HASTINGS CASTLE, SUSSEX.

THE Rape of Hastings is the most eastern of the six divisions of the county of Sussex which are supposed to derive their somewhat peculiar name from the early occupation of the district by emigrants from Jutland. The Rape of Hastings, probably, is so called from its principal town, which was also the seat of its lords both before and after the Norman Conquest. Like the other rapes, it had its river and its forest, its castle and its castelry, often designated as an Honour. The river, the Rother, is the common boundary of Kent and Sussex, and joins the sea at Rye. The forest, long since disafforested and enclosed, is represented by frequent patches of woodland, scattered over the least fertile parts of the district, and by the numerous and well-timbered parks by which it is characterised. The town once possessed a small port, now silted up. It was situate at the mouth of a stream, which still brings down its inconsiderable tribute, flowing at the foot and to the west of the castle hill.

The origin and etymology of the name of Hastings are lost in obscurity. It is so uncommon, that it has been supposed to come from Haesten, the celebrated pirate and Danish Viking, who infested the southern coasts of England and the valley of the Seine in the ninth century,—a period when warriors of Northern descent gave their names to their possessions, instead of, like their descendants of two centuries later, reversing the practice. Mr. Lower, familiar with Sussex topography, has suggested that the small stream of the Asten, a few miles west of Hastings, may play some part in its etymology, and that Hasting, or the Haesten-Ceaster of the English, may have stood upon its margin. It has also been regarded as the seat of the Hastinges, a tribe said to have been warred upon by Offa of Mercia in 792. Another not less interesting point connected with the place is the fact that it gave name to the ancient family who long ago bore the title of Pembroke, and still bear that of Huntingdon.

The castle occupies the narrow, acute, and very steep extremity of a ridge of the Wealden formation, which here terminates abruptly to the seaward at a height of about 180 feet above the seashore, and seems intended by nature for a defensive position. The ridge is a spur from a range of larger and more elevated character which extends from the high ground of Battle, by Ore, south-eastwards to the sea, and has to its west and south a large tract of broken and highly-fertile picturesque land known as the hop garden of Sussex, and within which are the well-known seats of Hurstmonceaux, Ashburnham, Battle, and Crowhurst,—a tract which presents to the sea an open frontier of about twenty-two miles from Hastings to the marsh of Pevensey, defended anciently by the two castles of those names, and more recently by twenty or thirty martello towers, in which our fathers, three quarters of a century ago, placed an expensive confidence.

Hastings.

  1. CASTLE HILL
  2. Sᵀ MARY’S CHAPEL COLLEGIATE
  3. TOWER
  4. POSTERN
  5. NORTH GATE
  6. SALLYPORT
  7. FOSSE AND STEEP SLOPE
  8. FOSSE

The ridge and promontory of Hastings remain unencumbered by modern buildings, and are occupied only by the castle and its outworks. The older part of the town, with its two parish churches of St. Clement and All Saints, occupies a deep valley to the east of the castle, while round the nose of the rock the remains of the old port have been superseded by the new town, a fashionable watering-place. Much of this town stands within the parish of St. Mary de Castro, the parish church having been the chapel of the castle, and collegiate. The town seems to have been partially walled, and certainly had four gates. Hastings, though now affording no accommodation for shipping, is still a cinque port, and its ancient consideration is attested by the fact that in 1229, Seaford, Pevensey, Bulverhythe, Hidney, Iham, Beaksbourne, Greenhythe, and Northeye, were its subordinate members, and tamquam membra were Rye and Winchelsea.

The castle is composed of two wards, separated by a formidable ditch cut through the sandstone rock about 400 feet, across the ridge, with a breadth of 60 feet, and to a depth of 30 to 40 feet. The inner ward lies to the west of this ditch, between it and the point of the promontory. The outer ward lies to the east, and is again protected by an outer and considerable, though less clearly-defined, ditch of greater length than the former, and also crossing the ridge. There was also another ditch cut as a sort of step in the steep northern slope, and covering that side of the place, and chiefly intended for the defences of the inner ward. Between the east end of this ditch and the north end of the great cross ditch was the original entrance to the inner ward, the approach to which wound up the steep north-western slope of the rock.

