Camber Castle and Rye

Camber Castle

On Saturday (Oct 15) my Early Modern Britain history class went to Camber Castle and the town of Rye for a field study trip. Rye is one of the "Cinque Ports" and was an important trading town in the Tudor period, but a combination of economic, political and geographical changes caused a quick decline around 1600. Now it's a town famous for being historic, quaint and picturesque. It's attracted many artists and writers over the years, and at present, Paul McCartney's studio is nearby and Johnny Depp owns a house in the town.

Camber Castle was built by Henry VIII to deter attacks from France. It was actually never attacked though- it seems that its appearance was enough to scare off potential invasions! From above, the layout looks like a rose (the Tudor symbol), but the round walls ("petals" as seen from above) also had the practical purpose of providing a stronger structure to deflect cannonball fire.

The Castle has been deemed too structurally unsound to be open to the public. We were let in and the door locked behind us, and then the 12 of us had free rein around the castle, climbing and walking around the various levels and listening to our prof talk about certain key areas.

central keep

view standing inside the keep looking up

Camber Castle is currently in the middle of pasture land. When it was built, though, it was overlooking the ocean: it sat about 20 feet away from the shoreline. Around 1600 the land began silting up increasingly fast, creating the landscape you see now, in which the castle is more than a mile from any water.

When the castle was built, this view would have been of the sea!

next to the Castle

After the Castle, we walked about 15 minutes into the town centre of Rye, where our prof took us on a walking tour around the town. 

Most famous bakery in Rye?

notice how much the chimney leans?!
This house is also notable because
Queen Elizabeth I stayed here.

the Mermaid Inn is the most famous building
in Rye, and it's on Mermaid Street, renowned
for being the most perfect, quintessential
old-English-charm street in Rye.

some of the houses have names instead of numbers
(see below too)

Traders' Passage

huge town model (seen from through a doorway) in the Visitor Centre 

real anchor from the 1500s, found a few years ago in
Rye Bay (about 5 miles away from the town). 

the Land Gate: once, the only non-sea access into
the walled town of Rye. Now it's in the middle of town,
and just bridges a road, even though it looks like the entrance to
a fort or something!

collage of signs around Rye

My favourite part of the day was climbing the bell tower at the Parish Church of St. Mary. It involved lots of steep steps and VERY narrow passageways (the narrowest was almost exactly the width of my shoulders) but had an amazing view of Rye from the top!!

flying buttresses at St. Mary's 

views from the tower (below as well)

part of the bell tower staircase that goes through
the bell room (see the bell on the right!)

part of the bell tower staircase that goes through
the bell room (see the bell at the bottom!)

graveyard at St. Mary's

Around lunchtime, we all went for tea at the Cobbles Tearoom. More delicious fruit scones with jam! 

me, Corrine, and Brenna at Cobbles

On our way home, we stopped at the nearby town of Winchelsea to see their gorgeous church: