Monks and Knights

The tour of Sussex Castles and Battle Abbey started from Tesco's car park near the A21 at Tunbridge Wells.
In one of those weird coincidences, four of the cars were blue, the other four silver.

Apart from myself, participants were:
  Carol Felton and Joan Blackham
  Kev and Tara Howarth
  Tony and Laura Gardiner
  Bart and Sarah Somsen
  Steve Robinson
  Ed and Fiona Bollen
  Mark and Nicola Bollen


The first stop was Bodiam Castle. Note the WWII pill box on the extreme left.


(B) Completely surrounded by water, the castle was built in the 14th century.


Next stop Battle Abbey. After breaching the fortified gatehouse, the group lined up outside Battle School.


The world's largest painting on a single canvas, it's big enough to hide a double-decker bus.


(B) From the outside it's a ruin...


...but in the undercroft, headmaster Roger Clark, explains how the monks lived.

Following an Italian lunch on the waterfront at Eastbourne's Sovereign Harbour, the next stop was Pevensey Castle,
a Roman castle with a Norman one built inside it.


Carol parks up outside the Roman external walls.


(B) Sarah outside the Norman castle.


Tony's Topaz hartop.




Two shots of Ed's glorious alloys

The drive back from Pevensey to Tunbridge Wells was a series of challenging narrow, very narrow and extremely narrow
roads where Bart with his 1.9i did an excellent job of staying in contact with my M roadster. .