We have spent the lasts two nights on the Caravan and Motorhome site at Normanhurst Court near Battle. We’ve been in this area several times before for the simple reason that Sarah’s sister Claire, and her son (our nephew) Leo live nearby in St. Leonards on Sea.

The campsite has and inordinate number of rabbits, many brazenly nibbling the grass only a couple of metres from Basil and numerous pheasants. As a result this may be Mabel’s favourite site. Whenever she gets out of Basil’s door, her nose is immediately to the floor and she is tugging on her lead.

Battle, of course, was the location of the one moment of English history which all English school children can be relied upon to remember – the Battle of Hastings of 1066. On our previous visits we have visited the site of the battle and the adjacent abbey. We once saw the annual re-enactment of Duke William’s victory over King Harold and I can thoroughly recommend it as an entertaining day out.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. It was still bitterly cold and so we visited Claire and caught up on family news. It was too chilly for us to venture down to the St. Leonards/Hastings seafront, which we usually like to do when we visit, but instead we all just went to a dog friendly pub, back near our campsite and had a pleasant lunch in front on a roaring log fire.

After, what I hope is, the last night of winter, with Basil’s heating running at full power, this morning dawned sunny and spring like, albeit still a little cool. We had intended to spend a second day with Claire, but unknown to us Leo had an interview at Sussex University in the afternoon and so after a short farewell visit, Claire disappeared to Brighton with her son.

I was quite keen to have a look round the old part of Hastings, but despite much online searching it appeared that Hastings did not want any motorhomers bringing income into their town, so they had provided no adequate parking. Instead we decided to leave Basil parked in St. Leonards and have a walk down the seafront to Hasting’s newly restored pier, which we have never visited previously.

St. Leonards Gardens

St. Leonard’s is a slightly down at heel seaside resort full of large Victorian and Edwardian villas, most of which have now been converted into apartments. There is a lovely set of gardens which we passed through on the way down to the sea front and in the spring sunshine we, and the dogs had a very pleasant walk along the promenade. The lower promenade, which is immediately adjacent to the very stony beach, has series of concrete alcoves each containing a wooden bench which is usually well protected from the wind. Whenever we visit these alcoves are always full of residents reading books or soaking up the sun. It is also a favourite haunt of the local alcoholics, of which St. Leonards and Hastings seem to have more than their fair share.

St. Leonard’s front. The person in red is Sarah, not an alcoholic!

The pier itself has been voted UK Pier of the Year for 2017. Like many piers it burnt down several years ago, but unlike others, it has been tastefully restored in a modern style. As with all piers there is a certain delight to had from waking out on wooden boards over the sea but at this time of year there is little else to do, other than have a cup of tea at the new, pier based, cafe, which Sarah and I did.

Hastings’ Pier

View from the end of Hastings pier

Following our stroll we have scurried back to our campsite. Tomorrow we will start our journey proper, heading along the south coast to Littlehampton.

Hastings