1066 COUNTRY

There’s a potent sense of the past in 1066 Country, an idyllic swathe of the Sussex countryside in England’s far southeastern corner. It was here on Senlac Ridge one autumn day in 1066 that William of Normandy’s invading army put King Harold’s footsore soldiers to the sword, bringing Saxon England to a brutal end and setting his new domain on a path towards nationhood.

Birdsong rather than battle cries may greet you as you tread the soil of the most famous battlefield in English history, but the landscape – which unfurls beneath the town of Battle – remains so remarkably intact that it is still a powerfully evocative place.

To stamp his authority, William ordered the construction of an abbey over the site of his victory, setting the high altar of the abbey church on the spot where Harold was slain. The abbey’s extensive cloisters and chambers now lie in an atmospheric state of ruin, but you can vividly picture the scene from