News
HISTORY NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2024
Next Lecture
The next talk is ‘The Frewen Family, Brickwall and a History of Dyslexia’ by Jeremy Field at 7.30 pm on Thursday 12 December, Battle Memorial Hall. A video of the lecture will be circulated on Friday 20 December on the Society’s private YouTube channel.
Date for the Diary : ‘Heritage Crime’ by Daryl Holter at 7.30 pm on Thursday 16 January, at Battle Memorial Hall. Full details of this year’s programme are available here.
Membership Renewal
If you have not renewed your membership yet, just a reminder that subscriptions for 2024/25 are due from 1st September, apart from new members who joined since 1st June and who have already paid for next year. After very many years we have had to increase the subscription to £30 for two people from the same address, or £20 for single membership. This will enable us to maintain the high standard of our lecturers, at a cost of less than £2 per lecture. Additional donations are, as ever, very much appreciated.
Society Facebook Page
Don’t forget to check out the BDHS Facebook page. For those who are Facebook users, please find it at https://facebook.com/BattleHistorySociety or by searching for Battle and District Historical Society when logged into your Facebook account. Remember to like and follow the page to get notification of our posts.
Battle Museum
Don’t forget to pop in during late night shopping – the Museum is open on both evenings (5 and 6 December).
As usual, the Museum is closed for the season but if you are interested in volunteering with them for next season, please make contact via its website http://www.battlemuseum.com.
History in the News
Cromwell coming to Hever: a rare portrait Thomas Cromwell will be joining the celebrated collection of 16th century portraiture on display in Hever Castle’s Long Gallery. The newly arrived portrait is a smaller, head and shoulders, version of the famous portrait of Cromwell by the celebrated court artist Hans Holbein the Younger. Of course, Cromwell was an architect of the downfall of Anne Boleyn but he also played a key role in her road to the throne. The Long Gallery was unknown to the Boleyn family. It was commissioned by Anne of Cleves when she took possession of Hever, some time after the death of Anne Boleyn: Cromwell also was played an important role in the life of Anne of Cleves as he played the key role in arranging her marriage to Henry VIII.
Archaeological dig in Bexhill: Bellway is joining forces with a team of archaeologists from Archaeology South East (part of UCL Institute of Archaeology) and the County Archaeologist, to excavate the site of a former First World War training camp in Bexhill in a project which will involve the local community. As part of the planning permission for 70 new houses off Clavering Walk, a dig has been commission on what was the site of Cooden Camp, which was a training base for soldiers going to the front line in WWI.
King Harold’s Battle Axe?: according to local legend, Harold Godwinson was buried at Waltham Abbey Church after his death at the Battle of Hastings. During restoration of the Church in the 1860’s, an axe head was discovered 4 inches below the surface of the south aisle. The original finders thought that they had discovered the axe that Harold used at Stamford Bridge and Hastings but of course this cannot be verified. However, Waltham Abbey maintains a close association with Harold and there are activities to commemorate in the town throughout October and the axe was added to the local Museum’s permanent collection in October this year. Epping Forest District Museum is open from 10am till 4pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (further details: www.efdmuseum.org.uk).
2,000 year old hilt: a rare dagger handle, discovered 30 years ago near Hadrian’s Wall, has been donated to English Heritage, and will go on display at Corbridge Roman Town. The hilt was designed as a tribute to a particular gladiator, an ancient equivalent to a modern football strip. While common in Italy, it is unusual to find such an item in the outer reaches of the Empire: it serves as a reminder how gladiators could become idols.
Other history articles in the press: If any member spots an interesting history article, just email a scan of it to bdhs66@yahoo.co.uk and we’ll feature an edited version of it in the next Newsletter.
The Arts Society Rother Valley (ASRV)
Lectures in the programme include Hollywood in the 1930s, From Negative to Positive: Photography’s long road to recognition as art, Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de St Georges: the African Mozart, 1850’s London, Elizabeth Vigee le Brun: trail blazer, and A piece of the Auction: Behind the scenes at an international auction house.
