Winchelsea: the High Street - view east

Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 28 Sep 2016

View east and downhill from the New Inn. If Winchelsea looks quiet, it was ever so. Most of what follows - but by no means all - is what I've gleaned from the Sussex volume of Pevsner's 'The Buildings of England'. A new town was laid out on this hilltop site in 1283, on a grid plan composed of 39 blocks. One of the planners was a certain Itier Bochard, who had experience of laying out the new 'bastide' settlements of south-west France. The new town was meant to replace the existing port of the same name, which had proved impossible to defend against either the sea or French raiders. For whatever reason, the new town failed to thrive, and it is reckoned that only 12 of the 39 blocks were ever developed. Within a century of its foundation the town was said to be in a state of decline. Part of the problem must have been that the 14th century was a time of war and pestilence - simply not a good time to found a new town. But there must have been local geographical factors, too. My own guess is that a hilltop town - no matter how secure - was too remote from its harbour. As the coastline shifted, the neighbouring port of Rye became - for a couple of centuries - a more practical place to do business. To return to the picture - I've read somewhere that the streets of the grid were laid out at a uniform width of 50 feet. It looks as if the High Street has maintained that width at the point where I was standing (by the New Inn) but that further east it has been encroached upon by the churchyard.

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