot dead and the Dragoon guards taken captive with one seriously injured. Continued to Page 25 9

WALK 3: IN SEARCH OF THE OGRE OF BREDE In the 16th century, Brede is said to have been the home of Old Oxenbridge, a giant of a man who became known as the Ogre of Brede and, as, it was said, he liked to eat a child every night for supper! In 1909, Brede was damned with faint praise as ‘a pleasant village set on a hill that falls steeply on the south side to the flat valley called the Brede Level, through which a sluggish stream of the same name flows to join the Rother at Rye.’ So wrote FG Brabant in his Rambles in Sussex. But that is to discount the legends borne out of religious strife that surround the village, a doomed love affair, a matchless Madonna, a biblical misprint, body snatchers and the rather macabre history of the Sussex Cannibal. With more to Brede than meets the eye and so much of interest, it fully deserves a walk around its history, an excellent pint at the Red Lion to finish and just a few yards from the Stagecoach bus stop to take you home. Believed to be derived from the OE ‘braedu’ meaning breadth, most likely referring to the broad river valley to the south, the village was part of the lands granted to the Norman Abbey of Fécamp by King Cnut around 1017. Around 1030, the village was referred to as Bredda and the lands formed part of the Manor of Rameslie, a Norman enclave in the South-East of England. Rameslie stretched from Rye to Hastings and some 36 years later, it would become Duke William of Normandy’s base for the Norman invasion and subsequent conquest of England in 1066. The history of Brede begins but it is not until the 16th century, that the village began to hit the headlines. After some village children went missing, it became legend that a giant prowled the streets of Brede looking for children to eat for supper. It may have been a cautionary tale but by coincidence, Sir Goddard Oxenbridge of Brede Place was seven feet tall and a towering giant of a man and, although the true identity of the monster was never established, the Sussex Ogre reappears again some 200 years later. Brede Place is listed as small Tudor manor house, built of stone, with brick additions, and crowned by ancient chimneys that date from the 14th century. Robert Oxenbridge, the father of Sir Goddard, rebuilt the house in the 15th century by and it was one of the finest historic buildings in Sussex. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Brede Place was scarcely habitable and it is not surprising that strange noises were heard and the place reported to be haunted. Smugglers, taking advantage of its lonely situation, carried their kegs of 10

spirits and parcels of lace and silk from the valley below, through an underground passage into the cellars and vaults beneath the house. Robert Oxenbridge died in 1487 and Goddard inherited the extensive estates, served as sheriff of Surrey and Sussex from 1506 and knighted by King Henry VIII in 1509 and was considered to be a good, honest and religious man and although rather tall, it does seem that Sir Goddard’s reputation has been unduly blackened as I am sure that no self-respecting ogre would be allowed to be buried inside the village church. In ‘Black’s guide to the county of Sussex and its watering-places’ (1886) ‘Sir Goddard is traditionally reported to have lived upon human flesh, with a particular relish for that of infants. Neither bow and arrow, nor axe, nor sword, nor spear, could slay this redoubtable giant’. In fear of their lives, the children of Sussex got the ogre drunk on an enormous barrel of beer before taking a huge wooden saw and cutting him in half on Groaning Bridge on Stubb's Lane and on the route of this walk. Just be careful, for it is an isolated and scary spot and best walked in daylight. The stories of Sussex ogres began following the break with Rome in 1536 when hostility towards those of were Catholic started. Despite being well-respected, Sir Goddard’s reputation was blackened and the legend of the Brede Giant has continued to haunt the village to this day. It’s a good story but in the 17th and 18th centuries, Sussex was the haunt of smugglers who spread stories of giants, ogres and dragons to keep their contraband safe from prying eyes. The Groombridge Gang had a hidey hole in the graveyard of Herstmonceux churchyard, protected by the legends of ghosts that numbered a white lady, a grey lady and even a ghost on a donkey (no doubt the sound of the hooves was of a more prosaic donkey carrying barrels of brandy covered in a white shroud). Another such story, spread by the smugglers, was of ‘a phantom drummer’, nine feet high, who marched the battlements of the ruined castle every night, beating a tattoo. The distant sound of the drum was enough to for any inquisitive locals to hide under the bed until the smugglers passed. (Pub Walks in 1066 Country) The Hawkhurst Gang used Angley Wood, near Cranbrook, where a flying dragon was said to haunt and on certain – or uncertain – nights of the year it winged its way over the park and is said to pay special attention of a vicious kind to those who would enter the wood at night. There may of course be another story behind the legend of the dragon. Angley Wood was renowned as a hidey-hole for the storage of the Hawkhurst Gang’s smuggled goods before transportation for sale in London. Perhaps a fire breathing dragon was just the ticket to keep a superstitious public away from the smuggler’s contraband! (Walking the High Weald -Three Castles and an Ironmaster’s House) 11