The Inner Ward is in figure nearly a right-angled triangle, containing about 1½ acres, the north side 154 yards, and the east side 87 yards in length, while the hypothenuse curves inwards, reducing the breadth of the ward at one point to 16 yards. The cliff which forms the boundary has been either scarped or has fallen away, so that it is at present precipitous, and its face has been patched with modern masonry and brickwork. It is said that this side was once straight, and has been cut away to make room for the gasworks and a crescent of houses below, so as to diminish the castle area. This may be so, but the encroachment cannot have been considerable. A wall for defence on this front could never have been needed: probably it was only a low parapet.

Along the north front the ground, though very steep, is not absolutely precipitous, and along the crest of the slope are the remains of the curtain wall, about 6 feet to 9 feet thick, and in parts 20 to 30 feet high. Upon this wall is a rectangular tower, about 12 feet by 20 feet, having a ground and upper floors in which are parts of three windows of Norman date. Connected with this tower are said to be traces of a small postern, and there is certainly a mural passage, 18 feet long, ending in a garderobe. East of this tower is a turret, square at the base, but which above seems to have been cylindrical. It contains a well-stair connected with the chapel. The wall is continued round the east front across to the cliff. At the angle it is still 20 feet to 25 feet high, but further on it has been reduced to 10 feet. In this front, overlooking the ditch, are the bases of three half-round buttress towers, 20 feet diameter. Their ground floors have been vaulted; all above is removed. Between the two most northern of these are still to be seen the jambs of an Edwardian gateway, of 9 feet opening, with a square portcullis groove, and rebates for a door immediately behind it. In this part of the curtain are the remains of some mural cells. The gateway must have communicated with the outer ward by a bridge across the ditch, probably of timber, since there is no trace of masonry in the rock. This entrance is now disused, and the entrance in use is in the north side between the chapel tower and the north-east angle, protected by a late tower, about 20 feet square with very slight walls and a flanking wall, also slight, and projecting about 20 feet. This is thought to have been the original gateway of the ward, and may have been so, though the other entrance between the two flanking half-round towers has at present more the aspect of a main entrance.

The eastern, naturally the weakest side of the inner ward is further defended by a broad, artificial bank or ramp of earth from 20 feet to 30 feet broad and 8 feet to 10 feet high, piled up against the back of the wall, which, in fact, is a revetment. At the north-east angle of the ward this bank is expanded into a mound about 20 feet high above the inner area. The curtain traverses this mound, of which about two-thirds is within its circuit.

No doubt this mound was the keep of the English fortress, and the bank and ditch its main landward defences, but, save the curtain, there is no trace of any masonry upon it, nor does the Norman castle appear to have been provided with any regular keep, either shell or rectangular. Probably, as at Exeter, the whole inner ward was the keep.

There are at present no traces of a hall, kitchen, or regular lodgings within the castle, but placed against the north wall are the remains of the chapel, or rather of the free collegiate church, composed of a nave and chancel. The nave was 30 feet by 64 feet, the curtain forming the north wall. There seem to have been a west door and one, or perhaps two, south doors. At its east end a handsome highly-pointed arch opened into the chancel, and still remains very perfect. The jambs are square, the angles replaced by delicate shafts, a quarter engaged, with caps and bases of Norman type. The abacus is part of a moulded string, and the arch, though the section is square, as in the Norman style, is richly moulded. The central member of the arch is a bold rib, springing from two brackets or corbels carved in foliage. The general character of the whole is very late Norman, passing into early English. In the north wall, at its east end, are the remains of the arches of three sedilia, and near the middle of the wall, in a sort of buttress, is a piscina, probably a perpendicular insertion. Near the north-west angle is the cylindrical base of the font. In the east wall, on each side of the chancel arch, is a flat-topped doorway of rude workmanship, as though intended to be concealed by hangings. The northern door opens into the well-stair of the turret, the southern into a vestry.

