Nick Austin's Combe Haven Landing Theory and Haestingaport

Nick Austin was the first person to propose a reasoned argument that the Battle of Hastings was fought somewhere other than Battle Abbey, namely the southern slope of Telham Hill. He explains his thinking in 'Secrets of the Norman Invasion', first published in 1994. We heard him talk about his theory in 1999. His method was a revelation that we immediately adopted, but we disagree with his conclusion. It follows that we also disagree with some key aspects of his evidence and arguments. In this blog, we will explain why we challenge his proposed Norman landing in Combe Haven.  

The coast of East Sussex was very different in the 11th century with relative sea level roughly 5m higher. The LiDAR diagram above shows our interpretation of 11th century Combe Haven, a tidal inlet accessed by straights either side the island of Bulverhythe (B). 

Combe Haven Norman landing, supporting evidence

By tradition, the Normans landed at 'Pevensey' then moved to Hastinges or Hæstingaport, and camped nearby. The contemporary accounts say or imply that Hastinges and Hæstingaport and an Alfredian burh known as Hæstingaceastre were adjacent or encompassing or cognate. By tradition, they were all at modern Hastings, with the implication that the Normans landed in the Priory Valley and camped at modern Hastings. Austin argues this is implausible. We agree with most of his evidence, and extend it with twenty or so more reasons in our book. 

Austin's method, which we firmly endorse, was to search for Hæstingaport or Hæstingaceastre, knowing that the contemporary accounts say that the landing site was nearby. His clues 1 through 7 come from the first edition of SOTNI. Clues 8 through 14 come from his later research. Between the two, he changed his mind about the location of Hæstingaport, initially believing it was at Bulverhythe (B) then switching to Redgeland (R). This is why his evidence seems to be contradictory. However, they are only 2km apart. Perhaps, for example, sea going vessels berthed at Bulverhythe, while barges and coastal vessels berthed at Redgeland. We should assume they were a composite entrepôt for our purposes here. 

1. The Chronicles [i.e. Benoit de Sainte-Maure] state 'There right in front of the port' where William’s fleet 'landed stood a Castle handsome and strong'. The expression 'There right in front of the port' Hæstingaceastre can only make sense when applied to the Hastings port at Bulverhythe, since this is the only place where a castle could stand in a way that you would consider to be in front of the port. 

2. The great Council in the time of William Rufus was held in 1094 at Hastings Castle ... The register of Battle Abbey records “The Castle then stood below the cliff, on ground since overflowed by the sea”. This can likewise only refer to Bulverhythe as the erosion of the coastline, referred to by many writers, is only recorded to have occurred two centuries later in the late 13th century.

3. Austin lists two early references to salt works at the port of Hastings: 1)  Charter of Offa dated as early as AD.795 which says “..the ports of my possession which are in the same neighbourhood on the sea, Hastings and Pevensey, with their salt works”; 2) A complaint to King Aedelwulfus AD 857 in which it is stated: “that a monk of St.Denis had bitterly complained of the injuries which the kings men had miserably inflicted on the followers of the Saint in England, especially at Rotherfield, and in Hastings and Pevensey, at their salt works.” He notes that salt has never been worked on the coast near modern Hastings but it might have been worked on the banks of Combe Haven. For evidence, he quotes Dawson's statement: "That there were at Bulverhythe pertaining to the said barony at Hastings - 20 acres of salt pasture worth per annum 6s 8d".

4.  Samuel Jeakes specifically says that the Normans landed at Bulverhythe. Austin says: "Jeakes, in his annotations on the Cinque Ports Charters, speaking of the neighbouring spot called Bulverhythe, sets forth that it was not only the original haven of Hastings, but as such the then supposed place where William the Conqueror landed".

5. Barry Funnell reporting for the Hastings Area Archaeological Research Group (HAARG) on the America Ground in 1989 states that 'the early chronicles describe Hastings as having the best natural seaport in South East England'. This is indeed only true of Bulverhythe, which was at that time a flooded inland harbour, second only to Poole as the largest natural harbour on the South Coast.

6. A further study of other writings on this subject produce many examples of cross referenced support for Bulverhythe, as the original port of Hastings, at the time of the Norman Invasion. E.M. Ward in his detailed study 'The Evolution of the Hastings Coastline' states that “Bulverhythe, as a 13th century port was of some importance”. Straker and Lewis make the point that “the haven of Bulverhythe was possibly used as an iron port” for the Romans. Millward and Robinson confirm that “Bulverhythe was probably an important Saxon port and was later a member of the Cinque ports”. Lastly the Patent Rolls still mention the importance of Bulverhythe as a port as late as AD 150 [sic].

