Old Winchelsea – Storm-Drowned Cinque Port, Sussex
Old Winchelsea · Old Winchelsey · Ancient Winchelsea · Old Winchelsea drowned
Medieval (1110–1288 CE)·English Norman / Cinque Ports·🇬🇧 East Sussex, Rye Bay, Winchelsea Beach, United Kingdom
About
About Old Winchelsea – Storm-Drowned Cinque Port, Sussex
Old Winchelsea was a Cinque Port second only to Hastings, occupying a shingle island in Rye Bay with 50 acres, church St Thomas and a royal mint (Henry III). Eastward longshore drift built the Dungeness shingle spit, trapping the port; storms 1250, 1287 (St Lucia) and 1288 destroyed the harbour beach and breached the shingle barrier, drowning the town under Rye Bay at −3 m to −6 m. Edward I refounded New Winchelsea (1292, bastide grid) on the Iham hill 2 km inland — England earliest planned town with 39 squares. Shingle extraction and geophysics (University College London) trace a 400 m mole-cum-seawall and church rubble in the bay. Pett Level clays show 1287 washover deposit 0.8 m thick.
Why it mattersOnly Cinque Port whose drowning forced England earliest planned bastide (New Winchelsea 1292); shows shingle-spit harbour coupled storm destruction.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Exact church site under Rye Bay vs Pett Level clay washover
- 02Whether Old Winchelsea had a second harbour channel to the Rother
Theories
- 01Dungeness cuspate foreland growth starved Winchelsea shingle replenishment causing 1287 breach
- 02Edward I used Winchelsea loss to experiment with bastide planning imported from Gascony
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 1110 Old Winchelsea shingle island port
- Period
- Medieval (1110–1288 CE)
- Culture
- English Norman / Cinque Ports
- Builders
- Anglo-Norman / Cinque Port merchants
- Purpose
- Cinque Port shingle harbour for Channel wine, wool and royal fleet
- Abandoned
- 1287–88 destroyed by storms, drowned under Rye Bay
- Rediscovered
- 1292 New Winchelsea founded; old site mapped 1960s
- Excavation
- Submerged
c. 1110
Old Winchelsea established on shingle island
1250
Great storm damages harbour beach
1287-12-18
St Lucia flood breaches Dungeness shingle, destroys town
1292
Edward I founds New Winchelsea bastide on Iham hill 2 km inland
On the ground
Structures & features
50.9342° N · 0.7042° E · -3 m · 2 mapped features
Shingle mole-seawall 400 m
mole400 m mole-seawall protecting shingle island at −3 m
50.9340° N · 0.7030° ESt Thomas church rubble
churchRubble of St Thomas parish church at −4 m
50.9350° N · 0.7050° E
Gallery