The church of St Mary

Transcript

You're now beside the tallest walls on the site. This was the church of St Mary in the Castle.

Around 1090, Robert, Count of Eu, the Norman lord who held Hastings, set up a college here. A college was a small community of priests called canons. They lived under looser rules than monks, and their main job was to pray for their founder.

Here's one moment we know happened in this church. In February 1094, Anselm, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated Robert Bloet as Bishop of Lincoln right here.

In 1267 the college passed to the Crown and became a royal chapel. It outlasted Henry VIII's closure of the monasteries, but a later law closing colleges ended it in the 1540s.

Look for the tower, and the arch that once divided the nave from the chancel. That arch was put back together in the 1820s from its original stones. Next, walk to the high mound in the north-east corner.