7. One final clue arises to confirm the fact that Hastings port pre 1066 was almost certainly situated on the Bulverhythe within the natural harbour area. This is that Hastings enjoyed a pre-eminent position in relation to the Cinque Ports. These five ports, Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich received special privileges most probably because they were the only source of ships in the absence of a navy. The first reference to the Cinque Ports is in a charter of Henry II according to the eminent historian, and ex curator of Hastings Museum, John Manwaring Baines. In his book 'Historic Hastings' Mr Manwaring Baines makes the point that whilst each of these ports enjoyed a special relationship with the crown Hastings appeared to enjoy special favours. He notes that “all freemen of the ports were called “Barons” and “although not en-nobled by that title, their representatives were recognised as being almost on the level with peerage barons”. They were exempt from taxation and trading dues and had the right to be tried by their own courts. These were extraordinary privileges. However Hastings appeared to enjoy a special privilege, which many attribute to it’s roll as head Cinque Port. This was the right to provide barons to carry the canopy of the King and Queen in procession at the coronation. Further at the banquet after the coronation they sat at the right hand side of the king, in the place of honour. It is my opinion that these honours were special and bestowed upon the people of Hastings because of their special relationship with the crown, dating back to the time of William. This explains why these privileges were granted, but also provides a logical explanation based upon the fact that the port of Hastings was the largest and most influential of all the ports in the South of England. The honours bestowed matched the status of the port and could only be located at Bulverhythe.

8. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey: “specifically names the port at a place named Hedgeland [Hechelande]”. Austin explains that Hechelande would have been pronounced similarly to Redgeland in the local dialect of the day, so Hæstingaport referred to modern Redgeland which was on the banks of Combe Haven at the time of the Norman invasion.

9. The first Norman Sheriffs, namely Reinbert and Ingelrann, were “installed at Wilting Manor”, the location he proposes for the second Norman camp. He says that this reflects Wilting’s “paramount importance”, implying it was the administrative centre for Hæstingaport.

10. Domesday's list of manors that were 'wasted' (i.e., destroyed) during the Conquest are concentrated around Combe Haven. Austin argues that the manors most plundered, and therefore those that lost most value during the Conquest, would have been those closest to the Norman camp. Therefore, the second Norman camp and Hæstingaport were in Combe Haven.

11. Field boundaries and a terrace near Upper Wilting indicate the route of a Roman road from Redgeland to Beauport Park which was used to transport iron blooms to a Roman port in Combe Haven. Every Roman trunk road ends at a 'castra', the survivors of which became Anglo-Saxon 'ceastres'. If there was a metalled Roman road that ended at Combe Haven, it is a good candidate to be Hæstingaceastre, and therefore a good candidate to have been the location of Hæstingaport and the Norman landing. 

12. There are lumps in the ground at Redgeland that might be the remains of Roman piers from the Roman port. Roman ports were protected by legionaries that lived in a nearby castra. If the Roman piers are from a Roman port, it would have had a nearby castra and that castra would be a good candidate to have been Hæstingaceastre.

13. LiDAR shows the outline of a rectangular enclosure near Redgeland. That enclosure is the right size to have been the Alfredian burh of Hæstingaceastre based on its description in the Burghal Hidage. 

14. A Resistivity geophysics survey shows the outline of a Norman keep, perhaps surrounded by the faint outline of fortress walls, at Wilting. Austin notes that the Normans must have been based somewhere before the stone castle at modern Hastings was complete. Being Normans, they probably stayed in a motte and bailey wooden castle, which might have been the one in the geophysics. 

A review of the evidence that the Normans landed and camped on the banks of Combe Haven

We will quibble about some details of Austin's evidence, but his concept is sound. Crowhurst Park produced 40000 tonnes of iron ore in Roman times, all processed at nearby bloomeries. The Weald's iron was made into weapons and armour in France. Iron blooms are heavy and awkward to transport over land. It seems likely that the Romans got Crowhurst Park's blooms onto ships as quickly as possible, which would have entailed dropping them 1.4km down to a port in Combe Haven.

The only alternative would have been to haul the blooms 4km over the Hastings Ridge to barges at Sedlescombe, but that would have entailed a steep 70m climb to get onto the Ridge, and an even steeper 135m drop down to the Brede. There is no credible reason they would have gone to this effort when they had a quick and easy alternative. 

