Winchelsea, East Sussex

For first-time visitors Winchelsea appears to be a pretty, well cared for village with numerous points of historic interest including the Church, the Court Hall, and the medieval gates. In fact, Winchelsea is not a village but a town and one of the Cinque Ports. Its history is closely inter-woven with that of England itself.

The life of Winchelsea has always been bound up with the sea and the winds. They have played it strange tricks. The result is that our shores are alternately eroded and built up in erratic cycles that may last for many years and cannot be predicted. It was this wavering coast that the first men of Winchelsea selected for their homes.

Winchelsea was not originally built on the hill top where it now stands but on a shingle spit running out from the Fairlight cliffs towards the north and east. Its old site has been engulfed by the sea. It is generally agreed that it was offshore from the present village of Camber. There is no certain reference to it until the twelfth century when it appears as a town of some importance whose help was sought by Hastings in fulfilling their duties as a Cinque Port. The "Antient Towns" of Winchelsea and Rye then consented to join the confederation of the Cinque Ports on very favourable terms, complete equality with the five head ports.