The Postcard
A postcard published by Brown & Woodley's Library of Hastings. The card was posted on Friday the 19th. August 1904 to:
Miss Fisher,
Quarry Wood,
St. Helen's Park,
Hastings.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Many thanks for your P.C.
I hope you had a nice time.
I am here at Battle with my
people for a few days.
It is so nice, only the weather
is disagreeable.
Love to Mrs.Cowell, Peggy
and yourself.
Yours,
M. Woodham".
Battle Abbey
Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle, East Sussex. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings, and is dedicated to St. Martin of Tours.
The Grade I listed site is now operated by English Heritage, and includes the abbey buildings and ruins, a visitor centre with a film and exhibition about the battle, audio tours of the battlefield site, and the monks' gatehouse with recovered artefacts.
The visitor centre includes a children's discovery room and a café, and there is an outdoor themed playground.
In 1070, Pope Alexander II ordered the Normans to do penance for killing so many people during their conquest of England. In response, William the Conqueror vowed to build an abbey where the Battle of Hastings had taken place, with the high altar of its church on the supposed spot where King Harold fell in the battle on Saturday, 14 October 1066.
William started building it, but died before it was completed. Its church was finished in about 1094 and consecrated during the reign of his son William known as Rufus.
William I had ruled that the church of St Martin of Battle was to be exempted from all episcopal jurisdiction, putting it on the level of Canterbury. It was remodelled in the late 13th. century, but virtually destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538 under King Henry VIII.
The abbey and much of its land was given by Henry VIII to his friend and Master of the Horse, Sir Anthony Browne, who demolished the church and parts of the cloister and turned the abbot's quarters into a country house.
It was sold in 1721 by Browne's descendant, Anthony Browne, 6th Earl of Montagu, to Sir Thomas Webster, MP and baronet. Sir Thomas had married the heiress Jane Cheek, granddaughter of a wealthy merchant, Henry Whistler, to whose vast inheritance she succeeded in 1719.
Webster was succeeded by his son, Sir Whistler Webster, 2nd Baronet, who died childless in 1779, being succeeded in the baronetcy by his brother. Battle Abbey remained in the Webster family until 1857, when it was sold to Lord Harry Vane, later Duke of Cleveland. On the death of the Duchess of Cleveland in 1901, the estate was bought back by Sir Augustus Webster, 7th baronet.
Sir Augustus (son of Sir Augustus, 7th baronet) was born in 1864 and succeeded his father as 8th baronet in 1886. In 1895, he married the only daughter of Henry Crossley of Aldborough Hall, Bedale. Sir Augustus was formerly a captain in the Coldstream Guards.
The descendants of Sir Augustus Webster, 8th baronet (died 1923) who brought the extinction, finally sold Battle Abbey to the British government in 1976 and it is now in the care of English Heritage.
It was an all-girls boarding school when Canadian troops were stationed there in the Second World War, and continues to this day as a successful school for both boys and girls.
All that is left of the abbey church itself today is its outline on the ground, but parts of some of the abbey's buildings are still standing: those built between the 13th and 16th century. These are still in use as the independent Battle Abbey School.
Visitors to the abbey usually are not allowed inside the school buildings, although during the school's summer holidays, access to the abbot's hall is often allowed.
The church's high altar reputedly stood on the spot where Harold died. This is now marked by a plaque on the ground, and nearby is a monument to Harold erected by the people of Normandy in 1903. The ruins of the abbey, with the adjacent battlefield, are a popular tourist attraction, with events such as the Battle of Hastings reenactments.
The Birth of the Land Rover
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 19th. August 1904 marked the birth of Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks. He was an automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, was the chairman of the Rover Company, a British car manufacturer.
He was responsible for the inspiration and concept work that led to the development of the Land Rover off-road utility vehicle.
Wilks was born on Hayling Island, Hampshire, the youngest of five sons and one daughter of Thomas Wilks (born in Balham), a director of a leather processing company, and his wife Jane Eliza (born in St. Sepulchre, London), a Suffragette.
During World War II, Wilks led Rover's team developing Frank Whittle's gas turbine aircraft engines. Experiencing difficulties with Whittle's team, Rover passed the project to Rolls-Royce in 1943. After the war, Wilks continued working with gas turbine engines, leading to Rover unveiling the first gas turbine powered car in 1949.
The Development of the Land Rover
Shortly after the war, whilst at his farm in Anglesey, Maurice, who used an army surplus Jeep for farm work, and his brother Spencer who was visiting him, were inspired to develop and produce a utility four-wheel-drive vehicle for farmers, and the name Land Rover was coined for it.
By the summer of 1947 Rover had built a prototype Land Rover vehicle based on a Jeep chassis. In September 1947, the Rover company authorised the production of 50 pre-production models for evaluation purposes. The Land Rover was launched to the world at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show.
Maurice Wilks was a leading light in the establishment and development of the proving ground facilities of the Motor Industry Research Association.
The Death of Maurice Wilks
Wilks died at his farm near Newborough, Anglesey, on the 8th. September 1963.