If there was a Roman port on the banks of Combe Haven - and Clue 12 might be physical evidence of it - the rest of the evidence falls into place. Heavy freight like iron blooms were moved by ox-drawn cart on hardcore surfaces. This implies there was a metalled road or mining track between the Crowhurst Park bloomery and a Combe Haven port, and Clue 11 might be physical evidence of it. Roman ports, both commercial and military, were defended by Roman legionaries. Roman legionaries lived in camps known as 'castras', and Clue 13 might be physical evidence of one. Former castras were referred to by Anglo-Saxons as 'ceastres', and Hæstingaceastre would be at the site of one of them. If Hæstingaceastre was at Redgeland, as suggested in Clue 13, it would be consistent with Clue 1 if the viewer was looking from the sea. If Hæstingaceastre was on the banks of the Combe Haven, Hæstingaport was there too. The Romans mined out all the ore in the entire region. Anglo-Saxon Hæstingaport would have shipped the region's other main natural resources: salt, salted herrings, and timber. Clue 3 is an attempt to show that the Combe Haven basin was rich in these natural resources. 

Modern Hastings is the orthodox location of Hæstingaport, Hæstingaceastre and Hastinges. It is the only other landing site candidate that Austin considered. His reason to reject the Brede estuary are discussed in the next section. Clues 6, 7 and 9 try to show that Combe Haven had an important port whereas modern Hastings did not. Clue 10 tries to show that Combe Haven had an important settlement whereas modern Hastings did not. Austin concludes that there are only two Norman landing site candidates and one of them, modern Hastings, contradicts important aspects of the evidence. 

Before moving on, we need to qualify some of Austin's evidence. 

Clue 2 is taken from the notes on the back of a JMW Turner painting. As far as we know, the origin of the words have never been found. No books or manuscripts are known as the 'Register of Battle Abbey'. It is often assumed that it referred to the 'Chartulary of Battle Abbey' because that book has been hidden away in a private American library for over a century, but we have read it from cover to cover without finding the reference. We suspect that Turner got confused. 

Clue 4 does accurately reflect Jeakes's opinion that the Normans landed at Bulverhythe, but he was writing in the mid-17th century, before any research had been done on the landing, and he does not provide any evidence. It seems incredibly unlikely that the Normans landed at Bulverhythe because it was an island at the time. We guess he did not even know that Combe Haven was a tidal inlet at the time of the Norman invasion. It seems likely to us that he simply realised that the Normans could not have landed at modern Hastings because its strand was too short, then extrapolated that Bulverhythe was the most plausible alternative because it had the nearest strand that was long enough and without sea cliffs. 

Clue 5 is inaccurate. Pevensey Lagoon and the Romney Marshes were enormous inland lagoons retained behind shingle bars. At high tide they would have had larger harbours than Combe Haven. 

Clue 8 is ambiguous. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey says that Hecheland was 'a parte' the port, meaning 'to the side of' or 'in the direction of'. Austin's interpretation is possible, but not the only one. Some of the other translations and interpretations are more widely used and more likely. 

Clue 9 is misleading. Sheriffs Reinbert and Ingelrann were only subtenants of Wilting Manor, a role they shared with three others. Reinbert was sole subtenant of 15 other Sussex manors, including valuable Udimore and Whatlington, plus joint subtenant of 8 more. Ingelrann was subtenant of two big Sussex manors, Hooe and Filsham, and referred to himself as Ingelran of Hooe. It seems to us that their involvement with Wilting was incidental, and their bases were elsewhere.

Clues 11, 12, 13 and 14 are unsubstantiated. Extensive excavations were made around Wilting before work began on the Bexhill Bypass. They found evidence of no less than 14 bloomeries, but no evidence of enclosures, metalled roads, piers or quays. This does not mean they were not there, but there is no evidence they were.

A comparison of evidence that the Normans landed in Combe Haven or the Brede estuary

Austin rejects the Brede estuary as a credible Norman landing candidate. His reasoning is based on Domesday's description of some  manors being 'wasted', meaning they were destroyed in 1066. He argues, not unreasonably, that all the manors close to where the Normans camped would have been 'wasted'. Then he notes that all the manors around Combe Haven were 'wasted', whereas Rameslie manor, which encompassed the Brede estuary and the port of Old Winchelsea, seems to have suffered no damage during the Conquest. Indeed, it seems to have thrived, nearly doubled in value over the next 20 years. Austin's reasoning looks good, but it has a flaw. 