Continued to Page 34 WALK 4: ROMAN ROADS AND A SAXON CAMP The Swan, Sandhurst Imagine an autumn day, a thousand years ago when King Harold’s army straggled along the old Roman road and the old church standing on a promontory, on their way to do battle with Duke William’s Norman army. After camping at Rochester on the night of the 11th October, Harold’s army marched the 45 miles along the Roman road to Bodiam over the following two days. On the night of the 13th, Harold and his army would rendezvous, as agreed, at the old Hoar Apple Tree on Caldbec Hill prior to battle. Those five to six thousand Anglo-Saxons would not be marching in formation, left- right, left-right, left-right, but more of a disorderly mob looking to set up camp before crossing the estuary on the narrow causeway left by the Romans. That camp, overlooking the great Appledore Estuary, would have been on the 12th October 1066 and stretched all the way down the hill from Old Sandhurst and St Nicholas Church where the manor of the de Bodehams would later be built. At night the hillside would have been alight with the fires of the Saxons, drinking, singing and eating as they would the following night on the eve of the Battle of Hastings 1066. We can still walk the route of that Roman road. The village church, famous for its long history and dedicated to St Nicholas, still stands on that promontory and our path leads down towards the former Appledore Estuary and the Kent Ditch that celebrates the ancient and historic border between Kent and Sussex. Walking through the trees and woods today, with the sunlight providing dappled shade and the ground underfoot churned up by horses, it just needs imagination to bring 1066 alive. Occasionally, I found it hard, muddy going with brambles and the undergrowth pulling at my clothes. I walked alone but, in my solitude, I imagined what noise there would have been from the rest of the army marching with me and what kind of October day it was in 1066. What is now shown on the Ordnance Survey Maps as Sandhurst Cross was the original village, first mentioned in 791 when it was gifted to Christ Church Canterbury by Offa, King of Mercia. Before that, it may have just been a rest stop for the Romans, on the way up the hill from Bodiam on the road north towards Benenden, Sissinghurst, Staplehurst, Maidstone and Rochester and the junction with Watling Street. The Roman road was built to cross the heavily forested Weald (the forest of the Andreasweald) from the iron workings in the Hastings area. It was a mainly

commercial route taking the iron, first to wharves at Sedlescombe and Bodiam for transport by sea or north to Rochester and London. The route on this walk from Sandhurst follows the Roman road from Queen Street to Sandhurst Cross, along Church Lane, past the Old Rectory, round the church towards The Old Place and on to Bodiam away from out path. The road was notable for being metalled, using the abundant slag from iron smelting, for a very heavy duty surface suitable for the heavy wagons being hauled up the hill. At The Old Place, the road is clearly visible as a disused turfed terrace, 18ft wide, on the hillside. (Ivan D Margary: Roman Roads in Britain) Standing looking down towards the Kent Ditch, there is that sense of o solitude and a hint of history as Romans soldiers and Harold’s men walk past. Seven days after the Battle of Hastings, Duke William and his army would have ridden by on their way to Dover on the first stage of what would become the Norman Conquest and lead to Duke William being crowned King on Christmas Day 1066. That great sea, the Appledore Estuary and its tributaries, were navigable far up the Wealden valleys, perfect for settlements, trade and fishing from before the first Anglo-Saxon invasions. Living by the water was something of a double edged sword for raiding Picts, Danes and Vikings would regularly sail up the rivers looting the villages by the water. Perhaps Sandhurst, high on its hill, was safe from such incursions under the protection of King Offa of Mercia. King Offa’s realm surprisingly stretched far beyond the accepted boundaries of Mercia, the great Midlands kingdom. His dominance once stretched from the border with Northumbria to the south coast and was once imagined as the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king before Alfred the Great, unifying England into one great state by marriage, annexation and warfare. Before 771, Kent was divided into four kingdoms and this instability allowed Offa to annex Kent by a sequence of charters that made his authority clear. He treated Kent \"as an ordinary province of the Mercian kingdom\" going beyond the normal relation of overlordship. Mercian control ended on the death of King Offa in 796. English unity would not happen until the reign of King Alfred as in the words of historian Simon Keynes, \"Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy”. It is likely that there would have been an earlier Saxon church where the ‘modern’ church now stands on the highest point of the parish. First built of wood, then stone and rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries with a tower added in the 15th century that gave even more commanding views over The Weald than those seen from the churchyard. Continued to Page 40 13

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About the Author David lives in St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, and walks, talks and writes about walking, local history and all things 1066. He is a member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild and considers that his membership of CAMRA, The Inn Sign Society, The Ramblers and the Long Distance Walkers Association to be a perfect match for walking. He is the author and creator of 1066 Harold’s Way, a 100mile long distance walk inspired by King Harold’s epic march to the Battle of Hastings, 1066. Long Distance Walks 1. Walking Capital to Coast: 1066 Harold’s Way 2. Walking the High Weald: Three Castles and an Ironmaster’s House Books 1. The Saxon Times 2. The Pub Guide to Walking 1066 Harold’s Way 3. Rye in Pictures 4. The Weald of Kent Canal (Summer 2023) 5. Driving the High Weald (Summer 2023) History Walks around 1066 Country 1. A Green St Leonards on Sea Walk 2. Battle Circular Walks 3. 1066 Bodiam Castle to Battle Abbey 4. Hastings to Rye 5. Secret St Leonards Walking Trail 6. Pub Walks in Hastings and St Leonards 7. 1066 William’s Way, Hastings to Battle 8. Rock a Nore to De La Warr 9. Pub Walks in 1066 Country 10. A Walk around Rye 11. A Walk around Winchelsea 12. More Walks around Rye 13. More Pub Walks in 1066 Country 15

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14.History Walks No.13 More Pub Walks in 1066 Country I want to tempt you with some more short but exhilarating walks, a wealth of fascinating local history, good pubs and of course, good beer. Four more Pub walks that encourage you to explore 1066 Country on foot and in the process, discover some tremendous country walks. I am not claiming they are the best pubs but they are ones that I enjoy, chosen for their location, beer and conviviality and the opportunity to walk, to explore and discover this countryside. All the walks are accessible by public transport, mostly by Stagecoach services, and the occasional train. Leave the car at home and enjoy a pint and let the ‘bus’ take the strain. In these Four Pub Walks, it is the walk that takes pride of place and that welcome pint in that friendly pub is the reward for all your effort. Enjoy the experience. ‘More Pub Walks in 1066 Country’ is published by History Walks, Marine Court, St Leonards on Sea www.1066haroldsway.co.uk and printed by Hello Print Take your time and embrace the history. April 2023 £4.50 18