The chancel was about 18 feet broad by 28 feet long. Of its walls only a few traces remain. It communicated on the north side with a small chamber, perhaps a garderobe, and on the south side with the vestry. The vestry, called also the chapter-house, is a small, nearly square chamber, 12 feet by 15 feet, with a plain Norman recess in its east wall, and the jambs of a door, evidently Norman, opening into what seems to have been a sort of lean-to cloister resting on the south wall of the nave. The cloister itself is gone; but in the nave wall are traces of an arcade. Here are three graves inclosed in pieces of stone placed edgeways, and a much worn dos-d’âne coffin-lid. The breadth of the nave is wide for a single span, but if there were aisles, there must have been two, the arches being central, and in that case very narrow ones, even for a Norman church. The floor of the chancel is three steps above that of the nave.

The curtain wall along the north front and over the mound is apparently of Norman date, as is most of the east wall; but its buttress-towers and the gateway are probably insertions of the reign of Henry III. or Edward. The chapel may be later than the north wall, probably of the reign of Henry II. or John.

The old part of the masonry is coursed rubble, with occasional pebble-stones, faced with bold, open-jointed ashlar, the blocks being rudely dressed. In one part, near the church, is a little herring-bone work, though probably not older than, if so old as, the rest. The quoins and window-dressings, where preserved, are good ashlar. Various fragments of cut stone are collected and heaped up; of these, a few are late Norman, some good early English, some Perpendicular. A late Norman crypt has been discovered in the town.

It may be doubted whether William or his feudatories, the Earl of Eu or de Tiliol, added defences in masonry to the works already existing. At least, there is no evidence that they did so, and the oldest masonry now seen is certainly not very early Norman, though too early to have allowed time for the decay of any previous masonry of the same architectural period.

The chapel was probably founded in the reign of Henry I., and though the castle was erected, and for some time held, under the Crown, by the powerful Earls of Eu, it was never a great baronial residence, being in that respect far inferior to Arundel or Lewes, but was probably maintained only as a strong, though small, post to cover embarkations for, or disembarkations from, Normandy.

The Outer Ward is contained between the inner and outer lines of ditch; within the latter is a considerable bank of earth, which rises at the north-east angle and is continued across the northern end, that being naturally the weakest part of the inclosure. It does not appear where was the entrance of this ward, but possibly near the south-east angle. There are no traces of masonry here, so that the defences of the outer ward may have been a stockade only.

From the position of this fortress, it is most probable that, like Dover, it may originally have been a British work, the entrenchments, including the promontory and the south ditches, being the defences landward. The mound, however, placed at an angle of the inner ward, upon the bank, and covering the approach, is almost certainly a later, and no doubt an English, work.

Whatever may be the origin of Hastings as a defensive work, its known history commences towards the end of the sixth and the beginning of the eighth centuries in the times of Offa and Athelstane, when it was a place of some consequence, and contained a mint. Coins, indeed, were minted here as late as the reign of Henry I.

The termination “ceaster,” which it then bore, shows it to have been fortified. Towards the middle of the eleventh century it was plundered by the Danes, and towards the middle of that century it was the men of Hastings who, after the murder of Beorn by Swegen, captured his ships and slew his accomplices in the murder, though Swegen himself escaped. Hastings also played a part in the Norman Conquest, though not that popularly assigned to it as the scene of the battle. William landed at Pevensey, and thence moved rapidly to Hastings in search of food. There Odo of Bayeux, as one of his lieutenants, ordered a fortress to be thrown up, “ut foderetur castellum,” and thence, according to the same authority, the Bayeux tapestry, William marched against Harold. William, we are told, on reaching the port, selected a proper site, and fortified it rapidly with a castle in timber, “ligneum castellum.” This, we must suppose to be a replacing or restoration of whatever there was standing on the old site. It can scarcely have been a palisade on the low ground below the castle rock. He then placed Humphrey de Tilliol, brother-in-law of Hugh de Grantmaisnil, to execute his orders, “qui Hastinges a prima die constructionis ad custodiendum susceperat.” Wace’s description applies more to Hastings than to Pevensey, which was already walled in:—

“Un chastel ì ont fermé

De bretesches è de fossé.”