Rameslie manor was held by the Norman Abbey of Fécamp before the invasion. William was the abbey's patron. In effect, the Brede basin and the port of Old Winchelsea belonged to William and paid taxes to the Roman Church. William would not have plundered himself or his most important sponsor, the Pope. We are not saying that this is evidence that the Normans landed or camped in the Brede estuary, but it is compelling evidence that they might have done. If they did camp in the Brede basin, they would have plundered and razed the wealthiest nearby manors to goad Harold into premature action. The wealthiest nearby manors were those around Combe Haven, consistent with Domesday's list of wasted manors. 

There are only three Norman landing site candidates: Pevensey Lagoon's east bank, Combe Haven and the Brede estuary. Pevensey Lagoon had no significant iron production, so there was no reason for there to have been a Roman port or a Roman castra on its east bank. If it did not have a Roman castra, it was not the location of Hæstingaceastre or Hæstingaport, and was therefore not the location of the Norman landing. We will compare the landing evidence for Combe Haven and the Brede estuary, starting with Nick Austin's criteria.

1. Roman iron production. According to Henry Cleere, the four biggest mines in the Brede basin produced 80000 tonnes of iron blooms, whereas the entire Combe Haven basin produced only 10000 tonnes. 

2. Roman port. The Hastings Ridge forms the watershed between the Brede basin and the Combe Haven basin. We note above that there is no credible reason why Crowhurst Park's iron would be transported over the Hastings Ridge to be exported from a port in the Brede. Conversely, there is no credible reason that the Brede basin's iron would be transported over the Hastings Ridge to be exported from a port in Combe Haven. Indeed, there is less reason, because all the Brede basin bloomeries were serviced by proven metalled Roman roads that went to the River Brede. Therefore, the Roman port in Combe Haven was no more than one eighth the size of the Roman port in the Brede estuary. 

3. Roman transport infrastructure. No physical evidence of Roman transport infrastructure has been proven in Combe Haven, although we expect there was a metalled mining track between Crowhurst Park's mines and a minor port in Combe Haven. Contrastingly, the south Brede basin was covered in a network of proven metalled Roman roads. The Rochester Roman trunk road went from Bodiam to Sedlescombe, with metalled mining tracks to Footlands and Chitcombe. It crossed the Brede on a bridge at Sedlescombe then forked with one branch going to Beauport Park, while the main trunk road terminated at modern Winchelsea.

4. Roman castra. Roman trunk roads were built by the Roman army for use by the Roman army. Each day that a road advanced, they would build a new castra at the new end. Consequently, there is a castra at the end of all Roman trunk roads. Modern Winchelsea was at the end of the Rochester Roman trunk road, whereas there are no Roman trunk roads south of the Hastings Ridge. Roman castra usually had a civilian vicus outside the main gate. A manor named Wickham, the Anglo-Saxon name for a former Roman vicus, is adjacent to modern Winchelsea in the Brede basin. There is no evidence of a vicus in Combe Haven. Coastal castras were located for good visibility and fast troop deployment. Modern Winchelsea in the Brede estuary had an uninterrupted 160° view south and east, whereas Redgeland in Combe Haven, the location Austin proposes for his Roman castra, had a narrow 15° view south.

5. Hæstingaceastre. Hæstingaceastre was an Alfredian burh. They were positioned to control population centres, of which there were none in East Sussex, and transport routes. A burh at modern Winchelsea would have controlled access to the Rochester Roman road. A burh at Redgeland would not control any transport route. Worse, its view of the Brede estuary would be obscured by the Hastings Ridge, so it would not be able to see invaders entering the Brede estuary to plunder the hinterland along the Rochester Roman road.

6. Hæstingaport. The Romans mined out the Weald's iron ore, abandoning it in the 3rd century. The Anglo-Saxon port of Hæstingaport must have exported the only other natural resources in the region, namely salt, salted herrings and timber. The Brede basin had the largest number of salt pans in southeast England, the Combe Haven basin had none. The north bank of the Brede was lined by 10km of steep-sided woodland, ideal to be flumed down to the river, and the remains of ancient log flumes are still there. The slope from Combe Haven to the Hastings Ridge would have been heavily wooded, but the ground within 500m of the 11th century high tide was shallow and boggy. The Anglo-Saxons might have cut a canal to float logs the final 500m to barges but there is no evidence they did. Domesday provides two more clues that Hæstingaport was in the Brede estuary. It says that Hastinges in Rameslie manor around the Brede had four burgesses, nearly always an indication the manor contained a port or trading centre, whereas the Combe Haven manors had none. It also lists Rameslie with a large non-farming population, whereas the populations of the manors around Combe Haven are consistent with them being farmers.

