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A Re-Assessment
of The Port Town of Winchelsea, East Sussex
Amongst English towns Winchelsea is special. As a major planned
royal port, the town flourished for half a century from the date
of its refoundation in the 1280s following severe coastal erosion
of its original site. During this period of wealth, Winchelsea
can claim to have been one of the principal international ports
of the realm - its ships ruled the Channel, challenging foreign
and English vessels alike. Yet, for a variety of reasons, from
the middle years of the 14th century it suffered decline, and
during the 16th century all but failed. By the 17th century it
had shrunk to the size of a village.
During the last quarter of the 20th century a considerable amount
of research - including archaeological excavations, landscape
surveys, geo-physical investigations, standing-building interpretations
and documentary analysis - was undertaken regarding the past fabric
of this town with its exceptional planned grid-system. But, with
one exception, because of the methods of past funding, none of
this work was carried through to publication with the result that,
even amongst academics, few people were aware of this research,
let alone able to benefit from its results. Works of synthesis
published during that time, academic and popular overviews alike,
have included outdated and inaccurate statements concerning the
town.
The work carried out during the late 20th century has shown that
rather than a catastrophic, 'single-event‘ failure of the town
during the middle years of the 14th century, its decline occurred
in stages. During the late 14th century and throughout the 15th
century Winchelsea was still considered to be an urban centre
of local importance. Houses within the town underwent complex
sequences of expansion and reconstruction, and this continued
into the early 16th century. The new research has considerably
augmented that of earlier scholars. Whilst confirming many of
their conclusions, newly available data have made it possible
to correct some fundamental errors regarding the original layout
of the town. It is, for instance, now known that Winchelsea's
main market occupied a large, purposely designed square rather
than a widening in the street. Of all the recent discoveries,
perhaps the most surprising was the realization in 1994 that a
substantial section of the early-15th-century town defences, complete
with bastions, still stands as a retaining wall up to one-and-a-half
metres high skirting the cliff top on the eastern side of the
town. Incredible as it may seem, these remains, located upon land
owned by the National Trust, only came to light during the compilation
of an Archaeological and Historic Landscape Survey for the Trust
in 1994. It had been missed by earlier archaeological surveys.
The non-publication of so much new data concerning the town has
long been seen as an embarrassment to those who had undertaken
the research. Furthermore, it was becoming increasingly clear
that those responsible for managing the future of this important
heritage site could not carry out their duties adequately without
full up-to-date data. Equally, neither academics nor the wider
public were able to benefit from the discoveries of the past quarter
century. In 1998 the Winchelsea Re-assessment Project was set
up with the specific aim of addressing these concerns. The project
was funded principally by English Heritage, but partnership funding
was obtained from the National Trust, both as a principal landowner
within the town, and as the organization which had commissioned
two of the principal unpublished excavations, from East Sussex
County Council and The Friends of the Ancient Monuments and Museum
of Winchelsea. The project was completed in 2004.
The results of the work are made available through four documents:
- New Winchelsea, Sussex: A Medieval Port Town, by David and
Barbara Martin et al. It is this volume which is intended to
make the results of the research accessible to a wider audience.
- Excavations in Winchelsea, Sussex, 1974-2000, edited by David
Martin and David Rudling.
- A detailed Quarter-by-Quarter analysis of the town, drawing
together all the known data in a topographical format, in order
to make this information easily available to the residents,
to planners and to academics alike. In addition to the copies
of this document which have been lodged with English Heritage,
The National Trust, East Sussex County Council, and the Friends
of the Ancient Monuments and Museum of Winchelsea, a copy has
been lodged at the East Sussex Record Office in Lewes to make
the information accessible to the public.
- An overview of the town in the form of an Extensive Urban
Survey. This is intended to be used by those professionals charged
with the care of our heritage, to enhance the East Sussex Sites
and Monuments Record and to draft future planning policies for
the town.
Project Officer: David
Martin
Client: English Heritage
Up-to-date
corrected reconstructed plan of the town as laid out in the late
13th century.
The precincts of the Grey Friars reconstructed using a combination
of data from documentary, parchmark, earthwork and standing building
sources.
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