De Tilliol’s occupation was confined to the construction or restoration of the defences: the castle and castelry, manor, and superiority of the whole Rape were granted by William to Robert, Earl of Eu, one of the most powerful of his Norman adherents. This grant of the castelry is recorded in Domesday, and a castelry involves the existence of a castle. The Earls of Eu held possession for five generations in the male line. No doubt either Earl William, who succeeded in 1090, or Earl Henry, who died in 1139, executed some works in masonry at the castle,—probably the wall of the enceinte, much of which still remains. Either the first or second earls founded within the castle a free chapel and college, with a dean and secular canons, and to this Henry, the third earl, added a considerable endowment by charter in the reign of Henry I. The college survived the castle, and flourished when the latter became a ruin. Thomas à Becket held the deanery, and William of Wykeham one of the prebends. The college endured to the 38 Henry VIII., when it was dissolved and the property alienated to Sir Anthony Brown. After the extinction of the Eu earldom, the patronage vested in the Crown. The charter of Earl Henry is recited in a confirmation, 22 Edward I.

In 1088 the castle probably had been made strong, for it was the boast of William of St. Calais, Bishop of Durham, that he secured Hastings for William Rufus. It was the place of muster for the powerful military force with which that king proposed to invade Normandy. At that time Anselm and many bishops and barons were present in and about the castle and were detained there from Candlemas, in 1094, for six weeks by contrary winds, during which time the king was present at the completion and consecration of his father’s Abbey of Battle. Immediately afterwards, Robert Bloet was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln within the chapel of the castle, and here also Bishop Herbert of Thetford was deprived of his see. It was in the castle of Hastings also, on this occasion, that Rufus once more refused attention to the reasonable remonstrances of Anselm, who left him unblessed to depart on his Norman expedition. The Earls of Eu, by no means always faithful vassals of the Crown of England, seem latterly to have neglected the castle, which was inferior to Pevensey as a muster-place for troops and had become of but moderate value. Henry, the fifth earl, who died in the reign of Richard I., left an only daughter, Alice, who married Ralph de Essoudun, who in her right became Earl of Eu, and so died in 1211. Their son, William, elected to become a subject of France, and, 29 Henry III., his possessions in England escheated to the Crown, and were granted to Prince Edward. As early as 1227 King Henry allowed to Robert de Aubeville 10 marcs, half his salary, as keeper of the castle. The college was retained by Henry in his own hands. In 5 Edward III., the dean and canons petitioned to have the castle wall restored, it having been injured by the sea. In 1372, the castle was granted to John of Gaunt, and in the reign of Richard II. it was a ruin and probably so remained. The early English work, especially connected with the chapel, was probably executed by Henry III. on his acquisition of the barony.

By Henry IV. the castle was granted to Rafe Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, with reversion to Sir John Pelham, who again transferred it, in 1412, to Sir Thomas Hoo, created Baron Hoo and Hastings in 1447. He died without issue male about 1453. The feoffees of Sir Thomas sold the castle and other property, in 1461, to Sir William Hastings, who in that year was summoned to Parliament as Lord Hastings of Hastings. By his descendant, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, the castle and its appendages were sold, in 1591, to Sir Thomas Pelham, in whose descendant, now Earl of Chichester, they remain vested. Those who wish to understand thoroughly the position of Hastings as regards the landing, first movements, and subsequent advance of Duke William upon English soil, will do well to consult the very lucid and quite original account of the battle of Senlac, given in Mr. Freeman’s “History of the Conquest.”