Tunbridge Wells; Saturday, 26 October, 2019

Overnight the weather had improved quite considerably and after a quick breakfast I was able to finish off exploring the Pantiles and spring area of the town. Sadly I was a couple of weeks too late to sample the waters as they only offer tastings between Easter and the end of September.

I had a bit more of a wander around this part of the town before heading over to the bus stop and catching the bus up into the commercial centre of town and changing there onto a bus up to the towns older big sister town – Tonbridge (just to confuse everything Tonbridge – which dates back to before the Norman Conquest used to be called Tunbridge until the end of the 19th century, when then decided to change the spelling, but Tunbridge Wells, that had only existed since the 17th Century, decided to stick with the original spelling.

I’d caught the bus, rather than the train, as the station in Tonbridge is quite a long walk from the centre of the town – whereas the bus stop is right outside my main destination for the morning – Tonbridge Castle.

I wandered up from the bus stop to the gatehouse to the castle and then spent some time exploring the grounds of the castle – including the very obvious Motte with its fragments of keep overlooking the large Bailey and its outer wall overlooking the river Medway.

After looking around the grounds I headed into the tourist information centre, housed in a Victorian addition to the main gatehouse building – the only real surviving bit of the castle – to pay the entrance fee and pick up an audio guide to look around the inside of the Gatehouse.

It’s a comprehensive audio tour of the gatehouse which covers the whole building from the basement to the top of the roof from which there are views over the town. After taking in the whole building I headed back down to ground level, handed the audio guide back in and headed into the centre of town to grab some lunch.

Lunch completed I checked the weather and realising I could probably chance it I headed up to the station and caught the train south to the town of Battle to visit the Abbey and Battlefield.

Battle is the site of the 1066 Battle of Hastings when the Normans successfully invaded England, killing the Anglo-Saxon king, Harold, in the process. As an act of homage William the Conqueror had an Abbey built on the spot where Harold fell which was in use right through until Henry VIII. Normally it’s possible to wander around the whole of the battlefield site and explore how the battle unfolded – but due to the recent wet weather the path was closed due to becoming a bit of a quagmire. Instead I went on the shorter audio guided route that takes you along a terrace at the bottom of the Abbey, that would roughly have been where Harold and his army would have been positioned at the start of the battle.

Having explored the battle, the audio guide then takes your around the ruins of the Abbey. It was at this point I was quite glad that the full walk was closed as a thin but very damp mizzle had started up, that would have soaked me if I’d been walking around the site. Having taken in the ruins of the Abbey I had a quick look around the exhibition in the gatehouse and then headed back to the station – making it back just as the skies opened for another hefty downpour.

I caught the train back to Tunbridge Wells and then cheated and caught the bus from the station back to the hotel where I was able to shelter from the downpour for a couple of hours before it finally cleared. With the weather improved I headed back into the centre of town for some dinner before heading back to the hotel to turn in.