THE PENNY MAGAZINE JUNE 1 1833 PP 211-213
This famous and once splendid ecclesiastical foundation owes its origin to the great battle between King Harold and William of Normandy, which deprived the former of his crown, and decided, at one of the most critical stages of her history, the fate of England. It has been repeatedly stated from Camden, in modern publications, that the village of Battle was known before this event by the name of Epiton. But this, as Mr. Gough many years ago remarked, is a mistake of the venerable antiquary, founded on an expression of the old chronicler Ordericus Vitalis, who uses the term Epiton, or rather Epitumium, merely for any field of battle. Ducange had long before explained the word in his Glossary. As to the village, it is expressly stated in old documents to have gradually sprung up around the abbey, and there is no reason to suppose that it existed at all before that building was erected. There seems, however, to have been a church on or near the spot in more ancient times, which was known by the name of the Church of St. Mary in the Wood, The neighbouring country remained covered with trees down at least to the Conquest; and this church was doubtless intended for the use of the peasants who were scattered up and down over the forest.
The town of Battle, which, with the parish, contains about three thousand inhabitants, stands on rising ground about eight miles north-west from Hastings. It commands a rich and extensive prospect, comprehending the expanse of the ocean to the south, and a sweep of highly cultivated country in all other directions. The village itself consists principally of a single street, which runs up the declivity, and at a little distance from the termination of which, on the top, stands the abbey. It was on the 28th of September, 1066, that William of Normandy landed at Pevensey, or Pemsey, as it is commonly called, on the Sussex coast, about nine miles to the west of Hastings, at the head of the powerful armament with which he intended to win a kingdom. Harold was at the time in the north, where he had just achieved a great victory over another band of foreign invaders, the Norwegians, headed by their king, who fell -
