News
HISTORY NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2025
Our Next Lecture
The November meeting of the Society will be on Thursday 20th in the Wynne Room at the Memorial Hall, Battle High Street. The meeting will start at 7pm when the BDHS Annual General Meeting will be convened.
This will be followed by the monthly lecture, “Klein Hollandia” which will be delivered by Mark Beattie Edwards. It is expected that this will begin at approximately 7.30pm. Members arriving for the lecture but who are not attending the AGM are asked to recognise that the meeting may be in progress when they enter the Wynne Room and to take care not to disrupt the proceedings.
Lecture Recordings
Whenever possible, a recording of our monthly lecture is made available for a week after the meeting on the Society’s private YouTube channel. A link to the recording, once available, is sent to all members who are asked to treat the link as personal to them and not to share it. These arrangements are part of the Society’s agreement with lecturers and should be respected.
While the Society will provide a recording whenever it can, there are occasions when it is not possible; some lecturers withhold permission for recording and technical issues can sometimes intervene.
Date for Your Diaries – AGM and Lecture
The November meeting of the Society will be on Thursday 20th in the Wynne Room at the Memorial Hall, Battle High Street. The meeting will start at 7pm when the BDHS Annual General Meeting will be convened.
This will be followed by the monthly lecture, “Klein Hollandia” which will be delivered by Mark Beattie Edwards. It is expected that this will begin at approximately 7.30pm. Members arriving for the lecture are asked to recognise that the AGM may be in progress when they enter the Wynne Room and to take care not to disrupt the proceedings.
Full details of the 75th anniversary season’s programme are available here.
Christmas and 75th Anniversary Event
The December meeting of the Society will be a social event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the BDHS and will be for members only.
2025-26 Subscriptions
Membership subscriptions for the new season are due now. The cost is the same as last year at £20 for a single member and £30 for two members at the same address. Membership forms can be downloaded from the website or collected from the front desk at lectures if you need to let the Society know of any changes in the details we hold for you. We strongly encourage payment by bank transfer but payments by cheque can be sent to the Membership Secretary or you can pay by card or cash at the front desk.
2024-25 Journal
We regret that there has been a delay in producing the 2024-25 Journal but it is hoped that copies will be available for collection at the November meeting.
The Battle of Hastings Re-enactment at Battle Abbey
The annual re-enactments of the Battle of Hastings were staged at the Abbey by English Heritage on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th October. As in previous years, the BDHS again had a display, along with other societies in the Lower Dorter building, showcasing its work and offering its publications for sale. Our thanks go to Rowena Kemp for masterminding the Society’s presence at the event and to all the members who helped to set up and staff our stand over the two days.
Battle Museum
Battle Museum of Local History closes for the season at the end of October but will be open for one day only on Saturday 8th November (the day of Bonfire) so there is still time to pay a visit and to buy a copy the Museum’s 2026 Calendar featuring the month-by-month events of the year of the conquest – a perfect gift for anyone inspired by King and Conqueror to learn more of the true history of 1066.
History in the News – a digest of recent reporting
If any member spots an interesting history article, just email its details, or scan of it, to webadmin@battlehistorysociety.com and we’ll feature an edited version of it in the next Newsletter.
Dinosaur footprints from 166 million years ago discovered in UK quarry: The most extensive dinosaur trackways ever discovered in Europe have been uncovered at an Oxfordshire quarry, stunning palaeontologists, who have gained new insights into how dinosaurs moved through the landscape. An astonishing 220-metre trail left by enormous sauropod dinosaurs – herbivorous four-legged animals with long necks and tails – was found at Dewars Farm Quarry, near Bicester, during work to remove limestone. The tracks are believed to have been made by a species of sauropod known as Cetiosaurus, which grew up to around 16 metres in length and lived around 171 to 165 million years ago in what is now Britain and France.
