Coming to the end of the Anglo-Saxon era
Picture it! It's 1066, the Norman conquest of England is in full flow “this was to be the last successful invasion of Great Britain” we won’t count the Dutch invasion in 1668, we invited them to overthrow King James II but that’s another story.
The Battle of Hastings rages and King Harold II the last Anglo-Saxon King of England before the Norman Conquest is crowned but killed at the battle, coincidentally he was one of only three Kings of England killed in battle the other two were Richard the Lionheart and Richard III.
Meanwhile, Halley’s Comet reaches its closest to the earth and is recorded on the Bayeux Tapestry, along with accounts of the battle, a busy lot those French tapestry workers weren’t they?
If you want to have a get a cup of coffee while you take that all in I can wait.
Edward the Confessor
To continue, Edmer, a priest, in the time of Edward the Confessor (Now he was the king before Harold) are you keeping up with me? He is living in a manor at Hurst a little hamlet nestling within the East Sussex countryside, and then, according to the Doomsday Book, one of “William I”, better known as “William the conqueror” but he was also called "William the Bastard" because of the illegitimacy of his birth, I prefer that one.
Anyway back to the story, one of William’s closest supporters a man named Wilbert was then granted a tenancy to the manor.
By the end of the twelfth century, the family at the manor house had built quite a considerable status. Accounts mention a lady called Idonea de Herst, now she married a Norman nobleman called Ingelram de Monceux., the manor soon began to be called the “Herst of the Monceux”, and this name eventually became Herstmonceux.
Fiennes fought at the Battle of Agincourt with King Henry V
In 1440 Roger de Fiennes was given permission to make the manor into a more fortified building and unusually he built it in brick, now this was a time when castles were already out of date, Fiennes fought at the Battle of Agincourt with King Henry V. So he was no fool, he knew just what he was doing and so continued to add to the castle building an impressive gatehouse, with a drawbridge.
Some critics have described Herstmonceux as a folly, but with its 4 ft thick walls it could have mounted quite a resistance. It would probably be better to call it a fortified manor than a castle.
By 1777 the castle was being dismantled. But is now restored beautifully and stands as a fine example of a Tudor castle
The castle passed through the hands of a number of private owners until it was sold in 1946 to the Admiralty, and in 1957 became the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and remained so until 1988 when the observatory moved to Cambridge.
If you get the chance to visit you won’t be disappointed
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