Battle Abbey and Battlefield

The 223ft/68m Benedictine abbey church was consecrated in 1094, its high altar marking the spot where Harold died. In 1539, at the time of the Reformation, Henry VIII gave the abbey to his Master of the Horse, Sir Anthony Browne, following which large parts of it were torn down. The Norman church was demolished and the west wing converted by Sir Anthony for use as his private residence. Altered in 1857 in neo-Gothic style, this latter is now a girls' school and closed to the public. The gatehouse, completed in 1339, and the ruins of the monks' dormitory (1120), remain particularly impressive today.

The tomb of Sir Anthony Browne (died 1548), a splendid Renaissance sarcophagus, can be seen in St Mary's, the parish church a little to the north.