University of Birmingham palaeontologist Kirsty Edgar said, “Dinosaur tracks provide us with the opportunity to glimpse how dinosaurs lived, and what they were doing at that moment in time – something we can’t get from the body fossil record alone.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/oxfordshire-dinosaur-footprints-quarry-b2845606.html
‘Skeletons found in mass grave are ancient Roman soldiers: Scientists say seven skeletons found in a mass grave in Croatia were most likely Roman soldiers who lived 1,700 years ago. The male skeletons, all with various injuries, were found “completely preserved” during excavations in 2011 at the site of the Roman city of Mursa – modern-day Osijek – in Croatia’s far east. Researchers from several European archaeological institutions have been able to determine not only when the men lived but also how they may have died.
The men in the grave were aged between 36 and 50 years old, taller-than-average in height, and were “robust” individuals. Their diets were mainly vegetarian, but some had also indulged in a little meat and seafood. All showed various healed and un-healed injuries, including those caused by blunt force trauma, and there were puncture wounds on two of their torsos, which the scientists believe were likely caused by arrows or spear tips. All of the men were suffering from some kind of pulmonary disease during the final days of their lives.
The researchers believe the men were likely victims of the ‘Crisis of the Third Century’, most probably the battle of Mursa in 260 CE, when there were numerous battles fought between various claimants to the throne. Mass graves were not a customary way of interring the dead in the Roman Empire and were mostly used in extreme situations and mass casualty events. Given the various angles the skeletons now lie, the researchers say they were most probably thrown in the grave before being covered with soil.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgknnqp33qo
Archaeologists find one of the greatest Iron Age treasures ever seen: A farmer’s field has yielded a treasure trove that changes how we talk about Iron Age Britain. Archaeologists call it the Melsonby Hoard – a deliberately-buried collection of more than 800 unusually varied objects dating to about 2,000 years ago. Tom Moore, Head of the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, is the scientific lead whose team excavated and analysed the deposit alongside partner institutions.
A heavy soil block weighing roughly a quarter ton and holding a tangle of corroded metalwork, was extracted from the field. Careful laboratory excavation then recovered the artifacts from within it after X-ray CT scans had mapped the interior in three dimensions. These included partial remains of more than seven four-wheeled wagons or two-wheeled chariots with harnesses for at least 14 ponies, three ceremonial spears, two ornate cauldrons including a lidded bowl likely used for mixing wine, and a cluster of 28 iron tires. One crushed cauldron shows a delicate fish motif and swirling decoration associated with La Tène art of Iron Age Europe, details that help date the object and show contacts beyond Britain.
The mix of vehicles, harness, weapons, and feasting gear points to public display and ceremony, not just daily life; and large-scale destruction before burial also hints at controlled rituals that signalled rank and obligation within a community. “The Melsonby Hoard is of a scale and size that is exceptional for Britain and probably even Europe,” said Moore.
Yorkshire Museum launched a public campaign to conserve and study the objects, working with national partners to keep the hoard accessible to everyone. That effort succeeded in July 2025 when support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and public donations secured the hoard for the nation.
https://www.earth.com/news/one-of-the-greatest-iron-age-treasures-ever-seen-melsonby-hoard/
The Crowhurst 1066 Yew : Nature protection in Rother has been given a boost following decisions by the local district council. The authority recently approved two notices of motion to protect the rights of rivers and trees – bolstering support for nature conservation in the area. Their sponsors called on the Council to give its backing to the growing global movement for rights for nature, and to protect rivers and trees in Rother. Receiving approval from full council, the notices introduce into policy certain rights that safeguard biodiversity and ecosystems and seek to keep areas protected from pollution.
The Council’s action followed the decision of Crowhurst Parish Council in July to support “personhood status” for the 1066 Yew tree and invited them, together with the community of Crowhurst, to take on guardianship of the tree to protect it for future generations. Standing in St George’s Churchyard, the Crowhurst 1066 Yew Tree is a living link with our history. It is an ancient native tree, an iconic landmark and an important local natural monument and is thought to be more than 1,300 years old, pre-dating the Battle of Hastings and the arrival of William the Conqueror. Many notable individuals, including King George V, Rudyard Kipling and the Cambridge Botanical Gardens have received young yew trees grown from the seeds of this famous tree.
https://www.rother.gov.uk/news/rother-gives-nature-a-boost/
https://www.ancient-yew.org/userfiles/file/Crowhurst%20Sussex.pdf
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