For further details, please check the ASRV website https://www.theartssocietyrothervalley.org.uk or contact Pat Arrowsmith, Membership Secretary, on 07838 214675.
Online Archive Update – September 2021
Exciting news! We now have a great new resource available online. The original Battle Town Index, identified by advisers from the National Archives as potentially the most important item in our archive, was recorded on a series of Index cards. Members of our Society started the Index with the aim of recording information on the use and occupants of all the buildings in the town centre. Information, gleaned mainly from trade and other directories, was recorded up to the early 1990s. The online version of the Index has been edited so that beyond 1940 only information on businesses and a few private individuals reasonably assumed now dead have been included in the online version. This complies with the recommendations of the National Archives on publication of material which is covered by the Data Protection Act. It still, however, provides a wealth of information and is found in our online archive as a series of searchable .pdf files. Go to our archive page The Battle & District Historical Society Archives http://bdhsarchives.com and search for Battle Town Index to see the available .pdf files. When you have downloaded the file you can find the search function by clicking on the magnifying glass symbol and entering your search term.
Website news
The British Library is going to archive our website in the UK Web Archive and to make it publicly available via that route. The UK Web Archive was established in 2004 to capture and archive websites from the UK domain and across the web, responding to the challenge of a digital black hole in the nations memory. It contains specially selected websites that represent different aspects of UK heritage on the web, as well as important global events. We work closely with leading international institutions to collect and permanently preserve the web, and the open UK Web Archive can be seen at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/.
Also an on-line version of the BDHS Journal for 2019 has been added – see Previous BDHS Journals
Meet our new President
Our new President, Professor David Bates, gave his inaugural lecture entitled ‘Writing a Biography of William the Conqueror’ at a very well attended meeting on 16 January. His presentation was well received and afterwards David had the opportunity to meet many members of the Society and be photographed with all members of the BDHS Committee. He also gave another lecture – by Zoom on 15th October. This was about ‘New thoughts on the Bayeux Tapestry’.
Meeting with the new Dean of Battle
The new Dean of Battle, the Very Reverend Lee Duckett, together with his wife Ange, has been presented with some books from BDHS members Keith Foord and Tina Greene, which are concerned with the Church and the Battle Tapestry, currently on display there. BDHS hopes to develop some mutually beneficial projects based on the church’s archives and the use of the church environmental space for exhibitions etc..
The Dark Ages’ greatest Christmas relics were at Battle Abbey
The Guardian and other media have reported that a medieval manuscript listing Battle Abbey’s relics has been analysed and transcribed for the first time by English Heritage historian Michael Carter. It reveals that the relics were the most prestigious given to any abbey, more significant even than those at Westminster Abbey.
A report on this can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/dec/18/a-bit-of-manger-st-nicholass-bone-the-dark-ages-greatest-christmas-relics.Michael Carter’s paper can also be found in full using this reference: Carter, M: The Relics of Battle Abbey: A Fifteenth-Century Inventory at The Huntington Library, San Marino The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 8 (2019)
Video: The Battle of Hastings. No – the Battle of Battle!!
BDHS Members Michael Hodge, Alan Judd and Peter Greene, working in close cooperation with Natasha Williams of English Heritage, have produced a video explaining where the Battle of Hastings actually took place and why we have a town called Battle. The video has been released by Mirador Television and can be found via Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDe8uyKXL9Y
Amazing find by BDHS
In the process of changing over BDHS archivists Gina Doherty and David Sawyer unexpectedly turned up an old small parchment that appeared to originate from Abbot Richard Tovey of Battle Abbey in 1493. Christopher Whittick of ESRO confirmed its authenticity This is a ‘pass’ entitling the carrier to travel freely in England and quoting the old charter rights of the abbey. Gina has produced an excellent summary of this find which can be read in Section A3.4 of Collectanea. BDHS has also given a facsimile copy to Battle Abbey for future display.
L-R: Neil Clephane-Cameron, Keith Foord, George Kiloh, Gina Doherty, Natasha Williams (English Heritage) handing the parchment to Christopher Whittick (Vice-President of BDHS). Picture Peter Greene