We have other reasons to believe that the Normans landed and camped in the Brede estuary. 

7. Carmen and Wace say that the Norman landing was watched by an observer who stood at the base of a cliff. The Brede estuary was overlooked by Cadborough cliffs. Combe Haven was not overlooked by cliffs.

8. William was accompanied on the invasion by monks from the abbey of Fécamps who acted as translators and advisors. They had held the manor of Rameslie which spanned the Brede estuary since 1018. Jo Kirkham proposed back in the 1990s that William would have used their expert local knowledge to plan the invasion. If so, the Norman fleet landed in the Brede estuary. 

9.  Wace (Taylor) says: “They arrived near Hastingues each ship ranged by the other’s side.” If, as we calculate, the ships had an average beam of 5m and were separated by 2m, they would have needed at least 5km of strand. This was comfortably available on the north bank of the Brede where there was 7km of strand, and the streams running off the Udimore Ridge were barely 2m across. The streams running off the Hastings Ridge are far more substantial. Powdermill Stream was more than 250m wide in its lower reaches, Little Bog and Watermill Stream was 150m across. The longest contiguous strand was around 2km, nowhere near enough to accommodate the Norman fleet. 

10.  Wace (Taylor) says:  “They [the knights] formed together on the shore, each armed upon his warhorse. All had their swords girded on, and passed into the plain with their lances raised.” So, the Normans landed on a strand that was adjacent to a plain that was level enough to assemble a kit-fortress without first digging a motte, and firm enough underfoot to support mounted horses. This is consistent with the north bank of the Brede which, at that time of year, would have had a firm level plain of dried out salt pans. The banks of Combe Haven would have been a boggy quagmire at the end of September, and still are despite the effective 5m drop in sea level. 

11. Poitiers, Jumièges and Orderic say that the Normans initially landed at Penevesellum. Note the 'n/v' switch, meaning this is not a Pevensey cognate. It is a Latin format name that was only used by Normans. The only likely reason that Normans might have had a Latin name for somewhere in Sussex is that it belonged to the Frankish Abbey of St Denys or the Norman Abbey of Fécamp. In this vicinity, this means that it was in Rameslie manor which lined the banks of the Brede estuary.

12. Bayeux Tapestry scene 40 is captioned: “here the knights hurry to Hestinga to forage for food”. There is a disagreement about the meaning of the Tapestry’s Hestinga. We think it referred to the Hastings Peninsula, Nick Austin thinks it referred to Hæstingaport or cognate. The Tapestry's caption is consistent with our proposed Brede north bank landing, because it is not on the Hastings Peninsula. The Norman knights would need to cross the Brede at Sedlescombe to forage on the Hastings Peninsula. The Tapestry's caption is inconsistent with a Combe Haven landing because the Normans landed at Nick Austin's idea of Hestinga, so they would not need to ride there to forage.

In summary, the first six clues are consistent with both a Combe Haven landing and a Brede estuary landing, but all favour the Brede. The last six clues are consistent with a Brede estuary landing but inconsistent with a Combe Haven landing.

There is one other clue that should be considered. According to the 1987 HAARG Domesday project, a 1963 sales catalogue for Wilting Farm claimed: "In the heyday of Sussex iron workings, when the transport of iron to water borne transport was of the utmost importance, a road existed from the great blooomery at Beauport to a loading bay in the vicinity of the Coach Bridge [near the on the banks of Combe Haven]. The course of the highway can still be traced across the farm." If this were true, it might imply that Beauport Park's humongous output of iron blooms was hauled over the Hastings Ridge to be exported from a port in Combe Haven. It would turn some of the first six clues on their head, meaning that the port in Combe Haven was by far the biggest in the region, that it was likely to have had the nearby castra, and so on.

In our opinion, it is a misunderstanding. Crowhurst Park belonged to Colonel Thomas Pelham in the 18th century. He built a coach road from his house in Crowhurst Park to Glyne Gap on the coast, presumably to accelerate the export of farm produce, although he claimed it was to help the locals move around. This is the road that is still visible on the landscape, and it looks superficially like a Roman road, with raised carriageway, graded layers, and straight sections. It was only discovered to have been Georgian when it was excavated by HAARG in 1987.