History of Combe Valley and Bulverhythe Harbour - 1AD to 1500 AD

43 – Part of the reason for the Roman invasion 43 AD was to capture the iron industry. In our area, the Romans set up a major headquarters at what is now called Beauport Park on the ridge road to Telham and Crowhurst. Emperor Claudius ordered the Roman Navy and Army to invade Britain and seize the iron mines. The area was used by the Romans to ship iron products from the bloomeries in what is now Beauport Park to the Brede Valley via Sedlescombe to the east but also to the small port at Hastingas (Bulverhythe). So Roman ships sailed out of Combe Valley's tidal Bulverhythe estuary and the local population were their slaves in the mines. The salt tides came as far as Filsham Reed Beds and after that - up the Valley - it was fresh water in the River Asten.

Combe Valley Roman iron bloomeries have been found in Sidley at Henniker Wood, and Bynes Farm, and deep inside Fore Wood, at Crowhurst

300 – Saxons attack Romans

The Romans occupying southern Britain were continually besieged by continental tribes, especially the Saxons, and formed a defensive series of forts under the command of the Roman Count of the Saxon Shore.

The nearest Roman forts to Combe Valley were Portus Lemanis (Lympne, Kent), garrisoned by Roman auxiliaries – the Numerus Turnacensium, and Anderitum (Pevensey Castle, East Sussex), garrisoned by the Numerus Abulcorum.

383 – Roman start to depart from Britain.

410 – Romans depart totally leaving Romano-British under Ambrosius Aurelianus to fight off Saxons.

After the Romans left (between 383 and 410 AD) to deal with their own continental invasion nightmares, the Romano-British struggled on under Ambrosius Aurelianus and Arthur (Dux Bellorum) only to face the repeated onslaught and eventual settlement of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians from northern Europe.

Our area of Bulverhythe also includes the Saxon manors of Filsham, and Pebsham -originally Petit Ihamme which is mentioned in the Cinque Ports Charter.

600 - Approximate date of the coming of the Haestingas Tribe of Jutes who moved from Danish Jutland to Kent and then from Kent into the Hastings area, giving it its name in the late 7th or early 8th Century, so it is thought.

Because Pevensey Marshes to the west were so vast and because Romney Marsh to the east was also very extensive, the unique Haestingas tribe felt protected as they settled in the area. They gave their name to the river that flowed out to sea at Bulverhythe – the Haesten which then became the Asten. The Haestingas eventually became part of Saxon King Alfred’s Wessex. The next area was Kent (Cantii) and the border between Kent and Sussex (South Saxons) changed over time. The Viking attack site at Castle Toll, now at Newenden in Kent was at one time part of the Burghal Hidage fort system of Wessex.

King Alfred, besieged by Vikings, formed a defensive system called the Burghal Hidage - as set of forts 20 miles from each other, to be used as a refuge for townspeople and farmers - and one of these was formed at Bulverhythe.

As time passed and the River Asten flowed into a bay of many islands, the Anglo-Saxon manor of Bulverhythe, along with the manors of Upper Wilting, Crowhurst, Pebsham and Filsham, used Bulverhythe as their port.

Thus the Hastingas Port was at what is now called Bulverhythe – not the harbour at Hastings as we know it now - and the whole of Combe Valley was under the sea or fed by the River Asten. It is possible that there was a small tidal bore that ran up the valley at each high tide.

Bulverhythe is originally an Anglo Saxon name Burgh wara hythe meaning the harbour of the people who live in the burgh (fortification) this is a burgh recorded by Alfred the Great as a defense against the Vikings.

771 - Formation of Crowhurst village - The earliest mention of the settlement is in 771, when King Offa of Mercia gave the Bishop of Selsey a piece of land here; a church was then built by the Bishop. Crowhurst (then called Croghyrst) itself remained the king's land until 1412,

1066

There is some evidence that a few of William the Conqueror's ships and some of his troops landed in this area due to navigation errors, although it is possible that they landed further to the west near Hooe or possibly even Pevensey. However, historian Kathleen Tyson has put forward a formidable theory that the main fleet landing of some 770 ships was in the Brede Valley near Icklesham, which was - back then - a vast inland estuary of the sea with calm waters and easy anchorage.

The Saxons were defeated and the inexorable Norman infrastructure control that had begun under Edward the Confessor, (much to the fury of the Godwine Family), overwhelmed almost everything. The Saxon manor of Upper Wilting was laid to waste - destroyed by soldiers. There is a theory that King Harold Godwinson's Danish right-hand fasted wife, Edith Swanesshals (Edith Swan-Neck) and their small children were burned out of her home at Upper Wilting as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry - here (Scene 47).

As the Normans gripped England, Saxon resistance under Hereward the Wake is eventually broken and the north of England was the scene of endless murder and genocidal atrocities by the Normans.

1086 - The Domesday Book lists many local manors. It refused to call Harold Godwinson a King but instead refers to his lands as 'held by Eorl Harold'. Harold held many areas of land including Whatlington manor and Upper Wilting Farm manor and most of Crowhurst.

The Count d'Eu became Lord of the Rape of Hastings and settled his followers at Upper Wilting Manor.

1100 - The Tithe map for Upper Wilting area of Crowhurst shows a Chapel has been built and the local field and wood are called Chapel Field and Chapel Wood - no trace of this chapel has yet been found.

1259 - Walter de Scoteney forfeited his ownership of Crowhurst in 1259, having been found guilty of the crime of murder. He had been given the land by Richard III after the Third Crusade.

In 1310 the Norman Lord of the manor of Wilting, John de Bretagne was granted a weekly market and an annual fair by King Edward II.

1335 – mention of a ferry being used to cross the marshy river Asten to get to the small harbour of Hastings.

1339 - Edward III demands that Upper Wilting men go to fight the French and the knight Roger of Hollington takes 12 archers and 10 swordsmen to the foe. The King told the people to prepare for invasion by the French and fire beacons were set up. The King was right to warn everyone because the French did attack - they set fire to the whole of Hastings and burned the fishing fleet.

In 1359 a reference is made to Bulverhythe as a limb of the Cinque Ports. This is found in a document signed by by Edward III, in which the manor was mentioned as supplying one ship together with Petit Ihamme (originally Pyppels Ham and now Pebsham).

1369 - At what is now Abbey Drive on the hill slope above Glyne Gap, a causeway is built from the chapel of St Mary, across the marsh gap, to allow people to walk to Hastings, thus replacing the ferry used since 1335.

1370 - The Bulverhythe area was also used to execute felons within the Cinque Ports , the criminals were drowned in a local watercourse called Stordisdale. This is likely to be Sheepwash Bridge now on the A259 at the point where the Combe Haven Caravan Park access road begins.

1377 - The records of King Edward III state about Bulverhythe: ‘Bulewarehuth. 20a. salt pasture, 53s. 10d. yearly assisted rent, and a ferry across the water of Bulewarehuth.’ So it seems that the causeway must have failed and the ferry return to use. It is likely that the winter flooding of Combe Valley was too much for the causeway which was probably washed into the sea and rebuilt several times before they gave up and went back to a ferry. Also in 1377, the French came back to invade us and destroyed Hastings once more. A sense of hopelessness developed and together with cliff collapses and longshore drift, the size of Hastings harbour shrank to a tiny fishing port.

1386 - In this year, the owner of Upper Wilting Farm had a cheesemaker and sold cheese to Battle Abbey.

1412 - King Henry IV gives Sir John Pelham the land at Crowhurst. Pelham then builds the present parish church.